“There’s not many times I walk away from a game where I’m embarrassed.”
And after his squad’s performance against the unranked Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks, men’s ice hockey head coach Rand Pecknold had every right to be frustrated with his squad.
Tuesday night’s 2-2 tie in the Bobcats return to Hamden shows the cracks in a Quinnipiac squad that surged to No. 5 in national rankings at the time of the contest. Cracks that, ultimately, cost the team two points in official standings, and the win in the unofficial shoot out.
Coming into the contest, Quinnipiac had shaken off a frustrating loss to Merrimack with a dominant Hockey East shutout against the University of New Hampshire, hoping to carry that momentum into this contest.
However, despite the 4,343 mile distance separating the two universities, Pecknold’s squad had the benefit of familiarity. Despite the two teams only having one former contest between them coming into the 2025 season, this would be the second time the Nanooks faced-off against the Bobcats, besting them 2-1 in the Ice Breaker Tournament.
“I think we dominated that game, we completely dominated tonight,” Pecknold said.
Early on, Quinnipiac appeared strong, maintaining heavy possession over the Nanook side. The shot count, which would remain lopsided throughout the contest, was 17-3 by the end of the first, primarily due to Alaska Fairbanks’ failure to possess the puck long enough to penetrate the Quinnipiac zone.
Through 20, there was very little for the Bobcat side to be frustrated about. Symptoms of what would become the Bobcat downfall began to surface as the period progressed, but fears regarding lack of execution and a steadily slowing tempo were brushed away easily when the Bobcats struck first on the scoresheet.
Sophomore center Chris Pelosi beat senior goaltender Lassi Lehti for the Bobcats first strike, quelling any question in the barn about how the game was sure to go.
The possession, the shots, the speed; it was all Bobcats all the time. The final shot count should’ve told the entire story. 41-16. A dominant Bobcat performance at M&T Bank Arena.
Yet that wasn’t even close to the case.
“There’s not many times you outshoot a team like that and have puck position like that, and don’t come out with a win,” Pecknold said.
It started with the lack of offensive execution. Despite skating circles around Alaska Fairbanks for much of the contest, Quinnipiac was unable to convert on grade-A chances. Shot after shot was either fanned on, or sticked high, or just plain blocked by a Nanooks squad willing to sacrifice the body in any capacity necessary.
Even for the 41 shots that were on target, Lehti’s performance ensured that only two crossed the goal line. The Espoo native stood on his head, falling just one save short of his season-high.
“Lehti was outstanding,” Pecknold said. “If he’s going to play like that, they’re going to win a lot of games.”
As the game progressed, it wasn’t just the offensive execution lacking on the Quinnipiac side. Defensively, the team was making sloppy mistakes. Holding a 2-1 lead in the third, after another timely power play goal by freshman winger Ethan Wyttenbach, Quinnipiac would allow Alaska to creep back into the contest with increasingly sloppy play.
Alaska would seemingly capitalize on a goal that was called back for goaltender-interference, before the Nanooks would tie the game up for good with less than two minutes remaining.
“We’re supposed to cover the back door, and we had a player not do his job,” Pecknold said. “Just the stuff we did tonight, the blown back-checks, a face-off infraction, it’s just sloppy.”
However, the reality of his team’s defensive struggles didn’t diminish the fact that Pecknold, as well as everyone else wearing Bobcat blue and gold, believed that the Nanooks second score was offsides. After a long deliberation by the referees, the goal would stand, putting the Bobcats down a man in the closing seconds, awarding hem no opportunity to score before three-on-three overtime.
Even with mixed feelings about the officiating, the accountability is still pertinent for Quinnipiac.
“We shouldn’t be at that point and put the referees in a position where, you know, we let them decide the game. We should decide ourselves,” Pecknold said.
A scoreless overtime period earned the Bobcats a tie in the standings, with even the unofficial shootout failing to raise spirits, with Alaska freshman Misha Danylov’s strike in the sixth round putting the contest away for the Nanooks.
Pecknold put it simply. If the Bobcats want to win games, they need to be better.
“The kids aren’t listening. They’re not buying in, and they’re not grasping what we need to do,” he said.
Pecknold didn’t pull a single punch in his analysis. A team like this isn’t acceptable, and isn’t the identity of Quinnipiac hockey.
“We’re a really good summer league team right now. We’re a really good men’s league team right now,” Pecknold said.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats return to the ice on Nov. 7 against rival Yale on the road. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
