The Bobcat Bulletin

The Bobcat BulletinPresented by the Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports NetworkFebruary 11, 2013

Vol. 2, Issue 5theqbsn.com

@QBSN

Damn! They’re

GoodBobcats boast college hockey’s best résumé

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

Magic of the mustache | Page 3Hobey Baker nominee | Page 8

At 19-2 overall and 10-0 in the Northeast Conference, the Quinnipi-ac women’s basketball team is off to its best start in program history. De-spite being one of the hottest teams in women’s college basketball, the Bobcats are not letting up after the painful memory of falling short of the championship game last season.

“They are motivated, they know

The Bobcat Bulletin 2

The Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network (QBSN) is the exclusive student-run sports organization at Quinnipiac University. Origi-nally founded by Corey Hersch and Alex Birsh in the fall of 2010, QBSN offers students the unique opportunity to become active as

a sports journalist at QU. QBSN’s primary function has been to broadcast most of the athletics at Quinnipiac – streaming live online at its website (www.theqbsn.com). Sports broadcasted include: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, acrobatics and tumbling, women’s rugby, volleyball and field hockey. Students offer play-by-play and color commentary for each game, along with Twitter updates and an in-game live blog on the website. In addition to the games being broadcasted live, QBSN also offers game previews, recaps, feature articles and live podcasts through its website. Hockey Night in Hamden and Full Court Press are two podcasts broadcasted weekly that focus on the week that was for Quinnipiac basketball and ice hockey. The shows have become popular among both ECAC hockey and NEC basketball enthusiasts. Pregame shows are offered live twice a week as well, going out before the first athletics action of the weekend. QBSN is fueled by the passionate commitment that its members have demonstrated time and time again. Only two-and-a-half years into its existence, QBSN has gained noticeable recognition, earning the QU New Student Organization of the Year award in the 2010-11 scholastic year and the 2011-12 Quinnipiac Athletics Department Behind the Scenes Award. With a passion not only for sports journalism, but for Quinnipiac athlet-ics as well, QBSN is proud and excited to present the exclusive Quinnipiac University athletics monthly newsletter.

Future Bulletin Dates: Ray, Shannon bolster men’s roster

Tearing through conference playBy Kevin Noonan

Meet the StaffCo-Directors

Marc Schwartz, 2013Matthias Gausz, 2013

Publishing EditorAngelique Fiske, 2014

EditorsBrian Farrell, 2013

Kevin Noonan, 2014

Layout DesignRebecca Castagna, 2016

Adviser

Lila Carney

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March 4

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April 1

the goal. I think they remember the disappointment of last season and how it came up short,” head coach Tricia Fabbri said.

Quinnipiac’s dominance has been felt by its opponents this sea-son, including 10 wins by double digit points. One win that jumps off the page for the Bobcats is a 74-45 dismantling of preseason runner-up selection Sacred Heart.

Currently riding an 11-game winning streak, the Bobcats sit three games up on Saint Francis Universi-ty and Sacred Heart atop the confer-ence standings.

“We have to know that everyone is out to get us at the moment. Ev-eryone knows that we’re top in the conference and that any day, it could be anybody’s game,” Jasmine Martin said.

Quinnipiac’s start to the sea-son has also vaulted them into the national spotlight after climbing as high as No. 10 in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll. The recogni-tion for the program is something the Bobcats enjoy, but is not necessarily something they are concerned about.

“It’s nice that we’re being recog-nized throughout the country at the mid-major level on the success that we’re having this season,” Fabbri said.

National attention hasn’t affect-ed the team’s production.

Throughout the season it hasn’t been just one player that is stepping up to lead Quinnipiac, but an entire roster of players which is capable of being on the floor. In particular, sophomores Gillian “Boo” Abshire and Martin have stepped up their performances after impressive fresh-man seasons.

Martin moved into the starting rotation and has seen her points per game increase from 11.2 to 13.2.

By Nick Dench

The task of replacing Quinni-piac’s all-time Division I scoring leader James Johnson was never go-ing to be an easy one for head coach Tom Moore and the men’s basketball team. With four spots open for re-cruits this season, Moore changed his recruiting approach from past years, looking for more finesse players and fewer physical players. The results are encouraging thanks to freshmen Kendrick Ray, James Ford Jr., Tariq Carey and junior transfer Shaq Shan-non.

The Ray family has roots in NCAA basketball. His older sister, Brittany, played at Rutgers from 2006-10 and his older brother, Allan, played for Villanova from 2002-06 before being drafted by the Boston Celtics.

“He talked to me a lot before I came here,” Ray said about his older brother. “He just said go in, work hard and be prepared for anything the coaches throw at you.”

Moore compared Ray to for-mer UConn point guard Khalid El-Amin because they both grew up as a younger sibling, getting beat up on and becoming tougher because of it.

“You’re not really given any-thing when your older brothers and sisters are real good. You’re sort of pushed down and knocked down, beat up,” Moore said.

Ray’s style of play is very upbeat and energetic, often times stepping into the role as a playmaker. How-ever, as a freshman, Ray is still open to advice from his coaches.

“Kendrick’s fun to coach be-cause he’s eager to learn. You can coach him hard in practice and like a lot of freshmen he doesn’t wilt when you get on him,” Moore said. “He wants to get better. He comes in with a great attitude everyday, and he has an infectious personality.”

Ray has been gaining confidence as the season progresses, scoring a career high 12 points at Bryant in a 103-95 loss. Ray’s success with his mid-range jumper led to most of his points against the Bulldogs.

“Coach is just telling me, ‘get into the lane and just take that little pull-up jump shot and nobody can stop you doing that.’ So that’s really what I’ve been focusing on a lot and it’s been working,” Ray said.

Shannon, the other newcomer playing consistent minutes this sea-son, comes to Quinnipiac after play-ing two years at Connors State Junior College in Oklahoma.

“I think I was comfortable as I was coming in,” Shannon said on his transition from junior college to Quinnipiac.

Shannon came to Quinnipiac af-ter leading Connors State in 3-point percentage, shooting 56 percent from beyond the arc last season. Despite that statistic Moore said that Ford is

All statistics in the Bulletin current as of Feb. 8

May 6the best 3-point shooter on the team this season.

“I like to be competitive, so I think I’m the best 3-point shooter on the team,” Shannon said with a grin.

Shannon’s confidence grew af-ter scoring a career high 18 points against Central Connecticut and again against Monmouth. In the win over Central, all of Shannon’s points came from behind the 3-point line. He followed that performance up with a 12-point game against Fair-leigh Dickinson including a trio of 3-pointers.

Shannon moved into second place in Quinnipiac history with 10 made 3-pointers in a two-game span against Central Connecticut and Fairleigh Dickinson. Only James Johnson made more 3’s in a weekend when he had 10 shots from beyond the arc two years ago. Shannon’s 3’s were crucial in helping the Bobcats win two straight games for the first time this season.

“The first time you score 20 points, it’s easier to score 20 again,” Moore recollects coach Jim Calhoun saying at UConn. “That’s the thing with Shaq. The first time he walks out of here Thursday night against Central having made six 3’s, he feels pretty good about himself and he should. It’s going to be easier for him in the future to have a game where he makes four, five or six 3’s again.”

Ford, whose only minutes have come during NEC play, had his shin-

Not only that, but her 3-point shoot-ing percentage increased from 33 percent to just below 40 percent.

“I take the role that I’m given, whether I’m coming off the bench or I’m starting. I just do what I’m asked and hopefully that’s enough,” Martin said.

At the point, Abshire is excel-ling with a 2.5 assist to turnover ratio which ranks in the top 15 nationally. With this, Fabbri says she wants the ball in Abshire’s hand.

“She is so underrated how she runs the team … we want the ball in her hands. She makes great deci-sions, she plays defense … she just sets to the tone and gets our team set-tled into the right spots so we can be as effective and efficient as we can,” Fabbri said.

For this team, it does not matter who is the leading scorer. Four dif-ferent players have led the team in scoring in a game this season.

While Quinnipiac has its eyes set on the Northeast Conference championship game on March 17, Fabbri and the Bobcats know they can’t overlook anything past the next game to be played.

“I don’t think we’re satisfied, we haven’t won anything yet,” Fab-bri said. “We’re having a great sea-son but by no means have we won anything yet. We want to cut the nets down, and that’s really the motiva-tion.”

Sophomore point guard Gillian “Boo” Abshire drives to the basket against Fairleigh Dickinson on Jan. 26. The Bobcats won 66-39.

Photo by Brian Farrell

ing moment at the end of the first half against LIU-Brooklyn when he hit two 3-pointers to tie the game up and change the momentum.

Carey’s minutes have been lim-ited, but he played a huge role off the bench in the shootout at Bryant to keep the game close hitting a deep 3-point shot and two free throws.

All four of these players will have extended roles next season with starting point guard Dave Johnson graduating after this season.

Going to the MAAC next season will be a big transition for the entire team. This year’s recruiting class plans on stepping into Johnson’s role to help expand the offense and give the team a perimeter threat to com-pete with the guards in the MAAC.

For now, the Bobcats are con-tinuing to climb up the NEC’s.


By Brian Farrell

Senior forward Clay Harvey sports his mustache. He is second on the team with 12 assists and third in total points with 15.

Clay Harvey: Keeping it simple from the startThe mustache is a staple of

hockey. Just look back at some of the legendary lip sweaters from the past: Lanny McDonald, Pat Burns, Ross Rhea and now Quinnipiac’s Clay Harvey.

The senior from Gull Lake, Saskatchewan is one of the reasons the Bobcats are as hot as they are this season, not to mention that his mustache is unheralded among the Bobcats’ ranks. After losing just one game in the month of November, many of the Bobcats have kept their mouth brows.

The team grew the flavor savors to raise awareness for Prostate Can-cer during “Mo-vember.” Among the team’s best is Harvey’s whose stache even made it into an NBC Connecti-cut segment back in December.

“I think he’s been growing that thing since July,” Russell Goodman said laughing. “He came here with the mustache and he and Connor Jones are the originals. I think Harvs might keep it for the next 30 years.”

On the ice, Harvey has been one of the top performers for the Bobcats during the impressive run. He is third on the team in points and already has more points this season than in the last two years combined.

“Clay has been one of our better players this year,” Quinnipiac head

coach Rand Pecknold said. “I think in his first three years, you know he played and he contributed but it was more of a third line role. He would kill some penalties, but he wasn’t the first player over the boards.”

Thanks to a mindset change, Harvey is turning into the player that Pecknold and his coaching staff knew he could be.

“I adjusted my attitude toward things this year,” Harvey said. “I kind of fell off the map a bit after my first year, and I got complacent and content where I was at. I didn’t really realize that though, but this year I have found myself as a hockey player.”

Whatever complacency Harvey had in the last two seasons is gone.

“At the end of the day it came down to me not feeling sorry for myself,” Harvey said. “I just real-ized that nobody else cares or feels bad for you if things aren’t going your way. I really had to figure that out before I could make the next step, and I can feel it this year in my confidence level. I feel like a hockey player again.”

As Harvey’s teammate, Good-man agrees.

“He is a hockey player,” Good-man added. “He would do anything for you on or off the ice and that shows in his play and compete level. He’s just a genuine person and that

makes for a great teammate.”The streak could not have start-

ed without Harvey’s heads-up play on the game winner against Colgate back on Nov. 9. The Bobcats need-ed overtime to pick up two points against the Raiders just three days af-ter losing to American International.

Just over a minute into overtime, Harvey took control of the puck in the neutral zone and made a move for the Colgate zone. As he made his way through the right circle he wrist-ed a shot on net. Colgate’s Eric Mi-halik made the first stop, but Good-man was there for the rebound.

“I actually tried dumping the puck, but I duffed it,” Harvey said smiling after the game. “So I re-chipped it past the defenseman and it just worked out. I had a step on the guy and I just threw it at the net.”

“Harvs got a jump on the [de-fenseman],” Goodman said. “He was able to put a puck on net, and I just happened to be in the right spot. The goalie fumbled it, and I saw it sitting on the ice so I poked it between his pads.”

Harvey continued to shine, espe-cially over winter break.

“I thought during the Omaha weekend he was our best forward,” Pecknold said. “He’s just playing with a lot more confidence and he is doing what we always thought he would do.”

Along with a new mindset, Har-vey says his extra work in the video room has helped him improve his play.

“Video has helped me a lot more,” Harvey said. “I watch video a lot more and think of what kind of situations I might get into on the ice and how I can get better in every sit-uation, all just from watching myself a bit more.”

Everything Harvey describes has a “just” or “kind of” attached to it, almost as if everything can be de-scribed in its most basic form. The trait comes straight out of a small town in Canada.

“Everyone just kind of gets up, does their work, and goes home,” Harvey said about his hometown. “No one is in too much of a rush or anything; everything is nice and easy.”

Gull Lake breathes simplicity with a population that checks in at 965. This small town mindset has ex-tended on the ice and as his personal and team success continues Harvey will continue to just keep things kind of simple.

“I’ve really just had a take each day kind of attitude and I’m just re-ally enjoying everything – enjoying the whole ride and not taking it for granted. I’m just trying to keep a simple mind,” Harvey said.


A historic, but unnoticed run for women’s basketball

After a heartbreaking loss versus Monmouth in the Northeast Confer-ence semifinals last March, Quinni-piac women’s basketball coach Tri-cia Fabbri had one message for her squad.

“We’ll be back,” she said amidst the tears in the locker room.

More than 20 games into the next season and just two losses later, the Bobcats are back. And they are most certainly here to stay.

The 2012-13 women’s team brings a level of depth that no Quin-nipiac team has perhaps ever ex-perienced. After losing just two seniors following last season, this year’s team has bounced back with unimaginable levels of depth and consistency. Three players (Jasmine Martin, Felicia Barron and Brittany McQuain) are averaging more than double-digits in points. Six players are shooting more than 40 percent from the field. And it’s leaving open a possibility that no Quinnipiac bas-ketball team, men or women, has ever experienced.

“I really firmly believe that we do have a great opportunity to be play-ing in a [conference] championship game on March 17 with the oppor-

tunity to cut down the net and repre-sent the Northeast Conference in the NCAA tournament.” Fabbri said.

But where is the love on the Quin-nipiac campus? The team has been one of the most consistent squads the school has had all year, and perhaps ever. They hold an average margin of victory of more than 17 points per game. Regardless of their success

(which some would argue rivals that of the men’s hockey team consider-ing the field of the respective sports), their games are overshadowed and largely unattended by students.

Where is the respect? The wom-en find themselves ranked 12th in the CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll. They are the only two-loss team outside of the top 5. Meanwhile, a coach in her 18th season, now with more than 250 wins at the school under her belt, is in line for her first ever NCAA tournament berth. She is in position for her second con-secutive 20-win season, a feat that is impressive for any head coach in basketball. And moreover, she is uni-versally loved by her team.

“We absolutely love our coach. I

know this would mean a lot to her,” McQuain said. “I can’t wait until that last game when we see the final score and we win, and she knows that she coached us into that victory and she gets to go to the NCAA. It’s going to be awesome.”

Ultimately, none of that is im-portant for this team though. They are focused, and understand that the

prize is not respect and admiration, but instead, a trip to go dancing.

“Anything that we want to achieve is pos-sible,” junior forward Camryn Warner said. “We’ve had our eye on

the NCAA tournament since I was a freshman. I definitely think with the way this year has gone so far, if we stay hungry and play the way we’ve been playing, it’s definitely a possi-bility.”

While Warner and other members of the team are confident but cau-tious about their NCAA hopes, oth-ers are not as reluctant to hide their true feelings as to whether they’ll make the tournament or not.

“I guarantee it,” Martin said with a smile. “You can guarantee it.”

With the way this Bobcats team is built, with the way this Bobcats team believes and with the way this Bobcats team plays, there is no rea-son to doubt that there will be danc-ing in Hamden come March 17.

“I can’t wait until that last game when we see the final score and we win, and she knows that she coached us into that victory and she gets to

go to the NCAA. It’s going to be awesome.”- Brittany McQuain

By Jon AlbaOpinion

FACES OF THE BANK

It’s time to highlight the people you see at the TD Bank Sports Center each week.

Photos by Brian Farrell and Rebecca Castagna

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Quiet production: Lyons among team leaders

By Thomas Albanese

Inside Quinnipiac Athletics: Ken SweetenSenior forward Brittany Lyons tries to make a move around a Union defenseman. Lyons is currently second on the team with 14 goals.

By Ben Dias

Director of Sports Information and Assistant Athletic Director Ken Sweeten talks strategy before a basketball game.

Sometimes it’s the less heralded players that can make all the differ-ence. Since she stepped onto the ice at the TD Bank Sports Center, Britta-ny Lyons has always been a contrib-utor. With names like Kelly Babstock and Nicole Kosta garnering most of the attention, Lyons goes about her play quietly.

“I’m not a kid who loves all the attention and I don’t need all the at-tention,” Lyons said. “I’d rather have teams not know so much about me and I don’t mind being under the ra-dar at all. I kind of like it.”

Head coach Rick Seeley be-lieves her focus on the game rather than attention is common among those players who are not necessarily big recruits out of high school.

“Those kids who are not big re-cruits, most people haven’t heard of and she has just formed into a solid player,” Seeley said.

Seeley also contends that not having the attention focused on Ly-ons has helped her contribute at a high level.

“It’s a great place to be if you’re a ‘Babstock,’ where everyone is

keying on you and the defense just steps it up against you,” Seeley said. “Someone like Britt, she has produced regularly throughout her career and if you ask most coaches, I’m sure most have not heard of her and no one is keying on her and with Britt that’s a good place to be.”

While Babstock leads the Bob-cats with 24 goals, Lyons stands in second with 14 in 27 games.

“I think Babstock is used to scor-ing every game and it’s tough, but still we count on her every game just as much to contribute,” Lyons said. “I think this year I’m able to help a little more and Babs tells me all the time how happy she is that I’m do-ing well because she likes to have somebody else who can help with the points.”

The Canton, Mass. native has scored seven of her 14 goals on the power play. The power-play unit fea-tures senior Regan Boulton, at the top with great patience, Erica Uden-

Every athlete at Quinnipiac has a story to tell. How they got here, how their lives have changed since, and what the Bobcat uniform means to them.

Ken Sweeten is the reason why Quinnipiac fans know these tales.

Sweeten serves as Director of Sports Information and Assistant Athletic Director and aims to get those stories told.

“For me, it is just getting ath-letes exposure that they deserve to get. These athletes do whatever I ask of them and so it makes my job very fun and easy to help them get their stories told,” Sweeten said.

Even though Sweeten is a hard-working man, he is also very friendly and fun with both his staff and the athletes.

“I did my undergrad here at Quinnipiac so I’m very familiar with Ken,” graduate assistant Max Mc-Nall said. “I was scared of him at first as he looked like a very intimi-dating guy, but after I could tell that he trusted me and he knew that I was a good worker.”

Outside of his passion for Quin-nipiac athletics, Sweeten spends his time with another love – umpiring. He is a member of the Greater New Haven Baseball Umpires Associa-tion.

“I have been a baseball umpire ever since I was a young man. Right

before college in 1996, I was admit-ted as a member of the greater New Haven Board, and was the youngest member on the board at the time,” Sweeten said.

Sweeten continued his umpiring career through college and even con-sidered trying to make a career out of it.

“I had professional aspirations and I could have gone to the pro camps for a tryout, but I was enjoy-ing what I was doing at Southern Connecticut at that time. I basically had one foot out the door.”

Despite turning away from his one-time dream, it was umpiring that inspired Sweeten to make a career out of sports.

“People work in sports because it’s fun, and if you are not having fun, then it isn’t worth it. This is why we work in sports and that’s why I love working in college sports.”

Sweeten’s career started at Southern Connecticut State Uni-versity as a Sports Information As-sistant, thanks to Rick Leddy, the Associate Athletic Director for Com-munications.

“I made about $400 a week and he had a great track record of plac-ing his assistants with full-time jobs afterwards, so I dove into that mind-set,” Sweeten said.

Sweeten was at Southern Con-necticut State University until 2003 when he received a full-time job at Pace University as the Director of Athletic Media Relations. Finally in

2006, Sweeten joined on at Quinni-piac.

Sweeten began his career at Quinnipiac as the Assistant Sports Information Director, but in 2007, he was promoted to the position that he currently holds today as Director of the Sports Information Department. In 2010, Quinnipiac’s athletic direc-tor, Jack McDonald gave Sweeten another title to his name, Assistant Athletic Director.

That same year, Sweeten was given the opportunity to coordinate all press box operations for the U.S. Women’s National Team in its game against the All-Stars from the ECAC Conference. He also worked the game-day operations for the men’s basketball team when it made the NEC Championship in 2010.

Even with moments like these in his past, Sweeten’s best memo-ries aren’t from a big playoff game but the regular season, including a Bryan Monack catch that made it on Sportscenter as a top play.

“So I added that one on my re-sume as a great moment,” Sweeten said smiling. “I spent the entire night after that catch driving around the state getting the video to all the news stations.”

The number of responsibilities has been increasing for Sweeten in his time at Quinnipiac, and he con-tinues to soar above, helping him become one of the biggest names around Quinnipiac athletics.

Sweeten works alongside Tony

Distasio and graduate assistants Bethany Buckholz and McNall. Each member of this staff works with dif-ferent athletic programs at the uni-versity.

The teams at Quinnipiac that Ken works closely with are men’s ice hockey, currently a top-five program in the nation, field hockey, baseball, and women’s golf.

During his time at Quinnipiac, many men’s hockey players have been in the running for big awards in-cluding Lowe’s Senior Class Award and also the Hobey Baker Award.

With the men’s hockey team’s impressive season, goaltender Eric Hartzell is in the running for the Hobey Baker Award. Hartzell has developed a strong relationship with Sweeten and has learned a lot from him in his four years at the univer-sity.

“Sweeten is just an absolutely great guy. He would do anything for anybody and he does a great job with our social media and with many of the team’s headlines and stories,” Hartzell said.

Because of Hartzell’s apprecia-tion, he was willing to give some-thing back to Sweeten - swag.

“As soon as I heard Ken had a thing for rap music I introduced him to a little beat boxing. So I threw him a beat which left him stunned, obvi-ously. Afterward he asked if he could get one recorded (as I was told that he likes to freestyle). I hope to enjoy one of his mixes soon,” Hartzell said.

“I’d rather have teams not know so much about me and I don’t mind being under the

radar.” - Brittany Lyons

Johansson on the wing with her one-timer, Babstock down low and Kosta on the wing.

“A lot of my plays come from teams knowing how great Babstock is. When she’s in the slot with the puck, they’ll go out and attack her and I’ll just hang out on the back

door and they’ll set me up there,” Lyons said.

Currently, the Bobcats sit in fifth place with 20 points in the ECAC. They have a record of 15-9-3 over-all, 9-5-2 ECAC. Quinnipiac is just one point behind St. Lawrence for a home playoff series.

Lyons knows in order for her and her team to make a playoff run they must continue to work well as a line.

“I need to be consistent and to work well with my linemates, Nicole Connery and Amanda Colin,” Lyons said. “So I’m not just getting those power-play goals. I’m getting those even-strength goals also. I think as a line we work real well together.”

Seeley also emphasized the im-portance of the Lyons line along with Connery and Colin.

“The whole line has been huge for us the past couple of weeks. They’ve really come together,” he said.

Lyons also netted the game-winning goal in the weekend series against non-conference opponent Robert Morris. Lyons scored on a feed from Connery to give the Bob-cats the win.

“It was a great play at the blue line and the puck was kept in and Nicky [Connery] hit it down to me,” Lyons said. “I was just left wide open in front of the net, and I just pulled it to my backhand and it rung the post and went on the inside of the net.”

Boulton and the Bobcats know they must count on Lyons to continue to perform and produce timely goals.

“When we come down to our big games, usually it comes down to spe-cial teams,” Boulton said. “If we’re going to want to go far in the ECAC playoffs, it is going to be up to our power-play and Britt to knock in those goals like she has been doing.”

Forward continues her consistent play in f inal season



Despite Sweeten’s potential as a rap sensation, he and his crew know when to put the laughs aside and get down to work.

“My staff is an intense group. They are strictly business and they are three of the most dedicated in-dividuals that I have ever worked with,” Sweeten said. “I have been fortunate to work with a great staff that, in my opinion, has made the Sports Information Department very successful.”

His passion for sports and his

dedication to professionalism has rubbed off on the athletes he covers too.

“He has meant a lot,” Hartzell said. “He has a relationship with all of the athletes and really helps ac-commodate to all their needs on and off the playing field. He is a very well organized guy and he has just been such a great person to be with for four years at the Bank.”

Eric Hartzell had two choices. He could either sit on the bench on his high school team or quit and try to work his way up in the USHL. Hartzell, who has not lost since Oct. 27, made the right choice.

“Every kid will say it is a dream [to play professionally], but that dream became a reality when I quit my high school team,” Hartzell ex-plained. “I wasn’t playing at all and I wasn’t going to get better because I wasn’t seeing any action. That was my junior year of high school when I decided to move away to be a third string goalie in the USHL.”

While Hartzell was not going to a team where he would get back on the ice right away, it allowed him to improve.

“I thought being a third-string goalie and being with great players at a young age would help me develop more than being a junior or senior in high school and not playing,” Hartz-ell said.

Now Hartzell is one of the top goaltenders in the country. His Bob-cats are riding a 19-game unbeaten streak entering the weekend series at Cornell and Colgate. He leads the na-tion in wins with 19 and is second to Niagara’s Carsen Chubak with four shutouts.

But this is not Hartzell’s first good or even great season. In his freshman campaign, he saw limited time thanks to a revolving cast that included Dan Clarke and Mathieu Cadieux. In six games Hartzell went 4-2-0 with a 2.61 goals-against aver-age.

#HartzyForHobeyBy Brian Farrell

Above: Senior goaltender Eric Hartzell encourages Connor Jones before playing Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Jan. 11. The Bobcats tied the Engineers 1-1.

Left: Crouching in net, Hartzell prepares for the War on Whitney against rival Yale on Feb. 2. He made 30 saves in the 6-2 victory.

White Bear Lake native in the running for college hockey’s Heisman


In his sophomore season, he led the team in minutes and recorded 12 wins. Then in his junior year, he broke the school record when he posted a 2.20 goals-against average and took control of the starting spot.

“Hartzell has been very good his sophomore and junior year. He just had some games, or times, or a pe-riod where he would lack some fo-cus,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “This year he is con-sistent. He is good all the time. He is more focused. He is avoiding those lapses, and he is just more consistent. We wanted him to be more consistent and focused in practice and this year he has been phenomenal in practice.”

Hartzell says his consistent play comes from his teammate’s hard work.

“We’re not all the greatest hock-ey players in the world, but we bond great as a team and we all know our roles so well. I think this is one of the best teams I’ve been on in terms of consistency. The guys work really hard every day in practice and that helps me stay consistent,” he said.

“We do a lot of screen activity,” Hartzell said about his team’s work in practice. “Over the last few months I’ve had a tendency to find pucks through screens because of our work at practice. It’s not only good for me but it is good for our forwards and defensemen as well … As forwards, they get to tip pucks and set screens so when they get in their game situa-tions it is harder for opposing goalies to see pucks.”

Despite his individual success, Hartzell is quick to credit his coaches as a main reason for his stellar play.

“My goalie coach during the year is Dan Myers … Dan works out of New Jersey so he travels an hour and 45 minutes every day to work with me which is extreme dedication and he has done a great job.”

In addition to his work with My-ers, Hartzell worked with former NHL goaltender and current New

York Islanders goaltending consul-tant Steve Valiquette over the sum-mer.

“He has the natural instincts, the athleticism, the size and the presence that I would scout,” Valiquette said. “I’ve seen three practices this year and I see him as a guy that is focused and has confidence. That confidence is what leads to consistency in prac-tice and in games.”

In just two months, this year’s Hobey Baker Award winner will be named. While the voting and the sea-son are far from over, Hartzell is do-ing his best to make a case for the award.

“I think right now he is one of

the two or three best players in the league,” Pecknold said. “Every year if you are one of the top players in the ECAC you are top 10 in the Hobey. I think he’s got to be in the top 10. Time will tell over the next month about whether or not he’ll be in the top three.”

In true Hartzell fashion, he is worried less about winning an award like ECAC Goaltender of the Year or even the Hobey Baker Award and more worried about the bigger pic-ture.

“It’s an honor; it really is. It’s cool to be a part of it, but I am not go-ing to look at it right now,” Hartzell said about the Hobey Baker Award.

“The only thing that is important to me is winning a season champion-ship, and then we will move on after that to an ECAC championship, and then after that we will move on to an NCAA championship. But we will move on to an NCAA champion-ship,” Hartzell said with a grin.

While his goals are lofty, many are continually asking when the streak will end. For Hartzell, there is no reason that it has to.

“I don’t believe in the ‘nots’ and the ‘can’ts,’” Hartzell said. “I will say that, 100 percent, we can win ev-ery single game here on out for the rest of the season. The only thing that is going to stop us is ourselves.”



The Bobcat Bulletin

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