ALLENTOWN, Pa. —In a battle of dogs and cats, and old and new at the PPL Center, it was the Connecticut Huskies, in their first-ever NCAA Division I tournament game, getting the better of the Quinnipiac Bobcats by a 4-1 score in the first regional semifinal. The Huskies will now face the winner of the nightcap between top-seeded Maine and host school Penn State in the regional final on Sunday.
“We’re pretty excited to be moving on,” said UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh.”That’s a real battle-tested team over there, and for us to play as well as we did tonight, it’s a really good win for us.”
UConn broke through 8:25 into the first period, when Nick Carabin kept the puck in the Quinnipiac zone before Tabor Heaslip dished it back to Hugh Larkin above the circles. Larkin then wristed it past Bobcats goaltender Dylan Silverstein for the lead.
“He (Larkin) had some (NCAAs) experience with Western Michigan, which is invaluable for our guys,” said Cavanaugh.
UConn made it 2-0 just over six minutes later when Ethan Gardula pickpocketed a Quinnipiac defender inside the Bobcat blueline, then raced in to beat Silverstein with a backhand.
“I kind of read off the defense, and picked off the puck,” said Gardula.
Quinnipiac’s top-ranked power play (29.9 percent) got an opportunity after Jake Richard was sent off for cross-checking, but couldn’t convert.
“We take a lot of pride in defending our own zone, but we played in their zone most of our shifts,” said Cavanaugh. “Our defense was a by-product of our controlling the game in their zone.
“We pretty much rolled four lines tonight.”
The Huskies nearly made it 3-0 just 24 seconds into the second period, but Silverstein gloved Hudson Schandor’s point-blank attempt. He then made a pad save on Kaden Shahan’s backhander in tight just over a minute afterwards, before later thwarting Richard in-close on a power play after Quinnipiac’s Jeremy Wilmer was sent off for a face-off violation.
Wilmer got the Bobcats on the scoreboard shortly after, when he broke in two-on-one with Mason Marcellus to his right. Marcellus threaded a backhand pass to Wilmer, who deposited it upstairs on UConn freshman netminder Callum Tung at 10:11. The Huskies got that one back four minutes later, though, when Tristan Fraser slugged home the rebound of a shot by Jake Percival.
“We’ve faced a lot of challenges as a group, and Hockey East is all over this tournament,” said Schandor. “We felt really prepared mentally, which is half the battle, and our group did a great job focusing on the game.”
Tung had to be examined by a trainer after taking a skate to the chin midway through the third period, but he recovered to make a spectacular glove save on Andon Cerbone from the right circle to keep UConn ahead by two.
“It’s huge for me and the team ,” said Tung of the win. “We defend as a group, and our guys sold out and blocked shots and made it easy on me.”
Joey Muldowney ultimately shot a puck all the way down into an empty Quinnipiac net with 2:15 remaining to close out the scoring with his 28th goal of the season.
“We know what works for us,” said Gardula, “and we hope to keep it going Sunday.”
Shots on goal were even at 22 apiece, while both teams combined to go 0-for-5 on the power play.
Quinnipiac (24-12-2 overall), which lost to Cornell in the ECAC Hockey semifinals, was back in the NCAA tournament for a fifth consecutive season, two years removed from a national title and playing in Allentown for the second time in four years. It is the first time in four appearances overall at the PPL Center that the Bobcats did not advance to the regional final.
“Congratulations to UConn,” said longtime Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “They were all over us. Tung made some big saves in the third, and we took too long to get going. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we still had a great season.”
Marcellus mentioned the older players and transfers on this year’s Quinnipiac roster, who will now be moving on with the season complete.
“As soon as they came here, they became Bobcats,” he said. “The amount I learned from them, I’m really going to miss everyone we lose this year.”
UConn (23-11-4), which fell to Maine in this year’s Hockey East title game, had earlier edged Quinnipiac in the first round of this season’s Connecticut Ice tournament, which was ultimately won by the Huskies. Now it’s UConn who moves on to Sunday, for a possible conference rematch with the Black Bears, and with a trip to St. Louis on the line.
“We’re playing for a chance to go to the Frozen Four, and that’s enough motivation for anyone,” said Cavanaugh. “Sunday’s game will be even more intense, whoever we face.”
