Led by Ben Nelson’s second hat trick of the year and five players with at least three points, Quinnipiac (13-13-4, 11-6-3 AHA) won an 8-1 decision over Canisius Saturday night at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
One day before, the Golden Griffins took a 2-1 decision from the Bobcats, but it was a complete turnaround Saturday.
Canisius started where it left off Friday, setting the pace, and scored at 1:23 of the first on a delayed penalty goal by Mark Persick, the Griffins’ first shot of the night. Ryan Corcoran went in on a breakaway, during which interference was called. With the extra attacker, Canisius took the lead when Persick buried the puck.
“We started off well in the first five minutes, said Canisius interim head coach Clancy Seymour. “We did what we had to do.”
Quinnipiac answered ten minutes later on John Kelly’s first goal of the season. Reid Cashman received the puck from Joe Dumais, faked a slapshot, walked the defenseman, and fired it at Griffins goaltender Bryan Worosz, where Kelly deflected it in.
The Bobcats kept the momentum rolling when Dumais scored his third of the season. Michael Bordieri sent a pass around the back of the net to Dumais, who spun around and took a no-look shot which went in off the skate of a Griffins player to make it 2-1.
Three minutes later the Bobcats scored their third on Nelson’s first of the night. Nelson received a pass in the slot, unmanned, from Matt Sorteberg and blasted it past Worosz.
Quinnipiac still wasn’t done for the first period, as Cashman scored his ninth goal of the season on the power play. Sorteberg passed to Matt Froehlich who fed Cashman, and he wristed it home.
The Bobcats registered four goals in a span of 9:26.
“We needed to get momentum back whether it was a goof shift or a few shots on net,” said Seymour.
With everything going right for the Bobcats, they continued their domination with Dumais’ second of the night, when he sniped the puck off the crossbar and into the net.
Nelson scored his second of the night with under two minutes remaining in the second on an unbelievable deke and toe-drag move, and shelved it above Worosz’s right shoulder. Cashman and Matt Craig assisted to make it 6-0 heading into the third.
To start the third, Canisius brought in backup goaltender Max Buetow, but he was also unable to stop the Bobcats’ scoring barrage.
Nelson finished off his hat trick at 3:51 of the third when he pinpointed his shot into the top right corner of the net.
After the goal the Bobcats brought in Josh Siembida, who stopped all seven shots he faced.
Quinnipiac added an eighth goal when Chris White scored on the power play.
The Bobcats were three of four on the power play. Cashman registered four points on the night.
“Their job was to win the game as well as ours, but for them they did some things they were not successful at yesterday,” said Seymour.
Jamie Holden made 23 saves in net for the win and improved to 13-10-3 on the season, while Worosz made 29 saves in the loss moving to 13-9-4.
“We need to respond heading into the last two weeks of the season,” said Seymour.
The Bobcats play a mid-week game on Wednesday when they travel to Springfield, Mass. to take on American International. Canisius heads back home to host Bentley next weekend.
