Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Tops Cornell, 6-3, To Advance To ECAC Hockey Semifinals

Sunday, March 13

Hamden, Conn.

4:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

27-3-7, 16-1-5ECAC

Cornell University

16-11-7, 8-8-6ECAC

Cornell

Quinnipiac

Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey Tops Cornell, 6-3, To Advance To ECAC Hockey Semifinals

3/13/2016 6:17:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: QU Sports Information

HAMDEN, Connecticut - Nationally-ranked No. 1 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey defeated No. 15 Cornell, 6-3, in the third and deciding game of the Bobcats' best-of-three ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal series at High Point Solutions Arena. With the win, Quinnipiac advances to the ECAC Hockey Championship Semifinals for the fourth consecutive season, where it will face Dartmouth on Friday, March 18 at 4:06 p.m. at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York.

Since joining ECAC Hockey in 2005-06, the Bobcats have won an ECAC Hockey postseason series in 11-consecutive seasons, the longest active streak in ECAC Hockey.

The Bobcats benefited from their third-straight game with a two-goal scorer as Bo Pieper (Roseville, Minnesota) matched Chase Priskie's (Pembroke Pines, Florida) Game 2 showing and Landon Smith's (Greenwood Village, Colorado) two-goal night in Game 1 of the series. For the three-game series, Quinnipiac featured 11 different players that accounted for the Bobcats' 15 goals against Cornell, which tied a program record for the most goals scored in an ECAC Hockey quarterfinals series, tying the mark set against Cornell in 2013.

Scott Davidson (Trail, British Columbia), Andrew Taverner (Edmonton, Alberta) Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) and Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) all scored for the Bobcats in the clinching victory. Brothers Tim Clifton (Matawan, New Jersey) and Connor Clifton (Matawan, New Jersey) both had a pair of assists, while Connor picked up his fifth of the series. Priskie added an assist, as did Devon Tows (Abbotsford, British Columbia), Tanner MacMaster (Calgary, Alberta) and Craig Martin (Trail, British Columbia). K.J. Tiefenwerth (Bellmore, New York) ran his point streak to four games, in which he's accumulated a goal and four assists, with an assist on Pieper's second goal. In goal, Michael Garteig (Prince George, British Columbia) stopped 30 of Cornell's 33 shots on goal for the game to improve to 27-3-6 for the year, while also winning his 73rd career game for a tie of 20th place in career wins.

Special teams paced the game as a physical battle gave the Bobcats five power plays that accounted for two of their five goals through the first two periods. With both teams backed up and facing elimination, a ruthless play-off ensued.

Davidson kicked off the Bobcats' afternoon with his sixth goal of the year, picking up the puck handed to him by Tim Clifton before scoring on the wrap-around. For the second-straight game, the Bobcats jumped out to a two-goal lead with a goal thirty-one seconds later. It was Pieper cleaning up a rebound off a blast by Connor Clifton from the point for his third goal of the year, and his first since Jan. 19 against Dartmouth.

After a Matt Buckles' power play goal cut the Bobcats lead to 2-1 early in the first, both goalies slammed the door on a flurry of bids by both teams. Pieper's second goal of the game pushed the Bobcats' lead back to two goals just under three minutes into the period.

Late in the second, Quinnipiac scored on back-to-back power plays, first on Taverner's fifth goal of the year before Anas scored his 22nd of the season with less than thirty seconds to play in the frame. Quinnipiac entered the game with a 21-0-2 record in the 23 games in which its led through two periods and headed to the second intermission with a 5-1 lead.

Eric Freschi added Cornell second goal six minutes into the third period to pull the Big Red within three goals with most of the period to play. St. Denis added his 20th goal of the season, scoring from behind Quinnipiac's goal line on an empty net with five minutes to play. Jake Weidner scored Cornell's final goal with just over a minute to play.