Behind Bud Fisher’s 25-save shutout, the Quinnipiac Bobcats defeated the Brown Bears, 3-0, in a Sunday afternoon game at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.
Fisher recorded his third shutout of the year for the Bobcats and ninth all-time to secure a four-point weekend after the defeat of Yale Friday night, 5-1.
“The guys did a great job in front of the net,” said Fisher. “I gave up some rebounds, but the guys cleared them and made it easy for me and helped eliminate their scoring chances.”
Quinnipiac got the first goal of the game on a backhand, no-look shot, by Mike Atkinson through the five-hole of Brown’s Dan Rosen. Greg Holt started the play when he upended Jordan Pietrus in the circle to the right of Rosen. Holt picked up the puck in the corner, as Pietrus lay with his face down on the ice, and fed Atkinson in the circle. Atkinson corralled the puck and threw the puck at the net, and it found its way through the five-hole of Rosen.
“Sunday afternoon and a little bit of an emotional hangover from the big win Friday night,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “We talked about it [an afternoon game] and addressed it in many different ways. I tried to switch the lines up to give us a little bit of life and I thought we were real fortunate to get out of there with a 1-0 lead.”
Brown dominated the play early recording 14 shots in the first eleven minutes, but did not register another shot through the rest of the first period. Quinnipiac on the other hand had two shots in the same time, but finished with 12.
Neither team registered a goal in the second. Quinnipiac held the advantage in shots, 15-7.
“Bud played well and we did a good job in front of him,” said Pecknold. “We gave up a lot of perimeter shots and quality chances weren’t quite there. He did what he needed to do and kept us in it and made saves in the first when he needed to. Anytime you get a shutout in this league its great.
The Bobcats took a two goal advantage with Dan Travis’ 10th goal of the season. Coming down on a three-on-one, Chris Myers from the left side fed Isak Tranvik to the middle. Tranvik left the puck and screened Rosen as Travis fired the puck through the five-hole of Rosen at 3:42 of the third.
Brandon Wong secured the victory for the Bobcats with an empty net goal with assists credited to Tranvik and Andrew Meyer.
“This game we knew was huge in the standings and we knew they were going to come out flying,” said Fisher.
The Bobcats move into a tie for second place with Princeton, two points behind league leader Clarkson.
Quinnipiac will travel to Dartmouth next weekend while Brown hosts Clarkson.
