Quinnipiac University
Brown
No. 11 Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Clinches Cleary Cup With 2-2 Tie Against Brown
2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
The nationally-ranked No. 11 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team clinched its second Cleary Cup in three years with a 2-2 tie against Brown at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center. Quinnipiac last won ECAC Hockey regular-season championship in 2012-13.
With the tie, Quinnipiac will be the top seed in the upcoming ECAC Hockey Tournament, and will have a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Should Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence be tied at the end of the regular season, the Bobcats and Saints would be crowned co-regular season champions. The Bobcats go to 20-8-4 overall and 15-2-3 in ECAC Hockey play while they also remain undefeated in their last 12 (9-0-3) ECAC Hockey games.
Danny Federico (Acton, Massachusetts) entered his final season with the Bobcats with one career goal and celebrated Senior Night with his second goal in as many nights after potting one in a 2-2 tie against Yale on Friday night. Brown led 2-0 after the second period, but Federico's third career marker cut the Bears' lead in half. Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) scored his team-leading 17th goal of the year less than two minutes later to tie the game.
Quinnipiac out-attempted Brown in total shots, 81-33, with 38 going on goal compared to Brown's 21. Quinnipiac held a 12-8 advantage through a scoreless first period. The second period turned in favor of Brown as two of the Bears' five shots-on-goal in the period found the back of the net.
Joe Prescott benefitted from a turnover behind the Bobcats net that ended up as a loose puck in the slot. Zack Pryzbek delivered the hit on the Quinnipiac player that knocked the puck loose before Prescott's one-timer beat Garteig to put Brown out in front, 1-0.
Later in the period, Nick Lappin was in the right place at the right time when a puck glanced off the skate of a Quinnipiac player and landed on his stick just above the blue line in Quinnipiac's defensive zone. Lappin split two Quinnipiac defenders and stepped between the face-off circles before alternating looks in front of Garteig and beating him with a back-hand shot to give Brown a 2-0 lead.
The Bobcats attack came alive in the third period with Federico and Anas scoring 94 seconds apart to tie the game. Federico's came on the power play with Tanner MacMaster (Calgary, Alberta) and Justin Agosta (East Meadow, New York) getting touches before Federico teed-up on a pass from MacMaster at the point. With K.J. Tiefenwerth (Bellmore, New York) sliding in front of Brown goalie Tim Ernst, Federico's blast tucked-in just under the cross bar to beat Brown's screened netminder.
Just over the ten-minute mark, it was Anas with a frantic bid from the crease that resulted in the game-tying marker with less than half the final period to go. Bo Pieper (Roseville, Minnesota) battled for the puck in the corner before Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) came up with it and fed Anas. Anas was denied on his first attempt, but collected the rebound and reached around Ernst to send it off the opposite post to tie the game.
Half of the game's eight total penalties between the two teams occurred in the final four minutes of play, highlighted by a five-minute major assessed to a Quinnipiac skater inside the final three minutes of regulation. The Bobcats, skating shorthanded, maneuvered the penalty kill masterfully with one shot breaking through to Garteig, which he gloved away. It was Garteig again, early in overtime, with an incredible save on a shot from close range by Brown's Matt Lorito to preserve the tie.
Quinnipiac wraps-up the regular season in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a match-up at Harvard on Friday, Feb. 27 before its season finale against Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire on Saturday, Feb. 28.
