The Quinnipiac Bobcats and Colgate Raiders played to a 2-2 tie in the first semifinal game of the inaugural Governor’s Cup held at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, N.Y. The game is considered a tie, but Colgate advances to the championship game of the Governor’s Cup with a 2-0 shootout win, in five rounds.
“You have to take the shootout out of it,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. It’s a tie on our record. We just tied a top 20 team in the country.”
With the Bobcats down two players, Colgate cycled the puck through the zone looking for an opportunity and scored first on Nick St. Pierre’s power play tally. Tom Riley had the puck behind the net, and fed St. Pierre, who clanked it off the crossbar at 8:44.
Quinnipiac evened the score with their own power play goal. Dan Henningson took the initial shot from the blue line, that sailed wide and Bryan Leitch picked up the puck behind the net and put in the wrap around goal to make it 1-1.
The Bobcats then took the lead on Eric Lampe’s shorthanded goal midway through the second period. The goal occurred with a turnover in the neutral zone and the linesman got caught in the middle of the play and set a pick for Lampe to break free. He took the puck and wristed it top shelf past Raiders goaltender Mark Dekanich. It was his first goal as a Bobcat.
“The first goal means a lot, said Lampe. Its unfortunate we tied.”
Colgate was not to be out done though. Mike Campaner sent a pass to Peter Bogdanich where he went in on Quinnipiac’s Bud Fisher. Fisher made the initial stop, but Bogdanich kept the pressure on and picked up the rebound and flipped it over Fisher’s pads with 8:48 remaining in the contest.
The Bobcats had a chance in the overtime session with a power play, but were unable to muster any shots on goal.
“For an early season game, I was pleased with how we played,” said Pecknold. I thought that we played well.”
Dekanich made 23 saves, while his counter part Fisher made 25 in the contest. The teams went a combined two for twenty on the power play.
Quinnipiac will take on Union in the consolation game tomorrow at 2 p.m. while Colgate will play Rensselaer in the championship at 5 p.m.
