Last weekend marked pair of impressive milestones for Quinnipiac.
Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold coached in his 1,000th career game Saturday, a 1-0 win against Rensselaer. That game was also Quinnipiac’s 13th shutout of the season, an NCAA men’s hockey Division I record.
Now the Bobcats head on the road this weekend looking for another milestone: the program’s fifth regular season title in eight years. QU won the Cleary Cup as ECAC Hockey’s top regular-season team outright in 2015, 2016, and 2021, and shared the title with Cornell in 2019.
“It’s nice to get that accomplishment,” junior forward Ethan Leyh said of Quinnipiac setting the shutout record on Saturday. “I think us as a group, we have bigger goals, and our biggest goals are championships. It’s nice to get that acknowledgement of breaking a record, but we’ve got to keep our eyes on bigger goals.”
The Bobcats play their next four games on the road, starting with Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend. Quinnipiac clinched a first-round bye in the league playoffs with a 4-1 win over Brown Tuesday, and it has a four-point lead and a game in hand over second-place Clarkson. There’s a chance the Bobcats could return home later this month with the regular season title wrapped up.
Quinnipiac is in position to capture the league title thanks a veteran defense and its depth in goal. The Bobcats have allowed just eight goals in 15 league games. Freshman Yaniv Perets has seen the majority of time in goal, but graduate transfer Dylan St. Cyr has been good when given the opportunity.
“Dylan and ‘Yani’ have been excellent,” Pecknold said. “[Goalie coach] Justin Eddy has done a phenomenal job with both of them. Guys love him in the locker room; he brings a little levity in that way, too.”
The shutout broke the Division I team record of 12, which was set by Niagara in the 1999-2000 season. Perets tied former Hobey Baker winner and Michigan State goalie Ryan Miller for second all-time in individual season shutouts; Niagara’s Greg Gardner holds the record with those 12 shutouts from the 1999-2000 season.
“I really don’t see it as a personal accomplishment; it’s more of a team one,” said Perets, who doesn’t look at his own statistics. “The guys, every single one, forwards, defense, backchecking, picking up sticks…the guys just work so hard in front of you, making my life easier.”
Saturday’s win gave Pecknold an all-time record of 572-328-100 at Quinnipiac.
It was another reminder of how far the program has come since Pecknold took over as head coach in 1994, when Quinnipiac was a Division II independent and played its games at the Northford Ice Pavilion, which has a capacity of 1,200 spectators.
“It’s an interesting milestone to hit because you’re excited about it, but it also makes you feel a little bit old,” Pecknold said, adding that he has been fortunate to have the support of his wife, Nikki, and the couple’s four children, along with the coaches and administration he’s worked with over his time at Quinnipiac.
“He’s meant a lot,” Leyh said of his coach. “I came in at 17 as just a kid. I didn’t really know how to play defense. He’s taught me a lot of those details that I hadn’t learned growing up. He really taught me how to play hockey the right way. He’s done a lot for not only me, but the program as a whole.”
