Alright, who out there thought Quinnipiac would be the hottest team in ECAC Hockey heading into Thanksgiving?
Put your hand down, coach Rand Pecknold. You too, Bobcats Nation. You are all biased. LOL.
Seriously, though, no one in their right mind could have predicted that the Bobcats would be 6-0 to start ECACH play, and 10-1 overall.
There were plenty of questions about Quinnipiac coming into the season. The Bobcats lost their top two scorers, Bryan Leitch and David Marshall, to graduation. They combined for 34 goals and 71 assists. Bud Fisher, their No. 1 goalie, also graduated. No one gave the Bobcats, who were 9-10-3 in the league and 18-18-3 overall last season, much of a chance this year. The coaches picked the Bobcats to finish 10th, and the media had them in 11th.
But the Bobcats are defying the experts. They are doing it, as usual, with their offense. Senior forward Brandon Wong leads the way with five goals and 11 assists. Senior forward Eric Lampe lead the team with nine goals, and has six assists. Sophomore forward Scott Zurevinski is third with seven goals and six assists.
The key, I believe, for Quinnipiac's surprising success has been in goal. The Bobcats had three underclassmen goalies, including two freshmen, so it was understandable why many people thought the Bobcats would struggle.
However, they have not. Sophomore Dan Clarke is 6-0 with a 2.17 goals-against average and .935 save percentage. Freshman Eric Hartzell is 3-1 with a 2.29 GAA, a .9117 save percentage and one shutout. The other freshman, Mathieu Cadieux, is 1-0 with a 1.98 GAA and a .926 save percentage.
The Bobcats opened the season with a surprising sweep of Ohio State in Columbus. After winning their first four league games at home, the Bobcats went on the road to Central New York, and pulled off the sweep. They took a 5-2 win Friday at Colgate, and then jumped out to a 3-0 lead at Cornell before holding on to a 3-2 victory.
Can the Bobcats continue this pace? I don't see why not.
Daily Gazette ECACH Team of the Week — Quinnipiac
The Bobcats' sweep of Colgate and Cornell, and doing it on the road, made this pick an easy one.
A boy for the Leamans
Congratulations to Union hockey coach Nate Leaman and his wife, Alice, who gave birth to the couple's first child on Sunday.
Ty Walker Leaman came in at 6 pounds, 4 ounces.
Nate will be back at work tomorrow, preparing the Dutchmen for their game against Lake Superior State in the first round of the RPI tournament Friday.
'Slap Schotts' on Wednesday
Because "Big Board Sportstalk" with Rodger Wyland on WOFX-AM (980) is taking Thanksgiving Day off, my "Slap Schotts" college hockey segment will move to Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. this week.
First league wins
Clarkson and Dartmouth earned their first league victories over the weekend.
The two teams faced each other Friday in Hanover, N.H. The Golden Knights snapped a nine-game road losing streak dating back to last season with a 3-2 victory.
Dartmouth came back the next night against St. Lawrence, and earned a 3-2 win. Not only was it the Big Green's first league win, it was their first win of the season overall.
Brown is the only ECACH team which has yet to win a game. The Bears are 0-4-1 in the league, and 0-6-1 overall.
Kelly to promote college hockey
Paul Kelly, former executive director of the NHL Players Association, will be named executive director of College Hockey Inc. at a press conference Tuesday at Harvard.
Kelly's job will be to help the organization, formed by the Hockey Commissioners Association, promote NCAA hockey’s profile as it competes with Canadian major juniors and the professional ranks for top players.
Kelly was ousted from his NHLPA job Aug. 31 for reasons that remain unclear. But, judging by how the NHLPA is in chaos, it seems like a power play was pulled on Kelly.
Before he joined the NHLPA, Kelly was an attorney in Boston and previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
ECACH weekly award winners
Colgate forward David McIntyre, Brown forward Chris Zaires and Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich are the weekly ECACH men's award winners.
McIntyre was named player of the week. He had two assists against Quinnipiac, and then had two goals and one assist in the Raiders' 5-4 overtime win over Princeton on Saturday.
Zaires won rookie of the week. He had a goal and an assist in each of the Bears' games against Princeton last Tuesday and Yale on Saturday.
Karpowich earned goalie of the week. He made 35 saves against Dartmouth, and followed that up with a 41-save effort in a 2-2 tie against Harvard on Saturday.
Sarah Parsons, Jillian Dempsey and Victoria Vigilanti are the women's winners.
Parsons, a Dartmouth forward, won player of the week. She had four goals and three assists in wins over Brown and Yale. Dempsey, a Harvard forward, earned rookie of the week for her two goals and three assists in victories over Yale and Brown. Quinnipiac's Vigilanti was named goalie of the week. She had a combined 60 saves in ties against Colgate and Cornell.
The polls
There are four ECACH teams in the latest USCHO.com/CBS College Sports college hockey poll.
Cornell is seventh, dropping two spots. Quinnipiac moved up four spots to No. 9. Yale dropped from ninth to 11th. Colgate enters the poll for the first time this season at No. 20.
Union received 16 points, fifth-most in other teams receiving votes. RPI got eight points. Princeton (18 points) and St. Lawrence (two) were the other ECACH teams receiving votes.
In the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, Cornell is eighth, Quinnipiac is 10th and Yale is 11th.
Miami (Ohio) remains No. 1 in both polls.
USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll
Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week
1 Miami (37) 9-1-4 983 1
2 Denver (9) 8-3-1 938 3
3 Mass.-Lowell (2) 8-2-1 864 4
4 North Dakota 7-4-1 794 2
5 Colorado College 9-2-1 792 7
6 Bemidji State (2) 10-1-1 690 8
7 Cornell 5-2-0 648 5
8 Michigan State 9-3-2 632 6
9 Quinnipiac 10-1-0 622 13
10 Massachusetts 8-2-0 587 11
11 Yale 3-2-2 417 9
12 Alaska 8-3-1 401 10
13 Notre Dame 6-5-3 381 14
14 Minnesota Duluth 9-4-1 378 20
15 Wisconsin 7-4-1 292 15
16 Boston College 5-3-2 250 17
17 Ferris State 9-3-2 247 NR
18 Vermont 4-4-1 188 17
19 Nebraska-Omaha 5-4-3 109 12
20 Colgate 6-3-4 70 NR
Others receiving votes: St. Cloud State 64, Michigan 63, RIT 20, Princeton 18, Union 16, New Hampshire 12, Northern Michigan 10, RPI 8, Merrimack 2, Providence 2, St. Lawrence 2.
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll
(First-place votes in parentheses)
Rank School Last Poll's Ranking 2009-10 Record Weeks in Top-15
1 Miami University, 502 (26) 1 9-1-4 8
2 University of Denver, 479 (6) 3 8-3-1 8
3 University of Massachusetts-Lowell, 440 4 8-2-1 8
4 University of North Dakota, 374 2 7-4-1 8
5 Colorado College, 364 7 9-2-1 5
6 Bemidji State University, 290 8 10-1-1 5
7 Michigan State University, 270 6 9-3-2 3
8 Cornell, 256 5 5-2-0 8
9 University of Massachusetts, 240 11 8-2-0 3
10 Quinnipiac University, 234 13 10-1-0 2
11 Yale University, 144 9 3-2-2 8
12 University of Alaska, 137 10 8-3-1 4
13 University of Minnesota Duluth, 94 NR 9-4-1 2
14 University of Notre Dame, 86 14 6-5-3 8
15 Boston College, 42 NR 5-3-2 5
Others receiving votes: University of Vermont, 30; Ferris State University 27, University of Wisconsin 25, University of Michigan 11, University of Nebraska Omaha 10, Colgate University 5, RIT 3, St. Cloud State University 1.
If you have any comments, post them below, or e-mail them to me at schott@dailygazette.com.
