Men’s hockey game still scheduled

Men’s hockey game still scheduled
by Seth Rothman
February 22, 2008

HAMDEN — Quinnipiac Athletics released the following statement moments ago:

“Tonight’s men’s ice hockey game featuring Quinnipiac University and Cornell University is still scheduled to take place – until further notice – at 7 p.m. at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. Student shuttles will continue to operate as usual. Please visit www.quinnipiacbobcats.com for any changes related to weather conditions.”

Please continue to log onto the WQAQ Sports Site for up-to-the-minute updates on the weather situation in Hamden, and come back to the site after the game for full post-game coverage.

Uninspired Bobcats fall listlessly to Harvard

Uninspired Bobcats fall listlessly to Harvard
by Seth Rothman
February 16, 2008

Quinnipiac played six periods of uninspired hockey within a span of 24 hours.

Those six periods led to two embarrassing, debilitating losses, including a 4-1 loss against Harvard University (11-11-3, 9-7-2 ECAC) on Saturday night in front of 2,822 at the Bright Hockey Center in Cambridge, Mass.

“We struggled tonight finishing our chances,” Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold told WQUN’s Don Boyle. “We had a lot of good offensive chances, and even out-chanced Harvard by quite a bit, but that’s part of hockey. Sometimes the puck goes in and sometimes it doesn’t.”

The game got off to an inauspicious start for Quinnipiac (17-9-4, 9-5-4 ECAC) when Dan Travis got called for hitting from behind. Instead of a two minute penalty, referee Alex Dell issued Travis a very questionable major penalty and game misconduct. After the game, Pecknold voiced his frustrations with Dell on the ice, and on the radio.

“We got a couple good breaks, and got a real unfortunate one with the five on Dan,” Pecknold said. “It probably should have been a two, but that’s the breaks. They didn’t call fives on [Harvard] later, and that’s life.” 

During the ensuing power play, Harvard capitalized.

Harvard’s Paul Dufault won the faceoff back to Brian McCafferty. He sent a pass to Matt McCollem who scored his third tally of the season with 5:37 left in the 1st period.

“Even the first goal they scored, the linesman told [Quinnipiac's Brandon Wong] to move his stick, he moves it, they drop the puck, and they score,” Pecknold said. “Sometimes you get good breaks and sometimes you don’t.”

After Travis got thrown out of the game, Quinnipiac’s defensive intensity dropped considerably as one of the most physical players on the Bobcats team was no longer a part of the action. Once the lack of intensity reared its ugly head, Quinnipiac reverted back to its ugly play of Friday night.

With 2:56 left in the opening stanza, Harvard’s Pier-Olivier Michaud struck. He scored his 1st goal of the season on the rebound of Dave Watter’s blast from the point when Ben Nelson didn’t cover Michaud out in front. For the freshman Michaud, it was his first collegiate goal.

Quinnipiac was out-shot 10-8 in the first period, and 16-14 in the second. After drastically out-shooting Harvard in the final frame, Quinnipiac ended up out-shooting the Crimson 38-33 for the game.

In the second period, Harvard added their third goal when Michaud scored his second goal of the game the same way the second goal of the game was scored. Shot from the point, little defensive pressure, goal-scorer in the slot with no blue shirt around him.

“Harvard’s a good team, you have to go them credit,” Pecknold said. ”They’re a top 20 team, they haven’t proved it all year, but they’re playing well right now.”

With 12:28 remaining in the contest, Pecknold pulled Bobcats goalie Bud Fisher for an extra attacker, and Harvard’s Doug Rogers capitalized on the empty net 29 seconds later to make it 4-0.

Quinnipiac finally got on the board with 11:05 to go when senior Ben Nelson sent the puck home onthe short side. Dan Henningson and Jamie Bates assisted on Nelson’s 11th tally of the season.

So now, Quinnipiac takes the long bus ride home, tails between their legs. Next weekend the Bobcats will face a huge test when Cornell comes to the TD Banknorth Sports Center in a game that could help decide whether Quinnipiac will get a first round bye.

After smashing RPI 7-1 on Saturday, Cornell will come into the TD Banknorth Sports Center looking to move past the Bobcats into third place in the conference. Quinnipiac is only one point ahead of Cornell, and 4 points ahead of Colgate, who comes to Hamden on Sunday. The Red Raiders occupy the 8th spot in the conference.

One thing is for certain, the Bobcats will need to pick it up against the Big Red of Cornell in the second to last home game of the season.

NOTES: Quinnipiac’s season has been the tale of last season. Last year, Quinnipiac’s record through 15 games was 8-3-4. Through 18 games, it was 9-5-4. This season, the Bobcats record is exactly the same, and the way they got there is also exactly the same. Quinnipiac finished their last four games last year by going 1-3. … This is the first series sweep in ECAC Hockey endured by Quinnipiac all season, and the first since February 23 and 24, 2007, when they got blanked by SLU and Clarkson in Hamden. … It’s their first ECAC Hockey sweep on the road since January 13 and 14, 2006. … Despite the loss, Quinnipiac clinched at least a first round home playoff series, to be played March 7-9. … Friday’s game will not be televised, but Sunday’s game, Quinnipiac’s senior day, will be televised by NESN starting at 12:30pm.

Quinnipiac Athletes Launch “Pink-Out”

Quinnipiac Athletes Launch “Pink-Out”
By Zach Smart

Adversity.

Most of us have handled or been dealt our fair share of it.

It’s about as unpredictable an aspect of life there is, one that simply nobody can eschew. No one gets through life unscathed.

According to the National Cancer Institute, roughly 178,480 and 2,030 cases of breast cancer surfaced last year between women and men, respectively.

Quinnipiac has constantly taken significant steps towards fighting breast cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in America.

Programs and fundraisers have been launched, money has been donated, research programs have received considerable contributions. Fraternities, clubs, and recently-installed programs alike have done their part in helping fight and raise awareness to breast cancer.

On Feb. 22, however, thanks to the efforts of Quinnipiac junior Jackie Herb, an event that may be head-and-shoulders better than most others of its ilk will be installed. It is promising on more fronts than one.

Herb and senior Roger Fish, the president and co-president of S.A.A.C. (Student Athletic Advisory Committee), respectively, will host the inaugural “Pink Out.”

The event is designed to raise money for the Susen G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The “For The Cure” foundation maintains a high-order commitment to “curing breast cancer at every stage-from the causes to the cures, to the pain and anxiety of every moment in between,” according to the program’s website.

Shirts with “Pink Out” emblazoned on the front, accompanied by the breast cancer awareness ribbon will be sold for $10 each, prior to the men’s hockey team’s 7 P.M. showdown against Cornell at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.

It’s an event that Herb and Fish, members of the women’s tennis team and men’s lacrosse team, respectively, are certainly giddy about.

“Obviously, if we can get everybody (who attends) to buy one, that’s a good amount of money that we can donate,” explained Fish, a native of Columbus, Ohio.

“On another level, we think that this is going to be a great way to promote school spirit. Our hockey team is having a great success again, and we feel that we can make this maybe a tradition, that the QU hockey team picks a game each year to have this event. We’ll raise awareness and we’ll raise money.”

Given the record attendance of the Feb. 8 Yale game, this could be a hit. Spirited students and hockey fans willing to help a good cause can cohesively contribute before cheering on their team in the jam-packed stands.

Fish continued, “Wearing a bunch of yellow shirts is one thing. Wearing a bunch of pink shirts that actually mean something, well…We realize that this is something that could set us aside from other college hockey teams and other college traditions.”

Herb dug up the idea in the beginning of September. She presented it to athletic director Jack McDonald and Tracy Flynn, ironing out the ideas with the Student Alumni Association. All parties were instantly sold.

A pink-clad fan base is certainly envisaged for the evening game. Fish and Herb hope that the seeds they planted for an event of this magnitude will sprout into an annual success.

Quinnipiac gets humiliated by Dartmouth

Quinnipiac gets humiliated by Dartmouth
by Seth Rothman
February 15, 2008

Dartmouth University (9-11-4, 4-10-3 ECAC) used 7 unanswered goals to embarrass the Quinnipiac Bobcats 7-2 in ECAC Hockey play in Hanover, NH on Friday night in front of 2.837 patrons at Thompson Arena.

Quinnipiac (17-8-4, 9-4-4 ECAC) started out well against a Dartmouth team that started the game dead last in the ECAC Hockey standings, but the Bobcats could not keep the intensity up.

Seven minutes in, Dartmouth’s Matt Reber took a hooking penalty, and Quinnipiac’s Greg Holt capitalized. After senior Ben Nelson hit the post, Holt drilled the puck from the left-wing side off Dartmouth defenseman Joe Stejskal’s skate and into the net.

Nearly five minutes later, Quinnipiac struck again on the power play. Dan Henningson blasted a shot from the point that got deflected by senior Dan Travis. When Dartmouth goaltender Mike Devine made the save but couldn’t control the rebound, Travis pounced to give the Bobcats the 2-0 lead.

That’s when the wheels fell off for Quinnipiac, who then allowed 7 unanswered goals — 3 in the second and 4 in the third.

After the game, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold was not happy with how his team protected the lead.

“We played a bad hockey game,” Pecknold told WQUN’s Don Boyle. “Even in the first period we weren’t very good. Bud had a great first period; he made a lot of saves. After that, our goaltending was poor, defensemen were poor, forwards were poor, it was a bad game.”

It was the second period that doomed Quinnipiac. Lazy play by the Bobcats in their own zone allowed Dartmouth to get back into the game. With the Quinnipiac lead at 2-1 and the clock reading 6:12 left in the second period, Dartmouth’s Kyle Reeds had the equalizer when his shot ran up the shoulder of Bobcats goaltender Bud Fisher and into the net.

Nearly four minutes later, Scott Fleming put a dazzling move on Bobcats defender Dan LeFort and roofed the rubber past Fisher. The senior was thrust into the role because freshman Zach Hansen has been added to the injury report after injuring himself last weekend.

“We’re so banged up with Zach Hansen going down; he’s been so great for us,” Pecknold said. ”He’s a breakout machine, he really gets that puck out of the zone. We found a way to overcome a lot of losses this year, but with [Sorteberg] and Bauer out and now Zach, we just couldn’t find a way to do that tonight.”

It was a game that showed very little defensive intensity by Quinnipiac. No one was playing the body in the defensive zone, and Dartmouth took advantage by embarrassing Quinnipiac over the final 40 minutes.

“They’re a young team with a ton of freshmen, and they played hungry,” Pecknold said. “They wanted the game tonight and we just showed up and put the skates on. We talk a lot about playing hungry, and ‘how bad do you want it?’. The team that wanted the game tonight won the game, and they deserved to win.”

So now, Quinnipiac has to find a way to recuperate from Friday’s contest and get ready for a hungry Harvard team. It’s a quick turnaround for the Bobcats after the embarrassment suffered at Thompson Arena.

“We’ll have to find a way [tomorrow night],” Pecknold said. “We have a good team, we’ll have a gut check and come out tomorrow and play well.”

NOTES: Dartmouth out-shot Quinnipiac 43-23 for the game, and 34-15 over the final two periods. … Quinnipiac was a perfect 2-2 on the power play. … The margin of defeat is the largest for Quinnipiac since the start of last season when they lost 6-1 against North Dakota to begin the season. … It is their largest conference defeat since a 6-0 thrashing against Cornell on Jan. 13, 2006 . … The loss is also Quinnipiac’s first loss to an ECAC Hockey team since November 30 when they fell to Union. They were 7-0-2 in league play during that span.

Bobcats overcome slow start, beat Brown

Bobcats overcome slow start, beat Brown
by Seth Rothman
February 10, 2008

HAMDEN — It was the definition of a trap game.

Facing a team that has won two games since November, on a Sunday afternoon with very little noise in the building, the game after the most highly anticipated matchup of the year — this one had all the makings of a contest that would trap Quinnipiac.

Fortunately for the Bobcats, the cheese remains on the trap as Quinnipiac (17-7-4, 9-3-4 ECAC) took care of business in a workmanlike 3-0 victory over Brown University (3-16-4, 3-10-3 ECAC) at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden on Sunday afternoon.

Quinnipiac came out slowly in the first period, and had to fend off 13 of the first 17 shots taken in the game. Bobcats goaltender Bud Fisher was able to stop each shot, but allowed rebounds fluttering in front of the net that went unclaimed by any Bears players. Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said the first period was flat due to the odd start time, but he’s thankful he was able to get his players to wake up for the final forty minutes.

“We talked about it, we addressed it in many different ways. I tried to switch the lines up to give us a little bit of life,” Pecknold said. “Unfortunately, I do not think we had a good first period; I thought we were real fortunate to get out of there with a 1-0 lead. We addressed it again at the end of the first, and I thought we played a much better 2nd and 3rd. I think we pretty much took over the game.”

The Bobcats had that 1-0 lead thanks to a fortunate bounce.

With just over one minute left in the opening stanza, Brown’s Jordan Lietrus took a hard hit and fell to the ice. While he laid there in pain, Quinnipiac’s Mike Atkinson was able to find the puck and back-hand it into the net past Brown goaltender Dan Rosen (32 saves) to give Quinnipiac the lead. Sophomores Greg Holt and Eric Lampe assisted on Atkinson’s fourth tally of the season. 

“The puck went into the corner, my two line-mates did a great job working it down low, it just fell right onto my stick,” Atkinson said. “Goalie went out to poke-check it, and I put a no-look right into the net. Nothing pretty, but that’s kind of how mine usually go in. Real good work on my linemates’ part, and I was where I needed to be.”

“12:30 games are not something we’re used to,” senior forward Dan Travis said. “I was up at 8; haven’t done that all year. It’s a little weird — usually at 12:30, we’re right in the middle of practice. We came out a little flat, but Mookie (Atkinson) got that goal in the first to at least give us the lead. That was the only good thing in the first period.”

Even though Quinnipiac scored their first goal in the opening stanza, Pecknold didn’t think his team had awoken from the slumber that comes with playing a game at such an early hour — and he let his team know he was displeased.

“We had a little talk with the team and I think that’s when we finally got our energy level up,” Pecknold said. ”We had a couple fleeting moments in the first. I thought our intensity in the first period was poor.”

“A little talk from Coach [got us going],” Travis said. “There’s two points in the line, and we had to mature a little bit and realize that. We had to put the odd game time and everything behind us and move forward.”

After a scoreless second period marred by poor stick-handling by both teams, Quinnipiac was quick to get on the board in the third.

At 3:42 of the third period, Quinnipiac struck on a 3v1 break. Chris Myers, who has only played 12 games all year due to nagging injuries, brought the puck into the zone. He fed line-mate Isak Tranvik on the far side, who winged a pass to Travis on the near side. The senior from Wilton, New Hampshire buried the rubber, and Quinnipiac had a 2-0 lead.

Brandon Wong added an empty netter with 28 seconds left to complete the scoring. Tranvik picked up his fourth helper of the season on the tally.

For Quinnipiac, the win gives them another four point weekend. In their last four league weekends, Quinnipiac has picked up 14 of a possible 16 points.

“Anytime you can get points is big,” Pecknold said. “Certainly this late in the year, it’s the home stretch. We’re hoping we can finish in the top four and get a first round bye. Four points is big at this point.”

“It’s huge. Anytime you get four points in a weekend, it’s huge,” Travis said. “Especially for us, we’re battling to get that top slot, trying to stay in the top 4. It’s big for us, but we have to keep it going now. It’s behind us now, and we have to look forward.”

“That’s huge at this point in the season,” Bobcats net-minder Bud Fisher said. “We’re right in the race and a lot of teams are getting points right now. Coming into this weekend, we needed to do that.”

It’s especially big because of what happened around the league on Saturday. Clarkson, who leads the league by 2 points, tied Colgate, Princeton defeated Yale, and Cornell was felled by St. Lawrence.

That means, after today’s win, Quinnipiac is tied for 2nd, but now only two points out of the top spot in the league. They play Clarkson to end the season on March 1.

“Before I went to bed I checked [the scoreboard] out,” Fisher said. “I’m sure a lot of the guys did the same thing and I’m sure Coach was all over those games.”

Fisher had himself another solid weekend, stopping 49 of the 50 shots he saw. Today’s shutout is his 3rd of the season and 9th all-time. He’s already eclipsed the record for career shutouts as a Bobcat, and is now creating the new bar.

“I thought Bud played well. We did a good job in front of him,” Pecknold said. “Tonight we gave up a lot of perimeter shots. Quality chances weren’t there, but he did what he needed to do. He made saves in the first period when he needed to, and anytime you get a shutout in this league is great.”

“First period, Brown played great; I had a lot of shots early,” Fisher said. “The guys did a good job collapsing to the net; I gave up some rebounds, but the guys cleared them right out. They made it easy for me in that respect. Second period we picked it up, and eliminated a lot of their scoring chances.”

For the players, the start time was odd. But what was even more odd was the noise level in the building. It certainly did not have the intensity of the game against Yale forty hours earlier.

“It’s a little bit different from the game on Friday against Yale,” Fisher said. “We have a huge rivalry with Yale. This game, we knew was huge in the standings and we knew they were going to come out flying. It wasn’t too hard to get up for.”

“The building was shaking on Friday, and today there was kind of a lull,” Atkinson said. “You can’t expect too many kids to be here at noon on a Sunday. It wasn’t the ideal time slot, but they had to play at the same time as we did. We came a little bit better prepared than them and took the W. It was a good team win. We played great after the first, and that’s what you have to do to win.”  

NOTES: After getting out-shot 13-4 to start the game, Quinnipiac out-shot the Bears 31-12 over the remainder of the contest. … Only eight penalties were called all game. … Quinnipiac is back in action on Friday at Dartmouth, followed the following night by a trip to Cambridge, Mass. to face Harvard. … Sunday’s attendance was listed at 2,833. … The Bobcats are back at the TD Banknorth Sports Center on February 22. Both of their remaining home games are sold out — only standing room tickets remain available.

Bobcats dominate Yale behind raucous, record crowd

Bobcats dominate Yale behind raucous, record crowd
by Seth Rothman
February 8, 2008

HAMDEN — On Thursday night, Central Connecticut State continued its dominance over Quinnipiac’s men’s basketball team.

On Friday night, the Bobcats men’s hockey team continued its dominance over Yale (10-8-4, 6-5-4 ECAC), defeating the Bulldogs 5-1 in front of a deafeningly raucous crowd of 4,213 at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden.

Even though the two schools are less than ten miles apart, Yale coach Keith Allain has maintained he doesn’t consider the Quinnipiac game a rivalry game.

Tell that to Quinnipiac (16-7-4, 8-3-4 ECAC) and its student section, which was full — and screaming – nearly 45 minutes before the game started.

“The buildup all week on our campus was great. This was big-time hockey tonight,” Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold said. “I don’t know how many were in the building at 6:15-6:20, but it was great. We had a ton of students here tonight screaming and yelling. It was loud, and you could really feel it. The game we played at Yale was a good hockey game, but the students weren’t there. It’s a different atmosphere when students are around.”

It took Quinnipiac some time to get rolling, though. The nerves in the first period contributed to multiple mistakes, and both teams were only able to muster five first period shots each.

“We played a little bit sluggish in the first — we were ready to play, but we were a little nervous,” Pecknold said. “The guys were nervous in the first, and settled down and played much better hockey in the second and third. The thing we wanted to focus on in the third was winning battles and getting pucks to the net. Early in the game we hesitated to get pucks to the net. Yale did a great job collapsing to the net and clearing some rebounds.”

But with just over two minutes to play in the first period, Quinnipiac got on the board. After Yale took a penalty for having too many men on the ice, junior Dan Henningson fired a shot from the point that was deflected by senior Dan Travis and past Eli goaltender Billy Blase.

“We kept it simple. There wasn’t much as far as plays, fore-checks, back-checks, or anything like that. When we’re good we keep it simple,” Travis said. “We have great forwards to carry the puck, get to the net, and score goals. Besides [Dan] LeFort’s goal, I don’t think we had a highlight-reel goal.”

The hard work was evident right from the opening face-off for the Bobcats. Late in the second period, Quinnipiac was pinned in their own zone on a 4v3. When Zach Hansen broke his stick on the penalty kill, things looked dire for Quinnipiac. But Mike Atkinson, who gave Hansen his stick, blocked multiple shots, bringing the overflow crowd to its feet and eliciting the loudest roar of the night.

“They did a great job. They blocked a lot of shots, did a lot of good things: stick on puck, denying shots,” Pecknold said of his defense. “Both teams were very good defensively tonight. We did a nice job, and our face-off intensity was good, also.”

“Hansen broke his stick, Atkinson gave him his stick, and one time Hansen tried clearing the puck but the stick was the wrong hand,” Bobcats junior goaltender Bud Fisher said. “Mike Atkinson probably blocked three or four shots. Guys were laying their bodies down, I don’t even know if I had a shot in that sequence. We played great defensively.”

Quinnipiac was amped to play this game. Huge crowd, big rival, it was the epitome of a playoff atmosphere inside the TD Banknorth Sports Center. Pecknold wishes he could bottle the Bobcats intensity and use it for games with less juice.

“It’s hard to do it every game, I’d be coaching in the NHL if I could figure that out,” Pecknold said. “You want to play hard every night, and I think we do a fairly good job — that’s why we’re successful.”

“We were all really excited to play this game. We get up for the Heroes Hat, I think we set an attendance record, and with that support behind us we were really geared up for this game,” Fisher said. “We were really excited coming in. We worked really hard and the guys played awesome.”

“A lot of guys prior to us didn’t get a chance to play them. To hear that from some of the guys — one being [assistant coach] Scott Robson, who never had a chance to play these guys; they always wanted to, but [Yale] wouldn’t play them,” Travis said. “We’ve had that in the back of our minds, it’s definitely nice to get a win. Beating Yale is big for us. It’s our rivalry game whether [Yale] cares about it or not.”

“We’re coming into the league, we really don’t have rivalries with teams in this league,” Pecknold said. “We have rivalries with teams we used to play against, like UConn, Mercyhurst, and Holy Cross. There’s no question; we’re five miles apart, it’s a rivalry. My kids were ready to play, they were fired up.”

When the second period ended, Quinnipiac held a slim 2-1 lead. Pecknold said he has a very strong message for his team in the locker room during the 2nd intermission.

“I told them not to sit back and try to protect a one goal lead with the prevent defense. We were going to go after them,” Pecknold said. “We struggled early in the game getting pucks to the net. We took so long to do it, and Yale was so good at collapsing to the net.”

Quinnipiac’s insurance goal was exactly that.

Sophomore Jean-Marc Beaudoin brought the puck behind the net where he slipped it to sophomore sniper Brandon Wong. He wrapped around, got stopped by Blase, and followed up with the game-breaker on the doorstep to give Quinnipiac the two-goal lead 46 seconds into the final stanza.

“The Wong goal was huge right out of the gate, he attacked the net and that’s what we want to do,” Pecknold said. “I feel very fortunate that we won the game tonight, I thought it could have gone either way going into the third. Yale played a really good first 2 periods, and Brandon Wong took over with that goal.”

“Jean-Marc had the puck, I kept yelling at him to give me the puck,” Wong said. ”He heard me and kept taking it behind the net and dished it back. [Blase] made a nice first save, and I just put it into the net.”

Yale coach Keith Allain was frustrated with his team, and didn’t even make an appearance for the post-game press conference. Instead, he released a statement through Yale Sports Publicity Director Steve Conn.

“Its hard to win a game when you give up 4 goals on the first 15 shots on net,” Allain’s statement said. “We probably played OK tonight, but did nothing particularly well. For us to be successful, we need all 20 players to suit up and play well.”

While Yale’s locker room was frustrated, Quinnipiac’s was elated.

“The game at Yale didn’t have the same intensity it had tonight,” Pecknold said. “My guys were fired up to play Yale [in January]. Tonight, playing at home with everything that went on, Quinnipiac did a great job of staging this game. From the color guard, the guy who sang the national anthem was great, I just thought it was an event. My kids stepped up to the plate and protected home ice.”

When the building’s really buzzing, you feel it and feed off it,” Fisher said. “It’s an edge for us when the crowd’s always into it.”

“It was big-time tonight. I heard the number: 4,200 were at the game tonight,” Travis said. “When we’re in warm-ups and its loud, we know it’s going to be a big one. They had the noisemakers going tonight, it was a lot of fun. We had a good time out there.”

When teams score goals at the pace Quinnipiac did on Friday, most forget about the goaltender. But Fisher earned high praise from his coach.

“He played very well. Sometimes you overlook the goalie because you score five goals, but he was really good,” Pecknold said. “Right before they scored their goal, on the 4v3 sequence he was great. We blocked a lot of shots, and I thought Bud was very good.”

“Yale shoots from everywhere, so I just wanted to be real aggressive, be square, and let pucks hit me,” Fisher said. “The guys took away passes, and a lot of pucks hit me.”

So now, Quinnipiac has one day to practice before playing Brown on Sunday afternoon on NESN.

“Brown’s playing better, they swept Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, so we need to refocus in practice tomorrow and come out ready to play,” Pecknold said. “Sunday will tell the tale. If we have a hangover from this, then we’re not on track.”

“You want to take the positives from this game,” Wong said. ”We played very well tonight — personally I think it’s one of our best games this year. We have to get back on another roll.”

“We have to refocus again. It’s another league game, a big two points, and I’m assuming it’s not going to have quite the electricity, being a Sunday day game,” Travis said. “We have to do our job, get two points, and move on.”

NOTES: Friday’s attendance was a TD Banknorth Sports Center record, breaking the old record set on November 9, 2007 when 3,444 fans packed the building for Quinnipiac’s contest against Clarkson. … The building lists a capacity of 3,286 for hockey games. … The game is the second highest attended Quinnipiac home game ever, second only to Quinnipiac’s inaugural ECAC game against Harvard at the Hartford Civic Center. That game was attended by 5,049. … Quinnipiac now stands tied for 2nd place in ECAC Hockey at 20 points. Clarkson is three points ahead of both Princeton and the Bobcats. Cornell falls to 4th place at 19. … During the first intermission, fans threw hundreds of teddy bears onto the ice as part of a fund-raising effort. 

Bobcats battle to tie with Union

Bobcats battle to tie with Union
by Seth Rothman
February 2, 2007

It’s not often emotions spill over to the traditional post-game handshake between two teams after collegiate hockey games.

On Saturday night, after Quinnipiac tied Union 3-3, that’s exactly what happened. A skirmish broke out during the post-game handshake line after a Union player said something to Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold that angered the 14th-year Bobcats coach.

It was just the end of an odd night in Schenectady. Quinnipiac ended the second period leading 1-0, got insurance early in the third, lost their two goal lead in a span of 1:23, got it back with a goal nearly 12 minutes into the third, only to give it back with just over 2 minutes left on an extra attacker goal. That’s where the scoring ended, with both teams having put the puck into the twine three times.

Quinnipiac (15-7-4, 7-3-4 ECAC) and Union ( 12-9-4, 7-4-3 ECAC) played to a scoreless draw through the first period, but it was the Bobcats who struck first thanks to a lucky bounce.

Sophomore Brandon Wong came in on an odd-man break, and tried finding linemate Jean-Marc Beaudoin. Instead, the puck bounced towards Union defender Mike Harr. He misplayed it right to the stick of captain Jamie Bates who roofed it past Dutchmen goaltender Corey Milan to give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead 9:23 into the second stanza.

That’s where the score stood through two intermissions. But in the third period, the penalty bug struck Union, and it helped to give the Bobcats some insurance. Union’s Brendan Milnamow took a run at Quinnipiac’s Eric Lampe, and on the ensuing power play, Zach Hansen’s worm-burner got deflected high by Bates for his second of the game to give Quinnipiac the 2-0 lead with 17:44 left in the contest.

But this one was just getting started.

7:19 into the third, Milnamow redeemed himself when he took a feed from Adam Presizniuk just behind the left-side faceoff circle and beat Bobcats goaltender Bud Fisher blocker side.

One minute 23 seconds later, Union tied it.

Mike Schreiber took a blast from nearly the same spot, beating Fisher and tying the game at two just before the third reached its halfway point.

Coach Rand Pecknold immediately took a timeout to settle his troops down; but it wasn’t a pep talk. Pecknold was annoyed at his team.

“Give Union alot of credit,” Pecknold told WQUN after the game. “They outplayed us – we’re lucky to get a point. We didn’t do the little things well all night.”

But despite those shortcomings, Pecknold’s club took the lead with 8:10 remaining. Ben Nelson stole the puck in the neutral zone, and shot towards Milan. He took care of the original shot, but left the rebound staring at a wide open net. Bryan Leitch was at the right place at the right time, and shot into the wide-open net to give Quinnipiac the lead.

For the next 6 minutes, it looked like Quinnipiac was on its way to its second consecutive ECAC Hockey sweep.

But with 2:13 left, and the two teams preparing to take a faceoff in the Dutchmen offensive zone, Union coach Nate Leaman used his timeout, pulled his goaltender, and devised a faceoff play.

It worked.

Stephane Boileau, who won 13 of the 19 faceoffs he took, won this one back to Mike Schreiber at the point. His blast was stopped by Fisher, but the rebound popped high into the air. With multiple players swinging their sticks at the high-flying puck, Adam Presizniuk got his on rubber and with 2:07 left in the third period, the 1,837 at Messa Rink exploded in glee.

That’s where the score stood through a back and forth overtime. After an even affair for most of the first two periods, Union outshot Quinnipiac 20-8 in the third period and overtime stanza.

It’s a result that did not please Pecknold, especially after enduring the heckling of a Union skater as the teams were shaking hands.

“We got a three point weekend,” Pecknold said. “We should have taken four. There’s alot of hockey left, and we have to keep the hammer down with these guys. We’re not good enough to just play and get wins. We have too many guys in the locker room that think that.”

Regardless, the Bobcats do get a three point weekend, which helps them in their race for a first round bye. And much of the thanks for that can go to goaltender Bud Fisher.

The junior from Peterborough, Ontario was splendid in net, especially in the second period when he stopped numerous scoring chances for Union, including a breakaway by Union captain Josh Coyle.

What doesn’t help Quinnipiac is the results garnered by the other teams battling for that first round bye. Both Cornell and Princeton won on Saturday — Cornell at Colgate, 3-1 and Princeton at RPI in the Big Red Freakout! by a final of 4-0. Quinnipiac now stands in a 2-way tie for third place with Princeton. Clarkson leads the league with 21 points, Cornell is at 19, and the travel partners at 18.

So now, the Bobcats take the nearly three hour bus ride home hoping to return to the Capital District in late March for another chance at the ECAC Championship. In the meantime, their regular season continues Friday night against Yale in Hamden in front of an already sold-out TD Banknorth Sports Center, and on myTV9 in Hamden. Face-off is scheduled for shortly after 7pm.

NOTES: Leitch’s goal gives him 100 points for his Quinnipiac career. He becomes the 27th player in Quinnipiac history to achieve the feat. … Quinnipiac won 39 of the 64 face-offs taken during the game. … Greg Holt, who was a guest on WQUN during the 1st intermission, said he will practice for the first time in 10 days on Monday after suffering a head injury during the Bobcats first game against Niagara. He hopes to play next weekend against Yale and Brown. … Fisher had a season-high 36 saves. His career high is 43 saves, that came in a winning effort against Robert Morris in 2006.

Lampe’s hat trick leads Bobcats to win

Lampe’s hat trick leads Bobcats to win
by Seth Rothman
February 1, 2008

Eric Lampe was a one-man-wrecking crew, and Quinnipiac continued its good fortunes in New York’s Capital District.

The sophomore scored all three Bobcat goals to lead Quinnipiac (15-7-3, 7-3-3 ECAC) to a 3-2 win over homestanding RPI (9-16-3, 4-8-2 ECAC) in front of 2,906 at the Houston Field House in Troy, New York.

Quinnipiac hasn’t lost at the Houston Field House since 2005, including a 2 game playoff sweep of the Engineers in 2006. They are 3-0-1 in their last four against RPI in Troy, and 4-0-3 in their last seven games all-time against the Engineers.

Rensselaer’s Andrew Lord scored the first tally of the game after Quinnipiac’s Ben Nelson took a holding penalty 10:42 into the opening period. Lord won the faceoff, got it back to assistant captain Jon Ornelas, who sent it to freshman Chase Polachek. His shot was deflected by Lord into the twine six seconds after the power play started to give the Engineers a 1-0 lead they would take into the locker room.

In the second period, Quinnipiac got on the board. Dan Henningson, who was questionable for this weekend after injuring his foot against Niagara last weekend, shot one towards the goal that was blocked.  Lampe intelligently found the biscuit lying out in front and deposited it home 6:09 into the middle stanza.

Three minutes thirty seconds later, Lampe had another. This time, it was thanks to Mike Atkinson. The sophomore from Sparta, New Jersey won a battle behind the net, and found Lampe who wrapped around for his second of the night at 9:39 of period two.

But Lampe, who scored his first career hat trick, wasn’t done. Again, Lampe parked himself in front of the net, waited for a rebound off a blast from Henningson, and batted it home to give Quinnipiac the 3-1 lead with 4:59 remaining in the contest.

From there, Quinnipiac hung on for the last five minutes after RPI pulled its goaltender and RPI defenseman Bryan Brutlag scored the final goal of the game with just under one minute left. Bud Fisher made 21 stops for Quinnipiac, and RPI’s Mathias Lange stopped 26 pieces of frozen rubber in the losing effort.

Quinnipiac is back in action on Saturday when they face off against Union at Messa Rink in Schenectady, New York. Game time is slated for 7pm.

NOTES: Lampe’s hat trick gives him 10 goals on the season. He also becomes the first Bobcat to register two multiple goal games. … Henningson’s two assists give him 14 helpers, a number that leads all Quinnipiac defensemen this season. … Quinnipiac has now won 11 of its last 13, while RPI has dropped 11 of its last 12. … The win moves the Bobcats into a 2-way-tie for second place with Cornell at 17 points. Clarkson leads the league with 21 points, and Princeton, Union, and Yale are each 1 point away from Quinnipiac and Cornell at 16 points. … Union defeated Princeton on Friday by a final of 4-3. The Dutchmen have now won 12 of their last 15 games. 

Students angered by new cheering policies

Students angered by new cheering policies
by Seth Rothman
January 30, 2008

HAMDEN — On Friday night, before the men’s hockey game against Niagara, Steve Colvin got on the public address system at the TD Banknorth Sports Center and urged all fans — especially students – to refrain from any chants that “rhyme with the word ducks.”

It’s part of a new plan by the Quinnipiac administration attempting to regulate what students are allowed to say in the rowdy student section.

It’s members of that student section that have become angered by the new policies. Students are complaining that the policies are infringing on their first amendment right to free speech. Chuck Menke, a spokesperson for the University’s athletic department, believes otherwise.

“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to promote good sportsmanship,” Menke said. “We’re not trying to quash anybody’s passion or enthusiasm, we’re trying to promote a fan friendly atmosphere that is still fun and energetic and charged with emotion.”

Students, however, are not happy by the new directive announced by Colvin, the Assistant Director of Athletic Promotions and Ticketing.

“Horrible. It’s a horrible thing,” said Jeremy Schilling, a sophomore broadcast journalism major from Marlboro, New Jersey. “Trying to change the way that drunk college students act during a game is just impossible.”

However, after an email went out to students earlier last week, most assumed the Crazy Bobcats were behind the cheer initiative.

According to the President of the new Crazy Bobcats, Jason Bond, that’s a misconception.

“I wanted to comment about this new student cheer initiative thing that was in the email, that I didn’t even know was [going to be] in the email,” Bond said. “I don’t know how the two of them got combined that the Crazy Bobcats were involved. The Crazy Bobcats have nothing to do with the new cheer initiative. Somehow, athletics put it in. I wasn’t under the impression that we’re part of the new cheer initiative.”

“There was a miscommunication that happened there,” Bond continued. “[They] said something that got people mad, and the Crazy Bobcats got associated with it. I really want to make that clear — we’re not part of this new cheer initiative.”

“We did receive some input from some individuals who expressed a concern, and I think it’s a concern that we in part share, and made a decision to incorporate some fairly realistic and straight-forward message points and requests,” Menke said. “Whether that’s student fans or anybody else in the arena — this applies to everyone.”

Menke mentioned this is also an attempt at complying with conference rules: The Northeast Conference, for example, has a rule prohibiting schools from playing a song that could elicit a response of “sucks!”

“These are not only philosophies expressed by Quinnipiac University and our athletics department, but also by the conferences in which we play and the NCAA as a whole,” Menke said. “Even with the NEC, they have specifically mentioned that is something that we don’t want to encourage, and there are certain songs that would lend themselves to using that word. We try and avoid the use of that word.”

It is unclear whether ECAC Hockey has similar rules.

Schilling and Justin Cohen, a junior broadcast journalism major from Cooper City, Florida agree, Quinnipiac officials should have contacted students and asked for input before making the decision.

“Did athletics ever come up to any of the die-hard fans, who have been at every game, who they know have been at every game? I went to Sacred Heart [on Saturday]. There were 40-50 student Bobcats fans, who I see at every basketball game, every hockey game,” Cohen said. ”Did they once come up to those fans and ask them what they thought?”

“The whole communication between the administration and us [isn't there],” Schilling said. “There is a major problem right now between the upper bureaucracy of Quinnipiac being separate from what the students want.”

During both men’s hockey games on Friday and Saturday, the Crazy Bobcats used a megaphone to initiate chants, drown out others they deemed too vulgar, and also, according to eyewitnesses, speak with the offending students while the game was in progress.

Both Bond and Student Government President Sean Geary, who helped resurrect the Crazy Bobcats club, agreed some of the methods the group used to educate students about how to cheer may not have been the greatest.

“It’s hard to get something started,” Bond said. “I agree that the megaphone was a little much — we’re going to calm down the megaphone a little bit. Just use it to start up cheers and such. It was the first time using the megaphone, so how do you know what to do and what’s right? It’s going to change, and it’s going to get better.”

“If anyone watched the hockey team come out for the first time this weekend, they would have thought the team was horrible, with no chance of playing in this league,” Geary said. “Same thing with the Crazy Bobcats. If anyone saw the Crazy Bobcats this weekend, they would have thought that’s a horrible group of students that isn’t doing the job right now.”

“This is really just the first weekend, or first time that we’ve done this, and we didn’t expect anything to change overnight,” Menke said. “The point was made, and I think over time we will develop our own traditions in the facility with our student section.”

A central argument in this ordeal is the hot-button issue of censorship. After the Quinnipiac Chronicle’s editor-in-chief, Jason Braff, nearly got fired for speaking out against campus policies earlier this year, many students are starting to wonder if Quinnipiac is actively trying to censor them.

“It’s kind of coming from the school, and it’s kind of not. It’s censorship, but you need to understand there is a reason,” Bond said. “When Quinnipiac students weren’t here, there were five-year-olds yelling ’sucks’ out in the crowd. That’s basically what I’m most concerned about. I think, as Quinnipiac students, and as smart people, we should understand that’s not right.”

Both Bond and Geary realize students — at first glance – don’t seem to want to give the Crazy Bobcats organization a chance. But they say students should.

“What’s getting caught up a lot, is that we’re just there to say ‘who cares’ and not anything else,” Bond said. “The Crazy Bobcats are an organization to fill up the stands and come to every game. A lot of people are just focusing on that one line that we’re saying. It’s important, but also pay attention to all the other cool things that we’re trying to do. We want to get a full student section that’s standing and going crazy.”

“No one is going to buy into it [immediately]. I think that organization, and I’m just speaking from having organizational experience, they need to reassess how they operate,” Geary said. “How they’re perceived – perception’s very important. I hope this weekend was a wake-up call to the organization.”

“All we’re trying to do is get a couple of messages across, and ask and request of our students to take those kinds of things into consideration when they’re in the facility,” Menke said. “We’re not trying to take away anything from their enjoyment, excitement, or passion for the game. We’re just trying to say ‘Hey, keep in mind, we’ve got some other fans in the building, and we want to be respectful of them, as well as the opponents on the ice.’”

“What happened with the old Crazy Bobcats, I think, from what I’ve heard, is they went too far towards the ’sucks’ and the cursing, and those things,” Bond said. “So, we’re going to try to make it so that we don’t get cut off by the administration. There has to be a happy medium. It can’t be rated R, and it can’t be rated G. Let’s rate it PG-13.”

Meanwhile, Geary took pains to remind students the Crazy Bobcats are not affiliated with the Student Government office. In their rush to get the organization ready for the first weekend of men’s hockey play in the second semester, only SGA members were involved, but they hope more students will get involved. Indeed, on Wednesday evening, there was a well-publicized meeting of the club, but very few non-SGA members attended.

That is of no consolation to Cohen, who doesn’t believe students should be involved in telling others what they can and cannot say, as eyewitnesses said Crazy Bobcats members did over the weekend.

“Personally, I don’t think that a student should be allowed to [direct] what another student should say,” Cohen said. “If someone from promotions, someone in charge of the building or an usher, security guard or police officer has a problem with it, that’s fine. But having a student either yell at or degrade another student, that is not in the jurisdiction of the students. [They] have no authority to, in public, say something to another student about what they are cheering.”

Meanwhile, the students still feel slighted. Cohen continued to maintain he wished the administration officials should have come to the students before unilaterally making a decision with little student input.

“Just listen to the fans. Don’t do just what you want to do, listen to the people who care about this team, and give us an opportunity to help you,” Cohen said. “You’re not our enemy, we’re not your enemy. We all want to help, we all want to make this a better atmosphere, nobody’s denying it. It’s not going to take one end, it’s going to take teamwork between the two.”

Niagara continues dominance of Quinnipiac

Niagara continues dominance of Quinnipiac 
by Seth Rothman
January 26, 2008

HAMDEN — After the game, six youth hockey teams stampeded through the Quinnipiac locker room getting autographs from their favorite Bobcats.

Maybe Quinnipiac should go into the Niagara locker room and ask for the same thing.

Niagara (15-8-1) continued to dominate Quinnipiac (14-7-3), winning their 9th game out of 10 all-time, in a 5-3 win over the Bobcats in front of 3,367 at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden.

Quinnipiac hasn’t won a game over Niagara since a 5-2 win on January 28, 2006 at the Northford Ice Pavilion.

The Bobcats lack of effort, especially in their own zone, was once again their undoing according to head coach Rand Pecknold.

“I just think it was a poor defensive effort both nights,” Pecknold said. “Our forwards didn’t do a good job backchecking, didn’t do a good job getting it deep. Worst two games we’ve played all year as a D core.”

“It’s a huge weekend for us,” Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said. “We were in the polls half the first semester and got in a bad run after Christmas, but this is four in a row on the road which is very tough to do in college hockey. We got something special going on in that room right now.”

“I don’t know if its fatigue or what, but it seemed like our heads weren’t in it this weekend,” Bobcats sophomore Jean-Marc Beaudoin said. “We just have to bounce back. We’re a good team, a good group of guys, we’ll take the positives out of this weekend, and come back with better effort next weekend.”

Niagara got on the board first after Josh Duncan took a penalty for hitting from behind less than two minutes in.

After setting up the power play, Les Reaney was able to find a gap between the pads of Fisher to give Niagara the early lead.

But, unlike Friday night, Quinnipiac was able to fight back with two shorthanded goals within 1:02 of each other on the same penalty kill.

On the first goal, sophomore Brandon Wong fed Beaudoin on the far side wing. Beaudoin skated in, slipped the puck between the legs of a Niagara defenseman, got it back, and roofed it past Purple Eagles goaltender Juliano Pagliero (32 saves).

“It was a big goal, we needed that goal, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. It was nice to score that goal, but [ultimately] we came up short,” Beaudoin said. “That’s what happens when you play with Brandon. He finds you out there, and makes my job a lot easier. We work well together.”

The second goal was a fantastic effort by forward Eric Lampe, who Pecknold called his best player of the night. Lampe stickhandled to behind the net, and found Dan LeFort in the slot for the senior’s first tally of the season.

“We were second in the nation in shorties last year, and with those two we’re up there again. It’s something that we do well,” Pecknold said. ”Usually when that happens, we keep rolling, but we let Niagara get back in it [tonight]. That’s the difference. In the past, we’d do those things and run away with the game. Defensively we just didn’t have a good weekend.”

“Getting through the ebb and flow of that game in the first period, I’m pretty proud of our team,” Burkholder said. “Surviving those two shorthanded goals, I mean the momentum swing there was dramatic.”

After that, it was all Niagara. They scored three goals in the second period — two of them on tip-ins thanks to defensive breakdowns by Quinnipiac.

Once again, a major story for Quinnipiac is the injury bug. Three players were injured and unable to play tonight. Dan Henningson, one of the team’s assistant captains was a scratch due to a foot injury he suffered blocking a shot on Friday. His loss was a big one for the Bobcats.

“They’re so good offensively. You look at their line chart, and it’s nerve-wracking,” Burkholder said. “Obviously, the injury to Henningson, that’s a break for us. He’s their quarterback guy and plays a ton of minutes for them.”

“It killed us. If you look at the [10 game unbeaten] streak, Dan Henningson’s probably been our best player, and probably top 2 or 3 for the year,” Pecknold said. “Hopefully we’ll have him back in there next weekend. That killed us, especially in a game like tonight, with the TV timeouts where you can play four or five defensemen. Henningson probably would have played 35 minutes.”

“That’s a big loss,” Beaudoin said. “He’s obviously one of our best D-men out there, and he’s really dependable. We need a couple guys to step up, and hopefully this week we can find a replacement for him.”

Pecknold had no update on the severity of Henningson’s injury, and it remains unclear if the team’s leading offensive defenseman will be able to play next weekend.

Meanwhile, Quinnipiac continues to be handcuffed against Niagara. They have only beaten them once in 10 affairs between the two teams, a fact not lost among the participants.

“I don’t know what it is. There’s teams that I won’t schedule anymore because we can’t beat them. I can’t explain our record against Quinnipiac,” Burkholder said. “They dominate in a lot of areas. They’re usually the puck-possession team, and we’re obviously concerned with their offensive skill level. Those are two perfect road games that we played this weekend. Maybe we caught them at a good time.”

“It seems like every time we play those guys, they come ready to play,” Beaudoin said. “They take the body on us, they work really hard. I don’t know if we’re snake-bitten [against Niagara], they just outworked us.”

“Like their coach said, last night was probably their best game they played all year,” Pecknold said. “Last year, the first game we lost to them he said the same thing. I don’t know if its just bad luck or what, but Niagara gets fired up to play us, and our guys can’t match it.”

While the bad feelings and uneasiness roamed freely in the Quinnipiac dressing room, ecstasy was the name of the game in Niagara’s room.

“Our room’s in really good shape right now,” Burkholder said. “We were really excited – knowing that we’re coming to this beautiful building, told it was sold out, and playing a ranked team. It was a real easy team to be around this week. We pushed them hard, but we were so fired up to get the chance to be here, and we made the most of it. We played hard and smart all weekend.”

“Niagara played hard this weekend, they were fired up. Playing in front of a good crowd, in a new rink, number 12 team in the nation, they wanted it more,” Pecknold said. “Niagara always plays well against ECAC teams because they feel they have something to prove. Unfortunately, for our guys its just another game, and that’s an issue.”

It’s a sweep that hurts, not just because its four points lost at home, but because it severely hampers Quinnipiac’s chances of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“It puts a lot of pressure on us from an NCAA Tournament perspective,” Pecknold said. “I don’t know how far we’re going to drop in the Pairwise, but these two will hurt us. We can’t worry about that right now, we just have to focus on the next game.”

“This weekend, these games were big, but unfortunately we came up short,” Beaudoin said. “Where it really counts is our conference play. It’s a tight race, and every game counts.”

So now, that’s where the attention turns. After a day off on Sunday, Pecknold’s team is back on the practice sheet to get ready for a tough weekend at ice-cold RPI (1-10 in their last 11), and red-hot Union (7-1 in their last 8).

“Honestly, I don’t even know how many guys I’ll have in practice on Monday,” Pecknold said. “We’re a beat up team right now, we got five guys hurt on the weekend, which is extremely disappointing to have something like that happen. It doesn’t hurt you just on the weekend, but it hurts you for the season. I’m pretty upset about that.”

“We didn’t play for 60 minutes during both games this weekend,” Beaudoin said. “Lack of intensity and lack of work ethic. We’ve been playing really well the last 10 games or so; to play like we did this weekend came as a surprise to all of us. It’ll be a hard week of practice, and hopefully we come back next weekend with a couple wins.”

“Every season has peaks and valleys. You’ll have ups and downs; this is definitely a down,” Pecknold said. “We had it last year around the same time when we went 1-5 in league play, really struggled down the stretch, and then rolled in the playoffs. Hopefully we can cut the bleeding short and come to play next weekend.”

NOTES: Quinnipiac University President John L. Lahey was in attendance. … Former Bobcat player Joe Testa, who graduated in 2006 and played with 12 current Bobcats, was one of the linesmen during the game. … Beaudoin is second in the nation for shorthanded goals with four. Colorado College’s Chad Rau has 5. … Pat McGann played the final 13:14 after Fisher let in five of the 26 shots he faced. … Quinnipiac is now 6-4-2 at home this season. … Quinnipiac allowed ten goals on the weekend, the most since February 2-3 last year, when they allowed ten against Yale and Brown. They were 1-1 that weekend.