Two-goal efforts from both Brandon Wong and Mike Atkinson helped lead the Quinnipiac Bobcats to a 6-2 victory over the Yale Bulldogs Saturday night.
In the third-ever meeting between the two teams, the intrastate rivalry is already developing into one of college hockey’s finest.
“It was a good hockey game and got a little chippy both ways,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold.
The Bulldogs (8-7-2, 5-5-0 ECACHL) got on the board first on Michael Karwoski’s goal. Matthew Thomey made a pass through the crease that Karwoski put in past Quinnipiac’s Bud Fisher.
“I was a little worried the first five minutes,” said Pecknold. “Yale was ready to play.”
The Bobcats (11-6-4, 8-3-3 ECACHL) were not to be put down early as Wong scored on the power play at 5:09. Greg Holt sent a pass along the blue line to Dan Henningson, who then passed to Wong at the left circle and banked it in off the cross bar for the 1-1 tie.
Quinnipiac continued to swing the momentum their way and took a 2-1 lead on Atkinson’s first collegiate goal, just under one minute later. Atkinson came up through the neutral zone, picked up a loose puck and skated in on two Yale defenders. He made a move on both and got the shot off, which was saved by Alec Richards. But Atkinson picked up his own rebound and put it through the five-hole for the lead.
“It’s his fifth game on the season and he is a very competitive kid,” said Pecknold.
Wong almost made it a two-goal advantage when he made a beautiful play at the blue line. On the penalty kill, Wong pokechecked the puck away and went in alone on Richards, who came up with the big save to keep Yale within one.
The Bobcats took a two-goal lead when David Marshall deked out a Yale defenseman and placed the puck over Richards’ glove at 5:56 of the second.
The Bobcats extended the lead to three with Wong’s second of the night. Wong found the puck on the blade of his stick in a scrum in front of the net and banked it off the crossbar for the goal.
Jean-Marc Beaudoin added the third goal of the period for the Bobcats. Henningson and Wong had assists on the goal.
Yale was able to get another tally from Karwoski under a minute into the third period, but Quinnipiac answered with Atkinson’s second of the night to make the final 6-2 Bobcats.
“A major goal was to get points on the road this season and we got two tonight,” said Pecknold.
Quinnipiac will travel to Niagara next weekend for two non-conference games, while Yale travels to Cornell and Colgate.
