In last year’s national title game, the Quinnipiac Bobcats and the Minnesota Golden Gophers ended the third period tied 2-2. The Bobcats eventually clinched the national championship with a 10-second overtime winner, led by then-sophomore forward Jacob Quillan.
While it is not the Frozen Four but instead the Providence regional semifinal, the Bobcats found themselves in a similar situation tied at 2-2 going into overtime against a Big Ten opponent. However, this time it wasn’t against Minnesota. It was against another Big Ten foe, the Wisconsin Badgers.
In the Providence regional semifinal, it wasn’t Quillan scoring 10 seconds into the overtime period, it was another sophomore forward. Victor Czerneckianair potted a 1-on-1 opportunity after deking out senior goaltender Kyle McClellan to push the Bobcats into the regional final against the No. 1 Boston College.
How did the game get to overtime?
Both teams had recently suffered tough losses against conference opponents. Quinnipiac was defeated by St. Lawrence 3-0 in the ECAC semifinals, while the Badgers had been on rest for 19 days following their loss to Ohio State in a best-of-three series. For Quinnipiac, that loss served as a wake-up call.
“We knew what we had to do coming into this game. We needed to hunt and keep all the little details that we do well, and we knew we had to do that in this game,” junior forward Cristophe Tellier said.
The senior forward Christophe Fillion and Tellier’s connection struck gold in the first two minutes of the period. Tellier found Fillion out in front and placed it in the wide-open net after senior goaltender Kyle McClellan was caught out of position. The Bobcats controlled the first period, allowing only four shots on goal compared to 10 shots on goal of their own.
Just like Quinnipiac in the first period, Wisconsin came out swinging in the second period scoring two goals within one minute and 15 seconds of each other. The first, freshman forward Quinn Finley picked off an errant pass by senior defender Cooper Moore and rifled it past senior goaltender Vinny Duplessis to tie the game up.
The latter came from the stick of freshman defender Joe Palodichuk when he wrapped around Duplessis’ net, beating him with a shot that put the Badgers up 2-1 in the first three minutes of the second period.
“We don’t panic, there was no worry on the bench, like we really felt like we were gonna win,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We knew we were playing a great team and one of the best goalies in the country.”
The Bobcats didn’t fall down like they did against St. Lawrence. Rather, they kept fighting back with Czerneckianair ringing the post on a shot that beat McClellan, but mainted the Badgers lead at 2-1. The Southington, Connecticut, native didn’t falter from that ring off the post.
“You just gotta reset, you know, goldfish memory, forget about it and just move on to the next shift because we have to,” Czerneckianair said.
An unlikely scorer this season, only scoring five goals before tonight’s game, Czerneckianair scored his first of two with 1:32 left in the second period. Junior defensemen Davis Pennington ripped a shot from the point that was blocked right to Czerneckianair who put it past the blocker of McClellan to tie the game at 2-2.
“This was a huge game for Vic, he was good the whole night and he defended well, he had like 107 points (in juniors),” Pecknold said. “He has the ability to score and he scored a lot in practice.”
Czerneckianair, while being an unlikely hero, was the hero that Quinnipiac needed to meet Boston College in the regional final on Sunday at 4 p.m. for the first time since meeting them in the first game of the season.
