NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A night after erupting for four third-period goals, Quinnipiac decided to do its damage a little earlier on Saturday.
The Bobcats scored twice in the second period en route to a 4-1 win over Yale at Ingalls Rink. With the win, Quinnipiac ends the Bulldogs’ season and advances to the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals next weekend.
Captain Chase Priskie scored his second goal in as many nights for Quinnipiac, while Brogan Rafferty and Odeen Tufto each had a goal and an assist for the ninth-seeded Bobcats. Keith Petruzzelli made 20 saves for his second win of the series.
Corbin Kaczperski had 25 saves, while Kevin O’Neil had the lone goal for the ninth-seeded Bulldogs (15-15-1).
The sweep comes as Quinnipiac, which struggled for stretches of the regular season, looked very much like its old self this weekend. The Bobcats controlled possession for much of the series and were aggressive blocking shots in their defensive zone.
“We’ve been much better since Christmas, and I thought February was really good,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “I think our culture has come back and guys are really buying in.”
After scoring five unanswered goals in Game 1 Friday, Quinnipiac opened up a 3-0 lead on the Bulldogs on Saturday.
“We knew coming in that it’s hard to end a team’s season. We were all hyped for it. We just took over offensively, and when that happened, we just started to make plays,” Tufto said.
Priskie got the Bobcats on the board 4:41 into the second. The junior was all alone near the left circle and ripped a one-timer past Kaczperksi with a second left on a Quinnipiac power play. The goal was setup by a nifty backhanded pass from behind the net by Tufto. It was his 32nd assist of the year, which tied the program’s single-season record for a freshman.
Tufto made it 2-0 later in the period when he wristed a shot past Kaczperski at 11:51.
Both goals were helped by Yale defensive breakdowns, as Priskie and Tufto were each left open near the net.
A cross-checking against QU’s Kevin Duane 6:08 into the third gave Yale a chance to get back in the game. But a shorthanded breakaway by Craig Martin nearly gave the Bobcats a 3-0 lead and Petruzzelli had several big saves to hold the Bulldogs scoreless.
Joe Snively had a partial breakaway later in the period, but his shot went wide of the net and the Bobcats quickly regrouped and made it 3-0 when Rafferty backhanded a shot past Kaczperski at 10:43.
Snively finished the regular season with fourteen points in his last six games. But the Bulldogs’ leading scorer was held without a point on the weekend.
“We wanted to make sure we had layers with him, if he beats a guy there’s a second guy and if he beats him there’s a third guy,” Pecknold said of defending the Yale junior.
Kevin O’Neil scored at 13:22 to pull Yale to within two goals, but that was as close as the Bulldogs would get as Quinnipiac’s Alex Whelan scored an empty-net goal at 19:01. The Bobcats had scored eight unanswered goals in the series prior to O’Neil’s tally.
Quinnipiac (16-16-4) held Yale to four shots on goal in the third period and controlled play for much of the first period Saturday, but Kaczperski made some timely saves to hold Quinnipiac scoreless.
“I thought we were a better hockey team [compared to Friday], but we didn’t do a good enough job generating offense,” Bulldogs coach Keith Allain said.
However, Yale had several chances in the closing minutes of the first. But Petruzzelli and the Bobcats defense held, as Whelan sprawled out to block a shot in the waning seconds of the period.
“Obviously we’re not happy with our regular season,” Rafferty said of the Bobcats, who didn’t host a playoff series for the first time since joining the ECAC in 2005. “This playoff stretch is a new story and we can hit the reset button and play Quinnipiac hockey.”
