BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — “We’re not the sexiest team on the planet,” said Rand Pecknold, Quinnipiac head coach. “We’re not perfect. We just grind and grind and get rewarded for it.”
The opening period of the Bobcats’ 5-0 win over the Warriors began as a slugfest, with both teams attempting to gain a physical edge as heavy hits were thrown and minimal checks were left unfinished.
Neither side managed to score in the first, but both teams created strong scoring chances. Quinnipiac cycled into high-danger opportunities that led two opportunities, a back-door feed and later a net-front scramble, both of which Merrimack goaltender Zachary Borgiel managed to stifle.
It didn’t take long for Quinnipiac to break the seal in the second period as a pair of early goals from Joey Cipollone and Jacob Quillan gave the Bobcats some control over the game.
Cipollone gathered a misfired shot off the stick of Jayden Lee and banked it off the skate of Will Calverley to open the scoring. Roughly 90 seconds later, Collin Graf flipped a puck through the neutral zone and Sam Lipkin picked it up and slid to a breaking Quillan, who went top shelf to double the lead.
“Just taking it one shift at a time,” Cipollone said. “Tournaments like this obviously there’s a lot of pressure, a lot of high stakes moments. For us the focus was just taking it one shift at a time. Especially with a lot of media timeouts.”
Merrimack tried flipping the momentum and strung together a few strong shifts, but Quinnipiac goaltender Yaniv Perets found a way to eliminate all scoring chances.
The Bobcats dominated possession and shots through the first two periods, but the Warriors still lingered, down only two goals.
Nearing the midway point of the third period, Quinnipiac capitalized again on a blocked shot. This time Michael Lombardi fired one through a screen that beat Borgiel upstairs, giving the Bobcats a 3-0 lead.
“[Metsa] yelled at me. It was a weird bounce,” Lombardi said. “It kind of hit off his skate and popped out. Looked up and luckily I think Joey [Cipollone] or T.J. [Friedmann] was net front and I had a ton of room.”
The Warriors struggled to generate any offense against the stingy Bobcats during the final frame, only mustering two shots on goal.
With just under six minutes remaining, Merrimack had a chance to cut the deficit following a turnover by Iivari Rasanen, but Perets again slammed the door shut after a mad scramble in his crease.
Quinnipiac eventually drove the dagger into Merrimack merely seconds later as Quillan drove around the slot and looked for a back-door pass, but it deflected up and off of Mike Brown and into the net.
Lipkin iced the game in the waning moments with an empty-net shot from center ice, giving Quinnipiac its tenth shutout of the season and a spot in the regional final.
“The lessons that Josh [Ciocco] taught us will be with these guys the rest of their lives,” head coach Scott Borek said. Ciocco, a Merrimack assistant coach, died suddenly at the start of this season.
“And this season will be too,” said Borek. “Not tonight. It wasn’t our night. Quinnipiac’s a heck of a hockey team, but the lessons our team learned from each other and with each other, they’ll never forget and they’ll never lose.”
Quinnipiac will meet Ohio State, with a date to the Frozen Four on the line, on Sunday at 4 p.m.
