Quinnipiac Escapes Game One, Tops Colgate in OT

Brandon Wong scored the overtime game winner with 9:31 left in his first game back from injury to lead the Quinnipiac to a 3-2 over Colgate in the first game of ECAC Hockey playoffs at the TD Banknorth Sports Center Friday night.

The Bobcats Wong put home a loose puck in the crease past Raiders netminder Charles Long to record the game winner. Jean-Marc Beaudoin took the initial shot when he was all alone in the slot but Long made the save. Wong crashed the net and found the puck loose for the game winning goal.

“He put his pad on it and I just watched it come off,” said Wong. “I wacked once and missed and wacked again and put it in. There’s no better feeling with that and coming back from injury.”

Wong missed the past 11 games due to a knee injury.

“He was rusty and didn’t play a lot,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “He is what he is, he is a goal scorer. That’s why you have him in the lineup. He’s got a ways to go, but he brings an element and I’m glad we had him in the lineup.”

Colgate got on the board early in the first with Tom Riley’s unassisted goal. Off of a faceoff to the left of Quinnipiac’s Bud Fisher. Brett Dickinson poked the puck out from between the skates of the center men and it slid right to Riley who shot low past the left pad of Fisher at 5:09.

Peter Bogdanich extended the lead to two goals when he recorded a power-play tally through traffic with two minutes remaining in the first. As Colgate cycled the puck, Bogdanich received the pass from David McIntyre and ripped a shot under the blocker of Fisher.

“We need to play better 60 minutes tomorrow,” said Pecknold. “There were spurts where we were good and some where Colgate dominated us.”

Quinnipiac reeled off three straight goals, ultimately leading them to the overtime victory.

The Bobcats cut the deficit in half at 6:37 of the second with Beaudoin’s goal. Zach Hansen took a shot that was blocked by Nick St. Pierre and the puck bounced to Beaudoin’s stick. Long wasn’t able to see the play develop as he was out of the crease and Beaudoin put the puck in the open net at for the goal.

With 16:18 remaining in the third period Sean Carty was called for a five minute major for hitting from behind and a game misconduct sending the Bobcats on the power play and the capitalized just 12 seconds in.

Hansen received a pass from Dan Henningson at the point and ripped a shot on net that David Marshall deflected past Long.

Quinnipiac would hit two posts after the goal but could not muster their first lead of the contest.

The two teams would end the period tied at two apiece.

The Raiders appeared to have won the game when Peter Bogdanich put a goal home at 5:46 of overtime, but a penalty had been called on Brian Day and negated the goal that appeared to have sent the Raiders to a victory.

The Bobcats would go on the power play and Bryan Leitch rang one off the post, but that would be as close as the Bobcats would come on the man up opportunity.

Fisher finished with 31 saves in the win, while Long finished with 27 in the overtime loss. Both teams recorded one power play goal.