Nine Bobcats Score in 9-2 Rout of Sacred Heart

Monday, December 14

Hamden, Conn.

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

1-0-0

Sacred Heart

1-2-0

Sacred Heart

Quinnipiac

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

12/15/2020 8:30:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

Bochen, Chorney and Fawcett All Net First Career Goals to Highlight Opening Win

By: QU Athletic Communications

HAMDEN, Conn. – The No. 11/11 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team started off its much anticipated season opener of the 2020-21 season with a bang as nine different Bobcats scored Monday night in a dominating 9-2 victory over the Sacred Heart Pioneers.

Quinnipiac tallied nine goals in a game for the first time since Oct. 27, 2018 and it was the first time since at least the 1999-2000 season that the Bobcats had nine different goal scorers in a single game.

Nick Bochen (North Vancouver, British Columbia), Marcus Chorney (Hastings, Minnesota) and Matthew Fawcett (Lincoln, Rhode Island) all netted their first career goals. Chorney added two assists for his first three-point game while Fawcett also chipped in an assist for his first two-point game.

Zach Metsa (Delafield, Wisconsin) led the Bobcats with a career-high four points as he netted a goal and added a career-high three assists. Ethan Leyh (Anmore, British Columbia) had a goal and two assists for a career-high three points while four more Bobcats each tallied a goal and an assist for two-point games.

The Bobcats and Pioneers skated to a scoreless first period before the Bobcats exploded for five goals in the second period, its second straight season with a five-goal period in a game. Wyatt Bongiovanni (Birmingham, Michigan) and Guus van Nes (Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands) scored within 14 seconds of each other in the early stages of the second period and the Bobcats never looked back.

Michael Lombardi (Barrington, Rhode Island) and Fawcett scored to give the Bobcats a 4-0 lead in the period before the Pioneers put one home with 3:17 left in the second. Metsa put the Bobcats back up by four with under 19 seconds left in the period.

Metsa's late-second period goal set the tone heading into the third as the Bobcats scored three goals in a span of 4:08 from Odeen Tufto (Chaska, Minnesota), Bochen and Leyh in the first half of the third period to make it 8-1, Bobcats. After another Sacred Heart goal, Chorney rounded out the scoring as he ripped a power-play goal and cap off the 9-2 win.

Bobcats Celebrate First Goal of 2020-21 Season

SCORE
Quinnipiac 9, Sacred Heart 2

RECORDS
Quinnipiac (1-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC Hockey) | Sacred Heart (1-2-0, 1-1-0 Atlantic Hockey)

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

SCORING SUMMARY

(6:43, 2^nd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 1, Sacred Heart 0: Bongiovanni got the scoring started for the Bobcats early in the second period on a 4-on-3 opportunity as Peter DiLiberatore (Bedford, Nova Scotia) skated in through the slot to create room in the right circle for Bongiovanni where he rifled a one-timer home.
(6:57, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 2, Sacred Heart 0: Just 14 seconds later, van Nes got himself on the board with his first of the season as Tufto skated the puck from end-to-end and circled around the offensive zone before dropping off the puck for van Nes. After skating past a few defenders and into the slot, van Nes fired home a wrister to double the Bobcats lead.
(9:14, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 3, Sacred Heart 0: Less than three minutes after van Nes' goal, Lombardi made it 3-0 Bobcats as he scored a beautiful wraparound goal off a pass from Skyler Brind'Amour (Raleigh, North Carolina).
(14:27, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 4, Sacred Heart 0: Fawcett got himself a goal of his own later in the period as he buried a quick feed from Desi Burgart (North Vancouver, British Columbia) after the pair fired a flurry of shots on the Sacred Heart goal.
(16:43, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 4, Sacred Heart 1: Sacred Heart's Kevin Lombardi got a goal of his own to get the Pioneers on the board with 3:17 left in the second period as the Bobcats turned the puck over in the defensive end and he managed to tuck home the goal.
(19:41.4, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 5, Sacred Heart 1: Metsa ended the period with a rifle late in the second for his first of the game as he wristed the puck from the left point off a feed from Bongiovanni for the Bobcats fifth goal of the period.
(6:04, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 6, Sacred Heart 1: Tufto got the Bobcats going early in the third period as he once again skated from the red line off a touch pass from van Nes and around the Sacred Heart goal before finding room in the slot and burying the low shot before taking a hit.
(7:50, 3^rd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 7, Sacred Heart 1: Nearly two minutes later, Bochen rocketed home a power-play goal off a perfect feed at the point from Metsa for the first of his career.
(10:08, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 8, Sacred Heart 1: Not to be outdone, Leyh fired home his own one-timer over the blocker from low in the left faceoff circle to make it 8-1 Quinnipiac.
(10:56, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 8, Sacred Heart 2: The Pioneers added a second goal midway through the third as Braeden Tuck put home an odd-man rush off a pass from Todd Goehring that deflected off Austin Magera's skated to Tuck in good position.
(16:12, 3^rd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 9, Sacred Heart 2: Chorney rounded out the scoring on the power play with the Bobcats ninth goal of the game as Metsa once again set up the goal with a great pass from the point and Chorney blasted a one-timer into the back of the net.

Matthew Fawcett Celebrates First Career Goal

NOTES

Quinnipiac scored nine goals in a game for the first time since Oct. 27, 2018 and it was the first time with nine different goal scorers in a game since at least the 1999-2000 season.
Metsa set career-highs with three assists and four points as he gets off to a great start in the 2020-21 season. He is the first Quinnipiac defenseman with a four-point game since Brandon Fortunato '19 had five assists vs. AIC on Oct. 27, 2018.
Metsa also picked up Quinnipiac's first four-point game since Bongiovanni had four points in a 7-2 win vs. St. Lawrence on Feb. 22, 2019.
Chorney recorded the first two points of his career Monday night as he tallied a goal and an assist, with his goal coming on the power-play late in the third period.
Leyh set career-highs with two assists and three points for the Bobcats as he recorded his second career multi-point game and first since Jan. 4, 2020 against Dartmouth
Tufto picked up two points with a goal and an assist to extend his NCAA Men's Ice Hockey leading assist and point total, as he has 92 assists and 123 points in his career.
DiLiberatore had a pair of helpers Monday night for his fifth career two-assist game and seventh two-point game
Fawcett recorded the first two points of his career with his assist on Lombardi's goal and his own goal in the second period after not recording a point as a first-year in 2019-20.
Bongiovanni also tallied a goal and an assist for his 11^th career multi-point game
He now has 30 goals and 50 points through 73 games of his Quinnipiac career.
van Nes picked up a goal and an assist for the second multi-point game of his career, his first since a two-point game at Arizona State on Nov. 1, 2019.
Lombard set career-highs with two assists and three points as he recorded the first multi-point game of his collegiate career.
Bochen's power-play tally was the first of his career as he skated in his first game, making him the third Bobcat to record his first career goal on the night.
Ethan de Jong (North Vancouver, British Columbia), Brind'Amour and Burgart each picked up assists in the win as Burgart's helper was his first since Nov. 30, 2019 at UMass.
In total, the Bobcats had 13 different Bobcats record points in the rout.
Keith Petruzzelli (Wilbraham, Massachusetts) made 15 saves for his 35^th career win for the Bobcats while Josh Mayanja (Framingham, Massachusetts) closed out the game with three saves for his third straight appearance without giving up a goal.

NEXT GAME

The Bobcats and Pioneers will battle once again Tuesday night at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena with puck drop set for 7 PM.
For more information on Quinnipiac men's ice hockey, visit gobobcats.com/mih and follow the Bobcats on Twitter and Instagram, @QU_MIH.