Bobcats down rival Bulldogs, 2-1

Bobcats down rival Bulldogs, 2-1

By Mark Spillane, QBSN Staff Writer

On Friday night it was the Quinnipiac Bobcats, not the Yale Bulldogs that looked as though they were the No. 20 ranked team in the nation when they defeated their rivals 2-1 at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Connecticut.

Junior defensemen Loren Barron (Glendora, Calif.) and senior forward Kevin Bui (Edmonton, Alberta) led the way with a goal apiece, as junior net-minder Eric Hartzell (White Bear Lake, Minn.) turned away 24 of the 25 shots he faced to secure the victory.

The Bulldog’s only goal came from their senior captain Brian O’Neill.

The victory helps the Bobcats improve to 12-7-4 overall and 4-4-3 in ECAC play while the loss drops Yale’s overall record to 7-6-1 and 4-3-0 in conference. The Bobcats remain in third place in the ECAC, but the race to the top of the conference is tight.  Quinnipiac now sits just two points back of first place Cornell and one point behind Colgate in second place. Yale remains five points back, tied for fifth place with Clarkson, each with eight points.

The Bobcats came out strong, and Bui got the scoring started with just over a minute and a half remaining in the first period when he found the back of the net after receiving a pass from junior Zack Currie (Victoria, British Columbia). Quinnipiac used the momentum of the first goal to open the second period with a lot of energy, and the effort was rewarded just one minute and five seconds into the frame. With the Bobcats on the power play, Currie set it up again, this time for Barron who knocked it in for his fifth goal of the season.

The Bobcats kept the pressure on and almost expanded their lead to three when sophomore Connor Jones (Montrose, British Columbia) hit the pipe with approximately eight minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the middle frame.  The game remained evenly contested for the rest of the period, and no goals were scored.

After a few scoreless minutes passed in the third and final stanza, Quinnipiac appeared to be playing things a bit more conservatively than earlier in the game. Yale capitalized as sophomore Kenny Agostino set up O’Neill for a backhand goal just over eight minutes into the period. Hartzell made several key saves in the ensuing minutes and had a little bit of luck on his side as well. With just over eight minutes remaining in the game, Agostino fired a shot that rang off the post and slid out of harm’s way for the Bobcats.

Agostino’s near goal is the closest the Bulldogs would ever come to tying the game, as Quinnipiac held off Yale’s six on five effort for the final 44 seconds to get the win. The shots in the game were even at 25, but the Bobcats managed to get two past junior Jeff Malcolm while Hartzell stopped all but one to earn his sixth victory of the season.

The Bobcats get back out onto the ice tomorrow night, Saturday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. on the road against the Brown Bears in another ECAC showdown, while Yale returns to action tomorrow night as well at home against the Princeton Tigers.