Tufto Records 100th Career Assist in 8-3 Win Over #19 AIC

Saturday, December 26

Hamden, Conn.

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

5-2-0

AIC

5-1-0

American Int'l

Quinnipiac

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

Tufto Records 100th Career Assist in 8-3 Win Over #19 AIC

12/26/2020 11:26:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

Tufto Becomes 8th in Program History with 100 Assists, Seven Men's Ice Hockey Players Score

By: QU Athletic Communications

HAMDEN, Conn. – Seven different Bobcats found the back of the net Saturday night as the No. 16 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey dominated the No. 19 AIC Yellow Jackets, 8-3, at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena.

Quinnipiac's power-play units were clicking on all cylinders as the Bobcats went 5 for 9 on the man-advantage, recording five power-play goals in a game for the first time since Feb. 28, 2014 in an 8-0 victory at St. Lawrence.

Odeen Tufto (Chaska, Minnesota) led the Bobcats with four points as he tied his career-high with four assists, and recorded his 100^th career assist with his third helper of the night. Tufto is the eighth player in program with at least 100 career assists.

First year Ty Smilanic (Denver, Colorado) recorded his first career two-goal game for the Bobcats while Peter DiLiberatore (Bedford, Nova Scotia) picked up his first three-point game with a goal and two assists. Four more Bobcats each had a goal and an assist while Nick Bochen (North Vancouver, British Columbia) had his first two-point game with a pair of assists.

In addition to the Bobcats strong offensive output, Keith Petruzzelli (Wilbraham, Massachusetts) came up big on the defensive end with 34 saves in the winning effort. Petruzzelli's 34 saves are his second-most in a game this season as he made 16 saves in the first period alone.

The Bobcats came out firing as Smilanic scored just 44 seconds into the game and the Bobcats scored three goals in each of the first two periods, including five unanswered goals in the first and second periods to put the game out of reach.

SCORE
Quinnipiac 8, AIC 3

RECORDS
#16 Quinnipiac (5-2-0, 0-0-0 ECAC Hockey) | #19 AIC (5-1-0, 5-0-0 Atlantic Hockey)

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

SCORING SUMMARY

(0:44, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 1, AIC 0: Jayden Lee (North Vancouver, British Columbia) attempted to rim the puck around the offensive zone from the red line but the puck ricocheted up in the air and fell in the middle of the offensive zone where Smilanic chased it down and roofed the puck in the top left corner for the first goal of the game 44 seconds into it.
(1:09, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 1, AIC 1: Tobias Fladeby tied the game just 25 seconds later as he skated in on the weak side and Chris Theodore found him with a pass through the center of the offensive zone for Fladeby to wrist past Petruzzelli's glove side.
(5:13, 1^st period – PP) – Quinnipiac 2, AIC 1: The Bobcats took the lead for good with their first of five power-play goals in the game as Skyler Brind'Amour (Raleigh, North Carolina) slid a puck off a cross Bochen through traffic and past AIC goaltender Stefano Durante.
(16:39, 1^st period) – Quinnipiac 3, AIC 1: Wyatt Bongiovanni (Birmingham, Michigan) doubled the Bobcats lead late in the period as Tufto made a nice move skating into the offensive zone to protect the puck before passing off an AIC defender to Bongiovanni on the back door to shovel the puck past Durante's blocker.
(3:33, 2^nd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 4, AIC 1: The Bobcats continued the scoring barrage with the first of three power-play goals in the second period as Smilanic put home his own rebound off a backhanded pass from Ethan de Jong (North Vancouver, British Columbia) to take a 4-1 lead.
(8:58, 2^nd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 5, AIC 1: Quinnipiac's power-play displayed some great passing along the perimeter before Brind'Amour passed it back to Zach Metsa (Delafield, Wisconsin) waiting at the point for a one-timer that whizzed through a couple of screens to beat Durante.
(11:01, 2^nd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 6, AIC: 1 de Jong added a power-play goal of his own just over two minutes later for his fourth straight game with a power-play goal as Tufto skated the puck into the left corner and Bongiovanni played the puck to de Jong in the left circle. de Jong skated into the slot before wristing the puck past Durante's glove for the goal.
(18:31, 2^nd period) – Quinnipiac 6, AIC 2: The Yellow Jackets got a goal back late in the second as Elijiah Barriga won a faceoff in the offensive zone and Theodore chased down the puck before finding Fladeby in just inside the right circle for the one-timer.
(6:02, 3^rd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 6, AIC 3: AIC pulled back within three goals as Brett Callahan one-timed a feed from Michal Stinil at the left point.
(9:50, 3^rd period – PP) – Quinnipiac 7, AIC 3: DiLiberatore scored a goal of his own as Tufto won a faceoff in the right circle back to DiLiberatore who skated to his left into the high slot and bury a wrister into the top left corner past backup goaltender Jake Kucharski to re-claim a four-goal lead.
(13:41, 3^rd period) – Quinnipiac 8, AIC 3: Joe O'Connor (Hamden, Connecticut) finished off the scoring with 6:19 left in the game as Joey Cipollone (Purchase, New York) found O'Connor in the left circle from the left corner and O'Connor's shot bounced in the air before falling behind Kucharski into the net for his first of the season.

NOTES

Quinnipiac recorded five power-play goals in a game for the first time in nearly seven years as they matched their total from an 8-0 win at St. Lawrence on Feb. 28, 2014.
The Bobcats have scored at least eight goals in a game twice already this season, the first time since the 2013-14 season in which Quinnipiac has scored eight goals twice in a season when they beat St. Lawrence 8-0 on Feb. 28, 2014 and Dartmouth 8-1 on Jan. 31, 2014.
Tufto became the eighth player in program history and fifth in the Division I era to record 100 career assists.
He is now tied with Matthew Peca '15 for seventh in program history and fourth in the Division I era with 101 career assists.
Tufto recorded four assists Saturday night for his second career four-assist game and first since Dec. 1, 2018 at Princeton
He also leads the nation with 11 assists and is tied for the national lead with 13 points, averaging nearly two points per game.
DiLiberatore recorded the 10^th multi-point game of his career and first three-point game with a goal and two assists
He recorded two-assists in a game for the third straight game and fourth time this season as well as eighth time in his career
DiLiberatore is tied for the team and national lead among defensemen with eight assists while his nine points rank second nationally to Metsa
Smilanic picked up his first career two-goal night and second two-point night as a Bobcat with a solid night
He is tied with three other Bobcats for the team lead with four goals this season
Petruzzelli tallied 34 saves Saturday night for his third 30-plus save performance of the season
His 34 saves mark the second-most he's made in a game this season and fourth-most in a game in his career.
He now owns a 1.80 GAA and .935 save percentage
de Jong recorded a power-play goal for a fourth straight game as he extended his career-best goal scoring streak.
He is tied for most power-play goals in the nation with four while his four goals are tied for the team lead.
Metsa tallied a goal and an assist for his second multi-point game of the season, and has now recorded points in six of the first seven games in 2020-21
Metsa has already reached double-digit points and leads the nation among defensemen in scoring with 10 points and eight assists.
Bongiovanni moved back into a tie for the team-lead with four goals as he had his third multi-point game of the season and 13^th of his career
Brind'Amour picked up his first two-point game of the season and fourth of his career with a goal and an assist Saturday, good for his first goal
O'Connor also recorded his first goal of the season and ninth of his career
Bochen recorded his first two-point game as a Bobcat as he recorded the first two assists of his collegiate career
Cipollone recorded his first point as a Bobcat with an assist on O'Connor's goal
Lee played his first game of the season Saturday night and picked up his first point of the year with an assist on his first shift.

NEXT GAME

The Bobcats travel up to Springfield, Mass., Sunday afternoon for a matinee matchup with No. 19 AIC at the MassMutual Center.
Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. with all the action airing on FloHockey.TV
For more information on Quinnipiac men's ice hockey, visit gobobcats.com/mih and follow the Bobcats on Twitter and Instagram, @QU_MIH.