SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — By getting back to its game, Quinnipiac is now one win away from another trip to the Frozen Four.
Antonin Verreault had a goal and an assist, and national scoring leader Ethan Wyttenbach added his 25th goal on a late empty-netter to help the Quinnipiac Bobcats hold off a late rally by the Providence Friars for a 5-2 victory Thursday night at Denny Sanford Premier Center in the first semifinal of the Sioux Falls Regional.
“I thought that was a great game, obviously, some ebb and flow,” Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold said. “We had the puck a lot, which is what we want. And we won races. We won battles.”
Victor Czerneckianair had two assists for Quinnipiac, and Elliott Groenewold and Chris Pelosi also scored as the Bobcats’ reliable defense played its heavy game and kept the Friars’ offense off balance for most of the contest.
“We showed a lot of youth in this game,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said of his young team. “We lost our poise. So it was really about getting our poise back and our execution back.
“You get to these games, you can’t beat yourself.”
Logan Sawyer and John Mustard scored in the third period to give Providence hope, but two empty-net goals in the final minutes allowed Quinnipiac to close it out.
“We kind of realized our season was on the line, and that’s when we woke up, and it sucks that it was too late,” Mustard said.
It did not help the Friars that they spent so much of the night chasing the puck after winning just 27 of 73 faceoffs against a Bobcats team that entered as the nation’s best in the circle.
“They kicked their butts in that area, and you get into a 60-minute game and you’re chasing the puck as much as we did from the dot,” Leaman said. “It was a big thing. We worked on it all week. They’re the best faceoff team in the country.
“So we weren’t really getting the puck to the end of our shifts. So yeah, it was such a big point.”
Neither team was able to establish a sustained forecheck in the opening 20 minutes. With both teams coming in after two weeks off, the Bobcats and Friars appeared to be sizing each other up. Both played solid defense down low and kept each other out of rhythm with tight man-to-man play around their respective goaltenders.
“Kind of thought it was a nothing first period,” Leaman said. “I thought both teams were kind of feeling each other out a little bit.”
Providence tried to seize momentum with two early power plays in the second period, but Quinnipiac’s defense kept the Friars from setting anything up by clogging lanes and consistently clearing the zone. As the second power play in that sequence expired, Groenewold connected on a shot from the left point that rang off the post and in at 5:55, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.
“I saw us want to battle down low,” Groenewold said. “Always good to score.”
“Elliott’s goal, just to get us going and go up 1-0, and just change the game a little bit like it puts more pressure on them,” Pecknold said.
“We just lost our poise for a good chunk of the rest of that period,” Leaman said. “We started doing things uncharacteristic.”
The game grew chippier as the period progressed, and when Quinnipiac’s Wyttenbach and Providence’s Donovan McCoy were assessed coincidental roughing minors, Pelosi scored on a breakaway at 14:38 to double the lead. The Bobcats kept pressing and added another goal with 1:55 left in the period when Verreault buried a rebound off a shot by Tyler Borgula, making it 3-0 after two periods.
“Obviously was a huge goal,” Verreault said.
The Friars took advantage of a puck sitting in the crease near Quinnipiac goaltender Dylan Silverstein to get on the scoreboard when Sawyer knocked it in. A backdoor feed from Martin Masa to Mustard brought Providence within one, but Quinnipiac got empty-net goals from Wyttenbach and Graham Sward to finish off the victory.
“We certainly had a little bit of a lull there to let them back in the game,” Pecknold said. “I thought we had the puck the whole game and kind of played to our identity. And, you know, we’re excited to move on and play whoever wins this next game.”
Silverstein made 23 saves for the Bobcats, and Jack Parsons stopped 33 shots for the Friars. Both teams went 0 for 5 on the power play.
Quinnipiac will face the Merrimack-North Dakota winner on Saturday at a time to be determined for a spot in the Frozen Four.