Quinnipiac's Weekend Recap

The weekend was a bittersweet one for the Bobcats as they recorded a landmark program victory winning Saturday night in Orono against the #15 Maine Black Bears only to fall Sunday at the Bank jn an exhibition tilt against the Acadia University Axemen. But we'll start with the positive. The Bobcats are currently ranked 18th in the nation after skating to a 2-1 win over the Maine Black Bears. The Cats skated up to Alfond Arena where they have never left with a good taste in their mouth or a win under their belts. In 3 games up at Alfond Arena, the Bobcats were outscored 17-1. However, those gaudy numbers did not intimidate the Bobcats and they left the arena with their heads held high and their first ever win against Maine.

Eric Hartzell at Maine

The game started off sloppy like any game between two teams who haven't had more than two weekly hours of practice time leading up to Saturday, the first official day teams could practice. Maine was able to notch the first goal of the season when freshman Steven Swavely connected from his brother Jon. For the rest of the first the teams sort of felt each other out with Maine dictating play. The Bobcats were getting it taken to them both physically and offensively as the puck rarely left the Bobcats zone. The Black Bears would outshoot the Q 12-3 in the first period. Pecknold rallied his troops and the Bobcats came out a new team in the second, outshooting the Black Bears 11-10 and notching their first goal of the season only two minutes in when, on a dynamic move to the net, senior Jeremy Langlois guided a puck off of goalie Dan Sullivan right to the waiting stick of freshman Travis St. Denis. The new kid would tap it home and tie up the game, hushing 4,000 plus Black Bear faithful. Midway through the second Maine stud and all-everything winger Joey Diamond hit an awkwardly turning Mike Dalhuisen in the corner sending Dalsy to the ice apparently in pain. Diamond was assessed a game misconduct and sent off. The play was borderline but a scary one for the Q fans in attendance as Dalhuisen laid on the ice writhing in pain. He would return to action, possibly selling the hit more than anything else. The third was much like the first dictated by Maine until with only 1:26 to go Bowling Green transfer Jordan Samuels-Thomas, off the face off potted one past Sullivan sending the Bobcats into celebration mode on the ice. The Q would hold off Maine for the remaining minute plus and walk out of Alfond with a huge, signature win. Eric Hartzell was outstanding when he needed to be and was steady at all times. He finished with 31 saves. The line of Jones-Jones-Peca was flying around all night but didn't generate much offense, most likely due to Maine keying them with their top D pairing. However, the line of Langlois-St. Denis-JST was impressive. The three seemed to mesh and play well off one another. Langlois, normally on the receiving end of many goals, became a distributor and played one of his best all around games in a Bobcat sweater. The rest of the fleet played well as well and the Bobcats were especially defensively stalwart, an area where I believe the team will thrive this season. Sophomore Danny Federico, who saw limited ice time last season, played very responsible defense tonight and even when he was marginally beat, he was able to rebound and make quite a few stellar plays.

Read the rest of Luke and Ben's Analysis on FTNTTB