Trail natives and former Smoke Eater forwards Craig Martin and Scott Davidson helped the Quinnipiac Bobcats become the number-3 ranked team in the country in Div. 1 NCAA hockey with wins over Cornell University and Colgate on the weekend.
The Bobcats beat Cornell 3-1 Friday before rolling over Colgate 7-3 Saturday to win their fourth game in a row.
On Friday, Martin’s game winning goal at 2:52 of the second period broke a 1-1 tie to lift the Bobcats to victory. The sophomore notched his fourth goal of the season and also added an assist on the first marker.
On Saturday, the Bobcats rolled to a 7-3 victory over Colgate in an ECAC Hockey match-up at the Class of 1965 Arena in Hamilton, N.Y.
Davidson chipped in with three assists to give him six points on the season, while Martin contributed two helpers to give him four goals and seven assists. Martin has collected six points in his last four games and is third in Quinnipiac scoring. With the win, Quinnipiac improves to 9-3-1 overall and 5-1-0 in ECAC Hockey.
Martin and Tim Clifton extended their team-leading point streaks to four games, with Clifton totaling four goals and two assists in his last four games and Martin posting two goals and four assists in the same span.
Martin and Davidson are quickly becoming a force on the front end for Quinnipiac with Martin leading the team with a plus-9 rating and Davidson an impressive plus-5.
The Bobcats head to Belfast, Northern Ireland this weekend to compete in the 2016 Friendship Four tournament, featuring an ECAC Hockey matchup against St. Lawrence on Friday. The winner of that game will face the winner of a Hockey East showdown between UMass and Vermont on Saturday.
Meanwhile Michigan Tech is off to a promising start with former Smoke Eaters Jake Lucchini, Brent Baltus, and Dane Birks contributing to a 6-2-2 conference record, good for second place in the WCHA standings.
The Huskies are unbeaten in five games after skating to a 3-2 win and 1-1 tie with the University of Alaska-Anchorage last weekend. Lucchini, in his second year at Tech, has four goals and three assists this season, while Birks has pitched in with four helpers on the blue line and Baltus, a senior, has a goal and two assists.
The Huskies return to the 50th state with a pair of games against Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks this weekend.
Quinnipiac is ranked number-3 in the USCHO poll and number-4 in the USA Today/Hockey Magazine rankings.
