'Saders fade behind old foe; Late 2nd-period goal sets tone.

• Position: SPORTS

Byline: John Radzinski

WORCESTER - For two-and-a-half periods, the Holy Cross men's hockey team gave 14th-ranked Quinnipiac, its former Atlantic Hockey rival, all it could handle, but the Bobcats eventually proved too strong and came away with a 5-2 victory at the Hart Center yesterday.

The backbreaker for the Crusaders came with 33 seconds remaining in the second period. With the teams deadlocked, 2-2, Quinnipiac forward Jean-Marc Beaudoin put a centering pass from behind the HC net perfectly onto the stick of teammate Dan Tavis, who put it into the net.

"That one hurt because then we went into the third period needing to play catch-up," said Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl, whose team fell to 7-9-6. "Giving one up at the end of the second period changed the way we played in the third."

Quinnipiac (14-5-3), which plays in the ECAC, added an Isak Tranvik goal in the 16th minute of the final period. Brandon Wong added an empty-net goal in the final minute to put the game on ice.

Coming in, the Crusaders led the nation in power-play percentage with a 25.9 percent success rate. However, it was Holy Cross' penalty-killing unit that opened the scoring only four minutes into the first period when Ryan Driscoll took advantage of a puck that caromed off the boards and skate of a Bobcat in the Holy Cross zone.

Driscoll passed up to sophomore Bob Forshner, who led a 3-on-2 break. The sophomore forward then crossed the puck to Brent Franklin for a one-timer goal. It was Franklin's second of the season.

"That shorthanded goal really got us energized," Pearl said. "We did a good job on the penalty-killing unit today. (Quinnipiac) has a good...