The Bobcats defeated Minnesota in an overtime thriller that made a national champion of program builder and coach Rand Pecknold.
The Bobcats defeated Minnesota in an overtime thriller that made a national champion of program builder and coach Rand Pecknold.
TAMPA - The Quinnipiac Bobcats are your 2023 NCAA men's hockey champions after tournament MVP Jacob Quillan scored 10 seconds into overtime to best Minnesota 3-2. The title was the first in school history and a fitting high-water mark for long-time coach Rand Pecknold. The Bobcats had a raft of experience on their roster, but had their hands full with a Gophers team laden with NHL prospects.
Quillan, who had two goals in a semifinal win over Michigan, was once again crucial to the Quinnipiac attack, popping in the winner off a sweet feed from Arizona Coyotes draft pick Sam Lipkin. As it turns out, it was a set play the Bobcats practised before and it came in handy. And if anything, that kind of preparation and execution pretty much sums up why Quinnipiac was one of the best teams in the country.
"It's a neutral-zone faceoff play," said defenseman Zach Metsa, whose pass sprung Lipkin. "You just attack the middle. Lipper made an unbelievable pass back to Quills and he had the crazy finish. I had a great view; it was awesome to watch."
It was quite the capper for Quillan, who put up nearly a point per game as a sophomore after netting just nine points in 36 games as a freshman last season. The Nova Scotia native, who played for Penticton in the BCHL before he got to college, pointed to a couple of factors in his offensive jump.
"During the summer I stayed back at school and worked with (strength and conditioning) coach Brijesh (Patel) all summer," he said. "I think that really paid off. A lot of good guys left last year, so I wanted to step up. But we also have great players now to play with, so credit to them too."
Minnesota actually led the game 2-0 at one point and the Gophers defense did a great job of breaking up Quinnipiac scoring chances, despite the Bobcats getting in close on a number of occasions.
Cristophe Tellier got the Bobcats within one, but it was the bold decision by Pecknold to pull goalie Yaniv Perets for an extra attacker with more than three minutes to go (and the Bobcats on the power play) that paid off when leading scorer Collin Graf got one through Gophers netminder Justen Close just seconds after the man advantage had expired.
Pecknold, known for being gutsy on goalie pulls, stuck to his guns post-game.
"I almost did it earlier," he said. "I just feel like, you're going to wait a little bit and go 6-on-5? Why not go 6-on-4? Especially when you have an O-zone draw."
Pecknold was particularly proud of his team's execution on that tying goal.
"We score that goal because Sam Lipkin is doing exactly what he was told to do: He's hiding off the back post, the goalie knows that and cheats the pass so Graffer beats him five-hole. Lipkin did his job and caused that confusion."
And while credit goes to the players for the win, it's only fitting that Pecknold - who took over the program 29 years ago when the Bobcats weren't even D1 yet - was the coach of record. A national championship wasn't exactly on the horizon back then.
"It wasn't even a thought," Pecknold said. "It was a grind. My life was 12-hour increments. We practised at midnight, I had a teaching job - so I'd get home from that, sleep from 3pm to 6pm then go out to recruit because we weren't very good and we didn't have enough players. Then after practise I would sleep from 3am to 6am and get up again. I was just in survival mode. We were D3 - and we were a bad D3 team. You can't even believe where we were. It's incredible to do what we've done and be where we are."
Now, the Bobcats are on the top of the mountain.
"I love every single one of these guys," Quillan said. "We put our sweat and tears in every day, working at the rink. We had a tough way to the final but we battled every day and it feels unbelievable."