The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team enters their second national title game in school history tonight as they face off against North Dakota. The Bobcats lost to Yale in 2013 in their first national title game appearance.
How they got here: North Dakota is coming off a 4-2 win over Denver Thursday evening in front a very loud North Dakota showing here in Tampa.
The Fighting Hawks were up 2-0 before Denver stormed back in the third period to tie the game 2-2. However, North Dakota responded with just a minute to play, scoring two goals to seal the deal.
The Bobcats scored early against the Boston College Eagles Thursday night and never looked back, winning 3-2. The Bobcats relied heavily on a great performance from defensemen Kevin McKernan and goaltender Michael Garteig to get out in front early and preserve the lead late in the game.
Previous matchups: Quinnipiac has faced off with the Fighting Hawks three times in their program’s history, with a record of 0-3. Their most recent loss came in the NCAA tournament last year when North Dakota defeated the Bobcats 4-1 in the West Regional to end Quinnipiac’s season.
Brosh’s prediction: You couldn’t ask for a better matchup for the national championship game.
Quinnipiac and North Dakota have been neck and neck with each other all year in the polls and are far and above the two best teams in the country.
However, they are very different when you look at them on paper.
The Bobcats, relying heavily on their complete 21-man roster, see offense from all their skaters and only have two draft picks on the team.
For North Dakota, it is a much different story. The Fighting Hawks are very good in their first two lines but don’t rely as much on offense from their bottom two lines. The Fighting Hawks have a dozen drafted skaters.
However, the Bobcats have been potent on the power play this postseason, forcing teams to make mistakes and then making them pay.
And when the Bobcats make mistakes, they bail each other out and have been a force on the penalty kill.
Overall, I think this team is just too talented, too balanced, and too tenacious to leave Tampa without the hardware in their hands.
Bobcats win their first national championship title in program history, 4-3.
Cloutier’s prediction: Remember when I said Boston College vs. Quinnipiac was a toss up and it’s hard to predict the winner? Well the same goes for these two teams.
Since the start of the 2012-13 season Quinnipiac and North Dakota are the only teams with 100+ wins. They both sit at 109 wins since that time.
The winner of this game will have the most wins since 2012-13, and also their first national championship or their eighth national championship.
North Dakota is no stranger to the big stage, their first national championship title came back in 1959.
Even though the Bobcats come into this game ranked No. 1 in the nation, I believe they are still the underdogs.
North Dakota boasts 12 NHL draft picks and Quinnipiac only has two. None of Quinnipiac’s draft picks come from the early rounds like North Dakota’s.
Fortunately for Quinnipiac, college hockey has little to do with your individual ability of making it to the professional ranks.
To that point I believe Quinnipiac avoids the not-so-smart penalties, and plays a defensive game to shut down the scorers for the Fighting Hawks.
I believe the Bobcats will have their neutral zone trap set up perfectly the whole game and win this one 4-3.
Brosh’s player to watch: The Bobcats have struck gold this season with Tim Clifton.
The man the Bobcats brought in to be a grinder on offense and to wear opponent defenses down has done just that along with tallying 41 points this season.
Clifton is a leader on this team and knows how to get the bench going with a big hit.
However, he will need to limit his penalties against North Dakota after taking three Thursday night against Boston College.
If Clifton can play smart, gritty, and in-your-face hockey for 60 minutes Saturday night, he and the rest of the Bobcats will be rewarded.
Cloutier’s player(s) to watch: For North Dakota it is hard not to choose Boeser or Drake Caggiula who have scored 56 and 49 points respectively.
But Nick Schmaltz is my player to watch for the Fighting Hawks.
The first round Chicago Blackhawks draft pick has 45 points on the year and scored the game-winning goal with a minute left to send his team to the national championship.
Schmaltz is a dangerous player for North Dakota and the Bobcats need to shut him down to be a contender in this game.
For the Bobcats, their top scoring lines are going to be immensely important for them to win this game but even more important is their defense and goaltending.
My player to watch is going to be the Most Outstanding Player from the ECAC playoffs, Connor Clifton.
Connor has been playing his best hockey as a Bobcat all season. Not only is he producing points, but he is staying out of the penalty box.
That is huge for one of the best penalty killers on this Bobcats team. Look for him to have a positive plus/minus, and maybe a point or two tonight in his first collegiate national championship game.
