HAMDEN, CONN. – It’s been a tumultuous season for Quinnipiac, but the Bobcats enter the final weekend of the regular season in ECAC Hockey with a chance to keep a streak alive.
Quinnipiac scored three power-play goals to beat Rensselaer 4-1 Saturday at the Frank J. Perotti Arena, giving it a chance to secure a home playoff series in the opening round of the conference tournament. QU has hosted a playoff series every year since joining ECAC Hockey in 2005-06.
Four different players scored for the Bobcats, while freshmen Keith Petruzzelli made 21 saves for the win. Linden Marshall had 32 saves for the Engineers (5-23-4, 4-14-2).
Senior Bo Pieper had a goal and classmate Tanner MacMaster added two assists for Quinnipiac. The Bobcats honored those two, along with Landon Smith, Kevin McKernan, and Kevin Duane in a senior night ceremony prior to the game.
“With our class, we’ve been to the national championship game [in 2016], and we try to tell these guys that that doesn’t come around all the time,” MacMaster said of the veteran’s message to the Bobcat’s younger players. “Just try to get them amped up and ready to go for the playoffs.”
With the win, Quinnipiac enters the final weekend of the regular season in ninth place, one point behind behind both Princeton and Yale for the last home ice spot. The Bobcats travel to St. Lawrence and Clarkson next weekend with the potential to move up as high as fifth place.
“Those seniors have been great for us, so it was good to get a win for them,” said Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold.
The Bobcats (13-15, 8-10-2) led 1-0 midway through the second period when RPI captain Jared Wilson was given a five-minute major for slamming QU’s Nick Jermain into the boards.
Rensselaer held steady for the majority of the penalty, but the Bobcats scored twice in the final 1:27 of the man advantage to take a 3-0 lead.
Scott Davidson scored his first goal since Dec. 8 to make it 2-0, taking a pass from Matt Forchuk and converting the backdoor play at 12:22.
Quinnipiac went up 3-0 went Brandon Fortunato scored off a rebound of Brogan Rafferty’s initial shot. It was Fortunato’s fourth goal in his last six games.
“We kind of had some momentum through the beginning [of the penalty],” RPI coach Dave Smith said. “They find a cross-ice pass and a rebound goal, and bang bang, we’re down three.”
Donovan Ott scored a power-play goal 11:35 into in the third period to pull the Engineers to within 3-1, but Quinnipiac held strong during the closing minutes. It was the freshmen’s second career goal and second of the weekend, as he scored in Friday’s loss to Princeton.
Bo Pieper scored on the power play at 16:24 in the third to restore the Bobcat’s three-goal lead and help them bounce back from a 5-2 loss to Union on Friday.
“I think we were more focused tonight,” Pecknold said. “The bench was good tonight; it was positive. We had a lot of passion and energy and we played well.”
A hooking call against RPI freshman Owen Stout gave Quinnipiac the first power play of the game early in the first. The Engineers killed the penalty, but the Bobcats kept the puck in the RPI zone and went up 1-0 when Craig Martin lofted a shot from the left circle past Marshall at 4:07.
RPI pushed back early in the second, but couldn’t get the equalizer prior to the major penalty against Wilson.
“I give our guys a ton of credit tonight,” Smith said. “I thought our guys showed great resiliency and great effort to battle through. We were hanging around, hanging around, and get a goal halfway through the third period and all of a sudden it could be anything. Tonight was a hard game, but I was proud of our guys’ effort and willingness to keep pushing.”
