Quinnipiac postpones opener, cancels others

There was a sense of relief in Odeen Tufto’s voice a couple days ago as he looked ahead to the Quinnipiac men’s hockey program’s season opener against American International College on Tuesday.

“We all made the sacrifices and now we get to play on Tuesday,” said Tufto, the Bobcats’ leading scorer a season ago and team captain. “So that’s what we look forward to. That’s is kind of getting a championship in itself, almost.”

The debut of the 2020-21 Bobcats will have to wait. Despite the diligence of Tufto and his teammates, there have been two positive COVID-19 tests by players on the team. As a result, the program is pausing team activites and making changes to its non-conference schedule.

Tuesday’s game has been moved to Dec. 26 while fellow non-conference games against LIU and Clarkson scheduled for later this month have been canceled.

“The health and safety of the Quinnipiac community remains paramount as Quinnipiac Athletics continues to follow university, local, state and national guidelines in response to the global pandemic,” the release on its website stated.

The Dec. 15 home game against Sacred Heart, another program dealing with COVID-related schedule adjustments, is now set to be Quinnipiac’s season opener. That will be followed by two more home games against Bowling Green on Dec. 18-19 and another one with Holy Cross on Dec. 22 before the AIC game. Quinnipiac’s first road game is set for Dec. 27 at AIC and two days later the Bobcats will play at Holy Cross.

Quinnipiac is coming off a 21-11-2 season including a 14-6-2 mark in the ECAC.

Quinnipiac’s women’s hockey team is set to host three-time national champion Clarkson on Dec. 4 and 5.