College Hockey Update: Quinnipiac prevailed over Ohio State 4-1 in second round action of the NCAA Hockey tournament in the Bridgeport, Connecticut Region, today, Sunday, March 26, 2023. The game started with Ohio State charging hard and fast, really outstripping Quinnipiac, and scoring very quickly, in the first two minutes on a fast-break, unassisted score by junior forward Joe Dunlap to put Ohio State up 1-0. This play continued on for a few more minutes, and then the play seemed to even up with both teams flying up and down the ice. It seemed that Quinnipiac had the upper hand by about the ten to eleven minute point, and then Christophe Fillion scored with seven minutes left in the period to tie it up at 1-1. The crazy thing was that just seconds later Skyler Brind’Amour score again to give Quinnipiac the 2-1 lead, and the game seemed very, very different, very, very quickly. The 2-1 score stood going into the break, on a quarter in which Ohio State managed nine shots to eight for Quinnipiac.

In the second Ohio State had the momentum and certainly the motivation. They greatly outshot Quinnipiac 15-3, but there seemed to be a composure in what Quinnipiac was doing in relentlessly holding Ohio State off. So the scoreless period ended 2-1 again. And the third was very similar to the second, with Ohio State charging, and Quinnipiac playing a game again of primarily holding Ohio State off. Ohio State outshot Quinnipiac 11-6 in the period, but a penalty on the Buckeyes proved very costly when Cristophe Tellier scored on the powerplay with five minutes left in the game, extending the Quinnipiac lead to 3-1. Ohio State added an extra attacker, but Jayden Lee quickly found the empty net to make it 4-1, Quinnipiac, the score at the end of the game. Quinnipiac advanced to the Frozen Four in Tampa, FL. to face Michigan on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 5:30pm Pacific Time, and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN2.

OUR POOL

The outcome of this game was not an upset in our pool as 32 of our 49 participants picked Quinnipiac to win this game, compared to 8 participants who picked Ohio State; another 7 had picked Harvard, and another 2 had picked Merrimack.

That’s all for now.

Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom