Simply enough, a Native American, or, an American Indian.  That’s what a Quinnipiac is.  Since Quinnipiac is ranked #9 in the country, and it is pretty easy to get sort of absorbed by news and views of the schools that are the perennial powerhouses, today we’ll take a look at Quinnipiac.  It’s Christmas and New Year’s time.  The Holidays.  It’ll be, well, informative, and fun.

. . . . But first, and for the first time ever, I am going to cover every single DI hockey game that was played last week, so here goes.  A persistent and stubborn Vermont team travelled to Providence College last Thursday night, and were first to score with about five minutes left in the first.  But PC (there’s a really good reason they’ll never change the name to Providence University) came back four minutes later to tie it at 1-1.  In the second, PC went up early, 2-1, but six minutes later, Vermont tied it up at 2-2.  But early in the third PC blew it open, scoring a goal four minutes into the period.  Then, two minutes later, an exciting shorthander by Steven McPartland, assisted by Noel Acciari and Steven Shamanski (had to get that one in there) made it 4-2.  But only a couple of minutes later, Vermont tallied one to make it 4-3, and then five minutes later, with about seven remaining in the period, Vermont scored again to make it 4-4, which is how it ended in regulation and in OT.  And there you have it.  One single game in the whole week, and it was a tie.

Now, what’s a Quinnipiac?  The Indian tribe right around New Haven, a nation of the Algonquin family, was called the Quinnipiacs.  The name is supposedly the English pronunciation of the Indian word for “original people:”  Earnsketambawg.  There has been some discussion that it comes from the English pronunciation of the Indian word for the land “dawnland:” Wampanoki.  Either way, it’s a pretty bad mispronunciation, wouldn’t you say?  Quinnipiac is rarely spelled Quinnipiack, and this is mistakenly referred to sometimes as a mis-spelling, but it is not.  A well-known businessmans’ club in downtown New Haven is the Quinnipiack Club, founded in 1871.

Quinnipiac, located in Hamden, CT. (just north of New Haven), was founded in 1929 and became Quinnipiac University in 2000.  It has 6,200 undergraduates, 2,300 graduate students, and has become known for it’s public opinon surveys.  The hockey team was established in the 1975-76 season as an independent DII team.  In 1998 it went DI and joined the MAAC (the MAAC became Atlantic Hockey in the 2003-04 season).  Quinnipiac has had one NCAA tournament appearance, in 2002, in which they lost in the opening round to Cornell.  In the 2005-06 season, Quinnipiac joined the ECAC, and they have had seven consecutive winning seasons since joining.  For the past eighteen season they have been coached by Rand Pecknold, a graduate of Connecticut College, and his record is 349-233-63, which puts him 49th on the all-time list, and 19th on the active coaches’ list.  And now you know what a Quinnipiac is, more or less, and you know the basic story of the #9 ranked team.  The featured player in today’s photo is Jeremy Langlois, of Quinnipiac.  He started playing rollerblade hockey in his hometown of Tempe Arizona (right next to Phoenix), until the NHL Coyotes came to town, and thereby increased interest in hockey to the point that there were enough kids playing to form ice hockey leagues.

This week and weekend there are several tournaments, classics, and inter-conference matchups being played.  Among these there are three top-twelve matchups, and one top-fifteen matchup.  First, #1 Boston College will travel to the Mariucci Classic and play Alabama-Huntsville Saturday, and then #4 ranked Minnesota on Sunday.  BC seems to have proven itself against top-ranked teams so far this season, so this is really a chance for Minnesota to prove itself as a top, top team.  Also Sunday, #2 New Hampshire takes the short drive to #10 Dartmouth and their Ledyard Bank Classic, with the winner/loser facing the winner/loser of the UMass-Amherst/Bemidji State pairing on Monday.  And #9 Quinnipiac will host #12 Nebraska-Omaha for two games on Saturday and Sunday.  Lastly, #6 Boston University will travel to play one game against #14 Denver on Saturday.  Denver was having problems and was stumbing in the two or three weeks before the break, and usually a break does a lot of good for a team that is faltering.  On the other hand, BU was on a pretty good streak, and usually a break cools a team like that off.  Should be a real battle for BU as Denver will be out to prove, on home ice, that they will be a force in the second half of the season.

This provides the top twelve teams, rankings, records, and most recent results:

[table id=53 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom