No. 17 Men's Ice Hockey Set for Inaugural Connecticut Ice

Saturday, January 25

Bridgeport, Conn. / Webster Bank Arena

4:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

UConn

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Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

No. 17 Men's Ice Hockey Set for Inaugural Connecticut Ice

1/23/2020 5:53:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Bobcats Head Into Weekend Winners in Seven of Last Eight Games, Face UConn Saturday at 4 PM

By: QU Athletic Communications

#17 Quinnipiac Bobcats (13-8-1, 7-4-1 ECAC Hockey) vs.
UConn Huskies (9-10-4, 6-7-2 Hockey East)
Saturday, Jan. 25 | 4 PM
Webster Bank Arena | Bridgeport, Conn.
All-Time Series vs. UConn: 19-11-2 (Won last meeting, 4-2, on Oct. 16, 2018)

TV: SNY (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS) | LISTEN | LIVE STATS | GAME NOTES | TICKETS | @QU_MIH

HAMDEN, Conn. – The Quinnipiac men's ice hockey team comes into Connecticut Ice as one of the hottest teams in the state as the Bobcats get set to take on UConn in the first game of the inaugural tournament Saturday afternoon.

Last Time Out
Quinnipiac had just one game last weekend as the Bobcats defeated the Holy Cross Crusaders, 4-3, on the road for their penultimate weekend of non-conference action. Alex Whelan recorded his second career hat trick while Logan Britt scored his first career goal in the win.

Scouting UConn
Despite coming into the weekend with a sub-.500 record, UConn bounced back over the past two games with back-to-back wins against Maine and at Northeastern to improve to 9-10-4 and 6-7-2 in Hockey East. The Huskies back-to-back wins snapped a four-game losing streak and five-game winless streak after earning four straight wins against Miami and Vermont. UConn is led by first year Vladislaw Firstov who has nine goals and 16 points while Ruslan Iskhakov (six goals and nine assists) and Benjamin Freeman (four goals and 11 assists) are tied for second on the team with 15 points. Eight different Huskies have scored at least five goals this season and nine have at least 10 points. Sophomore goalie Tomas Vomacka has secured the starting job between the pipes and owns a 3.37 GAA and .893 save percentage this season.

All-Time vs. UConn
Quinnipiac comes into the weekend with a 19-11-2 record all-time against UConn after last season's 4-2 win in the Bobcats' home opener. The Bobcats have won four straight against the Huskies dating back to the 2015-16 season and eight of the last nine meetings. In last season's win, William Fällström netted his first two career goals and Keith Petruzzelli made 11 saves in his second win to start the season.

National Rankings
Quinnipiac continues to climb the national rankings as the Bobcats are ranked No. 17 in the USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll. The Bobcats rose three spots from last week when they were No. 20 in the nation, their first time in the top 20 since November. The Bobcats were also second in the received votes categories with 12. Quinnipiac is also No. 15 in the Pairwise Rankings which help determine seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

Hobey Baker Nominees
Two Bobcats have been nominated for the 2020 Hobey Baker Award with Wyatt Bongiovanni and Odeen Tufto receiving nominations for the first time in their careers. Bongiovanni is the league's leading goal scorer and among the top in the nation while Tufto is among the leader point totals in the league and nation.

No Falling Behind
After an impressive night on faceoffs at Holy Cross, Quinnipiac leapfrogged Western Michigan for first in the nation with a .560 faceoff percentage, the first time this season the Bobcats slid into first place. Quinnipiac has won 753 faceoffs this season and lost just 591, a total that is the ninth fewest in the nation and third fewest among non-Ivy League teams. Three Bobcats rank in the Top 50 in the nation in faceoff percentage, led by William Fällström in ninth (sixth among centers) at .604 and four Bobcats are in the Top 12, three of which rank in the Top Eight.

Penalties (or lack thereof)
Quinnipiac continues to be extremely disciplined as it is the fifth in the nation among the last penalized times with 74 penalties, a total that is first among non-Ivy League teams. The Bobcats average the fewest penalties per game in the nation at 3.36, 0.10 ahead of Notre Dame. In at least Division I program history, no Quinnipiac team has averaged fewer penalties or fewer penalty minutes per game than the 2019-20 squad.

Rand's Winning Ways
Head coach Rand Pecknold continues to approach milestone wins in his career. In addition to having 524 wins to rank 13^th all-time among Division I Men's Hockey coaches, he is just three wins from passing former men's and women's tennis head coach Mike Quitko for the most wins by a coach in Quinnipiac Athletics history. Pecknold and Quitko are the only two Quinnipiac coaches to record 500 wins with Quinnipiac programs.

Sophomore Success
Quinnipiac's sophomores continue to be among the best in their class as they rank fifth in the nation with 46 assists, seventh with 73 points, tied for ninth with 27 goals and lead the nation with 14.00 shots on goal per game. All four categories are tops in ECAC Hockey. The Bobcats also rank fourth in the nation in assists per game (2.09) and fifth in points per game (3.32).

Last season, the Bobcats' Class of 2022 was first in the nation in goals (52), goals per game (1.37), points per game (3.21), game-winning goals (12), shots (496) and shots on goal per game (13.05). They also ranked second in points (122), and third in assists (70) and assists per game (1.84).

The Whaler
Alex Whelan recorded his second career hat trick last Friday at Holy Cross, including the game-winning goal in the second period as the Bobcats hung on for the 4-3 win. Whelan's hat trick was the first by a Bobcat this season and his first since Oct. 27, 2018 when he scored a trio of goals against AIC. Whelan has scored six goals in his last four games and has recorded points in seven of his last eight. He is now second on the team with eight goals and tied for ninth in ECAC Hockey.

Odeen, Odeen, Odeen, Odeen
Odeen Tufto recorded another pair of assists for the Bobcats at Holy Cross to give him 22 helpers on the season and 25 points. Tufto has recorded 12 points in his last seven games. His impressive collegiate career continues as he leads ECAC Hockey with 22 assists and is tied for second with 25 points, and is tied for third in the nation in assists. Tufto has seven multi-assist games this season and eight multi-point games, while in his career he has 22 multi-assist games and 33 multi-point performances.

He has been equally as impressive at the faceoff dot where he leads ECAC Hockey with 241 faceoff wins and is sixth with a .571 faceoff percentage. Nationally, he is 14^th in faceoff wins.

Britter's on the Board
Logan Britt recorded a milestone at Holy Cross as he buried his first career goal to help lead the Bobcats to victory. Britt's goal made him the fifth different Quinnipiac player to record their first goal this season and seven with their first point. In total, 19 different skaters have recorded points for the Bobcats this season.