No. 17 Men's Ice Hockey Falls in Connecticut Ice Final, 4-1

Sunday, January 26

Bridgeport, Conn. / Webster Bank Arena

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

14-9-1, 7-4-1ECAC

Sacred Heart

16-8-2, 13-6-1AHA

Quinnipiac

Sacred Heart

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

No. 17 Men's Ice Hockey Falls in Connecticut Ice Final, 4-1

1/26/2020 9:39:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

Cukste Scores for Second Straight Night as the Bobcats Come Up Short vs. Sacred Heart

By: QU Athletic Communications

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The No. 17 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team battled hard in the third period Sunday night but could not come up with a pair of goals as the Bobcats fell in the inaugural Connecticut Ice Championship game to the Sacred Heart Pioneers, 4-1.

Sacred Heart scored three unanswered goals in the second period after Quinnipiac led 1-0 at the first intermission. The Pioneers added an empty-net goal in the final minute of the third period after the Bobcats played for over two minutes with Keith Petruzzelli (Wilbraham, Massachusetts) pulled for the extra attacker.

Karlis Cukste (Riga, Latvia) scored for the second time in as many games Sunday night but it was all the offense the Bobcats could muster in the final non-conference game of the 2019-20 season. Cukste's goal was his fourth of the season, tied for the most by a defenseman on the team.

William Fällström (Stockholm, Sweden) and Nick Jermain (Norwalk, Connecticut) also extended point streaks with assists on Cukste's goal in the loss.

SCORE
Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 4

RECORDS
Quinnipiac (14-9-1, 7-4-1 ECAC Hockey) | Sacred Heart (16-8-2, 13-6-1 Atlantic Hockey)

LOCATION
Webster Bank Arena | Bridgeport, Conn.

SCORING SUMMARY

(8:03, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 0: Cukste scored the game's first goal near the midway point of the opening stanza as Fällström carried the puck from the left corner after Jermain got tied up and shuffle d the pass to Cukste where he rifled a shot through traffic to beat Sacred Heart goaltender Josh Benson.
(5:19, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 1: Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Pioneers tied the game just over five minutes into the second period as Jordan Kaplan carried the puck all the way up the ice into the offensive zone and right next to the goal and backhanded a pass into the slot where Ryan Steele one-timed the puck home.
(12:33, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 2: Todd Goehring gave the Pioneers the lead with 7:27 left in the period as. Evan Wisocky brought the puck into the offensive zone and dropped a pass at the top of the zone for Goehring where he skated into the high slot and wristed home the goal.
(13:39, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 3: Sacred Heart scored its third goal of the period and second in just over a minute as Matt Tugnutt backhanded a pass from the left boards to Jason Cotton streaking through the offensive zone where he snapped home his 17^th goal of the season.
(19:09.2, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 4: The Pioneers added an empty-net goal with just 50.8 seconds remaining in the third period as Sacred Heart's Braeden Tuck raced down the ice and held off a Quinnipiac defender to finish in the empty net.

NOTES

Cukste scored a goal for a second straight night to bury his fourth goal of the season, pulling within one of a single-season high.
Cukste now has points in three straight games and is tied with Peter DiLiberatore (Bedford, Nova Scotia) for the most goals, assists and points by a defenseman on the team
Fällström recorded an assist for a third straight game and now has points in seven of his last nine games.
With his 12^th assist of the season, he is one assist shy of tying his total from 2018-19 and is tied for 12^th in ECAC Hockey
Jermain extended his point streak to four games with the secondary assist on Cukste's goal.
He has assists in three of those four games, while his 12 points this season are just two off his career-high from his sophomore season.
Quinnipiac won the faceoff battle for the 19^th time this season, led by Odeen Tufto's (Chaska, Minnesota) 11 faceoff wins while Fällström went 8-for-14.

NEXT GAME

Quinnipiac returns to action Friday night as the Bobcats will host No. 1 Cornell at 7 p.m. at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena before taking on the Colgate Raiders Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Friday night's game will serve as Quinnipiac's concussion awareness game and free scarves will be handed out to the first 1,000 fans while Saturday night there will be a Quinnipiac football jersey giveaway.