The Quinnipiac University Bobcats (15-14-3, 8-9-3 ECAC Hockey) suffered a 3-2 setback to the hands of the Brown University Bears (3-20-4, 3-14-3 ECAC Hockey) Saturday night in ECAC Hockey action at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.
“Obviously for us it’s nice to have a win,” said Brown coach Roger Grillo. “Last games we’ve played good hockey but haven’t been able to get that second or third goal in a tight game and tonight we did.”
Brown got on the board first with a Matt Vokes power-play tally with 4:10 remaining in the first period, his 10th goal of the season. Vokes was able to bang home a rebound shot from Jeremy Russell off of the faceoff to the left of Bud Fisher and into the net for the 1-0 lead.
“I thought Brown deserved to win tonight and Clemente was great in net tonight,” said Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold. “They finished their chances, were gritty and went to the net. From our standpoint I was really disappointed with how we played.”
The Bobcats best scoring opportunity into the game came on a five-on-three power play advantage midway through the second, but they were unable to capitalize on the man up chances.
Quinnipiac obtained a second two-man advantage at the 13:40 mark and David Marshall took advantage with a power-play goal. At the point, Marshall received a pass from Jean-Marc Beaudoin and walked into the slot with the puck and fired a shot top shelf past the glove of Mike Clemente.
Brown answered back with 2:16 remaining in the second period with Mike Wolff’s first collegiate goal. Sean McMonagle came off the far boards and fed Wolff, who corralled the puck and threw a wrist shot at the net that found its way in, putting Brown back on top.
“It was a huge goal and we killed off one of those five-on-threes,” said Grillo. “We’ve had a tendency to get a little rattled when we give up a goal. We bounced back and that goal gave us some confidence.”
Brown extended the lead to two goals when Jordan Pietrus put home his fourth goal of the season. Pietrus found a puck loose outside of the crease and put it on net. Fisher was able to get a piece of, but it fluttered between his pads and into the net at 4:13 of the third period.
The Bobcats pulled Fisher with just over two minutes remaining and Bryan Leitch was able to cut the deficit in half when he blasted the puck from the right circle of Clemente. Marshall took the puck from center ice and fed Eric Lampe at the blue line, where he found Leitch streaking through the zone and put it past the stick side with thirty-six seconds remaining.
Quinnipiac called timeout after the goal and kept Fisher out of the net, but neither team were able to add to their total.
Clemente finished with 25 saves in the win, while Fisher finished with 22 in the loss. The Bobcats return to action next weekend when they finish the regular season at Harvard and Dartmouth while Brown will host Cornell and Colgate.
