New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Quinnipiac’s Petruzzelli spending plenty of time on the ice
In a college season where each moment between the goal posts is to be cherished, Keith Petruzzelli has spent more time on the ice than any hockey player in the country.
He has played 1,343 minutes for the Quinnipiac hockey team, 71 more than Jack LaFontaine of Minnesota. And in this horrid season of COVID, minutes spent on the ice might be the sweetest stat of all.
Compare his numbers to the Yale goalies. Or Harvard or Union or any of the eight ECAC schools that chose not to compete this winter because of the pandemic. They played zero minutes.
“It has been a crazy year, hasn’t it?” the senior from Wilbraham, Massachusetts said. “We’re all trying to make the best of it. Quinnipiac has done such an awesome job getting us on the ice. It’s great to be out there and competing, getting that ice time a lot of teams haven’t be able to get.”
What the 6-51⁄2 goaltender has done with those 1,343 minutes — third in the nation with 14 wins and four shutouts and fifth with a 1.66 goals against — is what makes his teammates and his coach so confident short term and the Detroit Red Wings hopeful over the long run.
“Keith has been, by far, the backbone of our team,” senior captain Odeen Tufto said.
A check of the media guide shows Petruzzelli is taller than more than half the basketball team. The hockey team? Well, let’s put it this way: Tufto and Petruzzelli are Quinnipiac’s two Hobey Baker nominees and one is 11 inches taller than the other.
Petruzzelli has been one of the handful of best goalies in the nation and Tufto, who has 10 more assists than anyone, has been college hockey’s best playmaker. No goalie has won the Hobey Baker, given to the top collegiate player, since Ryan Miller in 2001. Goalscorers usually get the nod over playmakers.
“There is a little more emphasis on goals than assists and the top goalies almost get left out of the equation,” coach Rand Pecknold said. “Sometimes the best player in the country is a goalie. I go to Eric Hartzell and he was runner up that year (Drew LeBlanc won in 2013). I’m still ada