Bryan Leitch scored the game winner with just under three minutes remaining to lift the Quinnipiac Bobcats to a 4-2 victory over the Union Dutchmen at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
Leitch notched the game winner when he received a Ben Nelson pass through the crease and banged home the puck for the win on the power play.
“He [Nelson] fed through the defender’s legs, and I was wide-open on the other side,” Leitch said.
It was an interesting final seven minutes of the game, during which four goals were scored.
David Marshall started the scoring streak when he beat two defenders and went in and roofed the puck under the crossbar for the Bobcats, who took a 2-1 lead.
The Dutchmen answered with a power-play goal at 17:04 of the third. Chris Potts sent a pass across the blue line to Jason Walters, who ripped a shot that Matt Cook deflected into the net past Quinnipiac’s Bud Fisher.
“We lost a little steam, but it’s typical of Saturday nights, being tired from the night before,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.
On the faceoff after the goal, Michael Beynon took a hooking penalty to put the Bobcats on their own power play.
It looked as if both teams were heading to overtime as they had done in the previous night, but Leitch’s goal proved to be the difference in the victory for Quinnipiac.
“They competed really hard and they definitely came to play tonight,” Leitch said.
Brandon Wong added an empty-net goal with one second remaining in the game, his 12th of the season.
“It was a great win,” Pecknold said. “We battled all night.”
Fisher made 20 saves in the victory for the Bobcats while Justin Mrazek made 24 for Union.
With the win, the Bobcats took over first place in the ECACHL standings heading into their holiday break
