ECAC Quarterfinal: #12 Brown vs. #5 Quinnipiac

ECAC Quarterfinal: #12 Brown vs. #5 Quinnipiac

By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer

The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team clinched the fifth overall seed in the ECAC tournament with its 2-2 tie against Yale this past Saturday night. The Bobcats (17-11-6, 9-8-5) will host the Bears of Brown University (8-16-5, 5-13-4) in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals this weekend. The Bobcats head into the playoffs playing consistently with a 3-1-1 record in their past five games. Brown stumbles into the playoffs with a 0-8-2 record over its final 10 games, dropping the team into last place in the ECAC. The Bobcats won the season series over Brown, tying the Bears in Providence 2-2, and winning 4-1 in Hamden last weekend. The series marks the second straight year that the two teams go head to head in the ECAC Quarterfinals, with the Bobcats sweeping the Bears last season.

Keys for the Bears:

Staying discipline is Brown’s number one key if it wants to move on in the ECAC tournament. Brown goes into the weekend ranked fifth overall in the nation racking up more than 17 penalty minutes per game on average during the regular season. Last Friday, the Bears’ lack of discipline outright cost them the game in Hamden as the Bobcats rallied off three powerplay goals in the third period for the win.

Brown needs more help from its supporting cast of players in the lineup. Senior Jack Maclellan leads the Bears in every major offensive category, and the gap was evident when he missed the game this past weekend in Hamden. Look for players like Bobby Farnham and Ryan Jacobson to contribute to the offense this weekend, especially if Maclellan is out of the lineup again.

Finally, Brown will need to forget about history. The Bears are winless in their last seven games against the Bobcats with a 0-4-3 and only 1-8-1 all-time at Quinnipiac. If Brown wants to advance to Union, the Bears will need to keep history from repeating itself.

Keys for the Bobcats:

The biggest key for the Bobcats this weekend is to get offensive production out of a line other than that of Connor and Kellen Jones (Montrose, British Columbia) and Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario). Last weekend the line factored in on all six of Quinnipiac’s goals and though it’s not a bad thing to have a line on fire heading into the postseason, balanced scoring certainly helps. Senior’s Scott Zurevinski (Saskatoon, Sask.), Yuri Bouharevich (Montreal, Quebec), and Spencer Heichman (Yorba Linda, Calif.) are all heading into their final postseasons as Bobcats and should carry part of the offensive load. If those three seniors along with the other role players on the Bobcats can catch fire like Connor, Kellen and Peca did this past weekend, Quinnipiac will be a force to be reckoned with in the ECAC tournament.

Quinnipiac’s penalty kill has been arguably its greatest strength this season, ending the regular season ranked second overall in the nation. One plaguing issue of this season has been consistent production out of the powerplay. After this weekend however, the Bobcats powerplay unit scored five of the team’s six goals and with the exception of a mishap or two, would have gotten the team a first round bye in the tournament.  Nonetheless, the team’s powerplay is red hot at just the right time and against a Brown team which lacks discipline. The highly confident powerplay line of the Joneses, Peca, Loren Barron (Glendora, Calif.), and Zack Currie (Victoria, British Columbia) could be in for a field day.

The Bobcats will play the first round of the ECAC tournament on home ice this weekend. Most of the team’s success this season came in Hamden as the team enjoyed an 11-3-3 record at the High Point Solutions Arena. Look for the Bobcats to feed off of the momentum from this past weekend and continue their recent dominance over the Bears. It also wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see both Dan Clarke (Belleville, Ontario) and Eric Hartzell (White Bear Lake, Minn.) between the pipes this weekend as last season the two goaltenders split the first round series and each recorded shutouts over the Bears. If the goaltenders play this weekend, each will have to be strong in order for the Bobcats to advance to Colgate.