HAMDEN, Conn. — Quinnipiac held off a late Union attack to pick up a 4-2 win Friday night at the High Point Solutions Arena.
Shiann Darkangelo scored two more goals to give her 13 on the season to tie Boston College’s Haley Skarupa for the most in the nation.
“A win’s a win,” QU coach Rick Seeley said. “Union is far from the team they used to be, they’re scrappy. I didn’t think it was our best effort, but I thought we did enough to finish it off. I thought we refocused after their second goal and did a good job finishing the game.”
Kathryn Tomaselli scored a power-play goal with 4:19 remaining and cut Quinnipiac’s lead to one after she tipped home Ashley Johnston’s wrister from the point just after a five-on-three power play had expired and was just a man-advantage for Union (5-10-0, 2-5-0 ECAC).
“Well, it’s a five-on-three, they’re always tough to defend, we missed a blocked shot and someone was open on the short side,” Seeley said. “I thought we refocused well and we finished the game strong.”
Kelly Babstock sealed the win for Quinnipiac (13-2-5, 4-2-4 ECAC) with 2:24 remaining in the game as she skated up from the neutral zone into the right faceoff circle and wristed her shot high on Union goaltender Shenae Lundberg’s blocker side to give the Bobcats the 4-2 lead.
Quinnipiac took a 1-0 just under six minutes into the game when Babstock’s initial shot was saved by Lundberg, but the rebound kicked out to Darkangelo, who backhanded the puck just past Lundberg’s left pad.
Darkangelo added her second goal of the first period just four-and-a-half minutes later when she wristed a shot from the high slot through traffic and had it deflect of Lundberg and the post before trickling in the goal to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead.
“[Darkangelo] has 13 goals and most of them are pretty big – she’s the X-factor,” Seeley said. “We all know what we’re going to expect from [Babstock] and what she’s going to do game in and game out, but with [Uden Johansson] with the Swedish [Olympic] team this year, [Nicole] Kosta out with injuries and now [Nicole] Connery’s been out for a while. [Darkangelo’s] been invaluable with her production.”
Nine minutes into the second period, Anna Borgfeldt put Quinnipiac up 3-0 over Union as she stole the puck in the right corner before banking her shot off Lundberg’s back for the goal.
“I think we were a little rusty,” Union coach Claudia Barcomb said. “We just came out of an exam, it’s not an excuse, but I think it’s just getting back into game shape and getting ready. I think it was just a little slow for us, but I’m glad they way we bounced back.”
Union took just six shots in the first two periods before outshooting Quinnipiac 11-8 in the third period.
The Dutchwomen scored their first goal just two minutes later as Kathryn Tomaselli batted down a Haley Welch shot from the point and swiped the puck past Quinnipiac netminder Chelsea Laden to trail 3-1.
Despite the loss, Lundberg was solid in net for the Dutchwomen as she faced a heavy dose of shots throughout the entire game and finished with 33 saves on 37 shots.
“She was solid, I think, and it was good,” Barcomb said. “We’ve got to do a little better job in front of our own net to make sure that we clean it all up, but she played a solid game.”
Laden she finished with 15 saves on 17 shots to earn the victory in her return to the ice.
