A matchup between two top-10 teams is noteworthy enough on its own, but there’s a little extra buzz in this weekend’s matchup between No. 6 North Dakota and No. 7 Quinnipiac.
For the first time in nearly 20 months, there will be fans at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena when the Bobcats host the Fighting Hawks on Friday and Saturday.
“I think it’s good in general for everybody, just to have that and as much as we can get back to a return to normalcy, (but) we’re certainly not there fully,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said of having fans bank in the building. “It’s going to be nice. The place is going to be rocking both nights this weekend.”
Quinnipiac and North Dakota have met four times in the all-time series between the two programs. The Fighting Hawks have won all four games, including a 5-1 win in the 2016 national championship game. That was the last time these teams faced each other.
The only Bobcats player who has played against North Dakota is graduate transfer Griffin Mendel, who played for conference opponent Denver for four seasons before coming to Quinnipiac.
“You might think they’re a skilled team and want to play soft, but they’re not,” Mendel said. “They’re going to grind and dump in pucks and beat you on the forecheck. I think our key is going to have to be clean breakouts to beat them.”
North Dakota is one of the rare western teams making the trip east to face Quinnipiac. Since 2010, the Bobcats have only hosted four western teams: Arizona State, St. Cloud, Ohio State, and Omaha. This weekend will be the first time the Fighting Hawks have played at an ECAC rink since traveling to face Union in 2016.
It’s been a good start to the season for both North Dakota and Quinnipiac. The Fighting Hawks are 3-1 following an overtime loss to Bemidji State last Saturday, while Quinnipiac is 2-0-1 and has shut out Northeastern and Vermont over its last two games. The Bobcats held the Catamounts without a shot in the first period on Saturday and finished the game only allowing 14 shots on goal.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the maturity of our group,” QU senior forward and leading scorer Michael Lombardi said. ‘You look up and down our lineup and everybody has got a bunch of games and a lot of experience. Even our young guys have come along really well. I think maturity is a big party of why we’ve had a good start.”
After several seasons of riding the ups and down in play that come with a younger team, that maturity should help Quinnipiac this weekend against arguably its toughest opponent it will face this season.
But regardless of the outcome, getting to play in front of their fans is already a win for the Bobcats.
“We were up at Vermont last weekend and they had a great crowd,” Lombardi said. “It was just fun to play with people in the building. We hadn’t done it in a long time and it we’re just really excited.”
