Scratching And Clawing:

Brian Sullivan has a good writeup on the Quinnipiac Bobcats, the Bobcats have three former Vernon Viper forwards in their lineup, Scott Zurevinski, Connor Jones and Kellen Jones.

This Week in the ECAC

By Brian Sullivan • ECAC Hockey Columnist • Thursday, December 2, 2010

Scratching and clawing

While the big stories through the season’s first trimester has been how surprisingly good — and bad — some ECAC teams have been, Quinnipiac chugs along quite inconspicuously.

The Bobcats have come by their 7–6–1 record by virtue of an opening-weekend split, followed by a three-game winning streak, four-game winless skid (0–3–1), another string of three straight W’s, and now back-to-back losses once more.

“I think that’s a pretty good evaluation. We’re good, we’re bad … we have 18 freshmen and sophomores, so you know any time you have that much youth, there are going to be peaks and valleys, so that’s kind of what we’re experiencing right now,” coach Rand Pecknold said. “We just have to get a little more consistent in our focus and our compete level.”

The Q-Cats are hanging around the middle of the league in just about every statistical category, but the offense — ranked 10th in the league in overall productivity, with just 2.21 goals a game — is of special concern to Pecknold.

“I didn’t think we’d have this much trouble scoring goals,” he sighed. “I’ve been here 17 years, and it’s probably been 15 years since we’ve struggled to score goals. That’s one thing we always do well, and we’re just really, really fighting it right now. We’ve got a lot of good players, guys that put up a lot of good numbers in junior hockey, that just aren’t producing for us at this point. I think it’ll happen, but we’re struggling right now on offense.”

Of QU’s handful of productive players, junior captain (and previously mentioned) Zurevinski has been a leader both on and off the ice.

“Zurvy’s been great,” Pecknold said. “He struggled a bit the first two games, but he’s been great since. He’s a really great hockey player, he does a lot of things well, he’s a physical presence, and certainly he’s starting to produce offensively.”

With a team-leading five goals so far, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound product of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is trying to catch up to last year’s 16–14–30 pace … one that caught so many eyes in the professional ranks, and one that Pecknold believes will mark an early departure from collegiate hockey.

“That’s what we thought would happen,” Pecknold said of Zurevinski’s potential postseason contract. “We’ll have to wait and see at the end of the year. He’s certainly getting a lot of attention, and I think we’ll plan on that. If he decides to return, we’d certainly be very excited to have him back, but we’ve got a long way to go before we get to that point. I think planning-wise, we have to assume — with the CBA setup and the way the NHL’s set up right now — that he’s gonna go.”

Fortunately, QU isn’t relying solely — now, or in the future — on Zurevinski’s presence. Freshmen twins Connor and Kellen Jones have combined for eight goals and nine assists to date despite adjustment challenges.

“Connor and Kellen both have been really good, [but] it’s been kind of an eye-opener for them,” Pecknold said. “They were so dominant at the junior level; their biggest struggle right now is keeping their confidence up when things aren’t going their way. They’re adapting, and I’m very happy with the twins.

“Those three forwards — along with, some nights, [junior] Yuri Bouharevich — have been our four best forwards.”

In a bit of a sea change from years past, the Bobcats’ biggest strength right now may be in net. No, not filling the other team’s net … their own net. Yes, I know, it’s weird.

When junior Dan Clarke began to stumble after four or five games, sophomore Eric Hartzell filled in quite nicely, and has since shown little desire to relinquish the starting role.

“Hartzell’s been great. He stepped up and has really played well in almost every game he’s played in,” Pecknold said. “I think we’re in a good situation where we’ve got two goalies that can play, and we’ll just have to ride out the season playing whoever’s got the hot hand. Hopefully we can get them both going at the same time. That would be a real luxury if we could pull that off.”

On the whole, QU’s up-and-down season can be summed up in one word: youth. The veteran Bobcats bench boss recognized it off the bat, but knows there’s little that can be done other than to teach, encourage and wait out his charges’ individual learning and adjustment periods.

“I think it’s mostly youth,” Pecknold said. “I think our game prep has been all over the map. I don’t think it’s just the first period we’ve had problems with; I think we’ve had problems with playing a full 60 lately. I think it’s a maturity thing — or a lack of maturity thing, I guess is the better phrase — and, you know, we’re young. We’re putting a lot of young players on the ice every night, and we’ve gotta let ‘em get some game experience. I think we’ll be a lot better in February than we are now.”