Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold has agreed to a four-year contract extension that will run through the 2007-2008 season. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
In Pecknold’s 10 seasons at Quinnipiac, he has become the all-time winningest coach in Quinnipiac hockey history, won two MAAC regular season titles, one MAAC tournament title and guided the team to its first-ever NCAA berth.
A 2002 finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award, given to college hockey’s national Division I Coach of the Year, Pecknold has amassed a 181-105-28 career record, including a 107-31-19 record in conference play at the Division I level.
“Rand Pecknold represents all that is good about college ice hockey and intercollegiate athletics,” said Quinnipiac athletic director Jack McDonald. “In addition to his very successful winning seasons, his student-athletes are very active in the community and excel in the classroom.”
Said Pecknold: “I am extremely excited about the future of the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey program. I am very proud of program’s accomplishments over the past 10 years, but I feel that the best is yet to come as we continue to elevate Quinnipiac hockey on a national level.”
Pecknold was recently interviewed for the vacant Princeton head coaching opening, which went to Guy Gadowsky. Quinnipiac has recent applied for acceptance into the ECAC. The school will give a presentation to the ECAC on Wednesday, with a decision expected by July.
The conclusion of the 2003-2004 season marked the sixth straight winning season at the Division I level for Quinnipiac and the eighth in a row dating back to the Division II days. The only Division I clubs to own such an active streak are Michigan, Michigan State, New Hampshire and Maine.
The Bobcats finished the 2003-2004 season with a 15-14-6 mark and played the most challenging non-conference slate in program history. Quinnipiac lost four games against No. 7 Michigan (twice), No. 8 Wisconsin and No. 9 Ohio State by a combined four goals, including one in overtime and another with less than one second to play. The Bobcats also became the first MAAC/Atlantic Hockey school to defeat a Hockey East opponent when they defeated Merrimack, 3-2, on Nov. 29, 2003.
Since Quinnipiac made the jump to Division I for the 1998-99 season, the school ranks among the top Division I schools in win percentage and total victories.
