ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Some rivalries are born from geography, some from history, some from repeated, high-stakes clashes.
UConn and Quinnipiac, at opposite ends of the state, have for years been at opposite ends of a hockey rivalry waiting to happen.
Well, what do you know? It’s happening now. The Huskies and the Bobcats will square off in the NCAA Tournament’s first round at PPL Center, Friday at 5 p.m., and they have never played with more at stake. Two wins from Allentown to the Frozen Four in St. Louis.
“The CT Ice tournament has been great to kind of grow that rivalry, amongst us and them and all the Connecticut schools,” UConn defenseman John Spetz said. “They’re a great program and this game is going to add to that rivalry, for sure. We’re excited to attack this.”
In-state college rivalries at the Division I level have been rare in Connecticut. In most sports, for obvious reasons, it’s UConn and everyone else, and rivalries have been like those of a hammer and an anvil. For much of the 20th Century, Yale football was the biggest thing in the state, and pounded UConn annually at the Yale Bowl, but that changed when the Ivy League began de-emphasizing sports and UConn moved up to FBS. They rarely play now and when they do, UConn is the favorite. In football and basketball, UConn vs. other state schools is a “buy” game, UConn expected to win big. In baseball or softball, in-state games tend to be midweek and not a top priority for either opponent.
But hockey is something different altogether. Whalers aside, New Haven is the state’s storied hockey epicenter, where America’s first youth hockey program was established, where high school programs Hamden and West Haven were top-of-state for decades and competed for New England titles. It’s where the blood-and-guts New Haven Blades helped inspire the movie, “Slapshot” and where Yale has been playing since 1895.
The Quinnipiac program began as Division III, but coach Rand Pecknold, since taking over for former Blade Jim Armstrong in 1994, led the Bobcats steadily upward. First up to Division I, then into the ECAC and the state-of-the-art M&T Bank Arena in 2007 and, now, into the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time, the sixth year in a row. They lost to Yale in the 2013 national final, but returned twice more, winning it in 2023, establishing a national brand and identity.
“I have a lot of respect for Rand and what he’s done at Quinnipiac,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “He went through a lot of the same struggles, maybe even more so, than we did. The one thing, they are consistently a team that doesn’t beat themselves. They play a very structured game, very good defensively. That consistency he’s built there is something we’re also striving for.”
UConn, too, built hockey from modest beginnings, D-III and an open-air rink on campus until 1998. When the school made commitment to join Hockey East in 2014, Cavanaugh, who’d helped win four championships as an assistant at Boston College, was hired.
“Certainly, it’s a process,” Pecknold said. “It’s hard to build program. Mike’s done a good job, getting that rink (Toscano Family Ice Forum) on campus, I’m sure that helps a lot. I think he’s done a really good job of hiring good assistants, they always have plenty of talent. I think the big difference in their team this year is the buy-in, they’re all in.”
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In this in-state rivalry, UConn has long been the underdog, the upstart. Quinnipiac is 22-8-2 against UConn, and had won eight in a row before the Huskies’ Ryan Tattle scored with half a second to go for a 2-1 victory in the CT Ice semifinals on Jan. 24.
“That being a tournament game, that was really tough to swallow,” said Bobcats defenseman Cooper Moore. “Having to play a consolation game the next day (against Yale), we remember that. We’ve seen the clips a lot on film, so it takes us back to that feeling. Through the year, there have been a couple of times we’ve had that feeling, losing last second, so we’re going to try to use those, try not to have that happen to us again.”
This is the stuff of rivalry. So is this: Forward Jake Percival, who started his career at Avon High, playing for his father, Scott, had been going to watch UConn games from the time he was a young boy. When the Huskies offered him a chance, he jumped at it. Quinnipiac’s Victor Czerneckianair grew up in Southington, going to see Bobcats games 10 miles down the road. That was his dream school, and he is the only player left from the championship team two years ago.
“I think we’ve taken a big step from the beginning of the year to now,” Czerneckianair said. “I think a lot of guys are starting to figure it out.”
For a couple of decades, Quinnipiac vs. Yale was the main event for New Haven area hockey fans. They were conference rivals, perennial contenders, met in that national championship game and were separated by a few miles of Whitney Avenue. But Yale has dropped off in recent years. Now UConn, which drew as many as 11,000 to the XL Center for games there in 2025, has risen up to that level, in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Is this destined to be state’s big hockey rivalry in the coming years?
“We’re ready to hold up our part,” Pecknold said. “We’re hoping to keep rolling on our end. Cav and his staff have got it humming pretty good right now, they’ve figured it out, so I see them being good for a long time.”
Originally Published: March 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT
