Quinnipiac University
Connecticut
No. 15 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Falls To UConn, 4-1
10/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The No. 15 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team lost to the University of Connecticut, 4-1, in a non-conference match-up at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut. With the loss, Quinnipiac drops to 1-2-1 overall while UConn picks up their first victory of the season to improve to 1-2-1.
Quinnipiac sophomore Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) scored his team-leading fourth goal of the year while senior co-captain Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) passed out his team-best fifth assist of the season. Tanner MacMaster (Calgary, Alberta) picked up his first career point on Anas' goal.
Quinnipiac outshot UConn, 10-9, in the first period and more-than doubled them up in the second period (11-5) before posting a 16-5 differential in the final frame. Quinnipiac attempted 85 total shots in the game, but had 25 blocked by UConn, including eight by Jacob Poe. UConn goalie Rob Nichols swatted away 36 of the Bobcats 37 shots on goal.
UConn got on the board with just under five minutes to play in the first period. Jacob Poe carried the puck up the middle of the ice and passed to Ryan Segalla to his left. Segalla stepped over the Bobcats' blue line and centered a pass back to Poe who fired through traffic on the Bobcats goal. Evan Richardson managed to get his stick on the puck and re-direct past Garteig to stake UConn to a 1-0 lead.
"On their first goal, we made a mistake on our rotation," Pecknold explained. "We make mistakes, and it's ok, but we talk a lot about bailing someone out when they do make a mistake. On the first goal, the net-front defenseman just had to rotate around and block a kid. It's a lucky goal, because it went off his skate, but all he had to do was step in front of him. It was the simplest play."
Four minutes later, Spencer Naas dug the puck out from behind the Bobcats goal, sending it to the opposite post. Shawn Pauly touched it off Garteig's pad before Trevor Gerling danced through the Bobcats defense and poked it past Garteig for his first goal of the year to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period.
"The second goal was just a mishandling of the puck between the D and the goalie," Pecknold said. "Just a silly mistake. The third goal was two freshmen not competing and covering anybody. It's frustrating. We could have had a shutout tonight. I think the last three years we've had great buy-in, and committed to play great defense. So I think right now, we're just struggling to find our identity. But we're a good group of guys, we'll find it, get it going and be really good this year."
Coming out of the first intermission, Garteig was replaced in goal by freshman Sean Lawrence (Granite Bay, California) after Garteig gave up two goals on UConn's nine shots in the first frame. Quinnipiac cut into the UConn lead less than a minute into the second period when Anas potted his team-leading fourth goal of the season. Peca carried the puck over center ice and fed freshman MacMaster. MacMaster blitzed down the right flank, beat his defender to the corner and then fired a shot on goal. The puck bounced around UConn goalie Rob Nichols and landed in the crease where Anas was able to bang it home to put the Bobcats on the board, 2-1. It was also Peca's team-high fifth assist of the year while MacMaster picked up his first collegiate point.
With eight minutes to play in the period, UConn got the goal back when Tyler Cooke knocked the puck down on and tipped it over to Carey Ronan below the blue line in the Huskies end of the ice. Ronan took off, carrying the puck down into the corner to the right of Lawrence, before winning a battle in the corner and feeding Patrick Kirtland in the slot. Kirtland kick-stopped the pass from Ronan and then slapped the puck by Lawrence to give UConn the two-goal lead, 3-1. Garteig re-entered the game after the Huskies goal.
"I was trying to win a hockey game," Pecknold commented on removing and re-inserting Garteig. "We're trying to get someone hot, and and trying to win hockey games. Garteig's a great goalie. We're trying to figure out why he's struggling. He will figure it out, and hopefully sooner rather than later."
UConn's Jesse Schwartz scored an empty-net goal in the final minute of regulation to give the Huskies a three-goal lead.
Quinnipiac will enjoy a weekend off before hosting Northeastern for a two-game series on Nov. 1-2 at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. Saturday's game is set for a 7 p.m. start while Sunday's match-up will begin at 4 p.m.
