Quinnipiac University
Rensselaer
Travis St. Denis' Hat Trick Powers No. 20 QU Men's Ice Hockey's 3-1 Win Over Rensselaer
11/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Troy, New York – Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) was the hero for the second night in a row as he notched his first career hat trick for the No. 20 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team in its 3-1 win over the Rensselaer Engineers Saturday night at Houston Field House.
St. Denis also scored his second game-winner of his career, with his first career game-winning goal coming the night before against Union. He now has six goals for Quinnipiac this season after a four-goal weekend.
Quinnipiac improved to 3-0-1 when defeating Rensselaer the night after beating Union. The win gave the Bobcats' their third consecutive weekend sweep this season to extend its winning streak to six games. The Bobcats have opened up ECAC play with four consecutive wins after two straight ECAC weekend sweeps.
St. Denis scored the game-winning goal 5:42 into the third period after Andrew Taverner's (Edmonton, Alberta) shot was blocked by Rensselaer netminder Jason Kasdorf but the rebound kicked out to St. Denis who ripped a shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle just past Kasdorf to take a 2-1 lead.
St. Denis completed the hat trick with an empty-net insurance goal with just 30 seconds remaining in the third period after Devon Toews (Abbotsford, British Columbia) cleared the puck off the boards and St. Denis beat everyone to the puck.
Rensselaer nearly tied the game on the power play with 5:09 remaining in the 3rd period as Michael Prapavessis made a great individual effort to hang on to the puck and wrist a shot past Michael Garteig (Prince George, British Columbia) who was sprawled on the ice, but officials ruled no goal as the goal had come off its moorings.
The no goal call proved to be the difference as it erased the game-tying goal for the Engineers and the Bobcats hung on for the win.
Saturday night's game started off in a similar fashion as the previous night when Rensselaer took a 1-0 just 5:22 into the first period. Jared Wilson skated up the left side boards into the offensive zone and wristed a centering pass to Lou Nanne who tapped the puck past Garteig with a weak side goal.
That early goal was all the offense the Engineers could muster as Garteig kept them off the board for the remainder of the game. Garteig finished with 21 saves for the Bobcats.
St. Denis scored his first goal of the game as he tied it with a power play goal with 3:32 remaining in the first period after Matt Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) won the faceoff in the offensive zone and Landon Smith (Greenwood Village, Colorado) fed the puck to St. Denis who skated into the slot and backhanded a shot past Kasdorf's stick side.
The Bobcats head back on the road next weekend when they travel to the North Country to take on Clarkson on Friday at 7 P.M. in Potsdam, New York before facing St. Lawrence on Saturday at 7 P.M. in Canton, New York.
