Saturday, November 19, 2016

Truehl strong in goal as Quinnipiac downs Cornell 3-1

No. 4/6 Quinnipiac went on the road Friday night before a sellout crowd at Lynah Rink for Cornell's home opener and came away with a 3-1 win. The win improved the Bobcats 8-3-1 on the season and 4-1 in ECAC play. They are tied for second in the ECAC standings with Clarkson and a point behind first place that is currently shared by St. Lawrence and Union.

Craig Martin (photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald)
Quinnipiac quieted the Lynah faithful early, when it started the scoring 10:40 into the first period when Tim Clifton took a Craig Martin pass that split two defenders and backhanded a shot from his knees past Cornell goaltender Mitch Gillam. The Big Red responded a little over two minutes later when Anthony Angello scored on a rebound after Chris Truehl denied two Cornell chances from Patrick McCarron and Mitch Vanderlaan who both got credited for the assists on Angello's goal. Truehl was strong in the first period turning away nine of the ten Cornell shots.

Chris Truel (photo by Mickey Bedell/Bangor Daily News)

The Bobcats scored the game winner 2:52 into the second period on a power play goal by Chris Martin with assists by K.J. Tiefenwerth and Chase Priskie. On the night Quinnipiac was 1 of 4 on power play opportunities. Quinnipiac added an insurance goal at 16:48 mark in the period when Bo Pieper's shot went off the leg of a Cornell defenseman and into the net. Freshman Brogan Rafferty got the only assist on Pieper's goal.  Truehl stopped all seven Cornell shots in the second period.

In the third, the Quinnipiac defense buckled in and suffocated the Cornell offense into submission for the entire period. Late in the game Quinnipiac had to kill off a tripping penalty with Cornell pulling its goaltender. The Bobcats penalty kill was outstanding again killing off all four Cornell power play chances and 29 straight. Chris Truehl made save late in the game that the officials took minutes to review only to wave off no goal. The Quinnipiac goaltender stopped 21 of 22 shots for his third straight win and five of the last six and had very good rebound control in this game.

Quinnipiac has a quick turnaround tomorrow with a 4pm start at Colgate in the Raiders brand new Class of 1965 Arena before heading the Belfast, Northern Ireland this coming week for the Friendship Four tournament. 

Jonathan Singer is a 2004 Quinnipiac alum. You can follow him on Twitter @jonathan_singer.

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