HAMDEN, Conn. — Two first-period goals were enough to spark Quinnipiac to a 3-0 shutout of Brown Friday night at the High Point Solutions Arena.
With the win, Quinnipiac (9-1-0, 3-0-0 ECAC) extends its winning streak to nine games on the season since opening with a loss to Alaska-Anchorage.
Michael Garteig stopped all 20 shots he faced for Quinnipiac and was able to hold on for his second consecutive shutout. He had seen just six shots through the first two periods before Brown (2-2-1, 0-2-1 ECAC) fired 14 shots on him in the third period.
“He’s got a really good mentality for a goaltender – he’s a highly competitive person, he’s a warrior and battles,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said of Garteig. “Even there at the end when it’s 3-0, they’ve got the goalie pulled and it’s a six-on-four, he wanted that shutout and you can’t teach that.”
Corey Hibbeler got the scoring started for the Bobcats just over midway through the first period with a wrister from the top left of the faceoff circle to make it 1-0 after Bryce Van Brabant won the faceoff.
Quinnipiac doubled its lead with 1.2 seconds left in the first period when Sam Anas won the puck in the left corner and fired a pass to Connor Clifton at the blue line, where he wristed the puck over the blocker of Marco De Filippo and off the post for his third goal of the season.
The Bobcats dominated the Bears on the offensive end as Quinnipiac outshot Brown 48-20 in the game.
Despite the strong third period effort, it wasn’t enough for the Bears to overcome the Bobcats.
“If we would have started the game like we finished the game, it would have actually been a hockey game,” Brown coach Brendan Whittet said. “We played hard and we got after it and we were much more in tune with what I expect out of our team in the third period. We didn’t make it very hard on them in the first two periods.”
Kellen Jones added an empty-net goal for his 98th career point with just 1:41 remaining in the third period to give Quinnipiac the 3-0 final.
Both teams played extremely physical, yet neither team could get anything going on the power play as Quinnipiac went 0-for-5 and Brown went 0-for-7 in man-advantage situations.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t move pucks crisply enough, we didn’t shoot when we had the opportunity, we wanted to make the extra stick handle,” Whittet said. “We always wanted to find a better play. We just got to get back to the basics in that regard and overall.”
Quinnipiac was forced to overcome the seven power plays and the penalty kill was up to the task, only allowing four shots by Brown on the power play.
“We do what we always do, we played our system,” Pecknold said. “I thought we executed well, [Garteig] made some saves when he needed to.”
De Filippo kept the Bears in the game the entire way, stopping 45 of the 47 shots he faced in the game and gave them a chance to win.
“I thought [De Filippo] was excellent,” Whittet said. “I mean, he gave us an opportunity going into the third and that’s all I can ask for him from a goaltender. I was very happy with his performance.”
Even with the 2013 national championship rematch against Yale looming Saturday, Pecknold said the Bobcats were not overlooking Friday night’s game against the Bears.
“We certainly didn’t look past Brown at all,” said Pecknold. “We were good tonight, we were ready to play. I just think it’s more a credit to our team and to our captains and leaders in the locker room. They were focused, they were ready to go.”
