Bobcats tie Bears, three-point weekend

Bobcats tie Bears, three-point weekend

By Nick Dench, QBSN Staff Writer

Following the exhilarating win over Yale on Friday night, the Bobcats traveled to Providence, R.I. to play conference rival Brown.  Quinnipiac and Brown tied 2-2 to give the Bobcats a three-point weekend and the Bears a one-point weekend.

In front of a small crowd of 938 people at Meehan Auditorium, the Bears jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first period with a goal by Dennis Robertson on a 5-on-3 power play from Jack Maclellan and Matt Wahl.  Five minutes later, the Bears struck again after a turnover at the blue line by the Bobcats.  Maclellan netted his ninth goal of the season on assists from Matt Lorito and the ECAC Rookie of the Week, Ryan Jacobson.  The Bears went into the first intermission leading the Bobcats 2-0.

Bobcat coach Rand Pecknold decided to switch the lines up a little bit and put Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) on the line with Connor and Kellen Jones (Montrose, British Columbia) to start the second period.  Late in the second period, that switch paid off as Peca scored his fifth goal of the season to cut the Bears’ lead in half on assists from Connor Jones and Zack Currie (Victoria, British Columbia).  The Bobcats tied the game up one minute and a half later when Zach Tolkinen (Lino Lakes, Minn.) scored his third goal of the season on the power play with assists from Loren Barron (Glendora, Calif.) and Russell Goodman (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan).

Both teams ran into some penalty issues in the third period when Kellen Jones received a five-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head.  The Bobcats shut down the Bears on this extended power play, allowing only one shot on goal over the five-minute span.  Maclellan and Connor Jones received matching penalties two minutes into the major, which was served by Kevin Bui (Edmonton, Alberta).  Halfway through the third period Jacobson received an interference penalty, and near the end of that penalty time Mike Wolff giving the Bobcats a five-on-three advantage for 18 seconds.  Quinnipiac did not convert on either man advantage.  The Bobcats received one more opportunity on the man advantage with just less than four minutes left in regulation.  They did not convert on that and headed into overtime.

Both teams played tough hockey in the five-minute extra period, but in the end neither team could score.  Eric Hartzell (White Bear Lake, Minn.) made 26 saves on 28 shots faced for the Bobcats, and Marco De Filippo made 32 saves on 34 shots faced for the Bears.  Brown finished one-for-five on the power play, and Quinnipiac finished one-for-seven on the power play.

With this tie, Quinnipiac moves into a tie for second place with Colgate with a record of 4-4-4 in the conference (12-7-5 overall).  Brown also gains a point but stays in 11^th place in the conference with a 3-4-1 record (6-7-2 overall).  The Bobcats host Colgate and Cornell in a pivotal weekend for the top of the ECAC next weekend.  The Bears travel to St. Lawrence and Clarkson next weekend in hopes to advance in the standings.