Matthew Peca's Three-Point Night Leads No. 15 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey To 4-2 ECAC Hockey Win Against RPI

Friday, January 9

7 pm

Quinnipiac University

Rensselaer

Matthew Peca's Three-Point Night Leads No. 15 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey To 4-2 ECAC Hockey Win Against RPI

1/9/2015 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 rolled to a 4-2 win against Rensselaer in an ECAC Hockey match-up at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center. With the win, Quinnipiac improves to 14-6-1 overall and 9-2-0 in ECAC Hockey play while RPI drops to 6-16-1 overall and 4-6-0 in league play.

Quinnipiac senior captain Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) had a goal and two assists to lead the Bobcats, giving him three goals and five assists for eight points in a current five-game scoring streak. Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) had two assists while Devon Toews (Abbotsford, British Columbia), Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) and Tim Clifton (Matawan, New Jersey) all scored for Quinnipiac. The Bobcats were 2-for-5 on the power play, as Toews' and St. Denis' goal both came with a man-advantage, while RPI was 1-for-3 on the power play. The Bobcats had killed 17 consecutive penalties before the Engineers scored a power play goal in the final minute.

Quinnipiac goalie Michael Garteig (Prince George, British Columbia) stopped 12 of RPI's 14 shots on goal to improve to 13-6-0 on the year. Garteig was also credited with an assist on Peca's goal, giving him his second assist of the year.

Peca put Quinnipiac on the board with his fourth goal of the year just over a minute into the second period. The Bobcats senior captain picked up a rebound off the pads of Garteig and went end-to-end. He picked up a defender as he converged on the RPI goal, but managed to tip the puck around him before going top-shelf on Engineers' goalie Jason Kasdorf, popping the bottle, and giving Quinnipiac a 1-0 lead.

Later in the period, with the Bobcats on a power play, Peca picked up his second point of the night when he took a pass from Anas and skated across the blue line in the RPI zone. Peca and Toews back the puck back and forth from point to point before Toews teed up on an offering and one-timed the puck past Kasdorf to give the Bobcats a two-goal lead.

RPI's Milos Bubela answered less than thirty seconds later with his fifth goal of the season. Bubela took a pass from Travis Fulton, who had the puck handed to him by Jacob Laliberte, to cut Quinnipiac's to a goal, 2-1.

Inside the final two minutes of the period, Quinnipiac put its lead back to two goals. On the power play, Peca skated along the boards just below the blue line in the RPI zone before sending the puck across ice. The pass was tipped by Anas in the slot before St. Denis one-timed a shot from the face-off dot to the left of Kasdorf and rattled home his ninth goal of the season to give Quinnipiac a 3-1 lead.

Midway through the third period, Tim Clifton (Matawan, New Jersey) scored his third goal in his last two games when he received a pass from freshman Tanner MacMaster (Calgary, Alberta) in the slot and one-timed it past Kasdorf to give Quinnipiac a 4-1 lead. RPI's Josh Laliberte scored a power play goal with 32-seconds left in the game when he pushed the puck under Garteig through a scrum in the crease. Dan Federico (Acton, Massachusetts) also picked up an assist on the play.

Quinnipiac is back in action on Saturday, Jan. 10 when it hosts Union in an ECAC Hockey match-up set for a 7 p.m. start at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center.