Record: 19-3-4
Series Record: 14-6-2
Friday February 8
Last Meeting:
November 10, 2012
The last meeting of Quinnipiac and Cornell culminated in the feline travel partners sweeping Cornell. Quinnipiac beat the Big Red 4-1 in their first victory over at the Bank. Quinnipiac scored one power-play goal on the eight opportunities the Big Red gave them, while Cornell did not capitalize on any of the seven power-play opportunities it got. Cornell started to mount a comeback, with Greg Miller scoring the lone goal and John Esposito tallying the lone assist, but it was not enough for the Big Red to beat the Bobcats.
This Season:
Quinnipiac is having one of their best seasons in program memory. In spite of an embarrassing loss to AIC, a split with Robert Morris, and ties with UMass, Brown, and RPI, Quinnipiac has not lost a game in the ECAC to put them in first place in the league. The Bobcats have high ambitions this season, but we are yet to see what they shall achieve. In the last three Friday games, Quinnipiac has had to play in overtime, tying the last two Friday night games.
Keys to the Game:
Hartzell appears to be the key to beating Quinnipiac. Their power-play unit is not top in the country, falling below Cornell, but the numbers are not the only important part of the power play. Cornell has faced higher power-play units, in particular Union (tied for one and at number one when Cornell played them), but also have given up goals to lower power-play units. Cornell will need to be disciplined during penalties and avoid taking more than necessary. On the plus side of the penalty situation, Quinnipiac is one of the most penalized teams in the country, coming at 15.8 penalty minutes per game. Cornell has been able to score when it needs to on the power play and this will be a great opportunity to continue doing so.
When playing their best, most disciplined, hardest working game, Cornell is capable of competing with any team in the country. Cornell will be able to solve Hartzell. Cornell will be able to score and keep the Bobcats from scoring. Cornell just needs to click the way it had previously this season. They are more than capable of doing so this weekend and continuing to do so.
Historical Dimensions:
Quinnipiac is one of the expansion teams in the ECAC. They made the jump to the ECAC after the MAAC folded. Quinnipiac is all but set to finish in the top four of the league to get the coveted first-round bye. While this is not out of the ordinary for Cornell fans to experience, Quinnipiac fans never have had this pleasure. Since joining the league, Quinnipiac has not finished higher than fifth (in 2007 and 2012). In fact, the highest that Quinnipiac has finished is second place in the ECAC Tournament, in 2007 when they beat Union at the Bank, Cornell at Lynah, and St. Lawrence in Albany until Clarkson ended their dreams with a 4-2 loss. Whether Quinnipiac will reach any of its goals this year remains to be answered, but they at least look set to be in a good position for playoffs.