Bouharevich seals ECAC win against RPI in final seconds

Bouharevich gets game-winner in final seconds

By Jacob Nadeau, QBSN Staff Writer 

Yuri Bouharevich (Montreal, Quebec) scored with 2.4 seconds left to lift the Quinnipiac Bobcats (9-6-3, 2-4-3 ECAC Hockey) past the Rensselaer Engineers (3- 12-0, 1-6-0 ECAC Hockey) with a final score of 3-2. This marks the first time Quinnipiac has registered a win against the Engineers since 2008. It is also the first time Quinnipiac has won this season with the score tied after the first period.

courtesy of quinnipiacbobcats.com

Quinnipiac came into the game after a 2-2 overtime tie with Union College on Friday. Rensslaer comes into the game following a 5-3 loss to Princeton University.

Quinnipiac took the ice without their star brothers, Connor and Kellen Jones, who each had five goals apiece and were one and two in the assist column with 12 and nine respectively. 

Rensslaer freshman goalie Scott Diebold started his fourth game of the season and had 35 saves, while junior Bryce Merriam sat out after giving up five goals to Princeton University Friday night. The last time Diebold was in net, he took 25 shots and shut-out Rochester Institute of Technology.

Quinnipiac’s first goal came with seven minutes remaining in the first after Quinnipiac freshman center Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) took a hard slap shot a few feet inside the middle of the blue line.  The puck bounced off Diebold and slid into the right playoff circle, where Russell Goodman (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) one timed it over the shoulder of Diebold and into the back of the net.   It was Goodman’s first goal in over a month and his third of the season.

Rensslaer then scored with 2:50 remaining in the first period off a shot by Nick Balilen, which was redirected by Jacob Laliberte and found its way into the back of the net, evening the score at 1-1.  It was Laiberte’s second goal of the season. Laliberte scored his first collegiate goal the night before at Princeton University. The goal extended Laliberte’s point streak to five games. It was Balilen’s fifth assist on the season, which leads Rensslaer.

Two minutes into the second period, Rensselaer defenseman Luke Curadi was ejected from the game after a vicious hit on Quinnipiac center Cory Hibbeler (St. Charles, Mo.), which knocked Hibbler out for the rest of the game.

The game remained tied until four minutes into the third when Rensslaer right wing Zach Schroeder picked up a shot from Brock Higgs that was blocked in front of the net by a diving Quinnipiac defenseman and quickly passed it by Quinnipiac’s Eric Hartzell (White Bear Lake, Minn.) who was on the opposite side of the crease. It was the freshman, Schroeder’s first goal of the season and the fifth assist for Higgs on the year.

Quinnipiac’s Scott Zurevinski (Saskatoon, Sask.) answered back about two and a half minutes later.  Following some jousting in front of the net, the puck was kicked out past the right faceoff circle by Zach Davies (Smithers, British Columbia) to Zach Tolkinen (Lino Lakes, Minn.) who quickly centered the puck to Zurevinski. He then ripped a hard slap shot past a disordered Diebold. It was the captain’s fourth goal of the year.

With time winding down in the third period Quinnipiac’s left wing Ben Arnt (Oakdale, Minn.) broke away past the blue line into the Rensslaer zone. Before being sandwiched between two defenders, he poked it out to Bouharevich who teed the puck up and knocked into the top shelf for the score with 2.4 seconds remaining, sealing the game for the Bobcats. Bouharevich said the goal was “long overdue.” His last goal was scored Oct. 22 against Robert Morris.

RPI had 11 penalty minutes, but Quinnipiac could not capitalize on any of their four power plays due to the loss of the Jones brothers.

“Our 5-3 was terrible tonight. We just didn’t have any time to practice it,” said head coach Rand Pecknold.  “We didn’t have any of our guys set to what we wanted to do. Both our power plays were bad.  Losing those two guys just threw everything out of wack.”

Bouharevich rightfully described this win as “huge” for the Bobcats as they improve to 2-4-3 in ECAC Hockey play and 9-6-3 overall. In contrast, Rensselaer falls to 1-6-0 in ECAC Hockey and 3- 12-0 overall.

Quinnipiac takes on Sacred Heart University (1-14-1) Friday Dec. 9 at High Point Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center.