On Saturday afternoon, Quinnipiac finished its weekend sweep of RPI and Union with a 4-1 win over the Dutchwomen.
QU coach Rick Seeley was obviously pleased after the game.
“I thought it was our best weekend of the season from start to finish,” Seeley said. “I was happy with all 120 minutes. I thought we were solid defensively the whole time holding both teams to 15 or 16 shots.”
Despite the loss, Union’s Shenae Lundberg tied her career-best with 41 saves.
“[Lundberg] came up big for us tonight,” Union coach Claudia Barcomb said. “She’s been consistent for us all season and she has been playing like a leader, which is great.”
The Bobcats took an early 1-0 lead just 1:57 into the first period. After the puck deflected off the end boards, it jumped into the slot where Nicole Brown quickly tapped it past Lundberg.
Union answered back with 7:28 left in the first period on a Christine Valente power-play goal. Rihanna Kurio deflected Alex Tancrell-Fontaine’s shot from the right point, but QU’s Victoria Vigilanti stuck out her right leg pad to make the stop. Valente gathered the rebound near the left post and wristed it behind the sprawled-out Vigilanti.
Vigilanti went on to make 15 saves for her ninth win of the season.
Quinnipiac regained the lead with 1:57 left in the period on a Regan Boulton power-play goal. Nicole Kosta flipped a pass to Boulton at the left point. Instead of taking the shot from the blue line, Boulton skated up to the left circle and blasted the puck into the top left corner of the net.
“I saw all their players were off to one side and so I just moved to the other side and saw that [Lundberg’s] glove side was open,” Boulton said. “I just put my head down and ripped it.”
The Bobcats had a golden opportunity midway through the second period to add to their lead when a pair of Dutchwomen went to the box, giving Quinnipiac a five-on-three advantage for 23 seconds. But Union’s defense stepped up and kept Quinnipiac off the scoreboard in the middle frame.
“After we killed off the five-on-three, we had some momentum and we just told the girls to keep going and continue to force Quinnipiac to make some bad passes and continue to forecheck,” Barcomb said.
The Bobcats extended their lead 4:58 into the third period on Shelby Wignall’s first goal of the season. Kelly Babstock found Wignall at the left point. With plenty of traffic in front, Wignall slid a shot on net that trickled through the left circle and under Lundberg’s pads.
Morgan Fritz-Ward added a power-play goal with 2:01 left in the third period to seal the game for the Bobcats.
