It goes into the books as a tie, but No. 1 Quinnipiac knows this one slipped away. What makes it all the more maddening, coach Rand Pecknold said, is his team's sloppy play and mental mistakes finally caught up with them.

Brown scored twice in the final 2:16 to escape with a tie, stunning the Bobcats and spoiling Senior Night.

"(Brown's) second goal, one of our D goes fishing for the puck, he gets smoked, we have no back pressure, no coverage to help once he gets beat, we were just sloppy defense," Pecknold said. "The third goal, our center doesnt' help, our wings don’t support; our D don’t pick up sticks; it’s endless."

It's been brewing for some time, Pecknold said. While the Bobcats continue to pile up the wins, they haven't been the same team the past eight games.

 

“I think the last month, we haven’t been playing our best hockey and (Eric) Hartzell has been bailing us out. We’re giving up two breakaways a game, 2-on-1’s all over the place and they guys aren’t buying in the way they did earlier in the year. We have to find a way to recommit if we want to advance in the playoffs because the way we’re playing right now, we’re going to have a tough time.”

Along with the breakways and odd-man rushes, the little things are allowing opponents "seven or eight" extra shots on goal. Hartzell has been magnificent all season, and on a night he allowed at least one goal he'd love to have back, the Bobcats miss a win and are stuck with a tie.

"We were a much better team in November, December and January than we are right now," Pecknold said. "We were on a roll, guys were hungry, buying in, doing little things well. As you have success, it's a natural progression. Kids are going to take shortcuts and that's what they've done now. We've been taking the shortcuts for a while."

Asked which team is the real Quinnipiac, Pecknold left it up in the air.

"We'll see in the end how it pans out," Pecknold said. "You guys will have to guess -- were we overachieving or is this where we're supposed to be. We can't cry over spilled milk. We have to move on and get back to where we were in January and be a great team. There's great character in that locker room, it's a great group of guys with a lot of talent. We have to stop taking short cuts. I think we've been doing it a while, and I was on them about it but we kept winning. We'd get that big-time goal or someone would make a play when we probably should have lost the game. This was a good eye-opener for us."