New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Defense backbone of Bobcats’ success
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — It helps to have a national goalie of the year finalist carrying the load in net for your men’s hockey team. It helps to have a team focused on, and effective at, puck possession.
But it certainly helps to have the ECAC’s top defensive defenseman.
Quinnipiac senior Zach Metsa leads a Bobcats defense corps that, going into the first round of the NCAA tournament, has allowed only 1.1 goals a game.
Metsa was a finalist for the ECAC’s defensive defenseman award last year. He got the nod this time around, continuing to work on that side of his game.
“I think the biggest thing has been a lot of skating,” Metsa said Thursday after practice at the PPL Center before Friday’s firstround game against St. Cloud State (8 p.m., ESPNews).
“Being able to close gaps, take away time and space, that’s been the biggest thing.”
While plus/minus has its limitations, Metsa rates an NCAA-leading plus-38.
He credits associate head coach Joe Dumais for working with him for four years.
“Just on stick position, just body position, being between (opponents) and the net,” Metsa said, “being strong on pucks to get that puck out, get it to our forwards and play offense.”
He’s joined in plenty at that end, too. His 34 points were third among NCAA defensemen coming into Thursday, one point ahead of UMass’ Scott Morrow of Darien.
Allentown was the site of Quinnipiac’s last NCAA-tournament win, a 2-1 victory over Arizona State in 2019. Five Bobcats are still here from that team, including Metsa and captain Wyatt Bongiovanni.
Standing in the way of a repeat here Friday is St. Cloud (18-14-4), a team that reached the national final last year (losing to UMass and Oliver Chau, who came to Quinnipiac last summer as a graduate transfer). Quinnipiac
(31-6-3) is the higher seed.
“(The Bobcats are) a really good team, and they go north quick,” Huskies grad-student defenseman Seamus Donohue said. “They’ve got a really good group of forwards, and their D are good at getting the puck up to them. We know they’ve got really strong goaltending, too.”
The Hockey Commissioners Association named Quinnipiac sophomore Yaniv Perets one of three finalists for the Mike Richter Award as the NCAA’s top goaltender on Thursday.
Perets has 11 shutouts and a 0.96 goals-against average to lead the nation, and his .948 save percentage trails only Northeastern sophomore and Canadian Olympian Devon Levi, one of the other two finalists.
“He’s been the backbone of our team. He’s been outstanding. I think anyone can see that,” Metsa said. “The stats he’s putting up, it’s crazy. Just dominating any game he’s in.
“It’s very comforting playing in front of that, because you just know if for some reason you make a mistake, he’s going to be there to bail you out.”
Dryden McKay, whose Minnesota State team defeated Quinnipiac in last year’s NCAA first round and won its first-round game Thursday over Harvard, is the third finalist.
Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold said he doesn’t know St. Cloud coach Brett Larson well but has been impressed with the Huskies’ details over the past few years since Larson took over.
Their power play leads the nation by over four points, a good match for Quinnipiac’s nation-leading penalty kill.
“The power play, obviously, the numbers, it’s hard to argue with a 31% power play,” Pecknold said. “I think the best thing about their power play is they’ve got two units. I have a tough time figuring out which one’s better than the other one. I think one has 13 goals, one has 16
“The depth, just highend players, a little bit more mature players: I’ve been impressed. I think they’re really well-coached.”