Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey rebounds from Friday night’s tie with 5–3 win over Arizona State
Bobcats net three power play goals for the first time this season in win on the road
After playing in what was essentially a youth hockey arena on Friday night, the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team and Arizona State (ASU) saw a drastic change of scenery on Saturday night.
The Bobcats (9–12–4) and the Sun Devils (7–14–5) played in front of an attendance of 2,696 at the Arizona Coyotes’ Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Quinnipiac rebounded from a disappointing performance on Friday night, in which it tied the Sun Devils 2–2, by beating the two-year-old program 5–3 on Saturday.
The Bobcats had five players with two-point nights — sophomore forward Alex Whelan, senior forward Tanner MacMaster, junior defenseman captain Chase Priskie, senior forward Bo Pieper and freshman forward Odeen Tufto — and recorded three power play goals for the first time this season, while sophomore goalie Andrew Shortridge made 20 saves on 23 shots in his return to the crease.
“So we got a win and a tie on the weekend,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We would’ve liked a little more than that, but it’s a good trip, nice place to visit, but we’re ready to go home.”
The scoring began just 2:50 into the game after ASU’s Tyler Busch took an early tripping call on Tufto. While it’s been the first power play unit that has been clicking as of late, it was the second unit that broke the ice in this one.
Junior forward Craig Martin picked a puck up off the boards, skated to the top of the circle, faked a wrist shot and fed Whelan backdoor for his team-leading 11th goal of the season.
After going pointless in his last 10 games before Friday night’s tilt, Martin now has two points in his last two games, secondary scoring the Bobcats so desperately need entering the tail end of the season.
“It’s tough sometimes when you’re not getting bounces,” Martin said of the drought that’s now in the rearview mirror. “But you’ve just got to mentally prepare better and go to work. Hopefully I’ll be able to play with some more confidence the rest of the season and get going a bit here.”
Quinnipiac proceeded to dominate the remainder of the first period, pouring 19 shots to ASU’s three on the Sun Devils’ backbone, goalie Joey Daccord (Ottawa’s 2015 seventh-round pick). While the Bobcats were unable to find the back of the net after Whelan’s tally in the first, they picked up right where they left off in the second period.
Just 4:24 into the middle frame, MacMaster pick up a loose puck at center ice, crossed the blue line and fired a well-placed wrist shot over the blocker of Daccord to increase his team’s lead to 2–0.
MacMaster’s tied-for-team-leading 11th goal of the season happened — similar to Sun Devils forward Johnny Walker’s goal last night — because of a quick curl and drag move that created a slight angle change before the shot’s release.
However, less than a minute after MacMaster’s tally, ASU’s Anthony Croston made due of a big rebound that he put past Shortridge to cut Quinnipiac’s lead in half.
Aside from that minor, and frankly fluky play, the Bobcats once again dominated the period. With his feet moving, sophomore defenseman Brogan Rafferty drew a hooking call to put Quinnipiac back on the power play.
This time the first unit found twine just nine seconds into the man advantage. From behind the goal line, Tufto moved a puck to Priskie for a one-timer that went off Daccord’s pad and onto the stick of Pieper for his first of the night.
It was the start of a three-goal flurry, late in the second period, spanning over just 37 seconds.
Sun Devils forward Dominic Garcia beat Shortridge for his first of the year 29 seconds after Priskie’s tally to narrow Quinnipiac’s lead to 4–2. Just eight seconds after that, Pieper scored his second of the night by following a rebound that bounced into the slot for his second of the night and eighth of the season.
After starting the season with three goals in 18 games, Pieper has rediscovered his offensive game with five goals in his last seven games, on a relatively new line made up of himself, Whelan and senior forward Kevin Duane down the middle.
“We created a lot of chances and that’s all you can ask for,” Pieper said. “Pucks are gonna go in and I feel like throughout this year they haven’t, but hopefully now [we keep] crashing the net hard, good things happen.”
In the third period, Arizona State needed a jump, so head coach Greg Powers replaced Daccord with junior Ryland Pashovits between the pipes.
The move proved to work as ASU threw 11 shots on net to Quinnipiac’s two in a Sun Devil-dominant frame.
While holding leads in the third period have been this team’s kryptonite as of late, led by Shortridge, the Bobcats were able to hold off ASU from coming back on Saturday, but not without giving up a power play marker.
With just under six minutes left, ASU’s Max ballison fired a seeing-eye one-timer from the point that beat Shortridge under his glove.
While the team and Bobcat fans alike felt like they’ve seen this story before, Quinnipiac held on to its cushioned lead and pulled through for a 5–3 victory before heading back home to start a stretch of nine ECAC games to close out the regular season.
“I feel like we’re playing well and we should be getting wins here,” Martin added. “As long as we keep playing, keep hunting and sticking to our identity it’ll be good here down the stretch and hopefully we’ll set ourselves up for a good spot in the playoffs.”
Quinnipiac returns home for the first time in 59 days, and the first time in 2018, when it takes on the conference’s T-№1 Clarkson at the Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena on Jan. 30.
