Victoria Vigilante made 17 saves for her national-high-tying fifth shutout of the season, and freshman Kelly Babstock scored a school-record 16th goal of the season in Quinnipiac’s 4-0 victory over Brown on Friday.
Babstock broke the Bobcats’ record for goals in one season when she put Quinnipiac up 2-0 in the second period.
Freshman Shelby Wignall sent a slap shot on Brown goaltender Katie Jamieson, who made the save but allowed Erica Uden-Johansson to send the rebound to a wide-open Babstock.
Babstock, just inside the far side hashmarks, sent her wrist shot through Jamieson’s pads.
After just 19 games, Babstock holds Quinnipiac’s single-season record in goals (16), assists (19) and points (35).
“It is certainly nothing I have had to deal with as a coach where every night you can rely on her to produce in every game,” Bobcats coach Rick Seeley said. “She did a lot of great things on the defensive side of the puck tonight. That is the special thing about her, because as talented as she is she still wants to improve.”
Quinnipiac’s offense got off to a fast start just 2:22 into the first period as junior defenseman Bethany Dymarczyk slapped home her third goal of the season.
Babstock won the offensive zone faceoff and sent the puck around the near side boards, where Uden-Johansson sent a backhand pass to the point. Dymarczyk took the feed and beat a screened Jamieson past the glove side.
Dymarczyk said the defense is trying to produce offensively.
“Starting from last year we started to become more offensive and that has carried over to this year,” Dymarczyk said. “We know our team relies on us at the point and we know we need to score.”
Brown’s best opportunity of the game came late in the first period after Vigilante misplayed a puck behind her net. The puck trickled loose behind the cage, where Vika Mykolenko took the puck and tried a wraparound on the near post. Vigilante was able to race back just in time to make a sprawling split save to keep Quinnipiac’s 1-0 lead.
After Babstock’s score, the Bobcats added more insurance late in the second period off of senior Kelly Davies’ power-play goal. After Babstock was tripped up on a streaking two-on-one opportunity, the Bobcats went on the power play.
Just seconds into the advantage, junior captain Jordan Elkins took the puck from Elena Orlando at the point. Elkins sent her slap shot on Jamieson, who made the save. But senior Kelly Davies was there to collect the rebound at the far circle and promptly sent her shot over the blocker of Jamieson for her third goal of the season.
The Bobcats added one more with just under a minute left in the third period on a Chelsea Illchuk soft wrist shot that found its way through Jamieson’s pads.
Quinnipiac (12-6-1, 5-5 ECAC Hockey) plays Yale on Saturday before a break that lasts until Jan. 3.
“The concern is staying in the right condition,” Seeley said. “It is such a tough thing to have that much time off.”
Brown fell to 2-7-2 and 1-4-2 in conference play.
