Quinnipiac Advances

Tonight at the LaBahn Arena in Madison, Wisconsin the Quinnipiac Bobcats “hosted” the Franklin Pierce Ravens. Tonight’s game was the nightcap of the opening round of the tournament (also known as one of the “play-in” games or regional semifinals). The games are broken into regions and are based on the top 4 seeds getting home games ahead of the Frozen Four, which takes place next weekend.

At the end of regulation, Quinnipiac secured a game on Saturday with a 4-0 victory. It’s Badgers vs. Bobcats on deck; but first let’s get to tonight’s tilt.

This was a 7 vs. 11 matchup with the winner moving on to face Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon in the Madison Regional. The only common opponent between Quinnipiac and Franklin Pierce this season was Union. The Bobcats beat Union twice and Franklin Pierce fell twice to the Garnet Chargers. Not a lot to base a prediction on, but looking at the net minders, goals were going to be hard to come by.

In net for Franklin Pierce was NEWHA Goalie of the Year Jill Hertl (18-7-2). Hertl has been amazing this season with a .955%SV and a 1.63GAA to go along with her 5 shutouts. Hertl also put up 49 saves tonight in the losing effort, just an unreal season for the senior. At the other end of the sheet stood another Goalie of the Year(2x): Felicia Frank (29-8-3). You want to talk numbies? Frank put up a .944%SV and a 1.48GAA with 10 shutouts of her own, and just to add another stat to her already impressive resume: tonight she broke the single season save record with 987 and counting (not a big deal). And she’s only a sophomore!

The game opened up with Quinnipiac controlling the puck and the pace. The shots were 2:1 in favor of the Bobcats in the first (and close to that for the game), but neither side could solve the other’s netminder and the sides retired for the first intermission knotted at gooses. The best chances of the opening 20 were Emerson Jarvis for Quinnipiac, who had at least 2 partial breakaways but couldn’t find the back of Hertl’s net. And Bo Dean for Franklin Pierce. Dean nearly punched one home in the closing seconds of the first but was denied by Frank.

The Bobcats were looking good in the opening minutes of the 2nd with an early power play and were getting some looks but a great individual effort by a Ravens defender nullified the advantage. Addison Andre made a great poke-check at her own blue line and jumped on the puck initiating her own breakout short-handed. Andre galloped down the LW before drawing a penalty and negating the Bobcats player advantage.

The Bobcats broke the ice first as Zoe Uens flipped a wrister on net from the red line that eluded Hertl over the blocker but the goal was waved off (almost immediately) for offsides. I think Hertl was screened by her own defender moving laterally in the zone, but that’s not something you see every day.

With about 4mins to play, the Bobcats finally got one that counted. Jarvis picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and broke in 1:2 on the right wing. After dragging both defenders, she tucked home the game-winner 5-hole on Hertl. Dangles for days.

The only way you can track her is in slow motion…

It looked like that score would hold until the intermission until Bryn Prier put her foot down. Kahlen Lamarche hit Prier on the LW coming into the zone and Prier gave it back to Lamarche on a nifty backhand sauce at about the RW dot. Lamarche put it on net and the puck caromed off of Prier’s skate as she drove the cage. Say it with me: Good things happen when you go to the net.

In the 3rd Quinnipiac put the pedal to the floor and kept Franklin Pierce locked in their own zone for long stretches. Tough to climb back into the game when you’re stuck defending. With just under 8mins to play, a couple of young guns made it 3-0. Ella Johnson carried into the zone on the LW with Peyton Cormier to her right in a classic 2:1 drill. Johnson moved laterally to her left bringing the defender with her and then laid a silky pass onto Cormier’s tape. There’s no panic in Cormier’s game, as she delayed and tucked a wrister under the bar and over the glove. Great patience.

And then just about 3mins later, Laurence Frenette got her burrito cookie. Mia Lopata put a shot on net from the right point and Cormier got a stick on it but Hertl made the save. The rebound popped to the high slot and Frenette jumped on the loose puck with the big back scratcher. Ball game.

So Quinnipiac has a few days to hang out, work on some things and get ready to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. Franklin Pierce has to head home after gaining some experience and setting a new standard for the program with their first NCAA tourney berth.

I want to commend the Ravens for their game tonight. First of all, Hertl was lights out. This could have easily been 8 or 9 goals against, but the team as a whole should be proud of the game they played. It wasn’t the result they wanted, but they played honorably. No one was playing dirty, not a single player wasn’t hustling to the final whistle and no one had the Eeyore “woe is me” body language. It’s easy to give up in that type of situation and it didn’t look as if any of their players did. Stick taps to the team and the coaching staff. No surprise that Andre was Rookie of the Year and HC David Stockdale was Coach of the Year in the NEWHA. With a young squad this is a great building block for the program.

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