HARTFORD, Conn.—Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe, dropped the ceremonial first puck. Virtually every fan in attendance cheered for Quinnipiac, and in front of a crowd of 5,049—the largest figure for any athletic event in the school’s history—the Bobcats won their inaugural game in the ECAC, downing Harvard 5-2 Friday night.

“I’d love to able to sweep it under the rug and say, ‘Hey, it was a big, emotional game for them,’ but they deserved to win,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91.

The Bobcats’ conference opener was staged in the Hartford Civic Center, and Howe has lent his name to Quinnipiac as it climbs the rungs of the hockey ladder, trading in Atlantic Hockey for the ECAC.

Just over a minute in, as the Bobcats student section wrapped a sea of yellow around Harvard goaltender Justin Tobe, Quinnipiac took its first-ever ECAC lead.

Tobe had been drawn out of position, sliding to cover a shot from the left circle. The puck sailed wide, bouncing off the boards behind the goal and out to Quinnipiac’s David Marshall in the right circle. Tobe couldn’t slide across the crease fast enough to stop Marhsall’s top-shelf attempt.

“Not only did they score,” said Harvard junior defenseman Dylan Reese, “but they probably had five big hits on the first shift.”

Crimson forward Mike Taylor leveled the score at 3:17, beating Bobcats freshman goaltender Bud Fisher from close range, but the early minutes belonged to Quinnipiac, whose student section never sat down.

The game saw 30 minor penalties, which all but quashed any sort of free-flowing momentum. Harvard went 0-for-9 on power plays during the first two periods.

“We didn’t take what they gave us,” Donato said. “We had plenty of opportunities to shoot, and we didn’t get enough pucks back. They did a good job—they kind of collapsed a little bit. They made us shoot through them and get the pucks and rebounds, and we weren’t able to do it.”

Meanwhile, the Bobcats went up 3-1 in the second period with a power-play score and then a quick strike off the draw. In the third period—after Dan Murphy finally connected on Harvard’s 10th man advantage, bringing the score to 3-2—Quinnipiac converted a 5-on-3 to regain its two-goal lead.

“We didn’t get beat down low,” Reese said. “The game was won on special teams—we lost the game on special teams. No other excuse to lose that game.”

Michael Bordieri’s empty-netter with 19 seconds left iced the 5-2 victory, and he immediately jumped toward the glass, where the student section roared. A Division II squad until 1998, the Bobcats were 1-0 in the ECAC. The next night, they beat Dartmouth 7-5, sweeping two of the conference’s toughest teams in one fell swoop.

But after the game, as Quinnipac players and coaches mingled amidst a crowd of reporters and cameras, Tobe was somber.

“It was a big game for them,” he shrugged. “But it was a big game for us, too.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.