SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — After the poor performance in the ECAC Quarterfinals, the Quinnipiac Bobcats had a lot to prove in the first round of the NCAA Regionals against the Providence Friars Thursday night.
Getting swept by Clarkson was not the ideal way to end conference play. The Bobcats did not show the “passion,” as head coach Rand Pecknold likes to put it, and had two weeks to regroup, rethink and prepare for the playoffs.
They definitely did not lack that passion Thursday, with a decisive 5-2 win over the Friars to advance to the Regional Finals.
“I think the boys were just connecting, all of us,” senior center and captain Victor Czerneckianair said, who now ties former forward Travis St. Denis ‘16 with most NCAA playoff wins as a Bobcat with six.
Despite the slow start in the first period, the Bobcats came into this night with the grit and offense that is characteristic of this team. Outshooting the Friars 38 to 25, Quinnipiac held them in their defensive zone for the majority of the game.
“We’re really good at shot suppression, which is us having the puck,” Pecknold said. “I thought we had the puck the whole game and kind of played to our identity. I think you saw Quinnipiac hockey on display.”
It did not come as easily as the scoreboard suggests, though. Despite the comfortable three goal lead that the Bobcats had going into the third period, the Friars did not want to give it to them for free.
Sophomore defenseman and Boston Bruins prospect Elliot Groenewold sniped a shot from the blue line to open up scoring on the night in the second, creating momentum that the Bobcats rode for quite some time.
Fellow Boston Bruins prospect sophomore forward Chris Pelosi followed suit about 10 minutes later, skating on a breakaway during four-on-four play and scoring on the ice he called home for two years with the Sioux Falls Stampede.
“(It’s) unreal,” Pelosi said. “Good feeling, kind of brought me back to the old days.”
Freshman forward Antonin Verreault tipped a pass from his linemate sophomore Tyler Borgula in what would become the game winning goal to give Quinnipiac the three goal lead.
“It was a nice goal,” Verrault said. “But the referee was right there and I knocked my head off the ground so I didn’t feel that good, but obviously it was a huge deal.”
But nothing could be that easy for the Bobcats, who clearly like to spice up their games. Instead of continuing their dominance and holding the Friars at bay, Providence managed to get on the board after a goal from sophomore forward Logan Sawyer — that did result in a coach’s challenge as Pecknold believed there to be goaltender interference, which went unsuccessful — shifting the momentum of the rest of the game.
Four minutes later, sophomore forward John Mustard found the back of the net again, and suddenly it was a one goal game.
“I think we just played with more desperation,” Mustard said. “We kind of realized our season was on the line and that’s when we woke up, except it was too late.”
Indeed it was, and even the attempt to pull its goaltender did not help Providence, as two Bobcats found the empty net to seal the victory.
One of those scorers was yet another former Stampede, freshman forward Ethan Wyttenbach, who now tied the Bobcats’ single-season Division I point record at 59 points, the first one to do it since former forward Collin Graf ‘24. With Borgula’s assists, all three former Stampede on the Quinnipiac roster recorded a point on the night.
Despite the scoreboard, the last few minutes of this game were too close for comfort for the Bobcats. Once Providence found that second life, it was harder and harder to get the Friars out of the defensive zone. However, junior goaltender Dylan Silverstein clearly wanted to redeem himself from his last performance and his 23 saves helped in tonight’s win.
“I thought he was good tonight,” Pecknold said. “I thought Silvi was gonna give us the best chance to win tonight.”
Quinnipiac moves on and will face North Dakota — who skated past Merrimack 3-0 in the second semifinal of the Sioux Falls Regional— in a 2016 National Championship rematch.
The last time these two teams faced was back in 2022 in a preseason game where the Bobcats dominated the Fighting Hawks 6-2. The only three remaining players from that roster are seniors Czerneckianair and forwards Anthony Cipollone and Alex Power.
Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. CST (7 p.m. EST), with a spot in Frozen Four on the line.
