No. 5 Quinnipiac hands Yale fifth straight loss
NEW HAVEN — Peppered early and often with shots on goal, Yale goalie Nathan Reid did his best to keep the Bulldogs in their game with Quinnipiac on Saturday.
This included allowing only two goals in the first period despite the Bobcats outshooting the Bulldogs 20-3 in the period.
The Bobcats kept the pressure on all three periods and the shots kept coming. Collin Graf had a hat trick and Yaniv Perets had 15 saves to lead No. 5 Qunnipiac to a 4-0 win over Yale at Ingalls Rink.
The Quinnipiac men's hockey team has dominated its series with rival Yale in recent years, going 10-1 against the Bulldogs in their last 11 games. The last victory for Yale over Quinnipiac came in a 3-2 win on Feb. 9, 2018.
“We always talk about playing 120 minutes of solid hockey each weekend,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “Last night against Brown we won but we didn't play well overall. Our guys knew that and tonight we saw improvement against Yale. They played much better for an entire game.
“I was impressed with how their goalie played last season and he was impressive tonight. We just kept taking our shots against
him. Collin has been playing better and better and I was thrilled to see him get a hat trick. This was his best game of the season.”
Reid ended up with 41 saves for the Bulldogs.
Since a 3-2 season-opening win over Brown the Bulldogs, (1-5, 1-5) have struggled on both ends of the ice. Since that win, they have lost five in a row with opponents outscoring the Bulldogs 19-1.
In the first period, Graf gave the Bobcats (7-1-2, 4-0) a 1-0 lead off a rising slap shot from just inside the blue line at 9:42. Graf made it 2-0 on a power play goal, winding up for a slap shot inside the left circle that flew just inside the left post at 16:46.
Reilly Connors of Madison had one of Yale's few
chances to score with a wide open shot in the right circle. But Perets made a stick save. Connors had another solid chance to score with a loose puck near the left post at 5:10 of the second period. He took the shot but Perets blocked it and covered the puck.
Zach Metsa would pad the lead at 3-0 for the Bobcats in the second period with a goal at 5:36. Graf added his third goal wih 20 seconds left in the game .
“I felt good today, ready to play,” said Graf, a transfer from Union College.”I'm having a great time here and having a game like this tonight, to contribute to the win, feels great. Their goalie was good. We were told to just keep taking shots on net and that's waht we did.”