A third-period barrage propelled Colorado College past Quinnipiac, 7-2, in front of 5,802 at World Arena on Saturday night. The Tigers now hold a perfect 4-0-0 record, while the Bobcats sit at 2-1-0.
Heading into the last stanza with a 3-0 lead, Quinnipiac scored a quick one to make it 3-1 before the Tigers netted four goals within 10 minutes. With nine seconds left, the Bobcats added one to bring the final score to 7-2.
Contrary to CC’s first three games that saw Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling tally most of the Tiger points, this game involved scoring from all sides of the team.
“It was a good all around effort by all of the guys,” said CC defenseman Lee Sweatt.
“As good as Marty and Brett are, they weren’t lighting it up the way they were last night,” said CC head coach Scott Owens. “It was good to see the defensemen moving well and converting. There were a lot of good things that happened.”
Despite Quinnipiac coming into this weekend tops in the nation in special teams after killing 17-of-18 power-play situations in its first two games, the power-play happy Tigers had no trouble netting a quick two tallies on the advantage in the first period. All four of CC’s goals on Friday night at Air Force were scored on the power play, making it six in a row for the Tigers.
Ten seconds into the first, CC got its first power play, followed shortly by a 5-on-3 advantage. Still up a man at 3:55, Tiger captain Mark Stuart used his team-best 95 mph slapshot to put CC on the board. Tardy Weston sent the puck to Stuart, who was high in the slot just in front of the blue line set up for the one-timer. Jimmy Kilpatrick also assisted on the play.
CC’s second goal came from a play nearly identical to that of the first goal. Again on the power play at 15:44, Sweatt got a pass from Kilpatrick and Derek Patrosso and took a quick shot from just inside the zone to beat Quinnipiac senior netminder Jamie Holden, who had a screen in front.
A lopsided first period, in which the Bobcats did not get a shot off until after the 10-minute mark and were outshot 15-4, yielded to a similar second frame. Quinnipiac put up only four shots on goal to bring its two-period total to eight, while CC tested Holden 22 more times to end the period with 37 shots.
The lone goal of the second came at 18:44 as Sterling and Stuart assisted Sertich on his fifth goal of the season. Skating in from the goal line, Sertich flipped in a backhander high on the opposite corner to put CC up 3-0 heading into the third.
Through two periods, the power play worked only to CC’s advantage, as the Bobcats twice had a 5-on-3 advantage, only to give it up to the Tigers by being whistled for tripping on each occasion to bring it back to a 4-on-3 situation.
At 1:47 of the third, with its 10th shot on net, Quinnipiac got on the board as Chris White skated toward the left side of the net, was fed a pass from Matt Craig and Mark Van Vliet and hit the back of the net high on CC goaltender Matt Zaba’s glove side.
With the Tiger lead down to two, Sertich was given a minor for hooking at 3:18. After an effective penalty kill, Sertich popped out of the box and grabbed the puck from Sweatt for a breakaway. Carrying the puck down the ice, Sertich passed it to Scott Thauwald in front, and Thauwald capitalized to give CC the 4-1 lead at 5:32.
Less than 10 minutes later, CC was up by six. At 9:29 Richard Petiot scored on a pass from Joey Crabb and Trevor Frischmon, followed by a power-play goal from Kilpatrick at 11:51. Sterling netted his sixth of the season to close out CC scoring at 14:55 with a bounce off the back of a tiring Holden.
Rob Hammel added a second goal for Quinnipiac at 19:51 while on the power play to end the game 7-2.
CC’s 52 shots nearly tripled Quinnipiac’s total of 18.
“I was pretty disappointed how we played,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “I thought CC really took it to us and outside of Jamie Holden, I didn’t think we had anybody who stepped up.”
Now holding an 11-0-1 record in its last 12 outings against non-WCHA opponents, CC will move into conference play on Nov. 5-6 at North Dakota.
“I like a lot of the things we’ve seen so far in the first month,” said Owens. “But it’s a whole different animal once you get into Grand Forks and are playing Denver and Minnesota.”
Quinnipiac faces off at Air Force on Sunday, while CC has a week off.
