ITHACA, N.Y. — Travis St. Denis was the beneficiary of a costly turnover and his overtime goal lifted Quinnipiac to a 1-0 victory over Cornell on Friday night at Lynah Rink.
As both Cornell coach Mike Schafer and Quinnipiac bench boss Rand Pecknold noted, Friday night’s affair between two ECAC foes was “just a great college hockey game.”
An identical 1-0 Bobcat victory was the final tally earlier in the season when these two met, but the journey to the outcome needed some extra time in the Ithaca battle.
Quinnipiac’s forecheck progressed as the night went on, which culminated in the St. Denis winner just under two minutes into the extra session. Sam Anas, who extended his point streak to seven games (six goals, five assists), started the game-winning play when his hard work behind the Cornell cage forced a turnover.
With Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam scrambling to return to his crease, Anas fed St. Denis in front, who lifted a shot just over the shoulder of Gillam, sealing the 12th conference win on the season for the ECAC leaders.
“Our forecheck wasn’t great in the first period, but it got better as the game went on,” said Pecknold. “Our goal at the end was from our forecheck. [Bo Pieper] went in hard and created the turnover, then Anas jumped the loose puck and put it out front, then St. Denis finished it.”
As Pecknold noted, his squad did not get off to an ideal start, as a pair of penalties within the first five minutes of the contest put the Bobcats on their heels early.
“I didn’t think we had a great start to the game,” said Pecknold. “Cornell had better jump, then we took those two penalties, but we did a good job of killing it off, then we settled down and we were much better in the second and third.”
That great jump from Cornell seemed to pay off at 6:49 of the second period, when John McCarron fought his way to the cage and tapped in a loose puck. Quinnipiac goalie Michael Garteig went into a rage, as he claimed to be interfered with by Cornell forward Christian Hilbrich.
The fourth video review in as many games for the Big Red ensued. A final conference amongst officials at the scorer’s table helped them come to the decision that Hilbrich interfered with Garteig, which disallowed the goal and kept the two sides scoreless.
“You’ve got to go by the officials,” said Schafer. “All three of them were really positive that nobody touched Hilbrich, so I’ve got to believe that’s exactly what happened. They were 100 percent positive and when they’re that positive, even when watching the video, then I’m sure that’s what happened. It was a good call.”
Aside from the game-ending turnover, Schafer did not mention many deficiencies with his squad: “I thought both teams played well offensively and defensively…it was just one of those games.”
The sides combined for just two tallies in the season series, as Garteig contributed a 20-save shutout performance on Friday to go along with his 18-stop blanking of the Big Red earlier this season in Connecticut.
When asked about the low-scoring affairs with Cornell, Pecknold simply responded, “That’s how it goes against this team.”
