Athlete of the Week: Matthew Peca

Athlete of the Week: Matthew Peca 

By Ben Dias, QBSN Staff Writer 

This week’s QBSN Athlete of the Week honors are awarded to freshman Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) of the men’s ice hockey team. 

Peca has recorded a point in 10 straight games, the second longest for a freshman in Quinnipiac history, trailing only Ben Nelson's 12-game streak in 2005. This streak has helped propel the Bobcats to a No. 19 national ranking.

The young star has already received some impressive accolades. Peca was named ECAC hockey Rookie of the Month for October, along with Rookie of the Week on Oct. 25.  He has had an impressive first month to his NCAA career with eight points in eight games, including three goals and five assists.

Throughout his ten game point streak, Peca has recorded eight assists and three goals. Peca registered three goals in consecutive games. His first goal of his career came on the power-play in 6-1 win against Bentley.  On the weekend road-trip to Robert Morris, Peca scored in back-to-back games for his second and third goals of the season.

Peca is currently in third among Division I rookies and fourth on the team in points with 11.  He sits behind Jeremy Langlois’s 15, and Connor and Kellen Jones with 14 and 12 points respectively. Peca is also currently second on the Bobcats with eight assists behind Connor Jones’s team-high of 11 assists. His eight assists also puts him in second among all Division I rookies.  The freshman phenom is tied for the team lead in short-handed goals with one and is the team leader in game-winning goals with two.

The seventh round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning during the summer has flourished ever since teaming up with leading scorer Langlois and senior captain Scott Zurevinski to form a powerful scoring line.

 “He was a highly touted, impact type player coming in,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We knew he was going to be good, but the nice thing is we’ve surrounded him with good players.

Peca noted the importance of having a scoring line made up of such great players.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate to be put on a line with those guys,” Peca said.  “It certainly helps a lot.”

Peca has been an integral part in helping Langlois become the leading scorer. Langlois realizes the importance of having Peca on the line. 

“My line—me, Zurvy, Peca—[do] a pretty good job out there. Pecs is pretty fast out there, which really helps me and Zurvy out.”

Pecknold discussed how the line change was important to the Bobcats offensive attack.

 “It’s three very good players. They all have different skills and different strengths,” Pecknold said. “They hunt pucks well. They play well together. Even more than the offense they’re providing right now, all three of them are very good defensively. They’re cleaning up the ‘D’ zone pretty quickly, and then we can go and play offense.”

The Bobcats know they can count on Peca to continue to perform for them and be an integral part of the offense as they try to make a deep run into the ECAC playoffs this season.