A trio of Army freshmen tallied three points as the Black Knights halted an eight-game winless streak, and put an end to Quinnipiac’s five-game unbeaten streak in conference play with a 4-1 victory Saturday night at Tate Rink.
Plebes Chris Casey, Chris Garceau and Chad Mayfield each had a goal and two assists to lead the charge. Army (5-13-5/3-8-5) scored four unanswered goals after Quinnipiac (10-11-1/8-5-1) opened with a marker in the first minute of the game.
Mayfield evened things in the first, and Casey netted his seventh of the season with two minutes left in the period to give the Black Knights the momentum.
Garceau added the eventual game-winner in the second, and junior Derek Hines put one in the back of the net midway through the third to open up an insurmountable 4-1 lead before 1,722 fans. The three-point effort by the freshman trio was a career best for each. The trio accounted for nine of the 11 points on Army’s four goals.
It was the first win for the Black Knights since a 9-2 triumph over Bentley on Nov. 30. With the win, Army moved into the eighth and final playoff spot in the MAAC standings thanks to a 5-2 win by Iona over American International. The Black Knights now have 11 points on the year, one ahead of AIC’s total of 10.
Senior goaltender Scott Hamilton made 34 saves between the pipes. He went 57:37 without yielding a goal after being beaten 57 seconds into the contest by Quinnipiac’s Neil Breen. Chris White beat Hamilton with 1:26 remaining in the game for the visitors’ other marker on the evening, almost a year to the day that Hamilton backstopped a 2-1 overtime win over Quinnipiac at Tate Rink on Jan. 23, 2001.
