Bobcats Back in the Top 20

Bobcats Back in the Top 20

By Brian Farrell, QBSN Staff Writer

Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team is back in the nation's top 20 for the first time since January, 17^th 2010. Is it early in the season? Yes. Is this a different team than the infamous 2009-2010 squad that started 12-1-0 only to go 20-18-2 — a resounding yes. Could a collapse be in the future? Possibly, but right now the Bobcats aren’t looking at history.

But last year’s 2010-2011 team was supposed to be different. The team was a year older and was ready to welcome college hockey’s version of the Sedin twins to Hamden. Scott Zurevinski was to be their line mate as freshmen Connor and Kellen Jones would pick apart a new league with a player that could have gone pro at the previous seasons’ end. Instead the Jones brothers held too much pressure for a pair of freshmen, Zurevinski didn’t play like a possible NHL skater, and no one could fill the skates left by Brandon Wong, Mike Atkinson, and Eric Lampe. As a result, the Bobcats finished eighth in the conference behind a lackluster offensive performance.

“Two years ago when we went 12-1 to start we had I think 15 freshmen and sophomores in the lineup every night,” senior captain Scott Zurevinski said. “So it is a different story this year … experience goes a long way especially deep in the season.

This season has been carefully deemed the veteran season. Those 15 underclassmen that were consistently in the lineup have turned into juniors and seniors, the Jones brothers are a year older, and the coaching staff is making a conscious effort not to put too much pressure on the 18-year-old freshman Matthew Peca. The reason the Bobcats aren’t looking back at their past two seasons is because they’ve already learned quite a bit from them.

While the season is still in its infant stage, the lessons learned are apparent. The power play is nearly six points better than last season. The Bobcats only scored 25 power-play goals all last season. Through eight games this year, QU already has ten.

“Last year our fore check lacked the speed and intensity we needed to go get the puck first and set up,” Zurevinski said. “Patience has a lot to do with it. Guys are getting the puck and not just throwing it away. They’re getting their heads up and getting pucks to the net.”

Unlike years prior, scoring is coming from everywhere. So far this season, opponents have been unable to say that to beat the Bobcats they just need to stop a Wong, a Lampe, or an Atkinson. This year, the opponents list has grown exponentially to include not just the superstars. Of those that have played, no player is without a point and only three are without a goal.

In addition to the scoring, the Bobcats have stayed consistent on the defensive side. Only two players on the roster have a negative plus/minus. Three of QU’s top ten scorers are blue liners. The Bobcat’s goals-against average is at an even two.

The only nagging questions for the Bobcats is whether or not the team actually has two goaltenders to work with and whether or not their Atlantic Hockey non-conference opponents were enough to prepare them for conference play.

This past weekend at Robert Morris, junior Eric Hartzell surrendered four goals on Friday night—his worst outing of the season. On Saturday, senior Dan Clarke continued his success by improving his goals-against average to 1.39 and his save percentage to .929.

QU’s non-conference naysayers need to go no further than Agganis Arena in Boston to question their beliefs. On Saturday Holy Cross upset No.7 Boston University, 5-4. While the Bobcats’ early non-conference schedule does not rank in the higher tier in the country, there is something to be said about how well they actually played against those teams. In the six games against the Atlantic Hockey conference, the Bobcats scored 30 goals, giving up just eleven (nearly half of them in a 5-4 loss to Robert Morris.)

With USCHO.com’s latest national poll, the Bobcats have stirred some attention. The question is how long will they be able to hold that attention? That question might be answered when they open up conference play at Princeton on November 1^st.