Quinnipiac Special Teams Stymie Saints, 5-2
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Wally JohnsonRobby Moss tries to get back across the goal to stop Brandon Wong
HAMDEN, CT-Quinnipiac had a big game on special teams and goaltender Dan Clarke turned in a solid performance as the Bobcats topped St. Lawrence 5-2 in a ECAC Hockey game Saturday afternoon.
Clarke, the younger brother of former Saint defenseman Dale Clarke, captain of the 2000 Frozen Four team, made 27 saves to complete a personal weekend sweep of the North Country teams and the Bobcats went three for five on the power play while killing off all but one of 12 Saint power play chances in the game.
The Saints split their opening weekend series in ECAC play and will take a 5-3-1 overall mark and a 1-1-0 ECAC record into its league home openers against Union and RPI next weekend. Quinnipiac is now 6-1-0 overall and 2-0-0 in league play after sweeping the North Country teams at home.
"Quinnipiac did a great job on special teams and that was the difference," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "We had a lot of chances early on the power play and if we had been able to convert one or two of them, it might have been a completely different game...but they were very aggressive on the kill and we didn't connect on a couple of great set-ups down low."
While the Saints had the upper hand in shots on goal in the first period, outshooting the Bobcats 11-4 and had four power play chances including a five-minute major, Quinnipiac scored the only goal of the period midway through. Jeremy Langlois picked off a Saint clear and sent the puck to Greg Holt who found senior Brandon Wong all alone in front of Saint goalie Robby Moss. Wong snapped his fourth of the season into the upper corner for the net for the early lead on a Quinnipiac power play.
The Bobcats tacked on two more second period power play goals and a pair even-strength goals in the second period, building a 4-0 lead before the Saints finally cracked the scoreboard and then coming up with an immediate answer to the Saint goal.
Freshman defenseman Zach Currie made it a 2-0 game 1:40 into the second period as he went end-to-end and banked a shot into the net over the shoulder of Moss and off the crossbar for his first collegiate goal. It went to 3-0 at 14:19 of the second period as Moss made a good initial save on a shot by Scott Zurevinski, but couldn't control the rebound and Yuri Bouharevich swept it into the net for his second of the season.
Reese Rolheiser took advantage of a turnover deep in the Saint end at 17:22, snapping a shot into the upper right hand corner from a tough angle to give the Bobcats a 4-0 lead.
Mark Armstrong finally put the Saints on the board as he was all along in front of Clarke and George Hughes hit him with a pass. Armstrong roofed his second of the season, putting the puck just under the crossbar at 18:28 to make it a 4-1 lead, but the Bobcats got that one right back on a power play at 19:33 as Wong made a perfect pass in front, setting up Eric Lampe for Lampe's sixth of the year into a wide open net as Moss could not get back across the goalmouth in time to stuff the shot.
The Saints scored the only goal of the third period, finally cracking their power play drought as Brandon Bollig pounced on a rebound after Clarke stopped an initial shot by Alex Curran and Bollig stuffed the rebound home at 16:49 for his second of the year.
SLU pulled Kain Tisi, who took over in goal for the final period, with 2:33 to go, but could not get another shot past Clarke.