Quinnipiac University
Harvard
No. 15 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Falls To No. 9 Harvard, 5-2
12/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
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HAMDEN, Conn. - The nationally-ranked No. 15 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team was dealt a 5-2 loss to No. 9 Harvard in an ECAC Hockey match-up at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. With the loss, the Bobcats drop to 10-5-1 overall while they are dealt just their second league loss of the season and move to 6-2-0. Harvard improves to 9-1-2 overall and 5-1-2 in league play with its sixth consecutive victory.
Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) scored his seventh goal of the year to tie the game early in the first, whiel Tommy Schutt (Chanhassan, Minnesota) scored his first goal of the year. Bo Pieper(Roseville, Minnesota), Derek Smith (Apple Valley, Minnesota) Devon Toews (Abbotsford, British Columbia) and Soren Jonzzon (Mountain View, California) all had assists. In goal, Michael Garteig(Prince George, British Columbia) finished with 31 saves while Harvard's Steve Michalek turned back 43 of Quinnipiac's 45 shots on goal.
Harvard's Kyle Criscuolo gave the Crimson an early lead, scoring just 18 seconds into the game off an assist from Tyler Moy. Moy threw a shot on goal that Garteig denied before Criscuolo cleaned up the rebound to give Harvard a 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later it was St. Denis with his seventh goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1. After St. Denis won a face-off in front of the Harvard goal, Jonzzon dropped a pass back to Toews along the boards. Toews fired from the point, which St. Denis knocked down in front of Harvard goalie Steve Michalek, who had dropped to his knees in anticipating of Toews shot. St. Denis walked across the crease before back-handing the puck by the Crimson's goalie to tie the game at 1-1.
The goal by St. Denis was just the third first-period goal scored against Harvard this season as the Bobcats joined Darmouth and UMass Lowell as the only teams to do so to date. The Crimson had outscored its opposition, 16-2, entering Saturday night's game while Harvard goalie Steve Michalek led NCAA Division I men's ice hockey in goals-against-average (0.55) and save percentage (0.975) in the first period.
Late in the second period, Quinnipiac turned the puck over behind their goal before Luke Esposito took control of it in front of the Bobcats' goal. Esposito stick-handled just above the crease and waited for a Quinnipiac defenseman to fall before spinning and giving a back-hand pass to Phil Zielonka who one-timed the puck from the back door to beat Garteig and give Harvard a 2-1 lead.
In the closing seconds of the period, Harvard struck again - this time on the power play - to jump out to a two-goal lead. McNally threw the puck on goal from the point where it was knocked down and bounced out to the slot. Sean Malone was able to collect the puck and bring it to the back hand before flipping it past Garteig to give Harvard a 3-1 lead.
Three minutes in to the third, Criscuolo broke up a play behind the Bobcats goal and tipped the puck out in front of Garteig. Jimmy Vesey one-timed Criscuolo's pass from the slot to the opposite post to give Harvard a three-goal lead early in the final period. Brian Hart added an empty-net goal to increase Harvard's lead to four goals, 5-1.
In the closing seconds, Schutt scored his first goal of the season, and fifth of his career when he jammed a loose puck past Michalek from the crease. Pieper and Smith both picked up assists on the play.
Quinnipiac will enjoy a break in the action before returning to ECAC Hockey play with a two-game weekend series against Princeton. The Bobcats will host the Tigers on Saturday, Dec. 28 at 4 p.m. before heading to Princeton, New Jersey for a 4 p.m. start on Sunday, Dec. 29 at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. That game can be seen live on ESPN2 and TSN in Canada.
