Quinnipiac University
Clarkson
No. 13 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Clinches First-Round Bye In ECAC Hockey Tournament With 4-1 Win Against Clarkson
2/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
- Box Score
- Season Stats
- Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Homepage
- ECAC Hockey Standings
- Free Video Replay
- Photos of QU vs. Clarkson
- Local Sports TV Report
HAMDEN, Connecticut - The nationally-ranked No. 13 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team clinched a first-round bye in the upcoming ECAC Hockey Tournament with a 4-1 win against Clarkson in an ECAC Hockey match-up at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center. With the win, Quinnipiac improves to 20-8-2 overall and 15-2-1 in league play while also running its unbeaten streak in ECAC Hockey games to 10 games (9-0-1). Clarkson drops to 11-15-4 overall and 8-8-2 in ECAC Hockey.
10 different Bobcats found their way onto the stat sheet in the Bobcats' four-goal night, highlighted by freshman Kevin McKernan's (Millbury, Massachusett) first career goal and also featuring the 14th goal of the year for both Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) and Landon Smith (Greenwood Village, Colorado) as well as Andrew Taverner's (Edmonton, Alberta) fifth goal of the year.
Smith and St. Denis both had assists as well, with Smith setting up St. Denis' goal on the power play and St. Denis picking up the secondary assist on Taverner's goal. Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland), Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario), Alex Barron (Glendora, California), K.J. Tiefenwerth(Bellmore, New York), Derek Smith (Apple Valley, Minnesota) and Joe Fiala (Verona, Wisconsin) all had assists.
For Peca, he puts his team-leading assist total at 25, to go along with five goals, making giving Quinnipiac a pair of 30-point scorers in him and Anas. Fiala also picked up his first point of the year,and second of his career. In goal, Michael Garteig (Prince George, British Columbia) totaled 20 saves on 21 shots on goal for Clarkson. With the win, Garteig improves to 18-6-1 overall and 15-2-1 against ECAC Hockey opponents.
Clarkson's Janick Asselin gave the Golden Knights the early lead with a shot from the slot that beatGarteig to give Clarkson a 1-0 lead. Jeff DiNallo carried the puck behind the Bobcats' goal and dropped it off to Jordan Boucher, who was immediately wrapped up by a Quinnipiac defender. Boucher was able to maneuver and zip the pass to Asselin in the slot. Asselin, left wide open, flipped the puck to the opposite post to give Clarkson the one-goal lead.
Late in the period, St. Denis tied the game with his 14th marker of the year, on the power play. Landon Smith received the puck above the face-off circle and stepped between two defenders before rifling a pass to Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) below the Clarkson goal line. Anas then made a brilliant pass across the slot to St. Denis who teed-up a shot from the opposite post and blasted the puck past Clarkson goalie Greg Lewis to tie the game, 1-1.
In the second period, Landon Smith and McKernan both scored within 26 seconds of each other to push Quinnipiac's lead to 3-1. Smith's goal started with Barron making a smart play in front of his own team's bench to keep the puck in the Clarkson zone. Barron threw the puck on net where it was stopped by Lewis before Peca picked it up on the doorstep. Peca slid it across the crease for Smith who hammered it home to give the Bobcats the lead.
Less than a minute later, McKernan scored his first career goal on a one-timer from the top of the face-off circle that traveled through traffic and rang home, top shelf, to push Quinnipiac's lead to two goals. Fiala handled the puck behind the Golden Knights' goal before he got tied-up by a Clarkson defender. Fiala managed to hand the puck off to Tiefenwerth, who spun and sent the puck out in front of the Clarkson goal. While intended for Tommy Schutt (Chanhassan, Minnesota) in the slot, it slid out past both teams' players to McKernan who was gliding in from the point. McKernan blasted the puck on goal, to the opposite top corner, where it clanged in and gave Quinnipiac a 3-1 lead.
With less than four minutes to play, St. Denis held the puck along the boards in the Clarkson zone and dropped a pass back to Derek Smith. Smith skated into the corner and stepped towards the Clarkson goal before sending a laser to Taverner's stick for the re-direct past Lewis to give Quinnipiac a 4-1 lead.
Quinnipiac returns to action on Friday, Feb. 20 when it hosts Yale for the Annual Heroes Hat game, set for a 7 p.m. start from High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center. That game can be seen live on SportsNet New York, live at 7:07 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21 will feature Senior Night festivities for Justin Agosta, Alex Barron, Dan Federico and Matthew Peca prior to the start of Quinnipiac's ECAC Hockey tilt against Brown.
