For the second consecutive season, the ECAC Hockey League will not have a representative in the men’s NCAA Frozen Four.
Hours after Cornell was eliminated by Providence in the East Regional final on March 31, the last standing ECAC Hockey school, Quinnipiac University, suffered the same fate against defending national champion Minnesota Duluth in the Midwest Regional final. The Bobcats went down fighting in their first-ever meeting with the Bulldogs, but still saw their 2018-19 campaign come to a close with a 3-1 loss at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa.
“First off, congratulations to Minnesota Duluth, I thought they were excellent tonight,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold afterwards. “They played hard, they were honest, and they are a really well-coached team. Sandy (Scott Sandelin) does a really good job coaching that team. I have always witnessed it from afar, but I got a good dose of it tonight. He has those kids play the right way. They compete, and the goalie (Hunter Shepard) bails them out when they need it, so congrats to them.”
The Bobcats were largely dominated for the first two periods by the physical Bulldogs, but turned it on in the third period when Quinnipiac won 12 faceoffs, launched a dozen shots on goal, and got an extra-attacker power-play tally from Craig Martin with just over two minutes left to cut Minnesota Duluth’s lead to 2-1.
“Raff (Brogan Rafferty) gave me a nice pass and I knew they only had one guy back,” explained Martin about his goal, which he fired upstairs from the right circle. “I wasn’t sure if there was another guy with me, and I kind of just threw it on net and it was fortunate enough to go in.”
Minnesota Duluth ultimately sealed the win with an empty-net score with 57 seconds left to send the Bulldogs off to Buffalo and the Bobcats home.
“Disappointing for us to have our season end, but I am really proud of the effort that we put in this year,” said Pecknold. “Last year was our first losing season in 20 years, and I think we got the program back on track this year with a trip to the Elite Eight and 26 wins.”
Accompanying Pecknold at the postgame press conference were three seniors in Martin, assistant captain Scott Davidson, and captain Chase Priskie, all still wearing their blue game uniforms for as long as possible before eventually having to remove them for the final time in their college careers.
“I am trying to prolong that for as long as I can,” admitted Davidson. “I can’t say anything bad about Quinnipiac, it’s been the best four years of my life. All the friends I’ve made and the memories. I don’t know what else to say.”
“These three guys right here [Priskie, Davidson, and Martin] are about as good of character as you can get, and we have even more in our locker room,” added Pecknold. “I am proud of our effort this year and disappointed with the result, but we will be back.”
Against Minnesota Duluth, the Bobcats were without both Nick Jermain and former Boston University transfer Brandon Fortunato. Both were sidelined by injuries, with junior forward Jermain getting hurt in the Arizona State game, and senior blueliner Fortunato out since early February with a season-ending leg injury that effectively ended his collegiate career.
Last year the Bobcats finished 16-18-4 overall, their first sub-.500 season since 1995-96 when they were an NCAA Division 2 independent. This year they went 26-10-2, their most wins in a single season since 2015-16 when they won a school-record 32 contests and advanced to the NCAA title game.
Quinnipiac went 14-6-2 in ECAC Hockey play this season, good for second in the league standings, although the Bobcats were swept by visiting Brown in the conference quarterfinals before earning an at-large NCAA Tournament berth. It was their sixth bid ever to the nationals, all earned under Pecknold’s guidance.
The future still looks bright in Hamden, Conn., even with the loss of a senior class that won 97 games in all, plus two Cleary Cups as ECAC Hockey regular-season champions, one Whitelaw Cup as conference tournament champs, and also played in a Frozen Four.
“We have 13 freshmen and a bunch of sophomores,” said Pecknold. “We will have to reassess in a few days after we see if we will lose some underclassmen to the NHL. There is always that threat because if you are going to be good, you are going to lose guys to the NHL. I like where we are at right now. I like the talent that we have and the character. Our culture is excellent and that is why we win.”
He also praised the recruiting efforts of associate head coaches Bill Riga and Joe Dumais, plus the work of junior goaltender Andrew Shortridge, a Mike Richter Award finalist who graduated from the backup role at the start of the season to full-fledged No. 1 starter by its end, and who made 23 saves against Minnesota Duluth.
“We started the year, and he was struggling a little bit out of the gate and we have two excellent goaltenders,” said Pecknold. “Keith Petruzzelli was outplaying him in practice, so we went with Keith the first game and then he won again and again, and it was not a knock on Shorty. Then we started getting Shorty in there and shutout, shutout, shutout. We split them for a while, but we went with Shorty at the end. We had a great year from both of our goalies and obviously, his stats (18-7-2, 1.51, .940) prove it.”
In the regional semifinal on March 30, Quinnipiac edged independent newcomer Arizona State, 2-1. Joe O’Connor (Hamden, Conn.) and William Fällström scored Quinnipiac’s goals, while Shortridge made 20 stops. Fällström was later named to the All-Midwest Regional Team, the lone Bobcat to be so honored.
Priskie, a Hobey Baker Award semifinalist and Washington Capitals draft choice, finished his four-year career with 39 goals and 116 points from the Bobcats blueline.
“I had a fantastic four years, something I wouldn’t trade for the world,” he said after the regional final. “I’m really lucky to be able to play with a lot of former teammates that have mentored me, and then try to do my job this year and mentor some of the younger guys. So, the thing for me is to leave a mark on this program.”
“He is just a leader. He’s elite as a leader. He is a great person,” said Pecknold of Priskie following the Arizona State game. “You can’t put a price on what he does for our locker room. He is pretty special. Twenty-five years at Quinnipiac, I’ve been really lucky to have some good captains, and he’s right up there with one of the best I’ve ever had.”
“They (Quinnipiac) have a real mobile (defense) group, a good size. I was really impressed with their décor,” said Minnesota Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin. "They have good depth with their forward lines too. Those young guys are only going to get better. This experience will help them too. Rand has been here before, so he knows. I was impressed with their team.”
