Bongiovanni Nets Natural Hat Trick in 7-2 Win Over St. Lawrence

Friday, February 22

Hamden, Conn.

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

23-6-2, 12-5-2

St. Lawrence

4-25-2, 2-15-2

St. Lawrence

Quinnipiac

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

Bongiovanni Nets Natural Hat Trick in 7-2 Win Over St. Lawrence

2/22/2019 9:27:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

No. 5/6 Men's Ice Hockey Routs Saints in Dominating Win

By: QU Athletic Communications

HAMDEN, Conn. – Wyatt Bongiovanni (Birmingham, Michigan) recorded his first career hat trick and four-point game Friday night as the No. 5/6 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team routed the St. Lawrence Saints, 7-2, to record the Bobcats second straight five-goal win against St. Lawrence.

Coupled with a Cornell overtime loss to Rensselaer, Quinnipiac moved into first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with 26 points on the season and have a chance to clinch the fourth Cleary Cup in program history.

Bongiovanni is the third Quinnipiac player to record a hat trick this season with his three-goal performance against the Saints. With his assist, Bongiovanni is the third different player to record at least four points in a game and fifth different occasion.

Chase Priskie (Pembroke Pines, Florida) netted a power-play goal for the Bobcats and added an assist while William Fällström (Stockholm, Sweden), Nick Jermain (Norwalk, Connecticut) and Scott Davidson (Trail, British Columbia) also added goals for the Bobcats.

Quinnipiac scored four power-play goals, finishing 4 for 6 on the man advantage, to tie its season-high for power-play goals in a game.

Prior to puck drop of Friday night's game, the Bobcats honored head coach Rand Pecknold with a pre-game ceremony to recognize him for recording his 500^th career victory. Pecknold was joined on the ice by his family and Director of Athletics and Recreation Greg Amodio, while former Quinnipiac men's ice hockey player Kevin Bui '13 pulled the rope to unveil the 500 win banner.

SCORE
Quinnipiac 7, St. Lawrence 2

RECORDS
Quinnipiac (23-6-2, 12-5-2 ECAC Hockey) | St. Lawrence (4-25-2, 2-15-2 ECAC Hockey)

LOCATION
Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena at the People's United Center | Hamden, Conn.

SCORING SUMMARY

(9:22, 1^st period – PP) – Quinnipiac 1, St. Lawrence 0: Priskie got the Bobcats on the board near the midway part of the first period as he scored the first of four power-play goals on the game. After receiving a pass from Brogan Rafferty, Priskie faked out the defender to create space before rifling the goal over starting goaltender Emil Zetterquist's shoulder
(17:17, 1^st period – PP) – Quinnipiac 2, St. Lawrence 0: Fällström doubled the Bobcats lead late in the second period with a power-play goal of his own after tapping home the puck as Karlis Cukste (Riga, Latvia) collected a St. Lawrence turnover behind its own goal.
(17:50, 1^st period – PP) – Quinnipiac 3, St. Lawrence 0: Bongiovanni scored his first of three straight goals just 33 seconds later as he redirected a shot from Priskie towards the left point for the Bobcats' third power-play goals of the period.
(3:05, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 4, St. Lawrence 0: Bongiovanni put home his second goal in a span of 5:15 as he simply tapped home the puck after Luke Shiplo (Oakville, Ontario) beat the defense and found Bongiovanni on the back door.
(14:58, 2^nd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 5, St. Lawrence 0: Bongiovanni capped off his first career hat trick with 5:02 left in the period as the Bobcats put on a smooth passing display. Odeen Tufto (Chaska, Minnesota) fired the puck down low to Rafferty on the left side of the net where he quickly passed it across the top of the crease to Bongiovanni on the back door for the goal.
(11:51, 3^rd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 5, St. Lawrence 1: Cade Gleekel got a goal back for the Saints just past the midway point of the third period as he redirected a shot from Bo Hanson at the point to break the Bobcats shutout
(12:55, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 6, St. Lawrence 1: Just over a minute later, Jermain got the Bobcats back to a five-goal lead as he crashed the net after a Craig Martin (Trail, British Columbia) two-on-one shot on the rush with Davidson for the rebound goal
(15:43, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 7, St. Lawrence 1: Davidson scored a goal of his own with just over four minutes to go in the third period as he collected a pass from Zach Metsa (Delafield, Wisconsin) after St. Lawrence turnover and beat backup goaltender Arthur Brey with a backhander for the six-goal lead.
(18:40, 3^rd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 7, St. Lawrence 2: Bo Hanson wrapped up the scoring for the game as he rifled home a shot from the point past a screen to cut the Bobcats lead back to five.

NOTES

Quinnipiac moved into first place in ECAC Hockey with the victory over the Saints and Cornell's loss to Rensselaer, as the Bobcats now have 26 points in league play compared to the Big Red's 25.
The Bobcats unveiled a banner Friday night to commemorate Rand Pecknold's 500^th career victory which he recorded earlier this season
Bongiovanni recorded a natural hat trick for his first career hat trick and added an assist for his first career four-point game
Bongiovanni is the third different Bobcat to record a four-point game this season and the fifth different occasion it has happened
Bongiovanni is now second among freshmen in the nation and first in ECAC Hockey with 14 goals on the season while his 22 points are tied for third in ECAC Hockey
Tufto recorded a pair of assists Friday night to give him 41 points for a second straight season while extending his point streak to seven games
He is the first Quinnipiac player with back-to-back 40 point seasons since Reid Cashman '07, who recorded three straight 40-point seasons in his Quinnipiac career
Tufto is also the first player with two 40-point seasons in a career since Sam Anas '16 in 2015-16 and 2013-14.
Rafferty recorded his third career three-assist and three-point game with a trio of helpers on Friday night
He now has 20 points on the season, becoming Quinnipiac's third defenseman with 20 points and seventh overall player to reach the mark
Priskie tallied a goal and an assist for a two-point night as he now has points in seven of his last nine games
His 15 goals and 37 points this season are the second most among defenseman in the nation while his 10 power-play goals lead all skaters
Davidson recorded his first two-point game of the season and third career multi-point game with a goal and an assist
He now has points in back-to-back games for the second time this season
Fällström's goal was his seventh of the season and first since Feb. 8 against Yale
Cukste added an assist for his 17^th of the season and 18^th point while recorded five blocks for his second-most in a game this season'
Cukste now has 10 straight games with a block and leads all of ECAC Hockey with 63 blocked shots
Shiplo recorded his first assist of the season with the helper on Bongiovanni's second goal of the night to give him four goals
Martin recorded his 16^th assist of the season to tie his career-high while he reached 25 points in his career for the second time
Metsa tallied his first career assist with an assist on the final Bobcats goal as he recorded his first point since Dec. 7

UPCOMING GAMES

The Bobcats are home Saturday night for Senior Night as they host the No. 12/13 Clarkson Golden Knights at 7 p.m.
Quinnipiac will honor its Class of 2019 with Chase Priskie, Scott Davidson, Luke Shiplo, Craig Martin, and Brandon Fortunato in addition to senior students of the support staff.