It took 24 hours to get the puck to drop between Quinnipiac and Colgate, but when all was said and done on Sunday evening, the Bobcats picked up a 4-1 win on Senior Day.
This weekend saw over three feet of snow fall on Hamden, Conn., delaying the Raiders’ arrival until Sunday.
Kelly Babstock led Quinnipiac (17-9-3, 11-5-2 ECAC) offensively with two goals, including her 75th career goal and 150th career point, while Nicole Kosta and Regan Boulton added two points each in the victory.
Despite allowing four goals in the game, the Raiders (9-17-3, 4-11-3 ECAC) were led by their freshman goaltender Ashlynne Rando’s 33 saves.
“When [Rando is] playing like that with confidence, she’s battling hard, she gives us a chance to win and I thought even though it was a 4-1 end result, I thought we had a chance to win tonight and a lot of that credit has to go to her,” Colgate coach Greg Fargo said.
Rando’s biggest save came on the Quinnipiac penalty kill when Babstock and Kosta broke out for a two-on-one shorthanded opportunity and she was able to glove save Kosta’s shot.
Quinnipiac and Colgate skated to a 0-0 tie in the first period, but the Bobcats came out in the second period hungry for the net.
“We all agreed we were a little sluggish, it’s a strange weekend, postponed games,” said QU coach Rick Seeley. “They just got together, I thought they came out and that’s something we’ve had trouble with in the past when we started a game that way but they really stepped it up.”
Babstock got the scoring started about five minutes into the second period with a power-play goal to make it 1-0 Bobcats.
Nicole Gass took a Colgate penalty 4:30 into the period putting Quinnipiac on the power play. Boulton sent a pass to Brittany Lyons in the slot, who fired a shot off the pads of Rando. Babstock was next to the goal and tucked home the rebound off Lyons’ shot.
“On both goals, they made some high-end plays by good players and they didn’t miss when they had the chance,” Fargo said. “They were very opportunistic with their power plays and we probably could have done something a little different to make it a little harder on them.”
Just five more minutes later, Felica Vieweg wristed a shot from the point to put the Bobcats ahead by two goals. Kristen Eklund won the faceoff in the offensive zone for Quinnipiac and sent it to Nicole Brown, who brought it back to the point to set up Vieweg’s wrister that flew past Rando’s glove side to light the lamp.
Colgate cut the Bobcats’ lead in half only 23 seconds into the third period off Megan Wickens’ goal to make it 2-1. Wickens’ shot sent Quinnipiac goaltender Victoria Vigilanti sprawling for the net to stop the puck, but it crossed the line.
Vigilanti finished the game with 21 saves for the Bobcats.
The Bobcats scored their second power-play goal of the game to go 2-2 on the power play for the game. Kosta wristed a shot over the blocker of Rando from the faceoff dot to put Quinnipiac ahead 3-1 over the Raiders. The Bobcats won the faceoff and Erica Uden Johansson worked the puck to Kosta on the left faceoff circle.
“I thought we moved the puck well and took quick shots,” said Seeley. “That’s what created the goals for us.”
Babstock ended the scoring for Quinnipiac with an empty-net goal.
Colgate was outshot by the Bobcats 37-22, but Boulton said this was the best weekend Quinnipiac played after defeating Cornell 3-1 on Friday.
“This isn’t going to be our last home game for sure,” said Boulton. “We just need to win the next few games and we’ll be back here in the building. I have all the faith in the team. This is one of the best weekends we’ve had all year, from start to finish, both games.”
