Thoughts & Observations from Quinnipiac's sweep in the New York Capital Region

Yaniv Perets has 3 consecutive shutouts for Quinnipiac

After a weekend off for Thanksgiving it was back to work for the Quinnipiac Bobcats who traveled to the New York Capital Region to face RPI and Union for the first time since the 2019-2020 season. The Bobcats took care of business in relatively easy fashion sweeping the weekend slate with back to back shutouts. This is Quinnipiac's third straight game with a shutout as prior to Thanksgiving they shut out St. Lawrence 8-0 in Hamden. The Bobcats will now wrap up the first half with a home and home with LIU. Here are my thoughts and observations from the weekend.

- It was another dominant defensive effort this weekend for Quinnipiac. They let up a total of 31 shots combined in two games including just 13 in Saturday's game against. This is the fifth time this season that Quinnipiac has held an opponent to 15 shots or fewer in a game. Quinnipiac's defense has had 11 games when they have allowed 20 or fewer shots in a game. So far in the first half of the season, the Bobcats defense has been downright dominant. 

- It has taken 16 games but its starting to look like Yaniv Perets is going to be the man in goal going forward. He started his fourth straight game and three of those games have been shutouts. Perets six shutouts are tied for first in the country and his goals against of 0.86 is by far and away tops in the country. His first half of the season has been quite impressive.

-  If there is a concern with a team that is 12-1-3, I would say the offense still has issues to me. They kept Rensselaer in the whole game until scoring a late empty net goal and the next night against Union, Quinnipiac let the Dutchmen hang around for two and half periods. To me they really should be beating these bottom ECAC teams pretty easily and not letting them hang around throughout the game. 

- For a team that is ranked second in the country not to have a player in the top 50 in scoring is pretty stunning but that is the case. Defense and goal-tending right now are the back bone of this team but the offense really needs to elevate its game because they can't just score in spurts and think everything is just fine. Consistency needs to happen on offense especially in the second half especially if this team wants to reach the Frozen Four in Boston this year.

- One thing that the coaching staff should focus on with the upcoming break is the power play. So far its been a disaster this season and for a team ranked #2 in the country to have a power play ranked 51st at 12.1% is just not good enough. They can get away with it when they are playing the ECAC bottom feeders but late in the season when the competition is going to increase they are going to need to score on the power play. This should be the number one focus this team can do to improve when they start the second half of the season.

- Quinnipiac right now is in excellent position for the Cleary Cup as they are only a point behind conference leader Cornell yet have played two less games than every team except Princeton, Darmouth and Yale who are 10,11 and 12 in the ECAC. With the way the Quinnipiac defense is playing along with seeing how other teams have played in the ECAC it would be a pretty big disappointment if Quinnipiac didn't win the Cleary Cup for the second straight year.

- The first half of the season concludes this weekend with a home and home with second year program LIU. Quinnipiac blew out LIU 7-1 a year ago and the Sharks don't have the talent on paper to compete with the Bobcats. I expect a split in goal this weekend with Perets and St. Cyr due to the quality of the opponent. 

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's sweep of Arizona State

Quinnipiac swept Arizona State in two games this past weekend

Quinnipiac went into the weekend facing off against a high power offense in the Arizona State Sun Devils. The last time these two teams met back in the 2019-2020, Arizona State swept the Bobcats in the desert by scores of 5-3 and 4-1. It was only appropriate that Quinnipiac returned the favor this weekend and they did by having an offensive explosion scoring ten goals total in the two wins. This type of scoring has been few and far between this season. Maybe this was the weekend in which the Quinnipiac offense starts to put it together and now continues to build off this weekend as they head into the final stretch of games here in the first half of the season. Here are my thoughts and observations from the weekend.

- Lets start with my disastrous take on Friday night after Arizona State scored its third goal. I said I would be shocked if the Bobcats mounted a comeback because they have don't a big time offense that can score at will. I think up to that point you could question that, especially over the prior four games where they really struggled offensively scoring only eight goals total against some weaker opponents. Arizona State came in as one of the top offensive and power play teams in the country with some really skilled players. What I didn't expect was for Arizona State to start to lose steam in the second period and for Quinnipiac to continue to get stronger as the game on. The physical toll wore on Arizona State and the Bobcats made them pay with five unanswered goals. I have no problem eating crow and even having the team account having some fun at my expense.

#Freezingcoldtake https://t.co/DrCzHxd7Mo

— Quinnipiac Hockey Blog (@QHockeyBlog) November 13, 2021

Narrator: “they did indeed mount a comeback.

The “not big time offense” scored 10 goals on the weekend and seemed to score at will on Saturday night.”

😉 https://t.co/SX9cIIQoxz

— Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey (@QU_MIH) November 14, 2021

-  This sweep was just massive for Quinnipiac for pairwise reasons. I know people think its early in the season still but wins like these will help later in the season. Just ask the 2016-17 or 2019-2020 teams. A couple early season losses against non-conference teams flipped to wins and those two teams are NCAA tournament teams. Note the 2019-2020 season was ended by the pandemic but Quinnipiac was still past the pairwise cut line. The Bobcats sweep pushed them to 7th in the pairwise. Had they split they would have been 12th. Had Arizona State swept they would have fell to 24th. The comeback Friday will prove big in the long run and there is no denying that.

- It is looking like the Quinnipiac power play could be turning a corner. They went 3 of 10 on the weekend with goals by Ty Smilanic, Michael Lombardi and Oliver Chau. I still think there is too much passing and not enough shots on goal along with traffic in front. I also think you need to take the fact that Arizona State is not a disciplined hockey team. They take way too many penalties and that costs a team like that in the long run. 

- One of the big things that won Quinnipiac the game on Friday was their conditioning. They are probably in the top five of top conditioned teams in the country and it showed against Arizona State as they rallied from a three goal deficit only to continue to get stronger as the game went along. That is impressive to say the least and strength coach Brijesh Patel should get a ton of credit working with these players. 

- It will be interesting to see how long the goaltender split will continue for Quinnipiac. I think Yaniv Perets has outplayed transfer Dylan St. Cyr with the eye test and frankly on the stat sheet. I am to the belief that there comes a point in the season where you need to ride one of the two goaltenders especially down the stretch. 

- Brendan Less was out of the lineup on Saturday due to an injury. Less has been a very consistent player on the back end for Quinnipiac. If there is any silver lining, its that Quinnipiac has the depth on defense this year to sustain an injury on the back end. In other years they may not but the Bobcats go at least nine deep and that doesn't include freshman Jack Babbage who has yet to see game action.

- Saturday saw the season debut of Chrtistophe Fillion who missed the first 11 games of the season. He immediately contributed with an assist on the Michael Lombardi power play goal. Fillion is expected to be a solid contributor especially after an 11 point campaign in his freshman season. He should be a boost to the lineup for the Bobcats going forward.

- Quinnipiac plays the next four games in league play with the North Country teams coming to Hamden this upcoming weekend followed by a road trip to the New York Capital region the following weekend to play RPI and Union. Friday night will see Quinnipiac play Clarkson in a match up with two of the top teams in the ECAC. The following night I expect to see Quinnipiac with some revenge in their eyes against St. Lawrence who won the Whitelaw Cup on the Bobcats home ice last March.

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's ECAC opening weekend

Ethan de Jong had a goal this weekend in a win against Yale

It was the opening weekend of ECAC play for Quinnipiac and the Bobcats got off to the start they were expected to in conference play. They took care of business against both Yale and Brown shutting them both out on consecutive nights. Getting off to a good start in conference play is always a must as you never want to be playing catch up. Quinnipiac will now dive into non conference play with two home games against Arizona State this weekend. Here are my thoughts and observations from the opening weekend in ECAC play.

- We are almost a third of the way through this season and you can tell what the identity of the Bobcats is already. They are a defense oriented team first. When the Bobcats defense is on and playing its game it is going to be difficult to beat them because they essentially smother opponents into submission. This past weekend they gave up 24 shots total in two games. Its rare to see a team consistently give up so few shots but the Bobcats are one of those teams that just a fundamentally a great defensive team. Just ten games into this season and Quinnipiac already has four shutouts. Very impressive what they are doing on the back end. 

- For a team that is 7-1-2 you would think there wouldn't be any concerns but to me they are just struggling offensively right now. Quinnipiac has scored just eight goals in the past four games and none of these teams were world beaters either. That is just very concerning especially with the talent they have up front. This past weekend alone saw 72 Quinnipiac shots on goal and just four goals. And one of the goal was an empty net variety by TJ Friedmann in the Yale game. The offense has to improve if this team is going to be able to go toe to toe with some of the high powered offenses this year. 

- Sophomore Nick Bochen hasn't seen a ton of game action this year and a lot of that is due to the depth on the back end. He played in both games this weekend and scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Brown on Saturday. Bochen is a player who flashed last season especially on the power play. His goal on Saturday came on the power play. I wonder if Rand Pecknold will start to play Bochen more especially with the massive struggles on the Bobcats power play to the start of this season.

- Yaniv Perets saw back to back games for the second time this year and was rewarded with two shutouts on the weekend. His performance earned him ECAC goaltender of the week. He made 24 saves in two games this weekend but he was rarely challenged and didn't have to face an onslaught of shots because of his defense in front of him. Its kind of hard to get a read on his performance and Dylan St. Cyr's for that matter because the defense in front of them has been so good. 

- The power play struggles have continued and don't seem to get any better. It's same cycling of the puck that hasn't produced many results always looking for the one timer from the side. Can they get some traffic in front of the net and just fire on pucks and get some redirects? Both Ty Smilanic and Skyler Brind'Amour are big players who should be in front of the net to create space. They need to put more pucks on the net instead of always looking for that bomb from the side. 

- One thing I am concerned with almost a third of the way through the season is that while Quinnipiac is 7-1-2, ranked 5th and has beaten teams such as North Dakota, they are only 15th in the pairwise rankings. Its not a great spot to be in even though there is a ton of season left. One reason I am concerned is Quinnipiac hasn't played a great schedule to begin the season outside of Boston College and North Dakota and even Boston College has struggled so far. Looking ahead they really don't have any quality non conference games left as Arizona State is a mid tier team while Long Island is a bottom feeder and they are playing two games against them. They possibly could get a game with Connecticut should they meet in the Connecticut Ice Final. Coupled with the fact that the ECAC looks kind of weak this season gives me some concern. I don't think Quinnipiac can slip up many times remaining if at all because of where they are currently in the pairwise.

- This weekends series against Arizona State is a very important one. It is tough say to how good the Sun Devils are but they have a lot of talent especially offensively and a roster with six NHL draft picks. The last time these two teams played was the 2019-2020 season in which the Bobcats were swept out in the desert. 

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's weekend series with AIC

Zach Metsa scored the game winning goal 51 seconds into overtime

Quinnipiac this past weekend had a home and home series against AIC of Atlantic Hockey. A short drive up I-91 saw the Bobcats and Yellow Jackets skate to a 2-2 on Friday before Quinnipiac won a thrilling 2-1 game in overtime on Saturday on Zach Metsa's goal. I didn't get the chance to see the Friday game because I was not going to fork over cash to something that wasn't ESPN Plus in which all leagues should be on. So with that you will only get my thoughts on Saturday's game.

- It was a struggle this weekend for Quinnipiac against a lesser opponent. The Bobcats are fortunate to come away without a loss and that is the best part you can say about a weekend like this. AIC probably is better than their record showed as four the losses came against Boston College, Providence and UMass Amherst. AIC is also a well coached team under Eric Lang who has turned the Yellow Jackets into a respectable program that was once a laughingstock. 

- What a game winning goal that was by Zach Metsa to send the Bobcat faithful home with a win after really dominating Saturday's game on the stat sheet but not with goals. Quinnipiac out shot AIC 45-15 and won 39 face-offs to AIC's 23. It was a pretty dominant effort and the Bobcats were not rewarded for it until the Metsa rocket of a goal just 51 seconds into overtime. Metsa has heated up with four points in his last three games and has seven points in eight games this year.

- I am little concerned so far with Quinnipiac's lack of scoring this season as in five of the eight games played, the Bobcats have scored two goals or less in them. They are averaging 2.75 goals per game this season, but ten of those goals game in two games against North Dakota and Holy Cross which means they are averaging just two goals per game in games they don't score five or more goals. More is needed from the forwards and on a consistent basis if the Bobcats want to be playing deep into March and April this year. 

- Defense is clearly the strength of this game and will win them a lot of games until they can score consistently on offense. It's such a deep unit that Nick Bochen who played 24 games last season has only played in one game while graduate transfer Tony Stillwell who played 80 games at Brown has only been able to get into the lineup for three games.

- The power play is a real challenge now for Quinnipiac. This weekend they went 0 for 7 and on the season they are a measly 8.6%. That just isn't going to cut it especially for a team in the top ten. They need to figure something out fast because its not trending well for them. 

- On the flip side the penalty kill continues to be strong as they kept AIC off the board on five opportunities this weekend. At 91.7% and in the top ten in the country in this category, this is more like a Quinnipiac team on the special teams. 

- Dylan St. Cyr had to come on in relief on Friday night as Yaniv Perets didn't play in periods two or three. Its unknown if Perets suffered some sort of injury in Friday's game so that is a situation that will have to be monitored as the duo of St. Cyr and Perets has been good to start the season. 

- Quinnipiac will open ECAC play this weekend when they travel to down Whitney Avenue Friday night to play Yale and then head to Providence on Saturday to face Brown. It is the first time Quinnipiac has faced rival Yale since February 29, 2020 to conclude the regular season. The two teams were supposed to meet in the ECAC quarterfinal before the season got shut down due to COVID-19. 

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's weekend split with North Dakota

Quinnipiac defeated North Dakota for the first time on Friday

This past weekend Quinnipiac returned home in front of a home crowd for the first time in 601 days when they welcomed the University of North Dakota to Hamden as the two teams met for the first time since the 2016 National Championship game in Tampa, Florida. One of college hockey's most storied programs finally made the trek to Connecticut in a highly anticipated top ten match-up. The weekend series did not disappoint as Quinnipiac stormed out to a 5-2 win on Friday night before North Dakota returned the favor the following night with a 3-1 win. It was a treat to watch both these teams and it would not shock me to see them play again later in the season. Here are my thoughts and observations from the weekend.

- Friday night was one of the best games Quinnipiac has played in the programs history in my opinion. I definitely rank this as a top ten win since the team made the jump up to Division I level and as its up there with NCAA tournament wins and ECAC tournament wins. The atmosphere was rocking and that was to be expected with fans in the building for the first time in 601 days. Going into this game I felt if Quinnipiac was going to get at least one win, this was going to be the game. The energy and the juice was there as the Quinnipiac scored four unanswered goals after Matteo Costantini got North Dakota on the scoreboard 7:44 into the game. If Quinnipiac can consistently play like they did Friday then they have a chance to go really far this season. 

-  Saturday night saw Quinnipiac get a lot of quality scoring chances on North Dakota but Fighting Hawks goaltender Zach Driscoll's 35 saves were the big difference in North Dakota splitting this series. But I thought that North Dakota had way to much offensive zone time and it helped when they won the face-off battle in game 2 much like it helped Quinnipiac in game 1 when they had more puck possessions because of face-off wins. You have to give North Dakota a ton of credit for the way they responded. They are a well coached talented team that still putting all the pieces together this early in the season. I expect North Dakota to be there as a favorite come March.

- I loved Quinnipiac's offensive output on Friday. Four different Bobcats scored goals including two from transfer Oliver Chau, Ty Smilanic, Jayden Lee and Joey Cipollone. Chau recorded a three point night while Zach Metsa, Ethan de Jong and Ethan Leyh each tallied two assists each. It was the type of balanced scoring attack that made this a very satisfying win and showed that Quinnipiac is a potential dangerous team to play all season long. 

- Quinnipiac's power play finally got going on Friday night with two power play goals by Jayden Lee and Ty Smilanic. It was only a matter of time before they got one as they have been looking solid on the power play but just not converting. The penalty kill's clean streak finally ended as they gave up two goals on the man advantage to Jake Sanderson and Judd Caulfield. It is tough to continue to take penalties and expect to keep a team like North Dakota from converting on man advantage opportunities during this series.

- Man is Jake Sanderson an alpha dog. His high end talent was on full display this weekend including a beauty of a goal on Friday night when he ripped one high short side past Yaniv Perets. He also assisted on the last two North Dakota goals on Saturday. You can see why he was drafted so high as he can move the puck and score from the back end. I wouldn't be shocked to see him on the Ottawa Senators roster by the end of this season. He is that good.

- Of the two Quinnipiac goaltenders that played this weekend, I thought Yaniv Perets was by far the better goaltender between him and Dylan St. Cyr. While neither faced a ton of of shots, 16 for Perets and 19 for St. Cyr, I thought the sophomore played pretty mistake free on Friday. St. Cyr had a terrible turnover on the first North Dakota goal where he played the puck aggressively trying to push the play quick out of the defensive zone that led to a turnover to Mark Senden who buried it home for the tying goal. The second goal he gave up was a scrum in net where the puck was under him and he didn't hold his space to keep the puck out of the net. On the third goal the Quinnipiac defense had a defensive zone turnover leading to a Connor Ford goal. I thought St. Cyr was a little slow closing off the short side that Ford scored on. St. Cyr is clearly in a platoon situation right now at this point in the season but he needs to be better than what he showed on Saturday night against a high end opponent. You may be able to get away with those type of mistakes against the likes of Vermont, but against a North Dakota they will make you pay. I would expect to see Rand Pecknold continue the goaltender platoon but at some point in the season he will likely ride with one of them.

- This was a really physical series with the teams combining for 22 penalties. Its the type of physical hockey you love to see between two really good teams early in the season. As a fan of college hockey, I would love to see a third physical match-up with a team like North Dakota in the NCAA tournament later this season. 

- I thought the Quinnipiac defense was fantastic Friday night closing scoring lanes, moving the puck out of the zone quickly and limiting mistakes. It was a really good effort that unfortunately wasn't matched on Saturday when they turned the puck over, played a lot in their own end and struggled to move the move puck at times. While the performance Saturday wasn't the worst I have seen and probably would have been good enough against weaker teams, it just was not good enough against a caliber of an opponent like North Dakota.

- I definitely want to say thank you to the University of North Dakota for making the long trek out to Connecticut when many teams from out west choose not to. I am hoping we can continue to get teams like North Dakota to come east in the future especially when Quinnipiac returns the favor and heads out to play these teams in their arenas. Its a treat for Quinnipiac fans anytime you can get a western power to come east as we rarely get to see them teams on a consistent basis. 

- Up next for Quinnipiac is the return of Bill Riga to Hamden as the Bobcats face his new team, Holy Cross on Tuesday. Coach Riga's team is 1-4 on the season but he got his first win on the road against Bentley 3-2 on Saturday. This will be an interesting game as while Riga doesn't have the talent to match Quinnipiac but he does have deep inner knowledge of all things in the Quinnipiac program and most of the current players on the team. Former Bobcat Tyler Ghirardosi is the leading scorer for the Crusaders with five points. It is definitely a game Quinnipiac cannot overlook as coach Riga will have his team ready to play come Tuesday night.

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's 2-0 win over Vermont

Michael Lombardi had a goal and an assist in Quinnipiac's win

Quinnipiac played just a lone game this weekend when they traveled to Burlington, Vermont to face the Vermont Catamounts. The Bobcats used suffocating defense in a 2-0 victory in their final game before the home opener on Friday night against North Dakota. Here are some of my thoughts and observations from the game.

- Its clear that the Quinnipiac defense has gelled pretty quickly. That was a defensive clinic that the Bobcats put on Saturday against Vermont. The Catamounts didn't have a shot on goal until more than midway through the second period. You read that folks, the second period. Quinnipiac held Vermont to just 14 shots on goal throughout the game and very few even threatened to go in. You might never see that happen again holding a team without a shot for a half of a game.

- Dylan St. Cyr returned from injury and picked the perfect night and opponent for his first game action with Quinnipiac. He was rarely tested with only 14 shots as his defense did the job in front of him. The shutout by St. Cyr gives Quinnipiac back to back shutouts just three games into the season. As of now it looks Quinnipiac has a nice combo with St. Cyr and Perets in goal.

- Quinnipiac once again struggled on the power play going 0 for 4 on the night. They have yet to score a man advantage goal three games into the season. On the flip side, the penalty kill units continue to be a strength of the team as they have yet to yield a power play goal to an opponent. The talent up front is too talented for the power play to be struggling three games into the season so they really need to get that figured out.

- Senior Michael Lombardi is off to a very good start. Three games into the season he already has four points on two goals and two assists. He scored the insurance goal against Vermont and assisted on Wyatt Bongiovanni's goal in the second period. After a 16 point season as a junior, Lombardi looks poised to have a greater impact in his final season in Hamden.

- I wasn't a fan of Quinnipiac losing the face-off battle to a lesser opponent. That probably kept Vermont in the game way longer than they should have been. Winning face-offs helps get extra possessions especially ones in the offensive zone. They need to do a better job than losing the battle 30-26. 

- Quinnipiac returns home for one of the biggest home series ever in Hamden when they take on #6 North Dakota on Friday and Saturday. The Fighting Hawks have 9 NHL Draft picks on their roster including four on the back end alone. It will be a stiff test for the Bobcats who last faced North Dakota in the 2016 National Championship game. Quinnipiac is 0-4 all time against North Dakota but this will be the first meeting of the teams on the Bobcats home ice.

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Thoughts and Observations from the Ice Breaker Tournament

Michael Lombardi had a goal and an assist in the tournament

The 2021-2022 officially kicked off and for the Quinnipiac Bobcats they started the season off on a good note. Playing in the Ice Breaker Tournament at DCU Center in Worcester, MA, Quinnipiac went 1-0-1 on the weekend to finish in second place in the tournament behind Boston College. Friday night saw Quinnipiac rally from a two goal deficit to earn a tie with Boston College though the Eagles took the shootout which was for tournament purposes only. Saturday night saw the Bobcats race to 3-0 lead after two periods and used a suffocating defensive performance to shut out the Northeastern Huskies behind a 19 save effort from sophomore Yaniv Perets. Here are some of my thoughts from the opening weekend.

- You couldn't have asked for a better start to the season other than starting with two wins. But a tie and a win against two top 20 opponents is nothing to sneeze about. Boston College is a top 10 team with loads of talent while Northeastern is in the top 20 with solid talent and coaching. While the effort against Boston College wasn't great in the opening period plus, give credit to Quinnipiac who fought back from two goals down to force a tie. The effort against Northeastern was outstanding which saw a wire to wire win and in pretty dominating fashion too. I thought Quinnipiac controlled the game from the start and really never let their foot off the gas. It was one of the more complete performances they played in a long time against a really solid team.

- With the loss of Peter Diliberatore on defense there was some questions in my mind who would step up and fill those shoes on the defensive end outside of Zach Metsa and some of the other returning players on defense. I thought the defense was very solid in their own end this weekend especially in the second the half of the Boston College game and all throughout the Northeastern game. They were downright suffocating at times. Graduate transfers Tony Stillwell (Brown), Brendan Less (Dartmouth) and Griffin Mendel (Denver) slide right in like they had been with the program for the past few years. The Bobcats have a lot of depth on defense and they didn't even suit up players like Nick Bochen or CJ McGee who gave the Bobcats a lot of games played last season. While the questions remain about offensive production from this group so far they are sound in their own end which is the most important thing.

- Last season was suppose to be a step forward for Skyler Brind'Amour but his production dipped from his freshman season. Part of that could have been due to the pandemic but more was expected from the Edmonton Oilers draft pick. So it was great to see Brind'Amour have a strong weekend with a goal and two assists and a plus three rating. His weekend was worthy of being named to the All-Tournament team for the Ice Breaker along with being named the ECAC player of the week. A breakout season for Brind'Amour will go a long way to help replacing the production of Odeen Tufto.

- Speaking of the All-Tournament team. Two other Bobcats joined Brind'Amour on the squad as TJ Friedmann (2 goals) was named the tournament MVP while Yaniv Perets (1-0-1, 0.96 goals against, 1 shutout) earned tournament honors. Players like Michael Lombardi and Ty Smilanic had good tournaments as well but missed out on the all-tournament team.

- I was really impressed by Yaniv Perets this weekend. The sophomore goaltender only played in two games last season in relief of starter Keith Petruzzelli so not much was known about the Quebec native. With graduate transfer Dylan St. Cyr on the shelf with an injury, Perets more than was up to the task for the Bobcats. He struggled a bit with rebounds in the Boston College game which led to both goals but settled in and became more comfortable late. Against Northeastern he was very solid in goal but a lot of that was due to the defense as well as he only faced 19 shots.

- If there was any area that Quinnipiac struggled with on the weekend it was the power play. They went a combined 0 for 7 on the weekend and that includes having two five minute power plays each game. The power play was not very good and they didn't get a ton of good chances on the weekend. With the talent they have that should improve but it was kind of worrisome to see.

- While the power play was not good, the penalty kill was. The Bobcats killed off all six of their opponents power play opportunities on the weekend. Quinnipiac is usually a very good team at killing penalties so getting off to a good start on the penalty kill is a good thing to see.

- Quinnipiac will play just a lone game this weekend on the road against Vermont who is 0-2 on the season. The Catamounts are in the second season of a rebuild under head coach Todd Woodcroft. In a COVID plagued season a year ago, Vermont went 1-10-2 but has added some quality young talent that should help improve the program in the next couple of seasons. After this weekend, Quinnipiac will return home in front of a home crowd when they host a weekend series against national power North Dakota.

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Thought's and Observations from Quinnipiac's North Country struggles against Clarkson

Peter Diliberatore scored the shootout winning goal Friday against Clarkson

It was a weekend of struggles for the Quinnipiac Bobcats especially on the offensive end as they only scored four goals in three games this past weekend. The teams skated to two ties on Friday and Saturday with each team splitting the extra point with shootout wins. On Sunday it was all Clarkson as the Golden Knights erased a 1-0 Quinnipiac lead with four unanswered goals until the Bobcats scored in the third period. Thankfully this is the last three game stretch for Quinnipiac the rest of the season as they now play the traditional Friday-Saturday games except they will play the same opponent. Here are my thoughts and observations from the weekend that wasn't for the Bobcats.

- Quinnipiac had a chance to put some distance between themselves and Clarkson for the league regular season title but squandered on that chance especially Saturday when Quinnipiac had a late third period lead and probably should have won the game outright. Now the teams are tied and should they finish tied it will probably come down to a wacky tie breaker as the teams finished 2-2-2 against each other this season. 

- These two teams definitely don't seem to like each other this year but that is to be expected when they are the two best teams in the league and they just played two three game series over the past three weeks. There was lots of penalties and physicality and it seemed Quinnipiac's Peter Diliberatore was at the center of a lot of those encounters. It only makes sense these teams meet a 7th and final time for the ECAC Tournament Championship.

- Quinnipiac needs more younger scoring from its freshman and sophomores. It cannot be just Ty Smilanic who carries the load. Some of these other young guys need to up their scoring including Skyler Brind'Amour, Ethan Leyh, Christophe Fillion and others. The Bobcats cannot just rely on their top guys to consistently come through for scoring because there are going to be times where those guys are held down especially this past weekend when Odeen Tufto only had one assist in three games. Clarkson did a good job taking away Tufto from this series after he had five points in the three games in Hamden just a few weeks ago. 

- The undisciplined play by the Bobcats has to stop. They had 21 penalties in the three games including a boarding major to Iivari Rasanen. These penalties led to two power play goals by Clarkson on Sunday which was the difference in the game. If these penalties totals continue, it is going to be hard for Quinnipiac to win games against opponents like Clarkson in the playoffs. 

- Keith Petruzzelli's shutout streak was ended just 2:44 into Friday's game against Clarkson. The senior has continued his outstanding season for the Bobcats and should win the goaltender of the year if he continues his stellar play.

- Speaking of goaltenders, Quinnipiac brought in a 4th goaltender in Yaniv Perets from Penticton in the BCHL. He was slatted to come in next fall but with the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility it probably made sense to get him in now to prepare him for the rigors of the college game and to push backup goaltender Evan Fear. 

- Junior Zach Metsa is quietly putting together a great offensive season from the blue line. Already he has tied his point total from a season ago (17) in essentially half the amount of games played. He has been a real good power play man and has been solid in his own defensive zone. He is just another example of a player who has gotten better each year under Rand Pecknold. 

- The Bobcats were supposed to be off this weekend but added a game against first year program Long Island University. These two teams were suppose to meet earlier this season but it got cancelled due to COVID reasons. However with the Bobcats not having any scheduled games this weekend, it was a nice add on game to keep the team on the grind before they finish the ECAC season with eight games against Colgate and St. Lawrence. 

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Thought's and Observations from Quinnipiac's weekend sweep of Colgate

Keith Petruzzelli shut out Colgate twice en route to ECAC Player & Goaltender of the Week

It was another good weekend for Quinnipiac hockey as the Bobcats swept the Colgate Raiders in a home and home series shutting out the Colgate 3-0 in both games starting Friday in Hamilton followed by a Sunday game back in Hamden. Quinnipiac is now on its second four game winning streak of the season and has a record of 10-4-1 along with sitting in first place in the ECAC by three points. Here are my thoughts and observations from this past weekend.

- The star of the weekend was Keith Petruzzelli who has now recorded three straight shutouts and has four on the season. The senior won the ECAC player and goaltender of the week award after his stellar weekend when he made 38 saves in the two games. Petruzzelli has definitely saved his best season for his last. 

- The Quinnipiac defense cannot be overlooked as they definitely have played a key role in three straight shutouts. They are definitely starting to gel and it seems like a lot of this came to happen once Jayden Lee settled in after missing first part of the season. 

- Ty Smilanic is a such a great player to watch in a Bobcats uniform. He's easily the most talented player in program history and his play on the ice is showing that. Smilanic leads the team with 10 goals with three of them of game winning variety. His snipe of a goal against Colgate on Sunday was a thing of beauty. Let's hope he sticks around the Bobcats program for a couple of seasons. 

- The fact that Desi Burgart has stepped up offensively especially in the wake of the Wyatt Bongiovanni has been huge. The junior already 10 points this season and is just two points behind his total point production in his first two seasons. Secondary scoring for the Bobcats is important and Burgart has given them just that. 

- The Bobcats who usually are very good on face-offs struggled this weekend losing the face-off battle on Friday before edging out the Raiders 26-24 on Sunday. That is an area the Bobcats need to be better at especially when they play stronger teams. 

- Three more assists this past weekend for Odeen Tufto who continues to pad his national scoring lead with 27 points, 8 more Brandon Kruse and Cameron Wright of Bowling Green. He has nine multi-point games this season and has only been held scoreless in one of the Bobcats games this season. I'd love to see the goal totals increase but his continued play should make him one of the Hobey Baker favorites this season. 

- More than halfway through the regular season, you can start to get a read on some of these teams in the ECAC. Quinnipiac is probably the best team right now as they have scored the most goals and have given up just a shade over two goals per game. St. Lawrence looks improved on defense but they are still having scoring issues. Clarkson can score but there goal differential is only a plus eight. Colgate has shown they are competitive but they struggle to score goals and they have a goal differential of minus eight. With 11 games to go this will be a dogfight between Quinnipiac, Clarkson and St. Lawrence for the regular season title. 

- Big weekend on tap for Quinnipiac as they head to North Country for a three game slate against Clarkson. Two weeks ago the Bobcats took two of three against the Golden Knights in a hard fought well played series. Lets hope we get more of the same this weekend. After this weekend the Bobcats will only have to play St. Lawrence and Colgate the rest of the way before the ECAC Tournament.

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Thoughts & Observations from Quinnipiac's weekend series with Clarkson

Desi Burgart's overtime winner gave Quinnipiac a win in Game 2

Quinnipiac entered into the second weekend of the league year coming off a disappointment the previous weekend against St. Lawrence which resulted in a tie and a loss. Quinnipiac welcome fellow North Country foe Clarkson for a three game series in Hamden. Friday night saw Clarkson race to three first period goals before Quinnipiac rallied from 4-2 down to force overtime before a Zach Tsekos goal gave the Golden Knights the 5-4 win. Saturday saw Quinnipiac once again trail early as Clarkson scored twice in the first and then held a 3-1 lead into the third period before Desi Burgart and Ethan de Jong goals tied the game at three and send the game to overtime for the second consecutive night. Desi Burgart gave the Bobcats a reason to celebrate with his seventh goal of the season 2:29 into the extra frame to give Quinnipiac a come from behind win. The rubber match on Sunday was a duel of goaltenders Keith Petruzzelli and Ethan Haider as the Bobcats came out on top 1-0 on a first period Ty Smilanic goal. The shutout was the second of the season for Petruzzelli who made 28 saves in the winning effort. Here are my thoughts and observations from the weekend slate.

- The Bobcats starts are definitely a concern as they have allowed their opponents to take first period leads in five of the past six games dating back to the second AIC game. The Bobcats need to be a team that plays from in front as its usually a recipe for disaster if they are constantly playing from behind and playing catch up. Stronger starts are needed especially if the Bobcats want to make the NCAA tournament this season. 

- Odeen Tufto continues to put an impressive senior season for Quinnipiac. He had another five points in the weekend series against Clarkson, all assists and continues to hold the national scoring lead with 24 points this season. He has a six point lead over Bobby Trivigno of UMass and Matthew Kopperud of Arizona State. As long as he stays on pace and avoids any injury or prolonged slump he should win the ECAC player of the year and likely be a Hobey Baker Finalist and possibly into the top three for the Hobey Baker award. 

- Ty Smilanic's eight goals lead the Bobcats and his lone goal on Sunday gave the Bobcats the rubber match against Clarkson. With 11 points this season, Smilanic will be in the conversation for the ECAC rookie of the year and his biggest competition is Alex Campbell of Clarkson who leads all freshman ECAC scorers with 15 points. 

- There were definitely some defensive issues in Friday and Saturday's games that need to be corrected going forward as there have been too many defensive zone turnovers that have lead to opposing goals. Keith Petruzzelli only can do so much in net as the defense needs to cut down on the turnovers and move the puck out of the zone much cleaner than what we have seen.

- Keith Petruzzelli was stellar a 28 save shutout performance on Sunday and probably kept Quinnipiac in the games Friday night and Saturday when Clarkson was strong early on. He's been the Bobcats rock on defense as Quinnipiac looks to continue to see improvement in its defensive core. I am not sure where this team would be without Petruzzelli in net as its likely possible they don't have the record they do with another goaltender in net. 

- Freshman Christophe Fillion has given the Bobcats some nice play especially since he jumped from juniors to the Quinnipiac right before the season. He has been a consistent presence in the Bobcats lineup since the second Bowling Green game and scored his first collegiate goal on Friday against Clarkson. He brings an element of good speed and the ability to chip in offensively.  

- Jayden Lee has really stepped up offensively from the back end since his return to the lineup in the AIC series. In just seven games this season he has five points and already surpassed his point total production in the 27 games he played a season ago. He brings a really nice offensive element from the blue line.

- Quinnipiac has a home and home with Colgate this weekend as they head to Hamilton Friday night with a return trip on Sunday in Hamden. The Raiders have played eight games this season and only one was a non ECAC opponent in RIT. They did play Clarkson twice as a non-conference opponent but they have not been challenged outside of the RIT which they played to a 4-4 tie. 

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's ECAC Opening Weekend

Odeen Tufto leads the NCAA in scoring with 19 points

The Quinnipiac Bobcats opened ECAC play with a home and home series with St. Lawrence that started on New Year's Eve in North Country and concluded that Sunday in Hamden. The teams tied on Thursday after the Bobcats rallied on a Ty Smilanic goal with less than three minutes to play and took the extra point with a Odeen Tufto shootout win. Quinnipiac wasn't as lucky in the second game of the home and home as St. Lawrence took control with two first period goals before closing out the game with two empty net goals. Here are my thoughts and observations from this weekends series.

- It was a really poor effort by Quinnipiac against a team that won a total of four games last season and only 18 over the past three years. The Bobcats played from behind in both games and really couldn't find a rhythm this weekend. They honestly stole two points this weekend when their effort just wasn't good enough. Quinnipiac has talent but they need to bring an effort for 60 minutes each game because you can't win on just talent alone.

- Give St. Lawrence credit for the way they played this weekend. They have 11 freshman on the roster and 18 underclassmen and had not played a single game up until this series. They outplayed and outworked Quinnipiac and had the Bobcats on their heels during these two games and won their first game in Hamden since 2014. While they are still lacking high end talent, they should be much more competitive this season than the previous three.

- The injury to Wyatt Bongiovanni definitely has an effect on how the Bobcats played this weekend. Bongiovanni is a true goal scorer and someone that is not easily replaced in the lineup. He is a power play threat and plays in many situations for the Bobcats and those are things that are tough to replicate with other players. Whether they get Bongiovanni back this season remains to be seen but his injury is a big loss for Quinnipiac. 

- Odeen Tufto had a four point weekend and picked a good time to lead the NCAA in scoring as his play will needed even more now with the injury to Bongiovanni. Tufto has 19 points and is averaging 1.9 points per game. He is definitely going to be in the conversation for the Hobey Baker award when the season comes to a close. His goal in the shootout also allowed Quinnipiac to pick up an extra point.

- Ty Smilanic is settling in well to college hockey. After only a single goal in his first four games, he has seven points in his last six games and should be in the conversation for the ECAC rookie of the year at seasons end. With the Bongiovanni injury, he is going to have to probably take on more responsibility for providing the offense. He looks to be someone that should be up for that challenge. 

- The injury to Bongiovanni is definitely showing up on the power play as the Bobcats only went 1 for 10 this past weekend and that lone power play goal was with an extra attacker as well. The team is still in the top ten in the country for the power play but lets see if that changes a bit with the injury to Bongiovanni. 

- Quinnipiac has a big test with a three game series at home starting Friday against Clarkson who is 6-3-1 on the season. Clarkson has won the past three games against Quinnipiac and four of their last five against the,. The Golden Knights have some skill up front but the back end while talented with some draft picks on defense and in goal has struggled a bit this season especially the two goaltenders. This series could tell us a lot of what we may expect from Quinnipiac the rest of the season. They need to bring their A game against a top ten opponent who has really played well against them over the past five plus seasons.

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Thoughts and Observations from Quinnipiac's midweek sweep of Holy Cross

Desi Burgart leads Quinnipiac with four goals this season

The Quinnipiac Bobcats bounced back from a disappointing weekend against Bowling Green to sweep Holy Cross in a home and home series. The Bobcats won 6-1 on Tuesday in Hamden and followed that up with a 3-0 road win on Wednesday prior to Christmas. Quinnipiac did what they had to do in these games which was essentially not lose them and they did that. Here are my thoughts and observations from the Holy Cross games. 

- Quinnipiac had a pair of good solid efforts against a much weaker opponent. They took care of business with ease on Tuesday with five players having multi point games. The Bobcats were in control from the start and never let Holy Cross even sniff a chance at getting back into the game. When Quinnipiac plays like that they are a dangerous team. Wednesday night was a game Quinnipiac also controlled but the score was much tighter. They got goals in each period while Keith Petruzzelli was on his game once again to pick up his first shutout of the season. 

- Two Bobcats look like they are taking that next step as players. Guus van Nes and Desi Burgart are off to greats starts this season for Quinnipiac. van Nes is tied for third on the team in scoring with a goal and five assists while Burgart leads the team in goals with four.  If those two can continue the hot start it will be big for the depth of this team during the season.

- One player who is struggling offensively right now is Skyler Brind'Amour. The sophomore forward has just one assist this season and is scoreless in his last five games. After a 13 point freshman year, Brind'Amour was expected to take even a further leap this season but right now is struggling to find the scoring sheet. Hopefully its only temporary but its something to watch.

- While I think this is a very talented Quinnipiac team I am not sure we will really know how good they are with the lack of quality non-conference opponents and only three other ECAC teams playing this season. We know Clarkson has in the past been a good team but they have struggled out of the gate with a 4-3 record and losses to RIT, Niagara and Colgate. I really wish other ECAC teams had not bailed on the season especially the Ivy League teams. 

- Freshman Christophe Fillion picked up his first collegiate point against Holy Cross on Tuesday. Fillion is a plus five in just three games played. Not bad from someone who started this season in junior hockey in the USHL and was expected to come in next season. 

- Keith Petruzzelli's stellar play rewarded him with his first shutout of the season in Wednesday's win over Holy Cross. The senior has a 1.56 goals against average and a .939 save percentage in his final season so far. He has gotten better in each of this four seasons in Hamden and is the backbone of this team. His play will dictate how far the Bobcats can go this season.

- I cannot stress how important this upcoming weekend series against American International College will be. This is the Bobcats final two non-conference games and they come against the team that is #3 currently in the pairwise rankings. Granted that is unlikely to continue but the Bobcats really need these two wins to boost their pairwise ranking as they head into the four team ECAC season. AIC is a very good defensive team as they have allowed just five goals this season in five games played all wins. The Yellow Jackets are coming off back to back 20 plus win seasons along with two Atlantic Hockey regular season titles. They are well coached by Eric Lang who is one of the top coaches in the Northeast. Quinnipiac will have their hands full with this team this weekend.

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Thoughts and Observations of Quinnipiac’s lost weekend against Bowling Green

Keith Petruzzelli saved 67 of 72 shots this weekend against Bowling Green

The Quinnipiac Bobcats this past weekend welcomed the Bowling Green Falcons to Hamden for the first match-up ever between these programs. Bowling Green came into the weekend as a team that had already played seven games on the season even those two were against Division III Adrian. The Falcons swept the weekend series against the Bobcats winning 4-1 Friday night and followed that up with a come from behind 4-2 win Saturday. Here are my thoughts and observations from the weekend games.

- Quinnipiac was thoroughly dominated on Friday night and really didn't looked prepared coming into the game. Bowling Green dominated the first two periods out shooting Quinnipiac 28-7 while pounding the Bobcats on the fore-check and possessing the puck better. The Bobcats had very little jump in their step and looked like they didn't know what to expect from this veteran Bowling Green squad. 

- Color me super impressed with Bowling Green. This is a well coached veteran team that came into Hamden and swept Quinnipiac on the weekend. That is usually very hard to do and they did it in convincing fashion one night and in come from behind fashion the next night. They are strong on the puck and have a very good fore-check. The Falcons should be a strong team this season in the WCHA and reach the NCAA tournament again.

- I hate to blame officials but that phantom elbowing call on Quinnipiac's Peter Diliberatore was inexcusable and for Chip McDonald and his crew to make a call like that in a tie game late is just awful. McDonald has been a brutal official for years and this isn't the first time he has screwed Bobcats on calls. This call changed the game as Bowling Green scored to take the lead and followed it up with an empty net goal to seal the win. I do wish a call like that could be challenged in the future. 

- Even with the brutal penalty call on Peter Diliberatore, Quinnipiac just didn't play well in the third period to win the game. They need to play for 60 minutes and they just didn't do that. It really started with that late Bowling Green power play goal in the second period by Gavin Gould. That changed the momentum towards the Falcons which they carried into the third period. 

- I thought Keith Petruzzelli played really well this weekend despite the end results. He made 67 saves on the weekend and surrendered just five goals. His play definitely kept the score lower than it probably could have been. So far this season he has been a rock in between the pipes for the Bobcats.

- Quinnipiac was very undisciplined this weekend as they took 14 penalties. This is uncharacteristic of a Rand Pecknold coached team but the play of Bowling Green had a ton to do with that as they had a strong possession game along with a strong fore-check that created some odd man chances in which Quinnipiac had to take a penalty. The Bobcats need to clean up the undisciplined play fast as they have four more games this week.

- Not getting at least a split this weekend against Bowling Green could come back to hurt the Bobcats later in the season with the pairwise rankings. Outside of the playing Bowling Green, Quinnipiac doesn't play another team that is ranked in the non-conference schedule. The Bobcats will probably have to have real good league success and individual success against Clarkson to make up for their lack of non-conference opponents and the fact that most of the ECAC opted out of the season.

- Its another quick turnaround for Quinnipiac with a mid week home and home series with Holy Cross. The Crusaders are off to a solid 4-2 start this season but have played mostly Atlantic Hockey teams outside of newcomer Long Island University. These are super important games as Quinnipiac cannot afford to lose any more out of conference games with the lack of quality ECAC opponents on the schedule outside of Clarkson. 

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Thoughts & Observations of Quinnipiac's two game sweep over Sacred Heart

Zach Metsa had a five point series as Quinnipiac swept Sacred Heart

For the first time since February 29th, the Quinnipiac Bobcats took to the ice for a live hockey game as they played host to Sacred Heart to kick off its season two months later than normal due to the COVID-19 situation still on going in the world. The 2019-2020 season ended abruptly prior to the ECAC Quarterfinals with the Bobcats finishing with a record of 21-11-2. 

The 2020-2021 season has seen eight of the twelve ECAC teams not take part this season with only Quinnipiac, Clarkson, Colgate and St. Lawrence playing on. The Bobcats will play a 26 game season having already lost two games to cancellation. 

Quinnipiac got off to a good start this year with back to back wins against Sacred Heart, 9-2 and 2-1 in overtime. Here are my thoughts and observations of these last two games. 

 - This might be Quinnipiac's most talented and deepest team since the 2016 National Runner Up team that lost to North Dakota. The Bobcats are deep up front with their top six having lots of skill and scoring ability. Even the Bobcats bottom two lines having scoring ability and toughness. While the defense doesn't feature one senior, it is a talented bunch that can score and defend. Throw in the fact that Keith Petruzzelli looks to have picked up right where he left off last season and this has the makings of a potentially very good Bobcats team. 

- The Bobcats looked great in game one winning 9-2 with nine different players scoring goals. They got off to a slow start in the first period but that has to be expected as they were working out the kinks before exploding in the second and third periods. However, I was more impressed with the win in game two though as they gutted out a 2-1 win in overtime. I thought Sacred Heart played really well in the second game and really took it to Quinnipiac at times especially in the second and third period. The Bobcats remained focused and didn't let going to overtime affect them as Wyatt Bongiovanni ended it 2:19 into the extra frame. Being able to win tight games is something that is needed to see what teams are made of. 

- Zach Metsa broke out as a sophomore last season and it looks like the junior defenseman could be in store for an even greater season. Metsa was strong with a five point series and had the secondary assist on the Bongiovanni game winner in overtime. He is a workhorse on the back end and should be able to help fill the void with the graduation of Karlis Cukste. 

- Skyler Brind'Amour and Odeen Tufto were both strong on the face-off dot against Sacred Heart. Brind'Amour won 24 of 34 face-offs while Tufto won 29 of 46. Having two good players on face-offs are big especially with the loss of William Fallstrom who was very good at it.

- It was only two games but you can tell that the power play for the Bobcats has the ability to be very good this season. They got tons of quality looks and while they only went 3 for 13 in the series you can just tell they have the talent and ability on the man advantage to get results more so this season.

- Ty Smilanic was held scoreless in the Quinnipiac rout but more than made up for it with his nifty goal in the second game. The goal was a thing of beauty with Smilanic featuring soft hands and great hand eye coordination and speed. He is a one of the Bobcats best players and should have a very good season once he gets his feet wet.

- Its always nice to get a player like senior Josh Mayanja some playing time. One of the top locker room and team guys the past four years he got to see some late action in the blowout win against Sacred Heart making three saves in five minutes. Its always nice to rewards players for being strong team players and Mayanja has been one of them in his four years with the program.

- Its nice to see Marcus Chorney chip in with his first two points of his career. After only playing 15 games in two seasons, the junior is expected to play a lot more this season and take on a bigger role to help anchor the Bobcats defense. He showed some nice ability down the stretch last year and it looks like it has carried into this season.

- It stinks that students, alumni and fans can't be in the building this season due to COVID-19 but the team will have full support behind them and hopefully by the 2021-2022 fans will be able to return to the People's United Center along with all sporting events. 

- Quinnipiac will play its toughest non-conference games this weekend when they host Bowling Green who already have seven games under their belt this season. Granted two of them were against Division III Adrian which do not count in the standings but this is a team looks to be in a groove right now. The only defeat for Bowling Green was at the hands of Mercyhurst back on December 5th. 

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Weekend in Review: Brown/Yale

Quinnipiac once against dominated their Whitney Avenue rivals

The Quinnipiac Bobcats ended the regular season on a high note sweeping the weekend against Brown and Yale to finish 21-11-2 and in third place in the ECAC standings with a first round playoff bye for the second consecutive year. The Bobcats also finished with the 8th 20 win season in the last nine years. The team is also back in position for an at-large berth thanks to some good fortune over the week. Here are my thoughts from the weekend that was.

- I don't know what it is but Quinnipiac has seen some real struggles with Brown over the past two seasons. Both games this year were tight low scoring games with Quinnipiac going 1-0-1 against the Bears. In both of the games they scored just two goals and on Friday night that was just enough to secure the two points. Sophomores Wyatt Bongiovanni and Ethan de Jong got the only two goals that paced the Bobcats offense for the win.

- Quinnipiac more than likely will not see the Bears again this season barring ECAC tournament upsets and that's probably a good thing with the way Brown played Quinnipiac this season along with a year ago as well. The only way for Quinnipiac to face the #9 seed Brown Bears would be for the Bears to beat Colgate along with both #11 and #12 seeds Princeton and St. Lawrence upsetting Dartmouth and Harvard respectively. I just cannot see that happening.

- William Fallstrom was a beast on the face-off dot this weekend winning 24 of 34 opportunities over the two games. Puck possession is key for the Bobcats success and if Fallstrom can continue his dominance on the face-off dot that will bold well for the Bobcats chances in the ECAC tournament. Fallstrom also had the primary assist on Ethan de Jong's game winning goal against Brown on Friday night.

- Speaking of face-off dominance, I am not sure I have ever seen a thrashing like the Bobcats did to Yale on Saturday night. Quinnipiac won 40 face-offs to just 13 for the Bulldogs which helped Quinnipiac establish puck possession in a blowout 5-0 win over their Whitney Avenue rivals. The Bobcats will need that trend to continue as they head into the ECAC playoffs as they look to reach Lake Placid for the first time in three seasons.

Quinnipiac now heads to the ECAC Tournament as the #3 seed

- I'm still stunned at Quinnipiac's continued dominance on the ice against Yale. The win was the 24th all time for the Bobcats over the Bulldogs and Yale has had some good teams over the last decade as well. I just don't get how they don't get up for these games against Quinnipiac not only on the road but at Ingalls as well. This has essentially been a one sided match-up in the last decade and not really a rivalry. But winning the Heroes Hat is of an importance to Quinnipiac and that's why they constantly get up for this game time and time again. Personally I think the rivalry with Cornell is much better and I wish the students would consistently attend that game more as the games have been better, more physical and their has been actual hatred between the teams.

- It was great to see the seniors all contribute to the first goal against Yale on Saturday. Nick Jermain got the goal while fellow seniors Karlis Cukste and Alex Whelan had the assists. All three of these players have played a big role in the Bobcats turnaround from a tough first half of the season. Jermain has put together the best season of his four year career with 21 points and outstanding leadership while Cukste and Whelan continue to show the consistency each and every game. All three will be greatly missed once this season ends.

- Skyler Brind'Amour's goal was a thing of beauty when he undressed Yale's Billy Sweezey with a spin move. While the Bobcats had already blown the game wide open prior to that goal, it was still great to see the talent Brind'Amour brings to the ice. While he only has 4 goals and 13 points this season, I think big things are expected for him and I could see a massive jump in his production from his freshman to sophomore season.

- Speaking of breakout candidates, Zach Metsa has capped a really impressive sophomore season. A year ago he finished with just 4 points in 32 games played mostly as the 7th defensemen or as an occasional forward. This season playing strictly on defense, he has 17 points along with being a plus 9. He has been pretty responsible in his own defensive end and has really helped solidify a young defensive core with fellow sophomore Peter Diliberatore.

- Quinnipiac now has a much needed first round bye. They can get fully healthy and hope to have someone like Jayden Lee back for their unknown opponent in two weeks time. I think the Bobcats need to sweep whatever team comes in because at this point they cannot afford to drop anymore games the rest of the way for at-large consideration.

- It was a really good weekend for Quinnipiac with regards to the pairwise. They began the weekend 18th and finished in 14th. That was a big unexpected jump due to Northeastern getting embarrassingly swept up at Vermont while Western Michigan dropped two games against North Dakota. Maine also lost at Providence while Minnesota lost to Michigan. Practically everything broker Quinnipiac's way except UMass Lowell won both of its games against New Hampshire. Currently Quinnipiac has a 50% chance at the tournament according to the College Hockey News Matrix. 41% is via an at-large berth an 9% is as the automatic qualifier as the champions of the ECAC. The Bobcats have to also get help from other conferences as well and they cannot have any surprise tournament champions.

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Weekend in Review: RPI/Union

Odeen Tufto's two goals lifted Quinnipiac to a 3-2 overtime win over Union

Quinnipiac's final road trip of the regular season was a lot more difficult and ended in just a split of the weekend. Friday night saw the RPI Engineers shut out Quinnipiac 4-0 for the their first ever shut out of the Bobcats. Quinnipiac rebounded on Saturday night with a come from behind 3-2 overtime win over Union. Here are my thoughts from this past weekends games.

- Give a lot of credit to RPI. That is a very underrated hockey team and in just his third season head coach Dave Smith deserves a ton of credit for the turnaround up in Troy. It helps when you top five scorers and six of your top seven are seniors. All of these seniors were recruited under former head coach Seth Appert and they have bought into what Smith is doing there. They have 12 players with 10 or more points so they are getting scoring from different parts of the roster and it has led them to a 15-15-2 record overall including 11-8-1 in the ECAC and still fighting for a first round bye. I think RPI is a team that no one wants to play in the upcoming conference tournament because they are peaking at the right time.

- RPI goaltender Owen Savory has been one of the hottest goaltenders in the country in the second half of the season and that has been a big factor in the turnaround season for the Engineers. His 37 saves gave him his fourth shutout of the second half of the season. The sophomore has the ability to steal games and with the way he is playing right now he could take his team all the way to Lake Placid.

- RPI did a good job capitalizing on special teams scoring two power play goals. They played from in front which is what you have to do against Quinnipiac and they never really gave the Bobcats too many elite scoring chances despite getting out shot 28-13 in the final two periods of play. It was one of the more frustrating performances of the season and only the second time this season that Quinnipiac was held scoreless.

- I think its really important for Quinnipiac to lock down the #3 seed to avoid a potential ECAC Quarterfinal match-up with RPI. Not that the Bobcats couldn't beat RPI in a series, it is that the Engineers are really peaking right now and have a goaltender playing on top of his game which makes for a very dangerous match-up. That would likely only happen if it was a 4-5 match-up so the Bobcats really need to take care of business this weekend and get that number 3 seed.

- I was really disappointed that Quinnipiac struggled to beat a 7 win Union team that has very little talent. More often this season, the Bobcats have played down to some of their competition which is frustrating but that probably happens at times with such a young team. Quinnipiac looked good early before Union got some chances and the early lead and things looked dim when Union scored a little over four minutes into period two but Michael Lombardi's goal just ten seconds after the Dutchmen goal was a huge momentum swing. It gave the Bobcats life in the game.

- Odeen Tufto will probably go down as one of the best players to put on a Quinnipiac sweater and I have seen many great ones stemming from Matthew Peca to Sam Anas, the Jones twins and Chase Priskie. But what Tufto did on Saturday night showed what type of player and leader he is. After going head first into the boards it looked like his night was going to be done at the least. But Tufto returned and not only did he score the tying goal, he scored the power play winner in overtime to give Quinnipiac two big ECAC points. He lifted the team on his back and carried them to the finish line in an important game. He has been one of the most consistent players the last three seasons as he closes in on his third straight 40 point campaign. I really hope he stays for his senior year as they will need his leadership and scoring for a team that could have big expectations.

- The Bobcats 3-2 overtime win over Union was the teams first win at Messa Rink since November of 2014. Messa has been a tough place for Quinnipiac to play at and I just can't figure out why especially since Union has struggled of late. Both of Quinnipiac's wins over Union this year were by just a goal each. Not a good look when the Dutchmen are one of the bottom teams in the ECAC.

- One more Quinnipiac win or an RPI loss or a Bobcats tie combined with a RPI loss or tie will clinch a first round bye for the Bobcats in the ECAC playoffs. Quinnipiac could use a week off to get fully healthy and to work on areas of need for the playoffs. With just a 14% chance at an at-large berth according to College Hockey News pairwise probability matrix, its looking like the way into the NCAA tournament will be winning the Whitelaw Cup in Lake Placid.

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Weekend in Review: Clarkson/St. Lawrence

Quinnipiac beat St. Lawrence 6-1 on Saturday night

Quinnipiac came into the weekend looking to improve upon its pairwise status. However it left the weekend in a worst place than they started despite a split of the weekend. On Friday Quinnipiac had zero luck in a 3-2 loss to Clarkson in which they dominated the pace of play for the majority of the game. Saturday the Bobcats struggled for two periods before Odeen Tufto changed the Bobcats fortunes with a highlight reel goal leading to the flood gates opening in the third period. Here are my thoughts from this weekends game along with the outlook for the next few weeks.

- Friday night was a tough loss against a good Clarkson team. A game that Quinnipiac really needed, the Bobcats found themselves behind the eight ball quickly as Clarkson was up two within the first six minutes of the game. Neither of the goals were Petruzzelli's fault with the first goal just inching past the goal line in which an official review confirmed. I was really surprised with the early struggles by Quinnipiac in such a big game as I thought we would see more energy and passion from the start.

- Usually when a team dominates the shot count and the face-offs it usually wins. That wasn't the case on Friday when Quinnipiac out shot Clarkson 41-24 and crushed them 36-21 on the face-off dot. The Bobcats just didn't have any puck luck while Clarkson goaltender Frank Marotte was really good with 39 saves on the night. Quinnipiac also couldn't take advantage of the injury to the best Clarkson forward in Haralds Egle.

- I find it surprising that Clarkson doesn't score as much with the talent they have up front. They have an unheralded defense and a good goaltender but no superstars on the blue line. All the talent is up front and they rarely have put up big offensive numbers this season. I wonder if that will come back to hurt them come tournament time against teams that have high powered offenses.

- The Bobcats did a good job of erasing a two goal deficit on Friday but they just couldn't push ahead of Clarkson. Quinnipiac got goals from Michael Lombardi and Ethan Leyh but were stifled most of the night by the Clarkson defense.

- I was really disappointed at the lack of calls in the Clarkson game on both sides. The game was chippy and to have only one power play for each team is shocking. The referees swallowed their whistles and their was really no reason to. Maybe the game is different if they call this game tight as Quinnipiac could have had some more power play opportunities. This was two games in a row with poor officiating in which Quinnipiac played in.

Five different Bobcats found the back of the net against St. Lawrence

- Just as Quinnipiac struggled on Friday night early, the same happened Saturday against just a terrible St. Lawrence team. It was nerve racking for almost two periods as Quinnipiac trailed 1-0 yet was dominating on the shot count. It wasn't until Odeen Tufto's spectacular individual effort for a goal late in period two saw the momentum change towards the Bobcats. If you haven't seen the goal yet I would watch this link below. This could easily be one of the goals of the year in the NCAA. Just a tremendous effort when the Bobcats really needed a spark.

Anyone catch SportsCenter last night? Odeen Tufto's unbelievable goal from last night garnered the #5 spot on #SCTop10! #BobcatNation pic.twitter.com/b5NM8c8TDv

— Quinnipiac Men's Ice Hockey (@QU_MIH) February 16, 2020

- It seemed like only a matter of time that Quinnipiac would take control after that Tufto goal. It also helped that St. Lawrence would lose its composure in the third period taking six straight penalties which led to four power play goals. Quinnipiac added an even strength goal late as they capped a five goal third period to win in a runaway. The score wasn't as indicative of how close this game really was early.

- I thought St. Lawrence played a disgraceful third period and if Brent Brekke approved play like that then shame on him. If he didn't then he needs to clean some of this dead weight off the roster as soon as the season ends. Most of these players are the garbage that Mark Morris brought into St. Lawrence so he should want to clean some of these goons out as soon as possible.

-  Its pretty amazing that you can crush a team 6-1 yet it hurts you in the pairwise rankings. That's exactly what happened as Quinnipiac fell from 15th to 18th in the pairwise. They clearly need to win out now and probably get to Lake Placid and possibly even to the conference championship game. A lot will depend on what happens with the teams around them as teams like Lowell, Western Michigan, Minnesota, Maine and Providence have some challenging games. There is still a lot to shake out the next few weeks but Quinnipiac is clearly a bubble team at this point due to its slow start to the season and because of a loss to Colgate and a tie to Brown which are really hurting them at this point.

- Quinnipiac heads on its final road trip of the regular season to the New York Capital Region as they take on an ever improving RPI team Friday night before facing a struggling Union team Saturday. RPI is probably Quinnipiac's toughest remaining game and that is due to goaltender Owen Savory who has been really good this season for the Engineers. His play is one of the reasons why RPI is still fighting for a possible bye in the ECAC tournament.

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