Weekend Recap vs. Princeton

The Bobcats swept travel partner Princeton this past weekend (tumblr)

By: Mark Pierson

The Quinnipiac Bobcats and Princeton Tigers faced off for a weekend home and home series starting Friday night at the Bank in a game televised on NESN.

The announced crowd of 3,237 wouldn’t have to wait long as Jeremy Langlois stole a puck from a Princeton defender down low at 5:34 and skated in alone on Tiger netminder Mike Condon, depositing the puck in the back of the net. With just under a minute left in the first, Russell Goodman would shoot through traffic from the slot and put another past Condon giving the Bobcats a 2-0 lead in a period where they limited the Tigers to 5 shots.

In the second we saw another potent display from the Quinnipiac defense, limiting Princeton to only 2 shots in a period where the Bobcats were in the box 3 times. To say to PK is potent would be an understatement. However, one of those shots was able to pinball off a couple of bodies, Hartzell’s upper arm, and the far post to pull the Tigers within one at 2-1, keeping them in a game that was a lot closer on the scoreboard than it was on the ice.

Just over 4 minutes into the third, Tiger James Kerr crushed Zach Tolkinen along the far side boards and was sent to the showers putting Quinnipiac on a 5 minute all-you-can-eat power play. Unfortunately, the weakest part of Quinnipiac’s game continued to struggle and Princeton was able to kill off the major. Less than a minute after the teams returned to full strength, Jordan Samuels-Thomas was whistled for interference giving the Tigers a man-advantage and the opportunity to seize the momentum. Luckily, the strongest part of Quinnipiac’s game, the nation’s 3rd-best penalty kill, was up to the task and ket Princeton from capitalizing.

Continue reading on FTNTTB.

ECAC Hockey in the National Polls (December 10, 2012)

After two ties on the road, Union has dropped in the polls (USCHO)

USCHO
Quinnipiac: up 4 spots to #9
Dartmouth: stays at #10 for second consecutive week
Cornell: down 1 spot to #12
Union: down 2 spots to #14
Yale: stays at #15 for third consecutive week
Harvard: up 2 spots to #18
Colgate: received 35 votes after receiving 1 vote
SLU: received 0 votes after receiving 2 votes

USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine
Quinnipiac: up 2 spots to #9
Dartmouth: down 1 spot to #11
Cornell: up 1 spot to #12
Union: down 2 spots to #13
Yale: #15 for second consecutive week
Harvard: received 9 votes after receiving 3 votes

Fortunately-Unfortunately

Ryan Haggerty (ECAC Hockey)

The good news from last weekend? RPI picked up their first league point with a tie against Princeton and is no longer looking at a donut in their ECAC points column.

The bad news? That one point is all they got, and they continue to sit in last place in the 12-team league. Without going back to look, I’m going to guess that we might have done a tag-and-run with 12th place in the recent past but haven’t actually stayed there for a six-game span like this.

If I may keep the fortunately-unfortunately pattern going, I’ll point out that the boys actually played quite well most of the time this past weekend, with “most of the time” being of course the operative phrase. They stayed out of the penalty box, with only five minors total for the two nights (compared to a total of 20 for the four previous games!) and actually mounted a fair amount of offense, with more speed and passing than I’ve come to expect from the Engineers lately.

Continue reading on RPI Hockey. net

ECAC Power Rankings (Week 5)

Rankings compiled by Luke Devoe

Here is the fifth installment of FTNTTB's ECAC Power Rankings. The rankings will appear each week on the blog. Ten ECAC sportswriters have taken part in the rankings this week and teams have been rated on a 1-12 point scale. If you are interested in sending in your rankings for future weeks tweet me @QUHockeyBlog by Tuesday of the week of the poll. We will aim to get the rankings posted Wednesday of each week.

No rationale this week due to time constraints, but needless to say after a 6-0-0 league start, ECAC writers are very high on the Bobcats. Cornell seems to be sneaking back into relevance and Yale is primed to make the Whitney War a thing to see this season!

First place votes in parenthesis
1.) Quinnipiac- 119 points (9) Highest/Lowest Ranking 1/2

2.) Dartmouth- 105 points (1) Highest/Lowest Ranking 1/4

3.) Yale- 100 points Highest/Lowest Ranking 2/4

Check out the complete rankings on FTNTTB.

Umass & Weekend Recap

(CHN)

By Mark Pierson

QUINNIPIAC 4, UNION 0 & QUINNIPIAC 3, RPI 1
Capital District Sweep On Friday November 30th, Quinnipiac traveled to Schenectady, NY to face the #8 ranked Union Dutchmen. The 1st period saw long stretches of fast-paced back and forth action, a total of 23 shots on net (11 for Q, 12 for U), and even a few power plays, yet remained scoreless. The first couple of minutes of the 2nd looked like it would be more of the same. 

However, at the 3:20 mark Union's Daniel Ciampini took a ill-advised cross checking penalty that seemed to put the Dutchmen back on their heels. The momentum shifted to the Bobcats even though they couldn't convert on the power play. 

Quinnipiac took over and were dictating play all over the ice. Finally at the 15:21 mark, Jeremy Langlois lit the lamp with the 50th goal of his career. He is one of only 2 active D-I players with 50 and becomes the 10th D-I Bobcat to do so. The goal came on a nice feed from behind that net that was one-timed by Troy Grosenick. 

Less than 2 minutes later, Travis St. Denis would take a Langlois rebound and bury it for a 2-0 Quinnipiac lead heading into the intermission. It was a period dominated by the Bobcats who limited Union to a total of 5 shots while putting up 15 of their own.

Read the entire recap on FTNTTB.

ECAC Hockey in the National Polls (December 3, 2012)

(HereCampus.Com)

USCHO
Dartmouth: up 1 spot to #10
Cornell: up 1 spot to #11
Union: down 4 spots to #12
Quinnipiac: up 3 spots to #13
Yale: stays at #15 for second consecutive week
Harvard: down 1 spot to #20
SLU: received 2 votes after receiving 18 votes
Colgate: received 1 vote after receiving 0 vote

USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine
Dartmouth: up 1 spot to #10
Quinnipiac: up to #11 after receiving 40 votes (unranked)
Union: down 5 spots to #12
Cornell: down 1 spot to #13
Yale: down 2 spots to #15
Harvard: received 3 votes after receiving 33 votes
SLU: received 0 votes after receiving 4 votes last week

Big Green Progress Report: Boston College

(BC Interruption)

This has been quite the unexpected year for Dartmouth hockey so far. The Big Green is currently ranked 11th in the country by USCHO and has had one of the best starts in College Hockey. Last weekend saw a highly anticipated match up against the defending national champion Boston College Eagles away at Conte Forum. Dartmouth lost the game 6-3, but the score line did not tell the tale of the game.

Throughout the game the Big Green skated with Boston College. The Eagles are arguably the best team in country so far this season. Sophomore forward Johnny Gaudreau seems to be a lock for the Hobey Baker and proved to the difference against the Big Green with five points. The Eagles top line is a class above the rest in NCAA Hockey and they look destined to repeat as national champions.

Big Green head coach Bob Gaudet shared the same sentiment about Gaidreau in his post-game comments,

“Gaudreau is just a phenomenal player,” stated Gaudet. “he reminds you of Paul Kariya a little bit when he was in college. He is a difference maker there is no question about it.”

Continue reading on The Green Lantern.