New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Bongiovanni back, gives Bobcats’ attack a boost
When Quinnipiac men’s hockey coach Rand Pecknold sits down for a talk with junior forward Wyatt Bongiovanni, he knows the notebook’s coming out.
“He takes notes for what I say, which I love,” the coach said this week from Loveland, Colo., where the Bobcats will open the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at 5 p.m. against Minnesota State.
“To me, that’s somebody who wants to play in the NHL someday. It’s impressive, he tracks — he’ll go back and say, ‘well, you said this to me once.’ I’ve got to be on my game when I meet with Wyatt.”
This year was different because of the pandemic. It became even more different when Bongiovanni, one of Quinnipiac’s top forwards, was injured the day after Christmas.
He returned last weekend and scored a goal in the ECAC final, a boon to the Bobcats in most aspects of the game.
“To have him back is awesome,” captain Odeen Tufto said. “He creates more depth for us not only at five-on-five but on the power play. Like you saw against St. Lawrence, he can shoot the puck pretty well.”
It’s hockey, and playoff hockey, so Bongiovanni naturally declines to go into detail on his lowerbody injury. But he was open about not knowing if he’d have this opportunity this weekend.
“To start it was touch and go. I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of a return,” Bongiovanni said. “When the injury happened, I knew it was kind of a longer road. Once I started weightbearing again, I was able to kind of see realistic goals I could set in place.”
That happened in early February, which was, he said, much faster than both he and doctors had figured.
By early March, playing in the playoffs felt realistic. Quinnipiac’s ECAC semifinal game was canceled when Clarkson pulled out, but he played in the final and put the Bobcats ahead with a goal in the second period of a game they lost to St. Lawrence in overtime.
“I was definitely a little nervous going in, but I also wanted to have the mindset (that) I wasn’t playing with an injury,” Bongiovanni said, “trying not to be hesitant going into the corners, to engage in physical play.”
He was pretty happy with that return, all in all, and though this has been an odd week — a full travel day Wednesday, then quarantine Thursday in Colorado — he said he has been able to do what he needs to keep making progress.
One gets the impression he’d find a way to do that anyway. He’s from a family of entrepreneurs and once ran his own business making bracelets in high school.
And there’s the notebook, too.
“I always did it so I had something to reference,” Bongiovanni said. “Especially freshman year, for myself, I didn’t want anything to go in one ear and out the other. I wanted to take the lessons the coaches were giving me with a grain of salt and see if I’ve done them better, needed to work on them more.”
Bongiovanni has worked on his whole game, Pecknold said, lamenting losing most of this year for development, wondering if Bongiovanni’s skating might’ve picked up another stride.
“Wyatt does a lot of things well,” Pecknold said, noting that he was the Bobcats’ nominee for ECAC Student-Athlete of the Year. “He’s a goal-scorer, for sure, but he defends well. He competes well. He’s really very detailed. He’s good on faceoffs, on our retrievals, on our breakouts. He’s one of the best defensive left wingers we’ve had.
“And he makes his linemates better.”
Wherever he is in the lineup Saturday, as Tufto said, he’ll add depth for the third-seeded Bobcats (177-4) against Mankato (204-1), seeded second in the region.
“It’ll be a good challenge for us to go up against a team with some offensive weapons like that and see how we do,” said Minnesota State goalie Dryden McKay, who has nine shutouts this season and is three away from Ryan Miller’s NCAA career record of 26.
It’s the first meeting between the schools. Bongiovanni said he has talked to friends in the WCHA to get the scouting report on a hard-nosed but skilled team.
“They’re checking off the boxes, but I think our team is very prepared for the challenge,” Bongiovanni said.
“We all want to go to the Frozen Four. I think there’s a little extra fire in us, especially after the SLU loss. It’s do-or-die now. We’re all pretty jazzed up.”