TAMPA, Fla. — For just the second time in the history of the modern, 16-team NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament, the top two seeds will meet in the championship game on Saturday when No. 2 Quinnipiac faces No. 1 Minnesota.
It also will be a matchup of the nation’s top offense, Minnesota averaging 4.26 goals per game, against the top defense as Quinnipiac allows just 1.55 goals per game.
When you end up with such a battle of opposing forces, the question always must be asked: Which will prevail?
Both coaches on Friday offered their opinions. Minnesota’s Bob Motzko started his media availability immediately addressing the structure of Quinnipiac.
“They play a north-south game as fast as you can play it,” said Motzko. “They’re stingy defensively, and [coach Rand Pecknold] keeps doing it cycle after cycle after cycle.”
The Bobcats are known for their neutral-zone play, orchestrating what Pecknold refers to as a 1-1-3 forecheck — one aggressive forward tying to force the play, and the four players back to make carrying the puck into the zone difficult if not nearly impossible.
On Thursday, Quinnipiac consistently frustrated another top offense, Michigan, preventing the Wolverines’ high-end talent from entering the zone with numbers. It wasn’t until midway through the game that Michigan began dumping pucks into the zone and attacking with speed, something that eventually led to Adam Fantilli’s goal that tied the game at 2-2.
But that success on zone entries waned for Michigan, and Quinnipiac instead successfully counterattacked and impressively executed its forecheck, at times hemming the Michigan defense in its own zone.
That’s something that concerns Motzko.
“What I thought was most impressive last night wasn’t the 1-1-3 [neutral zone]. It was their forecheck,” said Motzko. “They dismantled Michigan in the offensive zone with aggressive play. That was what was impressive about that game last night. They were relentless on the forecheck.
“They played behind the Michigan defensemen. Two of the goals came from below the goal line. And they could have had more.
“They have structure in their neutral zone. We’ve got to play fast. We’ve got to play as fast as they play and not let them set it up.”
Quinnipiac’s Pecknold acknowledged that Minnesota plays a similar style to Michigan, thus the need to slow the Gophers down will be paramount. But even so, there won’t be many adjustments to make to the Quinnipiac system.
“We’ve done it for 40 games in a row for 13, 14 years,” Pecknold said of his team’s defensive system, which has the Bobcats in the national title game for the third time since 2013. “We have discipline with it. It causes teams a lot of frustration and problems.
“Not a lot of teams run [our system] in college hockey. That helps. But it’s something we do well, and we will have to do it well tomorrow night.”
One other area of concern for Quinnipiac will be limiting Minnesota’s power-play opportunities. Sure, the Bobcats are the nation’s least penalized team, averaging just 6.9 penalty minutes per game. But on Thursday, much of the success Minnesota had could be attributed to the success of a power play that went 3-for-7 against Boston University.
“We talk a lot about not taking penalties, not-necessary penalties,” Pecknold said. “You know it’s going to happen once in a while. You’re going for a puck, you hit a skate.
“The guys understand [discipline’s] part of how we want to win. We don’t preach a lot of over-physicality, meaning let’s go and take someone’s head off and hit ’em. But we want to compete. We preach winning battles and winning races and being physical in that nature.
“But I think it’s a big part of the game tomorrow for sure. We can’t be in the box.”
One can expect goaltending to be solid on both sides. Quinnipiac’s Yaniv Perets leads the nation in goals-against average at 1.48; Minnesota’s Justen Close ranks fourth at 1.99.
So is there a real point of differentiation between these two clubs? Certainly, stylistically they feel like polar opposites, particularly on paper. But as Motzko said best, in a single-game scenario it comes down to one thing.
“Which team doesn’t make the mistakes tomorrow in one-and-done games. That’s what we talk about,” said Motzko. “There’s going to be enough plays out there for both teams to win it. But you’ve got to leave the plays in the locker room that can cost you — discipline, turnovers.”
