The Quinnipiac University Bobcats (10-13-0, 4-11-0 ECACHL) took a hard fought 3-1 loss at the hands of the No. 16 Colgate Raiders (11-6-5, 7-2-1) at Yale’s Ingalls Rink Saturday night.
The Bobcats and Raiders, both coming off of loses last night, were looking to come out quickly to score the night’s first goal and gain momentum for the rest of the game.
It was Quinnipiac who was able to get on the board first.
Brian Leitch’s power-play goal at 5:32 of the first period gave the Bobcats some momentum early on in the period. Matt Sorteberg sent a pass to Reid Cashman at the left circle. He fed Brain Leitch, who scored on an uncontested shot for the 1-0 lead.
Colgate answered back less then five minutes later with its own power-play goal by David Sloane. Marc Fulton and Peter Bogdanich assisted on the goal for the Raiders.
Colgate broke the tie at 15:11 of the second on Tyler Burton’s 16th goal of the season, shorthanded. Nick St. Pierre intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and fed Burton for the one timer goal past Bobcat goaltender Bud Fisher.
For the final four minutes of the second period, Quinnipiac had a power-play advantage, much of it with two men up, but couldn’t capitalize for the equalizer.
The Bobcats only managed one shot on goal in the second period.
“Our guys were working hard, but we were just sloppy tonight,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold.
Colgate took a two goal lead on a Tom Riley wrap-around goal early in the third. Zac Tataryn was battling deep in the Quinnipiac zone and dug the puck out, fed Riley, where he put the puck in between Fisher’s pads at 2:06.
Throughout much of the third period, Fisher made some key saves to keep the Bobcats within two goals.
Quinnipiac had one last attempt at cutting the deficit in half in the closing two minutes. The Bobcats pulled Fisher in favor of an extra attacker and had a power-play opportunity, resulting in a six-on-four advantage, but were unable to score.
“Colgate is a good team and we need to play at our highest level to beat a team like that,” said Pecknold.
Mark Dekanich made 16 saves in the win for the Raiders, while Fisher made 22 in the loss.
The Bobcats will take a week off from league play and travel to Rochester to play RIT, while Colgate will host Clarkson.
