Rookie of the season

Cloutier: My rookie of the season has to be the closest thing to a bowling ball while forechecking in the ECAC, Scott Davidson.  

Davidson had 15 points on the season and was the perfect compliment to Soren Jonzzon and Tim Clifton on the second line.

The first highlight of the season for Davidson was his impressive goal against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, where he found twine through minimal space on the short side.

Davidson’s second highlight of the season was scoring the first goal in the much-anticipated home game against Yale.

This guy gives 100 percent every shift and will be a premier player for the Bobcats in the coming years. 

Brosh: The pride of Florida takes home my rookie of the season award.

Chase Priskie became one of the Bobcats’ best defensemen this season and was one of Quinnipiac’s best offensive threats from the blue line.

Paired up with Connor Clifton in the later stages of the season, Priskie put up 26 points in 43 games.

Priskie took home an All-Rookie selection from ECAC Hockey and recorded 20 assists on the season, the most for a freshman defenseman since 2005.

Priskie, working off 10 power-play points in 2015, will see his role expand with the Bobcats on both the man advantage and at even strength next season.

Watch out for this standout defensemen to be the next Bobcat drafted in the NHL.

MVP of the season

Cloutier: My MVP of this season’s Quinnipiac team has to go to top-line center Travis St. Denis.  

First on the team in assists, second in goals and points, St. Denis was pivotal in all three zones for this team.

St. Denis was also a phenomenal man at the faceoff dot. Despite being on the small side, St. Denis does not back down to anyone, which may get him in trouble at times as he was second on the team in penalty minutes.

Nonetheless, he was quite the leader for this team, serving as an assistant captain.

St. Denis is going to be a player this coaching staff, the fans, and his teammates will miss dearly next season.

Brosh: Fair weather fans’ lasting memory may be the mistake he made in the national championship game for the game-winning goal.

However, if you watched during the season, you will remember all the games goaltender Michael Garteig kept the Bobcats in it.

Allowing one goal during a weekend against St. Lawrence and Clarkson let the Bobcats, whose offense could not find the net, escape the weekend with two points.

That was just one example of the many times the Bobcats relied on Garteig to hold down the fort in the middle of the season.

In tough times throughout the season, Garteig never gave up. His efforts kept the Bobcats in games that might have been losses or ties if it were not for his stout performance between the pipes.

During a stretch of games in December, Garteig did not allow a goal in 209 minutes which is a true showing of how dominant and steadfast the Canadian was for the Bobcats.

Shock of the season

Cloutier: Tim Clifton had 43 points this season.

I repeat, Tim Clifton had 43 points this season.

Tim was projected to be the fourth line grinder that he has proven to be in his past two seasons with Quinnipiac. 

However, Tim reverted back to his scoring days as a member of the New Jersey Hitmen, scoring the second most goals on the team with 19.

Tim was at his best on the power play in front of the net and in the corners. No one was better at crashing the net than Tim was this season.

Brosh: Freshmen are usually supposed to come in and get their feet wet, maybe make a smaller impact on the third or fourth line.

However, the freshmen flourished all season.

From Thomas Aldworth starting with a hot streak, to Luke Shiplo stepping in for Derek Smith to make crucial plays for the Bobcats in the heart of the season, to Craig Martin netting his first collegiate goal in the ECAC playoffs, to Priskie and Davidson’s season-long consistency, all of these players made an impact.

The freshman class combined for 60 points on the year but more importantly continued to do small things to make this team really tick.

These freshmen exploded onto the scene this year and are poised to get even better in the upcoming years.

Game of the season

Cloutier: This choice may come as a surprise to most people with all the big games the Bobcats played this season, but I am going to choose the 2-2 tie against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the regular season.

This game exhibited how resilient this team really was.

To take you back to that game, there was a huge cluster in front of the net with the Bobcats trailing by one. A diving Sam Anas put the puck on net to tie the game from his knees with a little over nine seconds to play.

That game proved the 2015-16 Bobcats were a team that would never stop battling.

Brosh: The Bobcats were battle-tested against a Cornell Big Red team that pushed them to a game three on a Sunday afternoon in the ECAC quarterfinals.

However, Quinnipiac came out and dominated the whole day.

With two goals coming from an unlikely source in Bo Pieper and the entire Quinnipiac team humming all day, the Bobcats never looked back and went on to win their first Whitelaw Cup a weekend later in Lake Placid.

Play of the season

Cloutier: The best play of this season is without a doubt the last-second glove save by Garteig to send the Bobcats to the national championship game.

That save was as big-time as it gets, and showed why Garteig was such a competitor for his team during his three years as a starter.

This glove save came 20 seconds after another glove save that was arguably just as nice.

The Bobcats will surely miss Garteig flashing the leather like this one, but this save was quite the swan song to send him off to the professional ranks.

Brosh: Connor Clifton going coast-to-coast against RIT to put the game away is my vote for play of the season.

Connor, an elite defenseman known for destroying opponents with bone-crushing hits, truly dazzled offensively here.

The New Jersey native carried the puck from his defensive end, weaving through orange jerseys, and finished it off with a beautiful behind-the-back, no-look pass to Jonzzon to move on to the East Regional final.

Additional highlights

Cloutier: Winning the ECAC championship title was a pretty thrilling event for this team, considering it was the first time they have done so in program history.

Not to mention how their star player was out for the last two periods of the game. It showed how resilient this team was and why they’d eventually make it to the NCAA championship game.

This was a team win and has to be up there as one of the best parts of their year.

Brosh: It may have come before Halloween, but the Bobcats started to put themselves on the map as serious contenders after a colossal two-game sweep of St. Cloud State.

The Bobcats had four different goal-scorers in the first game and a record-setting game from Garteig in the second matchup, where he recorded 41 saves.

Those two themes became mainstays for the Bobcats throughout the season as they went on to reach the top of the national rankings.

What does the future hold? 

Cloutier: The loss of top players to NHL contracts and graduation will not be taken lightly. But with another strong recruiting class coming through as the Bobcats keep picking up top talent, the future is bright.

Quinnipiac boasts a strong freshman class that will blossom into talented and productive sophomores.

Also, transfers such as Kevin Duane from Boston University, and Chris Truehl from Air Force will be key additions.

Brosh: The Bobcats said goodbye to arguably their two best players a year too soon in Anas and Devon Toews, along with saying goodbye to the program’s winningest class of skaters in Jonzzon, St. Denis, and Garteig.

However, with the Clifton brothers returning for their senior season, along with freshmen stars maturing after a year under their belt and the emergence of transfers in Truehl and Duane, the Bobcats could still find themselves in a very competitive and dominant spot next year.