Tournament MVP Jamie Holden made 32 saves for the Quinnipiac Bobcats (2-0-0), 3-0 winners in the championship game of the Quinnipiac Cup over Bentley (1-1-0) at the Northford Ice Pavilion Saturday.
The Bobcats scored three first-period goals, then held the Falcons off the scoreboard en route to the win.
Quinnipiac started the scoring at 9:03 of the first period. Reid Cashman cashed in on his first goal of the season when he intercepted a pass in the slot and rifled the puck past a sprawling Simon St. Pierre into the lower left hand corner of the net to make it 1-0.
The Bobcats made it 2-0 at 12:28 of the first on a power play tally by Matt Craig, with an assist to Dan Lefort. The play developed with Quinnipiac on the man advantage where Lefort passed the puck from the top of the right circle, to Craig, who came across the crease and put the puck in past St. Pierre.
“The power play was working very well tonight,” said Craig. “We capitalized on their mistake and it was a great effort by all [six] guys on the ice, including Holden.”
Craig scored his second power play goal of the night less then two minutes later at 14:03 on a 5-on-3 advantage. Cashman and Lefort each had an assist on the goal. Lefort fed Cashman on the blue line, and he saw an open Craig outside the crease, who chipped the shot in the net.
Craig’s goal was his 100th point in a Quinnipiac jersey.
“I have to give credit to my teammates, especially Matt Froehlich,” said Craig. “I couldn’t ask for a better linemate and I am fortunate to be with him and keep the scoring going between us throughout the season.”
The Bobcats outshot the Falcons 21-5 in the period, but in the final two periods the Falcons outshot the Bobcats 27-8.
“This is not the type of game where you expect a shutout,” said Holden. “With Bentley having 14 power plays and the way they shoot the puck, anything could happen. I just got lucky throughout the night.”
There was no scoring in the second period but both teams played aggressively, with bodies and sticks flying. The teams accumulated 24 penalties.
Bentley had 14 power plays throughout the night, but was unable to capitalize against Quinnipiac’s defense and goaltending by Holden.
“The team played well in front of me helping to bail me out of tough situations,” said Holden. “The team pushes me in practice to work hard as well as me encouraging them.”
“We spent a lot of time working on the penalty kill, said Quinnipiac assistant coach Scott Robson. “We took a bit too many penalties and out best penalty killer is our goaltender. He stopped all [of Bentley’s] shots without many rebounds.”
Bentley forward Ryan Mayhew and the Bobcats’ Matt Sorteberg, Craig and Holden were named to the All-Tournament team. It was the seventh Quinnipiac Cup title for the Bobcats in nine years.
