Game Gab - Nightly Post-Game Analysis
Come here after the games for analysis and insights from CHN Staff members.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Quinnipiac 10, Cornell 0 - Saturday, March 16, 2013
What do you say about this whack-a-doodle of a game? You think Quinnipiac had something to prove? It scored 24 seconds into the game, outshot Cornell 17-3 in the first period -- and that was only the beginning. Quinnipiac scored three goals in the first six and a half minutes of the second period to make it 5-0, and Cornell coach Mike Schafer decided to pull goalie Andy Iles at that point. Now, you have to realize, Iles has played just about every minute of action the last two years, no matter what. Cornell basically has no true backup. Senior Omar Kanji, no offense, is there just to fill a seat on the bench, and "played" a few seconds on senior night just for the heck of it. But he was sent in there by Schafer with the game already completely out of hand. And then it only got worse. Kanji allowed four more goals on 10 shots the rest of the period, before things got predictably out of hand.
Actually, if there's any surprise it's that it took as long as it did for frustrations to boil over -- at the end of the second period with the score already 9-0. Already coming in, Quinnipiac's Bryce Van Brabant was suspended for a hit Friday that didn't get a penalty at the time; it was a hit that knocked Cornell center Eric Axell out of that game and Saturday's game. Then as the second period wound down, Cornell's Madison Dias was called for a hit from behind major penalty, and that basically led to a line brawl -- 63 minutes in penalties for Cornell and 48 for Quinnipiac just in that incident.
Iles returned for the third, which was probably a good idea by Schafer. Although, on the other end, Quinnipiac understandably got Eric Hartzell out of the there, and Michael Garteig mopped up the shutout. There was some more shenanigans, a couple majors and game misconducts, in the third, and 184 total penalty minutes when the game was said and done.
So ... what does it all mean for Game 3. I bet it means very little. Expect a battle, of the non-penalty-minute kind.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Cornell 3, Quinnipiac 2 - Friday, March 15, 2013
QU coach Rand Pecknold said he felt good coming out of the bye, and the Bobcats looked great early on, getting nine of the game's first 12 shots and taking a 1-0 lead. But Cornell was able to weather the storm, and after getting swept by QU in two games during the regular season, was able to find a rhythm. This is a Cornell team that is now 7-1-1 in the last nine, and one that no one wanted to face in the playoffs, let alone top-seeded Quinnipiac. ... Brian Ferlin, as responsible as anyone for Cornell's turnaround with his much-improved play, scored twice, both on the power play. Cornell went up 3-2 after two, and kept it that way despite QU pumping 15 shots at the net in the third.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Quinnipiac 4, Dartmouth 1 - Saturday, March 2, 2013
Dartmouth's tie with Princetron on Friday was a killer, because then it had to come back and face the top team in the country, and it didn't go too well. As a result, Dartmouth has dropped to 19th in the Pairwise, and is now in serious jeopardy of not making the NCAAs after such a promising first half. It's still a young team, relatively, and still has room to grow, but it looks like it might be another "close but not close enough" season, unless it can win the next four in a row. But that won't be easy. First up is two against Harvard in the first round of the playoffs, and Harvard is playing relatively well right now.
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac lost to Harvard in overtime on Friday, which left a lot of people shaking their head and again questioning the validity of the Bobcats' top spot in the Pairwise. That will of course continue unless they win a national championship, so it's a no-win, and QU needs to just tune it out. It was not a good game against Harvard, clearly, but with nothing to play for, and even the top overall seed in the NCAAs all but wrapped up, you can give QU a pass. And it definitely responded in this one against a good Dartmouth team, outshooting the Big Green, who had a ton to play for, 42-22 in their building. Jordan Samuels-Thomas (13) led the way with two goals.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Brown 3, Quinnipiac 3 - Saturday, February 23, 2013
Quinnipiac blew a late two-goal lead, and gets three points on the weekend, which is still fine for all intents and purposes. But blowing the lead won't leave a good taste. Sometimes, though, that's a good thing for a team that could otherwise be on cruise control. ... Trailing, 3-1, with under three minutes left in regulation, Brown rallied, getting the tying goal with 52 seconds left. “That was a gutsy effort to overcome a two-goal deficit with under three minutes to play,” Brown coach Brendan Whittet said. “We are a resilient group that never quits and we were able to will ourselves to a tie in a packed arena against the top-ranked team in the country.”
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Quinnipiac 2, Clarkson 1 - Saturday, February 16, 2013
After all the hullabaloo of rising to No. 1 in the ultimately irrelevant polls, Quinnipiac was unable to re-focus, which led to a loss to St. Lawrence on Friday. Not willing to get complacent, coach Rand Pecknold shook up the lines Saturday, and it helped the Bobcats recover for an important bounceback win. The team actually clinched the ECAC regular-season title Friday because of Yale's loss, but was presented the trophy Saturday after the win.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Quinnipiac 3, Colgate 2 - Saturday, February 9, 2013
Big setback for Colgate this weekend, losing to QU and Princeton. Despite hovering around .500 in the ECAC, Colgate was within striking distance of the NCAAs coming into the weekend. But the Raiders dropped quite a bit back in the pack now, and are 10th in the ECAC. Losing defenseman Spiro Goulakos to cancer surgery was obviously a huge setback, both for the team and emotionally.
Meanwhile, ho-hum, Quinnipiac rolls right along, with 21 straight unbeaten now and four home games coming up. The Bobcats dismantled Cornell on Friday, and got two goals from Kellen Jones in this one to handle Colgate. Quinnipiac remains No. 1 in all the metrics that matter. Are the Bobcats "for real?" What does that even mean? Leave it up to the chat rooms to debate it. We'll find out on the ice in March.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Quinnipiac 6, Yale 2 - Saturday, February 2, 2013
This was billed as a big game, and rightfully so. Quinnipiac is No. 1 in the Pairwise and Yale entered the game at No. 6 -- and the schools are just 10 miles apart. Though not quite with the old-school cachet of Clarkson-St. Lawrence, nor the ever-present BU-BC rivalry, this is budding into something with two schools similarly close together. ... Yale jumped out to a 2-0 lead, as Quinnipiac seemed to be shaking off the rust still. It had a tie the night before against Brown, getting back into the ECAC schedule after a layoff because its travel partner, Princeton, has its exam period. But once Quinnipiac got going, it took complete control, and is now unbeaten in 19 straight.
And it didn't help that Yale's goaltending issues reared its head again. Normal starter Jeff Malcolm, normally steady at least, if not great, was injured Friday, so Nick Maricic got the start. He played poorly and was pulled after two periods, allowing four goals. “They are a really good team,” said Yale captain Andrew Miller of the Bobcats. “We just wanted to play our game ... fast, hard and smart. At times we did that and there times we did not. Some bounces went their way, some went our way, and they ended up on top.”
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Quinnipiac 3, Union 2 - Saturday, January 12, 2013
These are heady times for Quinnipiac. Prone to second half slumps in seasons past, the Bobcats show no signs of slowing down this year. Friday's tie agains RPI is the lone blemish in its ECAC season so far, they are In a three-way for first place in the Pairwise, and Saturday's win really stuck a dagger into Union. Quinnipiac was down 2-0 entering the third period, and had just gotten two of its players -- Travis St. Denis and Connor Jones -- tossed in the final minute of the second, which meant Union had a lengthy 5-on-3 to open the final 20 minutes. QU managed to kill if off, and then mounted a comeback, that was capped by Kellen Jones late in the period.
Meanwhile, it's a devastating loss for Union, which has been trying desperately to regain its touch. It had a good win Friday in Princeton, but the whole weekend melted down in a seven minute span in Hamden.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Quinnipiac 6, Harvard 2 - Saturday, January 5, 2013
Quinnipiac remained unbeaten in 14 straight, following up a thrilling overtime win on Friday against Dartmouth with a dismantling of struggling Harvard. Six different players scored, and Quinnipiac had little trouble. That was in contrast to Friday, when a very good Dartmouth team came to Hamden and scored two late goals to tie the game. It look some overtime heroics from Jordan Samuels-Thomas for the Bobcats to pull out that victory.
See more on the game in our CHN Blog.
Harvard, meanwhile, continues its slide. It hasn't won since November, and definitely not since it was revealed that four players were suspended in the campus cheating scandal. It doesn't get any easier with BU ahead on the docket, and with Harvard not playing another home game until the end of January, followed by the Beanpot. What was thought to be a promising season has gone in the tank fast and shows no signs of reversing itself.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Quinnipiac 3, Nebraska-Omaha 1 - Sunday, December 30, 2012
See here for the roundup of Saturday's game. Then Sunday, Quinnipiac completed a two-game sweep with a solid 3-1 win. We'll have more to come on this one, but for now, suffice to say that Quinnipiac is certainly for real, and is sitting pretty in the Pairwise now as we enter the new year. It would take a monumental collapse for Quinnipiac to miss the NCAAs, something it hasn't done since joining the ECAC. Now, QU has had some poor second halves of seasons in recent years, but it would really need to go in the tank to ruin things here. Because it was the Bobcats' last non-league game, it's in good shape, with many good wins already in the bank. Just going .500 the rest of the way in the ECAC will be sufficient, though they'll certainly be gunning for more.
Nebraska-Omaha is still OK, despite the two losses. It needs to get Brock Montpetit back in the lineup, but that will be a while. Dean Blais was dressing eight defensemen, and playing two of the up front, this weekend. The goaltending, of course, needs to straighten itself out as well. John Faulkner was decent Sunday, but left a fat rebound that created Quinnipiac's third goal.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Quinnipiac 3, Princeton 0 - Saturday, December 8, 2012
Quinnipiac was the CHN Team of the Week last week, and shows no signs slowing down. A home-and-home sweep with travel partner Princeton makes the Bobcats a perfect 8-0 in the ECAC, and has moved into the upper echelon of the early Pairwise. The team right now is playing with a perfect combination of steady goaltending, a near-impenetrable defense, and timely scoring. The latter is led by Jeremy Langlois, who now has 10 goals. Mike Dalhuisen scored twice on Saturday. And this is without the Bobcats really getting much scoring yet from Matthew Peca or Connor and Kellen Jones.
Meanwhile, the defense allowed just 30 shots the entire weekend, including 12 in Friday's game. Goalie Eric Hartzell's numbers are a 1.29 goals against average and .937 save percentage, aided, certainly, by a senior-laden defensive corps.
The test gets a little bigger for Quinnipiac, with two home games against Nebraska-Omaha on Dec. 29-30. Those games loom large for NCAA Tournament purposes, and just for showing where Quinnipiac stands against top-flight national competition. January has often been a time in the past when Quinnipiac has turned great starts into mediocre seasons. This looks like a team that has staying power this time, but some will still be non-believers until it can sustain it through the season.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Quinnipiac 6, St. Lawrence 2 - Saturday, November 17, 2012
Quinnipiac remained unbeaten in ECAC play (4-0) as it completely dominated St. Lawrence on its own rink. Jeremy Langlois scored twice, and it was 6-0 before the Saints got late goals from Greg Carey and Ryan Flanagan. More good news for Quinnipiac, as Connor Jones got his first goal of the season. It follows a 5-2 thrashing of Clarkson on Friday. Keep playing like this, and we're all just going to make believe those gruesome losses a few weeks ago to American International and Robert Morris just never happened.
Meanwhile, St. Lawrence, which tied Princeton on Friday, has yet to win in ECAC play (0-2-2) after a strong non-league start. It's still a team finding its way, and you knew it wasn't going to be as easy as it looked early on.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Quinnipiac 4, Cornell 1 - Saturday, November 10, 2012
Quinnipiac started slowly, but kept it a scoreless game after one. Then the Bobcats completely dominated the Big Red the rest of the way, and stormed to a win and a weekend sweep. It was a great response to a tough loss to American International during the week that left everyone scratching their head.
As for Cornell, it came into the weekend unbeaten and everyone thinking big, but leaves with two straight losses and everyone wondering what the heck is going on. It wasn't just the losses, Cornell simply didn't look very good in both games, including Friday's loss to Princeton. And that follows two games with Colgate where the Big Red also looked sloppy, despite getting three points. For some reason, the team doesn't have everything tightened up, it was losing battles all weekend, and has its work to do. It's still early, of course, and you can tell how individually talented the team is -- it just needs to put it back together. Goaltender Andy Iles was a bright spot all weekend, but got little help.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Colgate 5, Quinnipiac 1 - Saturday, October 27, 2012
A solid win from Colgate against a Quinnipiac team that had been playing very well so far this season. Colgate wasn't sure where the offense would come from heading into the season, but it has managed to get it from all over so far.
Quinnipiac 3, Cornell 2 - Sunday, March 17, 2013
Kevin Bui scored on a breakaway in the second overtime, finally breaking through after Quinnipiac had been bombarding Cornell with shots in the OT. Quinnipiac tied the game with an extra attacker goal late in regulation, and then pulls out the enormous win for the program. Cornell's season comes to a maddening end, and it gave Quinnipiac everything it could handle. A program with a disappointing regular season, but one with lots of history -- against a program (QU) with the huge regular season, one of the best in the ECAC modern era, but with very little postseason history. Some will look at this series and say it should've been easier for QU -- but that would be the wrong way to look at it. It had to overcome a lot of history to win this series, and hats off for doing so.
Read more in our our complete article.
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