The Quinnipiac Bobcats continued their winning ways with a 5-1 victory over the Robert Morris Colonials Saturday evening.
The Bobcats swept the weekend series from the Colonials for the second straight year.
“I thought that we set the tone early,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “That’s what we wanted to do both nights this weekend.”
Much of the game was played on the special teams. Quinnipiac was on the offensive most of the time, outshooting the Colonials 48-27.
Quinnipiac got on the board just under six minutes into the game, as it was Ben Nelson who first lit the lamp for the Bobcats. Jamie Bates corralled the puck in the corner, found Leitch in the slot and put the puck on net. Robert Morris’ Joe Tuset made the save, but Nelson was on the doorstep and banged it home.
“Once we got the first goal, you could see our confidence soar,” said Pecknold. “We played really well tonight.”
With just under a minute remaining in the first, Nelson struck again. This time it was Reid Cashman and Leitch who set up the score for the Bobcats, for the two-goal advantage.
The Bobcats carried the momentum into the second period with a David Marshall tally. Eric Lampe carried the puck through the neutral zone and fed a streaking Greg Holt, who made a nifty toe drag move, shot, and Marshall picked up the rebound for the goal at 3:40 of the second.
Brandon Wong extended the lead to four on his second goal of the season. Jean-Marc Beaudoin gave a back-door pass to Wong for the goal. Holt got his second assist of the night on the goal as well.
Robert Morris did have one flash of life left on the power play. Chris Margott, who scored the only goal last night for the Colonials, had the only tally tonight as well. Margott put in a rebound in the crease off of Sean Berkstresser’s shot from the left circle of Quinnipiac’s Bud Fisher.
There were a combined 30 penalties in the contest, with Quinnipiac taking the majority, with 17.
“I thought that our penalty kill was pretty good,” said Pecknold. “They did a nice job. We’ve still got to get better, though, and [we’ve] still got a lot of young guys that we’re working into the system.”
The Bobcats return to the ice next weekend with an exhibition game, while Robert Morris has the weekend off.
