No. 2/3 Men's Hockey Heads to Holy Cross

Friday, December 30

Worcester, Mass. / Hart Center

7:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

Holy Cross

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

12/29/2022 7:45:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Friday, Dec. 30 | 7:00 PM EST | No. 2/3 Quinnipiac Bobcats (14-1-3, 10-0-0 ECAC Hockey) at Holy Cross Crusaders (5-12-1, 4-7-1 Atlantic Hockey)
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HAMDEN, Conn. — The No. 2/3 Quinnipiac men's ice hockey program takes the ice for the first time in 20 days on Friday night, heading to the Hart Center to take on Holy Cross out of Atlantic Hockey. The Bobcats enter the contest on a 13-game unbeaten streak, the nation's longest.

They enter the second half of the campaign with the third-best scoring offense and scoring defense in the country, creating the NCAA's best scoring margin at 2.28. They also lead the country in winning percentage (.861) and are second in faceoff wins, taking .562 percent of draws.

THE GOLDEN START

Sophomore goaltender Yaniv Perets will be making his 50th start on Friday night when the Bobcats take on Holy Cross and he is already rewriting the Quinnipiac record books in his second season.
The Dollard-des-Ormaneux, Quebec native broke the single-season record with 11 shutouts to his name a season ago, becoming the first Quinnipiac goalie with double digits in that category. His 1.39 goals-against average and .932 save percentage are currently tops in the Division I career category leaderboards.

RING THE BELL!

Graduate captain Zach Metsa did the honors, as the Quinnipiac University men's ice hockey team brought home its first Belpot championship, winning in a shootout over UMass after tying 2-2 in 65 minutes of action.
Cristophe Tellier provided the winner in the shootout, scoring the lone goal as Yaniv Perets made two stops in the tiebreaker, while a third shot sailed over the crossbar. The Bobcats' earned a bid in the final with a 5-2 win over fellow ECAC foe Dartmouth before knocking off the Hockey East's Minutemen.

POWERED UP

Collin Graf and Ethan de Jong have each been a focal point on the Bobcats' second-ranked power play in the ECAC. Both players are tied for the second in the league and inside the Top 15 nationally in power play goals, tallying five each, while the squad ranks 11th nationally, converting on 25 percent of its man-up opportunities.

DRAW!

Quinnipiac enters the weekend with the second-best percentage at the faceoff dot, winning 56.2 percent through the first two months of the season.
This attack is led by Skyler Brind'Amour, with the senior currently sitting seventh in the nation and atop the ECAC with 219 faceoff wins. TJ Friedmann has 148 wins to his name, good for fifth in the league.

USA! USA! USA!

The Bobcats of past and present have a presence at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championships in New Brunswick this week. Head coach Rand Pecknold, director of operations Shawn Roche, head equipment manager Rob Kennedy and first-year forward Sam Lipkin are all taking a break from the Bobcats to don the stars and stripes.
Three past Bobcat connections are also on Pecknold's staff, with former assistant head coach and captain Reid Cashman, goaltending coach Jared Waimon, student manager Jessica Thibault also on staff. Cashman is currently the head coach at Dartmouth, Waimon is a goaltending scout for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Thibault is the director of ops at Sacred Heart.

For an inside look at the Quinnipiac men's ice hockey program, be sure to follow it on osical media @QU_MIH or go to gobobcats.com/mih.