Quinnipiac Bobcats men's ice hockey
The Quinnipiac Bobcats men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents Quinnipiac University. The Bobcats are a member of ECAC Hockey. They play at the People's United Center in Hamden, Connecticut. History. Quinnipiac College began sponsoring men's ice hockey as a varsity sport for the 1975–76 season. The program began as an independent team before joining ECAC 3 the following year. The program remained with the third-tier conference for over 20 years despite being a Division II school for  much of that time. The Braves left ECAC 3 in 1997 and spent a year as a D-II independent before moving up to Division I as part of the university's transition to the top level. Quinnipiac was a founding member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ice hockey division, joining the conference as an affiliate member. The Braves won the MAAC Regular Season Championship in their first season in the league. The trend continued as Quinnipiac won the title the follow two seasons. In 2002 The Braves won the team's first playoff series, winning the MAAC Playoff  Championship with a 6–4 win over Mercyhurst. With the win, Quinnipiac received an automatic bid to the 2002 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, the first NCAA postseason appearance in program history. Quinnipiac faced off against Cornell in the first round of the East Regional, held in Worcester, Massachusetts. Quinnipiac's run into the NCAA Tournament ended early in a 1–6 loss to the Big Red. The game was the first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Braves. Quinnipiac finished the 2001–02 season 20–13–5, marking the team's fourth consecutive season with at least 20 wins. In 2003 the  MAAC Hockey league split off from the main athletic conference to form Atlantic Hockey. After two years in Atlantic Hockey Quinnipiac left to join the ECAC, replacing Vermont who left the league for Hockey East and changed their name to the Bobcats. QU was chosen over a number of applicants in large part to the university's commitment to build a new multipurpose sports arena to replace the civic-owned Northford Ice Pavilion. The Bobcats moved into the new 3,386-seat TD Bank Sports Center (then known as TD Banknorth Sports Center) in 2007. The 2012–13 season has brought Quinnipiac  to national prominence. The program reached a new high becoming the number one team in the country on February 11, 2013 in both the USCHO.com poll and USA Today College Hockey poll. Quinnipiac retained the ranking the following week despite losing their first game as the top ranked team to St. Lawrence University as the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams also fell the same weekend. The Bobcats also won their first ever Cleary Cup presented to the ECAC regular season champion. On March 24, 2013, the Bobcats received the number one overall seed in the 2013 NCAA Division I Men 's Ice Hockey Tournament. The Bobcats won the East Region with wins over Canisius (4-3) and Union (5-1) to advance to the school's first ever Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Pa. In the national semifinals, Quinnipiac defeated St. Cloud State (4-1) to advance to the national championship game against archrival Yale. The Bobcats fell 4–0 to Yale to end the 2012-13 as the national runner-up. In the 2013–14 season the Bobcats once again reached the NCAA tournament yet were defeated in the first round by Providence College 4–0. The team finished the season with a  24-10-6 record. Quinnipiac once again had a successful 2014–15 season when they won their second ECAC regular season title in 3 years but lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to North Dakota 4–1. The team finished the season with a 23-12-4 record. The 2015–16 season saw Qunnipiac set a school record for wins with 32 along with winning their 3rd ECAC regular season title in 4 years and winning the ECAC tournament championship for the first time. Quinnipiac blew through the East Regional with wins over RIT 4-0 and UMass Lowell 4–1  to capture the regional championship and advance to the Frozen Four in the Tampa for the 2nd time in 4 seasons. In the national semifinals the Bobcats withheld a late charge by Boston College to win 3-2 and advance to the second national championship game in program history. Once again Quinnipiac was denied a national championship this time at the hands of North Dakota in a 5–1 defeat. The team finished the season with a record of 32-4-7. Rivals. Since moving to the ECAC, Quinnipiac's biggest rival has been the Yale Bulldogs. The rivalry is dubbed  the War on Whitney Avenue as the two campuses are separated by a mere 8 miles on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut to New Haven, Connecticut. The rivalry has reached its highest point in 2013 as both the Bobcats and the Bulldogs rank in the top 10 nationally and are 1 and 2 in the ECAC standings. Quinnipiac holds a 9-5-2 all-time record against the Bulldogs. The winner of the final game between the two teams receives the Heroes Hat which honors those who risked their lives during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The two teams  met on April 13, 2013 for the fourth time in the 2012–13 season in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to play for the national championship. Quinnipiac won the previous three meetings by a combined score of 13–3, but was upset in the national championship game, 4–0. The Cornell Big Red have also become a rival of Quinnipiac with the teams meeting in five ECAC Hockey Playoff series since the 2007 season having won in 2007 at Lynah Rink and in 2013 and 2016 in Hamden with the latter two coming with Quinnipiac as the ECAC number one seed and seasons in which Quinnipiac  reached the Frozen Four. Cornell won series in 2011 and 2018 both at Lynah Rink. Quinnipiac is 3–2 in those series against Cornell with three of the series going the maximum three games. Things on the ice have been heated at times with a lot of physical play and both Rand Pecknold and Cornell head coach Mike Schafer jawing at each other as well. Season-by-season results. Source: Statistical leaders. Source: Career goaltending leaders. "GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV%  = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average" Awards and honors. NCAA. Individual awards. Spencer Penrose Award Tim Taylor Award NCAA Scoring Champion All-Americans. AHCA First Team All-Americans AHCA Second Team All-Americans MAAC. Individual awards. Offensive Player of the Year Defensive Player of the Year Defensive Rookie of the Year Tournament Most Valuable Player All-Conference Teams. First Team All-MAAC Second Team All-MAAC MAAC All-Rookie Team Atlantic Hockey. Individual awards. Player of the Year Regular Season Goaltending Award Regular Season Scoring Trophy Coach of the Year All-Conference Teams. First Team All-Atlantic Hockey  Second Team All-Atlantic Hockey Atlantic Hockey All-Rookie Team ECAC Hockey. Individual awards. ECAC Hockey Player of the Year ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Year Ken Dryden Award ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman Tim Taylor Award ECAC Hockey Most Outstanding Player in Tournament All-Conference. First Team All-ECAC Hockey Second Team All-ECAC Hockey Third Team All-ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team Quinnipiac Bobcats Hall of Fame. The following is a list of people associated with the Quinnipiac men's ice hockey program who were elected into the Quinnipiac  Bobcats Hall of Fame (induction date in parenthesis). Bobcats in the NHL. Source: