Thoughts and observations from Quinnipiac's 4-0 shutout of Yale

Quinnipiac dominated its Whitney Avenue rival 4-0

Quinnipiac took apart its Whitney Avenue rival in dominant fashion winning 4-0. The Bobcats took control of this game early with a goal in the first period but completely dominating puck possession and shots on goal. They finished the game outshooting Yale 50-23 en route to keeping the Heroes Hat in Hamden for another season which is the 7th in a row. Quinnipiac goes for the weekend sweep tomorrow when they host Brown. Here are my thoughts and observations after the Yale game.

- What an incredible effort from Quinnipiac. They dominated this game from start to finish. They controlled puck possession, played with a strong pace and peppered Corbin Kaczperski with shots all night. The team never let up and easily could have scored more than four goals on the night. Quinnipiac continues to show they are for real and are showing the ability to play deep into March and possibly April.

- While Quinnipiac was excellent in this game, I thought Yale was awful. They played with no pace and got totally outplayed all night long. They were lucky Kaczperski played well or this game could have been worse. I was not impressed by the Bulldogs and they look vastly overrated. As was in the playoffs last year if you shut down Joe Snively, the rest of the team folds.

- The dominance by Quinnipiac over Yale is just astounding at this point. They are 15-2-4 against the Bulldogs since 2011. However I'd reverse that record in a heartbeat if Quinnipiac could have that loss in Pittsburgh back in 2013 to a National Championship win.

- Quinnipiac was without senior defenseman Brandon Fortunato who got hurt in practice. A source told me he lost an edge on his skates and went into the boards. The time frame of the injury is unknown at this time but his loss is huge as he has been one of Quinnipiac's best players this season on the back end and is a weapon on the power play. Some players are going to have to step up with Fortunato out notably Luke Shiplo, Zach Metsa and Cam Boudreau. Tonight Shiplo stepped up with a goal.

The Heroes Hat will remain in Hamden for another season

- Of the 12 points on the night for Quinnipiac, 5 of them came from freshman with William Fallstrom and Michael Lombardi scoring their 6th and 5th goals respectively. Fellow freshman Desi Burgart, Peter Diliberatore and Ethan de Jong added assists. This has been a very special freshman class and one that should continue to keep Quinnipiac in the mix the few years.

- Nick Jermain played his best game of the season with a goal and an assist effort. His goal in the first got Quinnipiac on the board while he assisted on Michael Lombardi's goal in the third period. Getting Nick Jermain hot could be a big boost to the Bobcats offense down the stretch as he is a player with good offensive skills.

- TJ Friedmann was back in his familiar number 19 on Friday after wearing Joe O'Connor and Matt Cassidy's uniforms the past two games.

- Andrew Shortridge picked up his fourth shutout of the season in the victory while lowering his goals against and save percentage to 1.14 and .955 respectively. He clearly has been the best goaltender in the ECAC this season and possibly the country. He made 23 saves tonight and played flawlessly. He never gave Yale a chance and limited the amount of rebounds.

- Quinnipiac is in second place in the ECAC standings all by themselves after the win over Yale but could have ended the night in first place had Clarkson beat Cornell. Instead the Golden Knights laid an egg and got blown out at Lynah Rink 5-0 against the Big Red. While Quinnipiac holds the tiebreaker over Cornell due to a win and a tie they still trail by a point in the standings.

- Quinnipiac now faces a Brown team that is inching closer to the .500 mark at 9-10-3. They went to Princeton and beat a struggling Tigers team 4-2 at Hobey Baker Rink. With the Yale game in the rearview mirror, Quinnipiac needs to make sure it sweeps this weekend slate of games and keep pace with Cornell at the top of the ECAC standings.

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