On Sunday afternoon, Quinnipiac completed the weekend sweep of Canisius with a 4-0 win behind a 14-save shutout from goaltender Dan Clarke.
Spencer Heichman provided the offense with two goals for Quinnipiac’s fourth straight win of the season.
“The guys really impressed me today,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “It was excellent; they were ready to roll. That was the best 60-minute game we’ve played in a long time.”
Canisius drops to 0-2-0 on the season, but there were some bright spots for the Griffins as Tony Capobianco made 40 save in the loss.
“I thought he was probably the first star tonight,” Canisius head coach Dave Smith said. “I thought he had the composure and the compete level we need to be successful.”
Even Pecknold had some good words to say about the Canisius goaltender.
“I thought Capobianco played real well tonight,” said Pecknold. “He made a lot of saves and we were only up two going into the third period and I thought we should have had more than that.”
Scoring got underway with five minutes left in the first period on a set play from QU’s first line on the power play.
Matthew Peca connected with Scott Zurevinski through the neutral zone on the right wing. Zurevinski took the puck into the far corner where he sent a no-look backhand pass into the slot where Jeremy Langlois ripped it past Capobianco for the 1-0 lead.
“That’s just one of the plays we work on,” Langlois said. “Just kind of roll it up and Zurvy obviously with the nice behind-the-back pass.”
The power-play goal from Langlois is his fifth this year and all have come with the man-advantage.
Quinnipiac extended their lead to 4:21 into the second period. Zurevinski was once again the first assist as he found Heichman at the left circle. Heichman took the pass and went top shelf on the blocker side on Capobianco for the two-goal lead.
Later in the second, Zurevinski had a chance of his own for a goal, but was just a few inches off. Zurevinski handled the puck into the offensive zone on the right wing and wristed a hard shot on goal. He picked his shot, but rang the puck off the left post.
The Bobcats went up 3-0 with 5:42 left to go in the third period on Heichman’s second of the game. Mike Dalhuisen took control of the puck and skated out of his own end and saw an open Heichman on the verge of the Canisius zone. Dalhuisen connected with Heichman, who broke between two defenders and wristed the shot past Capobianco.
Quinnipiac would add one more just about a minute later on a similar play. John Dunbar found a seam with Ben Arnt, who moved between two defenders and skated through the slot before wristing the puck into the back of the net.
“We’re clicking on all cylinders,” said Langlois. “We’re getting real good effort no matter who’s in the lineup and everyone is giving it their all. Production is coming from everywhere.”
For Canisius, improvement is happening and the Griffins are on the right track.
“We know we have a young team,” Smith said. “Our goal is to get better every weekend and we got better from Saturday to Sunday this week. Now we need to carry that over and take the lessons learned from this weekend into Thursday against RIT.
“Our goal is to get better every week.”
