Bobcats can't finish comeback

Bobcats can’t finish comeback

By Thomas Albanese, QBSN Staff Writer

After two lead changes in the third period, St. Lawrence came back to defeat the Quinnipiac Bobcats by a final score of 4-3 on Friday night at High Point Solutions Arena in the TD Bank Sports Center. 

After being down 2-0, Quinnipiac (15-13-2, 10-7-2 ECAC) scored three straight goals within the first ten minutes of the final period, off the sticks of centers Breann Frykas (East St. Paul, Manitoba) and Regan Boulton (Brandon, Manitoba). With less than two minutes to go, St. Lawrence (18-8-4, 15-5-2 ECAC)  would take back the lead after two back-to-back goals were scored by right wing, Rylee Smith and center, Kelly Sabatine that were only separated by 22-seconds.

Going into the third period, Quinnipiac trailed the Saints of St. Lawrence University by a score of 2-0. Quinnipiac came out of the tunnel fired up in the last twenty minutes of the match. After the first two minutes, Frykas got a good look from the left side of the net after a nice pass from right wing, Amanda Colin (Burnsville, Minnesota), and Frykas scored the first goal of the night for the Bobcats.

They continued to put more pressure on St. Lawrence’s defense as four minutes later, Brittany Lyons (Canton, Massachusetts) took a hard slap shot that deflected off St. Lawrence’s goalie, Carmen MacDonald. Lyons factored into giving the assist as Frykas was right in front of the net and she scored her second goal of the night. Frykas goals numbers nine and ten on the season respectively.  

After tying up the score, Quinnipiac continued to gain the momentum as St. Lawrence’s Brook Fernandez was penalized for checking. Despite the Bobcats at this time being 0-for-4 on power plays, they managed to get the puck to the back of the net. Boulton was able to push the puck across the goal line along with the assist from Erica Uden Johansson (Sundsvall, Sweden).  After being reviewed, the goal was confirmed.  The Bobcats finally solved their power play issues and were now leading the match by a score of 3-2.

Playing strong defense helped keep St. Lawrence off the board until everything changed in the final two minutes of play. St. Lawrence pulled Carmen MacDonald from the net in an attempt to have more offensive power against the Bobcats. It would pay off as right wing Rylee Smith would score her 18^th goal of the season for St. Lawrence with the assist from sophomore Mel Desrochers as another group effort came in front of Quinnipiac’s goalie, Victoria Vigilanti (Woodbridge, Ontario). Only 22-seconds later, junior Kelly Sebatine scored an unassisted goal as she shot a hard slap shot that bounced off one of Quinnipiac’s defenders and into the net to give St. Lawrence the lead with just over one minute remaining in the match.  The Bobcats were unable to spark another comeback.

“I thought the team played really inspiring hockey for the first nine minutes of the third period to get the lead, then we eased up a little bit, and after the two goals in the end, it all just fell apart” head coach Rick Seeley said.  

Due to this rough loss, the Bobcats have now lost four consecutive games. With a win, Quinnipiac could have tied St. Lawrence for fifth place in the ECAC.

“This shows that you need to play hard all 60-minutes of a hockey match, otherwise it is very tough to win against any opponent” Seeley said.

The Quinnipiac Bobcats hope to get back on their winning ways again once they return today at 4 p.m. to High Point Solutions Arena against ECAC opponent, Clarkson to get back in the race for a good seed in the division with only three more conference games remaining.