David Marshall and the Quinnipiac University Bobcats (10-10-0, 4-8-0 ECACHL) played host to the Brown Bears (2-10-2, 2-6-0 ECACHL) Friday night at the Northford Ice Pavilion and took a 3-2 overtime decision in front a record 1,200 spectators.
This was both teams first conference game after the holiday break and proved to be a shootout.
“We played well tonight,” said Quinnipiac Head Coach Rand Pecknold.
Quinnipiac certainly didn’t look rusty early on, tallying a goal at 1:53 on the power play. The Bobcats’ Ben Nelson won the face off to the right of Bears goaltender Adam D’Alba back to Ben Nelson, who sent a pass on the doorstep of the crease to Brian Leitch, and went back door to Jamie Bates and he put it in the open net.
Quinnipiac gained a second man advantage, but was unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Bates missed an open net shot and the Bobcats couldn’t put home an empty puck in the crease.
Brown received their own two man advantage and put the pressure on Quinnipiac goaltender Bud Fisher, but the Bobcats penalty kill unit and Fisher stopped that barrage of shots faced to keep the lead at one heading into the second period.
The Bobcats took a two goal lead on Mark Van Vliet’s power play goal just under six minutes into the second. Reid Cashman passed to David Marshall to the right of D’Alba, who then sent a puck across the crease to Van Vliet to record his fifth of the season.
With a two goal lead heading into the third, the Bears were looking to cut the lead in half and did with a Chris Poli power play goal, his first f the season.
With just over a minute left in the third period, Brown pulled D’Alba and capitalized on the extra man, with a goal by Sean Dersch.
“It was disappointing, but it showed a lot of character for the team to come back,” said Pecknold.
Both teams looked tired heading into over time, but the Bobcats were able to take the victory on a David Marshall rebound goal. Cashman shot the puck on net, with a rebound that came out to Marshall, who put the rebound under the crossbar, blocker side past D’Alba.
Quinnipiac returns to action with a Sunday “home” matinee game at Ingalls Rink against Yale, while Brown will travel to Princeton tomorrow night.
