Union Men’s hockey clinches ECAC Hockey First Round bye with 4-1 win against Quinnipiac

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—The Union College men’s hockey team scored four unanswered goals, including three in a 1:40 span, en route to a 4-1 win against Quinnipiac, Friday night at Messa Rink. The Dutchmen, who secured an ECAC Hockey First Round bye for the sixth time in the last eight seasons, improve to 21-8-2 overall and 14-4-1 in ECAC Hockey, while the Bobcats go to 16-13-2 overall and 10-8-1 in league play.

Mike Vecchione extended his point streak to five games (4G-5A) with a goal and an assist and Spencer Foo also contributed a goal and an assist for Union. Vecchione leads Division I with 18 multi-point games this season, while Foo ranks second with 17.

Brett Supinski notched his fourth point in the last three games (1G-3A) with a goal andJ.C. Brassard rounded out the scoring for the Dutchmen, while Jeff Taylor chipped in with a pair of helpers. In goal, Alex Sakellaropoulos made 18 saves to improve to 18-4-1.

Union jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, exploding for three goals in 1:40. Brassard opened the scoring at 14:18, beating a screened Chris Truehl with a wrist shot from the point and Supinski doubled the lead 32 seconds later, receiving a drop pass from Vecchione before rifling a wrist shot past Truehl high on the blocker side. The assist was the 100th of Vecchione’s career.

Foo capped the charge on a 5-on-3 at 15:58 when he rung a shot from the slot off the back bar. Vidmar and Taylor each had an assist on Foo’s 21st of the year.

Vecchione pushed Union’s advantage to 4-0 at 16:10 of the second with a power-play goal. Taylor slid a quick cross-ice feed to Vecchione, who tucked a wrist shot inside the far post from the left circle for his 24th of the season. Foo picked up his 31st assist of the year on the goal.

K.J. Tieferwerth ended Sakellaropoulos’ shutout bid at 18:09, banking in a shot off the goaltender from behind the net.

Union finished 2-for-6 on the power play, while Quinnipiac was 0-for-3. The two teams combined for 36 penalty minutes. Truehl stopped six shots in the first 20 minutes for the Bobcats, while Andrew Shortridge made 16 saves in 40 minutes of relief.

The Dutchmen, who secured their first regular-season sweep of Quinnipiac since the 2009-10 season, host Princeton in their final home game of the regular season tomorrow night (Feb. 18) at 7 p.m.