Hamden, CT. – Maine was no match for the Bobcats on a rare Tuesday night game. The Black Bears got off to a good start, holding Quinnipiac’s high powered corsi machine but it was a shortlived, as a power-play midway through the first period changed the game. Quinnipiac generated five shots on goal, and many other chances on the power-play. Its momentum grew even more, when Chase Priskie retrieved a puck in the neutral zone and went in all alone to score on Maine’s Matt Morris. The Bobcats took the one goal lead to the dressing room, but its possession took over as it sent puck after puck at the Maine net in the latter stages of the period. All told QU sent 33 shots, 17 right in front of Morris and 19 of them found its way on the net.

The onslaught continued in the second, but Quinnipiac was able to use its chances to generate scoring. Tommy Schutt slapped a shot off the post at 5:08 of the period, Devon Toews retrieved a puck off a Maine defender and shot it five-hole and KJ Tiefenworth received his own rebound to put the Bobcats up by a lofty four goals after two periods. It was much of the same in the third period, as both teams had chances but neither found the back of the net. QU improved to 4-0-0 on the season with the 4-0 win, while Maine is still winless at 0-2-3. Garteig picked his 13th career shutout for Quinnipiac and his second in a row.

Thoughts: 

• Quinnipiac activated its defense really well and took advantage of shotty in zone defending by the Maine defense core. The first goal is almost inexcusable. Maine was on a line change, failing to realize a QU defenseman was allowed to retrieve the puck at the red line to go in all alone. It was much of the same as the game went on. Quinnipiac defenders scored three of its four goals, with two of them being on breaks. The fourth was scored by a  forward, Tiefenworth, and it was a missed assignment on the right side. The story was Quinnipiac taking advantage of grand missed assignments on the wings and in front of the net. The again one must wonder how much Maine’s schedule in recent weeks was to blame. It was their third game in five nights, all on the road and have yet to play in Orono.
• The Bobcats are much more impressive than I thought. Defensively there are some holes to be found by better teams, but in due time those will close up. Offensively the Bobcats did some great things, even more so than in prior years. The advantage this season is that it looks better from the outset than it did last year. That should mean good things going forward, but then again they really haven’t played much in the way of good competition. This weekend they will, when they face 4-0-0 St. Cloud in a pair. It should be more of an indication of where the Bobcats really are.
• The Rand pecknold gem finding machine was again turned on in the offseason. He not only found one coming into this year, he found two. Thomas Aldworth has scored three goals on the season and it is hardly a surprise watching him play. He has a keen sense on both ends of the ice and has a good stick that makes him dangerous in the neutral zone. QU needed to replace Matt Peca, Aldworth seems to be the gem upfront that might do so, or at least some of that loss. Much like Aldworth, Chase Priskie was also impressive as a defender. He scored a goal and had some great moments in the D-zone. Quinnipiac also has another freshman defender in Luke Shiplo who played with Clifton on the top D-pair.
• Maine had a good start, but it was unable to sustain it against a QU team that looks the part as one of the better teams in the ECAC. Matt Morris struggled in goal. He didn’t receive much help though, as the Bobcats poured tons of shots on him with many of them being of grade-A quality. McGovern had an impressive showing in two starts and one should assume that when he is healthy again he will be Red Gendron’s go to guy in the Maine net. Having a weekend off could be just what the doctor, although they play an exhibition.

Quotables:

Maine coach Red Gendron said:

“The truth is the other team tonight, outworked us and out-battled us all night long. There is no excuse for that. so I think the goal is simply the tangible result of how we were playing.”

“The may in fact have been faster, but I don’t think that was true. They did look a lot faster than we did tonight. If you’re not competing, racing and winning battles the other team is going to look awfully good.”

Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said:

“I thought the first goal was big. I felt tonight that it really got us over the hump. We took that penalty early in the first and they had a really good power-play. They were kind of all over us for about five minutes and we kind have had some good pushback after that.

“I thought our guys were really into the game and just going. I thought we won races and won battles. I just think we had more jump tonight and It seemed as though our legs were just a little bit better tonight.”

Looking Forward

Maine will play in an exhibition game against New Brunswick next weekend before going to a tournament in Trenton, New Jersey the week after. Maine will play conference rival, UMass in the opener of that tourney on October 30th.

Quinnipiac will host NCHC unbeaten team, St. Cloud State for a pair this weekend. The two will have a combined 8-0-0 record entering the matchup and it should be at the top of everyone’s viewing list in college hockey this weekend.

Wednesday, October 21st, 2015 - 1:11 am | Blogs, ECAC, Hockey East, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings