Freshman Zach Hansen’s first collegiate goal helped propel the Quinnipiac Bobcats to a 3-2 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Saturday night at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.
“Henny [Dan Henningson] made a great pass over and I give the credit to the guys in front for screening,” said Hansen. “It wasn’t the greatest shot, but it went in.”
Quinnipiac started the third period on a power play and capitalized 55 seconds in. Hansen found the puck on his stick in the slot on a pass by Henningson and blasted it through the five hole of RPI’s Jordan Alford. It was Hansen’s first collegiate goal
“It’s a monkey off the back and can get that one out of the way,” said Hansen. “It’s not too important as long as they are all going in.”
The Bobcats opened the scoring in the game on a four-on-three powerplay goal with just over one minute remaining in the opening stanza. Breaking out from behind the net, Henningson passed over to Brandon Wong, who chipped it over to Jamie Bates as he came into the zone. Bates blasted the puck from the top of the left circle for the 1-0 Quinnipiac lead.
“I thought our competitiveness was a lot better,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “We still made a couple of mistakes, but when you compete as hard as we did tonight you can make up for a lot of mistakes.”
RPI evened the scored on a two-on-one odd man rush. Jake Morissette found the puck outside the Bobcats’ blue line and came into the zone with a streaking Andrei Uryadov. Morissette fed the puck across to Uryadov, who found a seam between Quinnipiac’s Peter Vetri’s glove and the post at 4:56 of the second.
Quinnipiac took the lead again on Eric Lampe’s snipe from between the circles. David Marshall won the faceoff over to the forehand side of Lampe, who ripped the shot over the shoulder of Alford.
“Quinnipiac is a pretty good team with lots of skill,” said RPI head coach Seth Appert. “I have a lot of respect for how Rand has built that program. They are one of the most skilled teams in the league, especially up front with their forwards.”
The Engineers tied the game two with a shorthanded tally with 1:30 remaining in the second. Again RPI came in on a two-on-one odd man rush and this time it was Erik Burgdoerfer feeding Seth Klerer for the goal through the five-hole of Vetri.
