HAMDEN, Conn. — Quinnipiac had six different players find the back of the net in a 6-1 win over Massachusetts at High Point Solutions Arena Saturday night.
Quinnipiac improves their record to 13-2-2 (6-1-1 ECAC) with the win as UMass falls to 3-10-2 (1-6-2 Hockey East) on the year.
“I thought it was a good team game for us,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “It wasn’t perfect, but we played really well and finished our chances. I thought we were a little tentative at first to shoot, but then we got that going. Any time you get six goals in a game, it’s a pretty good offensive game.”
Michael Pereira scored the Minutemen’s only goal of the game in the fourth minute of the first period after Branden Gracel found Pereira in the slot with QU goalie Michael Garteig out of position.
The goal was the lone bright spot of the game for UMass, as Quinnipiac fought back to tie the game two minutes later on a Kellen Jones goal.
“I didn’t particularly care for us in the last 40 [minutes],” said UMass coach John Micheletto. “Obviously, we had an opportunity to extend a one-goal lead on the road and we couldn’t clamp it down.”
The Bobcats’ power play went to work later in the first period and converted on their first chance after a Colin Shea hooking penalty. Bryce Van Brabant redirected a Jordan Samuels-Thomas slap shot from the point for Quinnipiac’s second goal of the game.
Travis St. Denis and Sam Anas added two other power-play goals in the second period to extend the Bobcats’ lead to 4-1. St. Denis beat Steve Mastalerz over the shoulder from a sharp angle for the third goal.
Anas scored the lone goal on the major penalty to Mastalerz, who got a game misconduct to go along with a five-minute major for spearing midway through the second period. Mac Haight came in to play goal for the remainder of the game for UMass.
“The power play is big,” Connor Jones said. “It’s a huge part of college hockey. We have two balanced units and that is helping us out.”
The penalties piled up for both teams throughout the game. Quinnipiac finished with 31 penalty minutes on 10 infractions, while UMass finished with 39 penalty minutes on 14 infractions.
“You can’t kill that many penalties against anybody,” Micheletto said. “It takes all the energy out of your legs and you can’t gain any momentum.”
Connor Jones scored the fifth goal for the Bobcats in the third period after Alex Barron pinched to keep the puck in the zone on the near boards and Connor’s brother, Kellen, fed him on the near post.
The final goal of the game came off the stick of Brayden Sherbinin after Brooks Robinson centered a pass from behind the net for Sherbinin.
The win over UMass allowed Quinnipiac to get back to form after their last two games, which saw them blow leads against both Princeton and Providence.
“The past few weeks, we really haven’t been ourselves,” Connor Jones said. “We’ve been taking shortcuts, missing details, things that made us successful last year. Providence, we knew they were a great team and we had to be at our best to win or get a tie. I think it was a big step to get back to our basics and be successful [against UMass].”
