Quinnipiac University
Yale
No. 18 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Plays To 2-2 Tie At No. 16 Yale
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
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Quinnipiac sophomore Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) compiled his team-leading fifth multiple-goal game, scoring twice to give him a team-best 15 goals on the season.
"Whenever we play at Yale or at home against Yale, it's always a fun environment," Anas said. "The crowd is always into it, they're always at another level. It's fun...I hate tying though. I like to win."
Travis St. Denis (Trail British Columbia) set-up both of Anas' goals, giving him four for the weekend and 10 for the year. St. Denis now has a seven-game point streak, featuring four goals and six assists. Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) also had an assist to give him a team-best 21 for the year and 93 for his career. In goal, Quinnipiac's Michael Garteig (Prince George, British Columbia) stopped 29 of Yale's 31 shots-on-goal, while his counterpart, Yale's Alex Lyon, matched his output.
"I thought both goalies were great," Pecknold said. "It was a great exhibition of goaltending by both kids. I think both teams missed a couple half empty nets, but that's part of hockey."
Halfway through the first period, Anas scored to put Quinnipiac out in front, 1-0. St. Denis started the play when he picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and fed Anas streaking down the wing. After Yale deflected a pass, St. Denis pushed it back over to Anas, just over the blue line, and went to the net. Anas stepped between the face-off circles, maneuvered around a defenseman, toe-dragged across the crease, and then back-handed a shot behind Yale goalie Alex Lyon to put the Bobcats on the board, 1-0.
"I figured the defense would slide like that, so I knew I had to pull the puck back," Anas explained. "I kind of lost it, and drifted to the corner and figured I would throw it towards the net. I'm not sure what it hit, but it went in. I'll take it."
Yale got on the board just under 10 minutes into the second period to tie the game at 1-1. Cody Learned sent the puck into the corner where Frankie DiChiara picked it up and took off behind the Bobcats' net. DiChiara peaked around Garteig's left and zipped a pass to Carson Cooper for the one-timer from the crease. Cooper's shot popped off his stick and fluttered over Garteig's left should to knot the game at a goal apiece.
Early in the third period, Quinnipiac found itself on a power play after Yale's John Hayden was whistled for elbowing. The Bobcats zipped the puck around the zone, peppering Yale's Alex Lyon with shots. As the penalty expired, Peca handled the puck at the point before sending the pass to St. Denis on the wing. St. Denis then centered a pass to Anas in the slot for the one-timer. Anas' shot through traffic beat Lyon, top-shelf, to give Quinnipiac a one-goal lead, 2-1.
"It was a relief to get that one," Anas said. "We had drawn that play up, so its good to be able to execute on a play like that. It was a heck of a play by Travis [St. Denis]. He's got a great one-timer but he's also got great vision. Also, don't forget to credit Landon Smith for the great screen. That puck doesn't go in without the screen he set on Lyon."
Three minutes later, Yale tied the game on a shot from the point by Ryan Obuchowski that weaved through a gathering of bodies in front of Garteig. Yale moved the puck behind Garteig, wiring the puck along the boards before Obuchowski sent it on goal and past a screened Garteig.
"That felt like a playoff game for us," Anas said. "Its good to see guys battling. Our mindset going into the third was that we were going to play like it was the last 20 minutes of the year. I felt like we had a good period."
"We had some bumps. We had a few kids that struggled, but we had 12, 13, 14 players that were absolute warriors tonight and were really great carried us and I'm really proud of those guys," Pecknold said. "Those guys that struggled... for them it's a great learning experience. They'll learn and get better from it. We found a way to grit-out a point tonight. Certainly we would have liked to get two. And there's part of me that thought we should have had two points tonight and there's part of me that sees that we could have had zero. There were a couple phenomenal opportunities – both ways – where the goalie made a great save, but that's part of hockey. We'll take our three points on the weekend and we'll move on."
Quinnipiac will face Cornell and Colgate on the road on Feb. 6-7, respectively, before returning home for a weekend series against St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Feb. 13-14. Quinnipiac will then host Yale on Feb. 20 for the annual Heroes Hat Game and Brown on Feb. 21 for Senior Day. Quinnipiac then wraps-up the 2015 regular season at Harvard on Feb. 27 and Dartmouth on Feb. 28.
