With nine minutes to play in the second period of a mid-week matchup against the University of Connecticut, Quinnipiac’s Brogan Rafferty approached the offensive blue line and found the puck on his stick after a strong pass from K.J. Tiefenwerth with just the goalie to beat.
Four seconds later Rafferty took the puck from his forehand to his backhand on the breakaway, forcing the goaltender into a pretzel. Rafferty took full advantage and finished off the highlight-reel goal, depositing the puck through the legs of the goalie. The goal was his first goal of his collegiate career and extended the Bobcats lead to 4-2.
Prior to the defenseman’s spectacular goal, he paired with Kevin McKernan to pinch a streaking UConn forward behind his own net in the defensive zone, cutting off any chance for the Huskies to tie the game at three.
In an 80-second frame, Rafferty showcased the skills that stood out to Quinnipiac’s coaching staff when they saw him play in the North American Hockey League Top Prospect Showcase in 2014.
“He was another kid who didn’t have a lot of hype as a recruit,” Quinnipiac associate head coach Bill Riga said about Rafferty. “There wasn’t a ton of teams on him until late. He just has good size and he moves the puck really well. But he has developed over the past year, after we committed him into an offensive player.”
Rafferty started his hockey career off the ice in a roller-hockey rink in Chicago at the age of five.
“I was five years old playing roller hockey and my grandpa took me to the rink while my parents were on vacation,” Rafferty said. “We watched a game of roller hockey, and he asked if i wanted to play and I said yes and he signed me up the next day and I started playing.”
Rafferty exchanged the roller-hockey skates and the roller-hockey puck for a pair of ice skates and an ice hockey puck three years later and excelled as he went on to play club hockey during high school.
“In high school I played for Team Illinois. You don’t really play high school hockey in Illinois, that’s more of a Minnesota, East Coast thing,” Rafferty said. “I was a forward growing up, my whole life I played forward until I was about 17 years old.”
Rafferty was playing for the AA team for Team Illinois, but wanted to move to the next step in his hockey career when his father suggested a change.
“I was playing AA which is not the best hockey. I played forward and then one summer I switched to D [defense] and tried out for AAA for team Illinois and I made it as a defensemen,” Rafferty said. “It was a decision me and my dad made one summer because he was like ‘Hey, teams are starting to use offensive defensemen and you’re good with the puck so try it out’ and I did try it out and it worked out really well.”
Rafferty’s shift to the blue line paid off hugely for the former forward as he started to get recruited by some North American Hockey League teams before choosing to play with the Coulee Region Chill in 2013-14 just a year after teammate and Quinnipiac captain Derek Smith played with the team.
Rafferty made an immediate impact, notching 22 points in 53 games played with the Chill registering three goals and 19 assists.
Following Rafferty’s strong year in the NAHL, a tier-two league, the goal was to continue to grow and make it up to the number one tier.
“So after that year I wanted to go play in the USHL, which is tier one obviously and a league I always wanted to play in,” Rafferty said. “So I went and tried out for a few teams, got cut from one, and I made one team and was there for a month during training camp and then they released me, and sent me back down to Coulee Region and tier-two so that fired me up.”
Rafferty didn’t shy away from what being released did to motivate him.
“It’s a big letdown, you obviously are pretty upset, but you can’t let it get to you too much,” Rafferty said. “I used it almost as motivation, to prove them wrong, like the boys say ‘prove people wrong’ so I just used that and i had a really good year.”
Rafferty served as assistant captain for the Chill after returning to Coulee Region in 2014-15 as he went on to net four goals and tally an exceptional 28 assists, finishing the season with 32 points in 56 games. The numbers opened up many eyes in the system.
“I got recruited more heavily my second year, I got recruited the first year a little bit but my second year it really took off, almost 15 schools,” Rafferty said. “Then I went to the North American League Top Prospect Showcase and Billy Riga went there to watched me play.”
Riga called Rafferty the next day and offered him a scholarship at Quinnipiac.
“I accepted it,” Rafferty said. “I was extremely pumped.”
However, Rafferty still had unfinished business with the USHL. Following his strong showing at the Top Prospect Showcase, Rafferty finally received the recognition that he had fought for the two years leading up to 2015 when he was drafted 30th overall in the USHL draft by the Bloomington Thunder.
The defenseman played 60 games with the Thunder, scoring two goals and adding helpers on 26 others, notching another 25 plus point season.
Since taking the ice for Quinnipiac two months ago, Rafferty has continued to enhance the skill set that has found him success in the past as he finds himself tied for ninth in the ECAC Hockey conference in points so far this season with 13. The freshman’s 11 assists are good for third in the conference.
The Chicago native, who is tied for 29th in all of Division I hockey in assists, was humbled when talking about how this first season with Quinnipiac has gone.
“I think the first 11 games have gone,” Rafferty said pausing while gathering the right words. “I did not expect this. It’s awesome. I was shooting high and aiming high for my goals for the year, but the coaches have put us in great situations out there. The system is great to play in. it’s just so easy when you play with such good players and I think that is what has helped me out the most. My confidence keeps growing and each game i am more comfortable on the ice.”
For Quinnipiac, the addition of Rafferty comes at the right time as the program lost strong defensemen in Devon Toews and Alex Minor-Barron who signed NHL contracts and graduated respectively, leaving the Bobcats looking for defensemen to fill those shoes.
Along with fellow freshman Karlis Cukste and sophomore Luke Shiplo, Rafferty has stepped up to fill the spots opened by the departures of Toews and Miner-Barron as he continues to learn and grow into a leadership role with the team.
His strong season continued to take shape over this past weekend when he struck for four assists in a successful trip to Cornell and Colgate. Rafferty and the Bobcats will take the ice next in Belfast, Ireland for a matchup with St. Lawrence in the Friendship Four over the upcoming holiday weekend.
As Rafferty’s time on the ice continues to increase, so will his young voice in the locker room. For him however, growing into a leadership role comes from watching those before him.
“I am just going to keep doing what I am doing. We have really good leadership now, so from our captains and from the older guys, so I just kind of watch what they do and observe and hopefully try to apply that,” Rafferty said. “As a freshmen you can lead too. So I just try to be the best person I can be on and off the ice and just see if people follow. I just really observe the older guys, because we have a great core group of guys and our culture here is lights out.”
