Whelan's Hat Trick Lifts No. 20 Men's Ice Hockey Past Holy Cross, 4-3

Friday, January 17

Worcester, Mass. / Hart Center

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

13-8-1

Holy Cross

6-12-5

Quinnipiac

Holy Cross

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

Whelan's Hat Trick Lifts No. 20 Men's Ice Hockey Past Holy Cross, 4-3

1/17/2020 9:14:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

Bobcats Win Seventh in Last Eight Games to Improve to 13-8-1

By: QU Athletic Communications

WORCESTER, Mass. – Alex Whelan (Ramsey, New Jersey) recorded his second career hat trick Friday night as the No. 20 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team held on to defeat the Holy Cross Crusaders, 4-3, at the Hart Center.

Whelan scored two goals in the first period, his second straight weekend with a two-goal period, and capped off his hat trick with the game-winning goal in the second period to lift the Bobcats to their seventh win in the last eight games.

The Bobcats dominated much of Friday night's showdown with the Crusaders, outshooting Holy Cross, 48-20, in the road victory. Quinnipiac recorded at least 14 shots in every period, and held a 19-5 advantage in the first period as part of a three-goal period.

Logan Britt (Crystal Lake, Illinois) came up clutch in the first period as he scored his first career goal. Britt's goal helped provide some cushion to the Bobcats first period lead as the Crusaders got one back before Whelan scored his second of the period.

Keith Petruzzelli (Wilbraham, Massachusetts) made 17 saves between the pipes for the Bobcats as he earned his 13^th victory of the season.

SCORE
Quinnipiac 4, Holy Cross 3

RECORDS
Quinnipiac (13-8-1, 7-4-1 ECAC Hockey) | Holy Cross (6-12-5, 5-10-3-1 Atlantic Hockey)

LOCATION
Hart Center | Worcester, Mass.

SCORING SUMMARY

(4:31, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 1, Holy Cross 0: Whelan got the Bobcats on the board early in the first period with his first of the night as William Fällström (Stockholm, Sweden) won a faceoff in the offensive zone and Nick Jermain (Norwalk, Connecticut) fired a shot on goal that Holy Cross goaltender Matt Radomsky couldn't handle and Whelan tapped the puck over the goal line.
(13:45, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 2, Holy Cross 0: Britt doubled the Bobcats lead with 6:15 to go in the period as he received a pass entering the zone from Wyatt Bongiovanni (Birmingham, Michigan) in the right corner. Britt's initial shot was saved but the rebound came back to him as Matthew Fawcett (Lincoln, Rhode Island) drew a penalty and Britt wristed home the puck past Radomsky.
(17:45, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 2, Holy Cross 1: The Crusaders got a goal back four minutes later as Ryan Leibold corralled a puck behind the Quinnipiac goal after a dump in and managed to slip one between Petruzzelli's skate and the post to pull within one.
(18:04, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 3, Holy Cross 1: Whelan buried his second goal of the period just 19 seconds later as he created a turnover in the neutral zone and carried the puck into the right faceoff circle where he roofed the shot over Radomsky's glove to regain the two-goal lead.
(4:28, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 4, Holy Cross 1: Whelan capped off the hat trick in the early stages of the second period as Karlis Cukste (Riga, Latvia) fired a perfect centering feed from low in the left faceoff circle and Whelan redirected home the puck on top of the crease.
(14:31, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 4, Holy Cross 2: Holy Cross cut the lead back to two with 5:29 left in the second period as Kevin Darrar skated just over the blue line and fired the puck just past Petruzzelli's glove.
(2:33, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 4, Holy Cross 3: Alex Peterson pulled the Crusaders back within a goal just of two-and-a-half minutes into the third period as he redirected a pass from Dalton Skelly through Petruzzelli's five-hole.

NOTES

Whelan recorded his second career hat trick Friday night for the Bobcats, including the game-winning goal, as he moved into second on the team with eight goals this season.
It was his first hat trick since doing so on Oct. 27, 2018 against AIC.
Whelan has scored five goals in his last three games and is one of eight players in ECAC Hockey to record a hat trick this season.
Britt scored his first career goal with a rebound goal in the first period, making him the fifth different Bobcat to score their first career goal this season and seventh to record their first career point.
Hobey Baker Award nominee Odeen Tufto (Chaska, Minnesota) tallied a pair of assists for the Bobcats for his seventh multi-assist game of the season and eight multi-point game.
Tufto's pair of helpers gives him 22 on the season, tied with four other players for second in the nation
He has recorded 12 points in the last seven games and has five multi-point games in that span.
Tufto now has 81 career assists, the 15^th player in program history to record at least 80 assists as he passed Connor Jones '14 for 14^th on the all-time list and passed Terry Harris '01 for 30^th in program history with 108 points.
Bongiovanni notched his seventh assist of the season with a helper on Whelan's second goal as he now has 18 points.
Fällström recorded his ninth assist of the season and reached at least 10 points for a second straight season.
Jermain also added an assist on Whelan's first goal to his third of the season and now has at least 10 points in a season for the third consecutive season.
With Fällström and Jermain reaching double-digit points, Quinnipiac has 10 players with at least 10 points.
Cukste recorded his 10 assist of the season to give him at least 10 helpers in all four seasons of his Quinnipiac career.
He also reached the 60 career point mark, becoming the 13^th Quinnipiac defenseman in program history to record at least 60 points.
Petruzzelli recorded his 13^th win of the season, tying his win total from each of his first two seasons in the blue and gold.
Quinnipiac tied its season-high for shots on goal in a single game with 48 as the Bobcats outshot the Crusaders, 48-20.
It was the largest margin of shots for the Bobcats since outshooting UMass, 50-19, on Nov. 25, 2017.

FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Rand Pecknold
"The big thing for us tonight was just to be prepared for adversity. Holy Cross is a good team, playing at home, they compete hard and they're well coached. I think we're the better team but I knew it was going to be close, it was going to be a grind and it was.

"I loved that we didn't panic, we played hard and found a way to get a win on the road."

On Alex Whelan
"He was great. He was our best player on the ice for sure. He was the best player on either team, he had an awesome game. He's been playing really well lately, competing, battling and defending. He's a good two-way hockey player."

NEXT GAME

The Bobcats return to the ice next Saturday with the first game of the inaugural Connecticut Ice Tournament at Webster Bank Arena as they'll face the UConn Huskies in the opener at 4 p.m.