Hamden, CT- The #10 UMass (9-3-0) hockey team traveled down I-91 to visit the Bobcats of #9 Quinnipiac College (12-1-0) tonight. Despite an early 3-0 hole, the Mass Attack battled back to take a 4-3 lead with just over six minutes to play behind two goals from Casey Wellman and a goal apiece by Will Ortiz and Michael Lecomte. The Bobcats however battled back to tie the score before eventually winning 5-4 on a Brandon Wong goal 2:18 into overtime.
Making just his third appearance of the season, goalie Dan Meyers looked very rusty early for the Minutemen. Facing 15 shots but allowing the three goals. The first goal coming only three and a half minutes into the game when Jean-Marc Beaudoin put a rebound past Meyers to give Quinnipiac the lead. The second goal came about 12 minutes later when Mike Atkinson redirected a Brett Dickson shot into the back of the net. The first period scoring was closed out when Scott Zurevinski backhanded a pass from Eric Lampe past Meyers.
The second period for the Mass Attack was marked by Paul Dainton replacing Meyers in goal and sparked the offense that beat UVM 6-2 Tuesday night. For the second game in a row Casey Wellman started the scoring for the Mass Attack at the 1:45 mark of the second stanza when he put a loose puck past QU goalie Dan Clarke. The Minutemen would out shoot the Bobcats 11-8 in the second period, but the Wellman goal would be the only tally for either team in the period.
Will Ortiz would then cut the Bobcat lead to one when TJ Syner dug the puck out of the corner and set up Ortiz for a one timer from the slot that found its way into the net 8:47 into the third period. The Minutemen fans who had made the trek down I-91 to the TD Banknorth Sports Center, to be part of the crowd of 3171, had barely settled back into their seats when Wellman tallied his second mark of the game. The goal came when Wellman took a shot from just inside the blue line that Clarke never had a chance to see only 11 second after the Ortiz goal. The team from Amherst would take the lead a little over four minutes later when Michael Lecomte put the rebound of an Ortiz shot over Clarke’s shoulder with 6:46 seconds to play.
The Bobcats would tie the game when an interference penalty by UMass defenseman Justin Braun allowed QU to pull the goalie to setup a six on four situation with 2:28 to play. With just over 30 seconds left on the penalty kill, it looked as if the Mass attack would survive the penalty, when Zach Hansen sent a hard pass to a waiting Brandon Wong in front of the UMass net. Wong then put the puck past a sprawling Paul Dainton to tie the game with 70 seconds to play.
Hansen and Wong would again combine on the overtime game winner when Hansen set up Mike Atkinson for a slap shot that Dainton was able to stop, however the rebound would squirt away from Dainton and find Wong in the slot. Wong’s shot would find its way past Dainton to give the Bobcats their eighth consecutive win, tying the school record.
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