March 18, 2023
Quinnipiac’s Postseason Woes Continue in ECAC Tournament Loss to Colgate
by Cameron Levasseur/CHN Reporter
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. If there’s one recurring theme of Quinnipiac’s postseason performances in recent memory, it’s an inability to break through in the ECAC Tournament. That trend continued Friday night, as the top-seeded Bobcats suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of No. 5 Colgate, 2-1, in the opening semifinal game.
Quinnipiac allowed 47 shots in the loss, 18 of them in overtime, an astounding figure for a team that has given up just 21.6 shots per game this season, second in the NCAA.
“Our puck management was poor,” Bobcats head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We had a lot of panic, kids throwing pucks away all five periods.”
Typically when Quinnipiac has bad periods of play, it does a good job of piecing back together its game. That was not the case against Colgate.
“We’re usually pretty good at hitting the reset button,” Pecknold said. “We just didn’t do that today. It’s unfortunate, probably our worst game of the year, wrong time to do it, but it happens.”
“We had some stretches where we kind of found it and then for whatever reason there were other stretches where Colgate would take it to us and we just couldn’t quite find it,” Quinnipiac graduate defenseman Zach Metsa said. “It’s frustrating because I thought we did a good job last week with it.”
The Bobcats had plenty of chances to take the lead early in the game, including several rebounds that were narrowly cleared and a wide-open net that freshman defenseman Charles-Alexis Legault missed on his backhand.
Capitalizing on those mistakes it was the Raiders who took the lead in the dying minutes of the first period.
That lead held until the third, when a dribbling shot just beat Colgate goaltender Carter Gylander. The junior stonewalled Quinnipiac’s offense all night, stopping 40 of 41 shots in a victorious effort.
“I thought we did a poor job getting traffic in front of him,” Pecknold said. “I thought he saw a lot of shots, which we’re supposed to do, what we’re good at. We just lost our way tonight.”
Pecknold did not shy away from praising the play of the Raiders, who returned with a vengeance after Quinnipiac ended their season in the semifinals a year ago.
“I think they’re an excellent hockey team,” Pecknold…
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