Bobcats capture first win over UND; same two battle on Saturday
HAMDEN, Conn. (UND Athletics)– No. 7 Quinnipiac struck for a pair of goals in the second and third to vault past No. 6 North Dakota, 5-2, on Friday night from the People’s United Center from Hamden, Conn.
The Bobcats (3-0-1) connected on two of their six power play opportunities while holding UND (3-2-0) to just 1-for-3 with one shot on the man advantage to notch their first win over the green and white in program history.
QU used the first and third periods to take control of the game, outshooting the Fighting Hawks, 21-7, over that span. The face-off dot was also a critical point in the tilt, with the Bobcats winning 40 of the 68 draws, and tallying a pair of goals immediately off a face-off.
Zach Driscoll stopped 23 of the 27 shots he saw, but dropped his second straight game in net. Yaniv Perets turned aside 14 of the 16 UND shots in his third start of the season.
The combo of Oliver Chau and Zach Metsa provided a lot of the offense for the hosts, combining for six points. Chau netted a pair of tallies and an assist while Metsa dished out a trio of helpers.
After an early storm by Quinnipiac, it was North Dakota who struck first at the 7:44 mark of the opening stanza. Matteo Costantini stripped his defender of the puck, carried down the wall into the offensive zone and snapped a puck under the legs of Perets for his first-collegiate goal and a 1-0 UND lead.
Following the goal, UND seemed to take over play, but Chau evened the contest at one on a rush to send both teams into the locker room knotted up.
Momentum seemed to stay with the Hawks out of the intermission, with UND finishing with a 9-7 shot advantage and a good run of chances; however, an icing just five minutes in flipped the script. North Dakota was unable to clear the zone following the icing, allowing the puck to find Joey Cipollone in front of the net who gave the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.
Penalties took over the majority of the second frame, with both sides heading to the box twice. QU took advantage with a power play goal midway through the stanza to take a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Facing a two-goal deficit for the second straight game, UND once again found itself in penalty trouble, with two players getting called for a minor on the same play to put the Bobcats on a 5-on-3 for two minutes. Ty Smilanic capitalized following a won face-off to extend the lead to 4-1 with just over 10 minutes to play.
Jake Sanderson sniped home his third of the year on a 4-on-3 advantage to bring the Hawks back within two, 4-2, with 4:43 to play, but Chau’s second of the night into an empty net sealed the 5-2 win for QU.
North Dakota and Quinnipiac will finish out the series tomorrow night at 6:02 p.m. on ESPN+ and Home of Economy Radio Network.
NOTES: The win was the first for Quinnipiac in its history over UND … QU finished with a 28-16 shot advantage … UND went 1-for-3 on the power play while QU went 2-for-6 … The goal by Sanderson was the first allowed by the Bobcats on the man advantage this year … Connor Ford led UND with 12 face-off wins on 24 attempts … Tyler Kleven had a game-high five shots on goal … This is the first back-to-back loss for UND since Mar. 15-16, 2019 at Denver … UND drops to 2-1-0 this season when scoring first … The Hawks suffer their first loss when scoring first since Jan. 24, 2020 at Minnesota Duluth.
Game Recap: Men’s Hockey | 10/22/2021 10:57:00 PM | Alec Stocker Johnson, FightingHawks.com