Behind Dan Clarke’s 19 save shutout, the Quinnipiac University Bobcats recorded a 6-0 victory over the Dartmouth Big Green Saturday evening in ECAC hockey action.
The Bobcats played in their fourth game in six nights after winning the University of Connecticut Hockey Classic and defeating Harvard last night. Dartmouth entered the game after winning the Ledyard National Bank Classic last weekend.
“Typically, you wouldn’t play this many games in that short of time frame,” said Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold. “We’re ecstatic about it. It was a great week.”
Quinnipiac and Dartmouth both came out aggressive early in the period. Each recorded eight shots in the period.
The Bobcats offense came alive in the second period, recording four goals. To open the second period, the Bobcats recorded two goals in the first 59 seconds.
The Bobcats started on a power play that carried over from the first. Quinnipiac’s Matt Sorteberg carried the puck into the offensive zone after the faceoff at center ice and dumped it deep. David Marshall picked the puck up behind the net and fed Sorteberg for the shot.
Dartmouth’s Jody O’Neill made the initial save on the shot, but was unable to control the rebound. Marshall picked up the rebound and shot at the net, but hit Eric Lampe’s skate. Bryan Leitch stood outside of the crease and banged home the loose puck at 36 seconds of the second period.
“The first period, we didn’t do a great job of screening the goalie,” said Pecknold. “In the second, we had the power play out of the gate. He [Lampe] created traffic in front of O’Neill and he didn’t see the puck. We got a lucky bounce and Leitch buried it in the empty net.”
Just 23 seconds later, Jean-Marc Beaudoin extended the lead to two goals with his unassisted tally marker. Beaudoin picked off an attempted clear by Dartmouth and came in from the right circle to beat O’Neill.
Quinnipiac made it a three-goal advantage when Chris Myers added his third goal of the season at the 8:29 mark. Myers picked off a pass through the neutral zone and went in to beat O’Neill short side.
Less than a minute later, Leitch tallied his second goal of the game, again on the power play. Andy Meyer called for the pass at the point and fed Zach Hansen across the blue line. Hansen held the puck for the forwards to set up in front of the net and then blasted the shot. Leitch in front of the net deflected the puck past O’Neill for the goal.
After the goal James Mello relieved O’Neill of his goaltending duties, making his first appearance this season. O’Neill made 15 saves in the loss.
Scott Zurevinski extended the Bobcats lead to five when he hooked up with Mike Atkinson on a goal. Spencer Heichman batted down a dump-in and moved it to Atkinson in the right circle. Zurevinski stood unmanned in front of the net as Atkinson sauced the pass over to him for the open goal.
Beaudoin recorded his third goal of the game, this time on the power play. On a draw to the left of Mello, Hansen controlled the puck and fed Lampe in the slot, who then passed to an open Beaudoin on the backdoor to get Mello out of position at 12:05.
Clarke finished with 19 saves. It was his second victory as a Bobcat after recording the victory in the Championship game of the UConn Hockey Classic and being named to the All-Tournament team in his first start of the season on Tuesday.
“You never expect things like this, but it’s nice when it happens,” said Clarke about his two starts this season.
Mello finished with nine saves in the non-decision.
Quinnipiac finished three-for-seven on the power play, while Dartmouth went zero-for-five.
The Bobcats return to action next weekend as they host RPI and Union, while Dartmouth hosts Yale and Brown.
