Hamden, CT- In the four-team ECAC Schedule of the 2020-21 season, the Quinnipiac Bobcats and Clarkson Golden Knights matched up six times. Four of those six games went to overtime and two of them went to a shootout. The overtime rules carried into the new season and in the first meeting between the teams on Friday night, QU and Clarkson took their matchup the distance again.
It didn’t look like an even night to start. Clarkson took the lead in a low-event first period on the power play following a Griffin Mendel interference minor. Alex Campbell did the honors for his fifth goal of the season 5:14 into the game.
The Clarkson lead doubled in the early stages of the 2nd. Jordan Power rifled a puck 1:23 into the stanza. From there, Quinnipiac’s offense woke up. Denver transfer Griffin Mendel wired a shot bar-down 5:08 into the second for his first goal of the season. Yaniv Perets recorded nine saves on ten shots faced in the second, more shots faced and saved than in the rest of the game, to keep the Bobcats in the game.
The Bobcats completed the comeback in the third. Dutch junior Guus Van Nes scored his first goal of the season to even the game 7:30 into the final frame. Quinnipiac controlled the pace and feel of the remaining time of regulation, but couldn’t beat Ethan Haider again despite outshooting Clarkson 7-1 in the final period.
Quinnipiac out-chanced Clarkson in the 3-on-3 overtime period 3-1 but couldn’t beat Haider for the victory. In fact, the best chance, either way, was for Clarkson. Zach Tsekos got a breakaway chance in the dying seconds that Perets snuffed out to send the game to the shootout.
For records purposes, the game goes down as a 2-2 tie. But the shootout provided an extra point for the ECAC standings that Quinnipiac claimed. Wyatt Bongiovanni scored the only goal in the shootout and Yaniv Perets stopped all three Golden Knights attempts to close out the evening with the extra shootout point.
Clarkson moves to 6-4-2 (2-2-1). Sophomore Ethan Haider stopped 19 of 21 shots faced. Luke Santero, a graduate transfer from Bentley, had the game’s only multi-point night with assists on both Golden Knights goals, which were also the Smithers, British Columbia’s first assists in a Clarkson uniform.
The Golden Knights head to New Jersey to face Princeton to complete their weekend trip. Puck drops at Hobey Baker Rink against the Tigers at 7 PM ET.
Quinnipiac moves to 9-1-3 (2-0-1). They stand as the only unbeaten team in the ECAC standings.
Freshman goalie Yaniv Perets stopped 16 of 18 shots and all three shootout attempts to secure the point.
“I thought it was a good, resilient effort on our part,” said QU Head Coach Rand Pecknold. “I thought Clarkson was really good tonight. That’s a hard team. They’re well-coached… But we found a way to come back and tie it.”
The Bobcats host the defending ECAC Champion St. Lawrence Saints for the first meeting since dropping the ECAC Title game in Hamden in overtime on March 20th. Puck drops on the Title rematch at 7 PM ET at the People’s United Center.
