Any notions that the Quinnipiac men's hockey team was not among the nation's elite programs was dispelled yesterday when the Bobcats cracked the Top-10 in both national polls for the first time in three years. The Bobcats, currently ranked 9th in the USCHO.com Division I poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, have opened the season with a 9-0-1 run, the second-longest unbeaten streak in the nation.
The Bobcats, who were ranked 11 and 13 last week, jumped into the Top 10 after a two-game sweep of the Princeton Tigers over the weekend. On Friday, Quinnipiac stopped Princeton 3-1 before 3,200 fans at High Point Solutions Arena at TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden. On Saturday, the teams moved down to Hobey Baker Memorial Rink in Princeton, NJ, and the results were similar—this time a 3-0 shutout in the Bobcats’ favor.
Senior Jeremy Langlois factored in four of Quinnipiac's six goals over the weekend the weekend. The of Tempe, Ariz. native picked up two goals and an assist on Friday night, then added an assist on Saturday n\ight. Mike Dalhuisen of Nymegen, Holland, scored twice in Saturday's game while Clay Harvey (Gull Lake, Saskatchewan) and Russell Goodman (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) had a goal and an assist apiece for the weekend.
Eric Hartzell (White Bear Lake, Minn.), the ECAC’s Goalie of the Week for the week ending Dec. 2, and the conference’s reigning Goalie of the Month for November, earned his meddle over the weekend, stopping 11 of the 12 shots the Tigers threw at him on Friday night before delivering his fourth shutout of the season on Saturday night, tying Bud Fisher (’06) for the most career shutouts (9) in program history.
The Bobcats now enter a three-week break as the fall semester comes to a close, but fans will have plenty of opportunities to catch the men's team in action when they begin a series of seven straight home games between Dec. 29–Jan. 22 starting with a non-conference series with Nebraska-Omaha at the High Point Solutions Arena on Dec. 29-30.
Yale currently ranks No. 15 in both polls. The rivals will meet twice in February—once in New Haven; once in Hamden.
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