Like any national hockey power, Quinnipiac has ventured to Canada and Europe and the frigid regions of the U.S. to find talent. But Coach Rand Pecknold has never ignored his backyard, and as the Bobcats position themselves for another NCAA Tournament, their captain comes from right up the road.
“It’s been unbelievable, playing close home, after growing up watching the games,” said Victor Czerneckianair, senior forward from Southington. “It’s just been a fun time, everything I could have asked for. Ever since coming to my first game, watching all the players, Matthew Pecka, I just looked up to them. I just always wanted to come here.”
Quinnipiac, 22-5-3, is ninth in the NCAA Points Index (NPI), safe at-large bid territory going into this weekend’s series vs. Princeton. Czerneckianair has six goals, eight assists this season, 23 and 29 in his career, but his greater contributions to the program are in his leadership. Players and coaches all have a vote, and Czerneckianair, one of the last players remaining from the 2023 national champions, was a unanimous choice.
“In the end, we want good players, and more important than that we want elite character kids,” Pecknold said. “He’s a great captain, great work ethic.”
Dom Amore: UConn repeats as champs of CT Ice, a tournament that’s worth defending
Czerneckianair, one of six on the Quinnipiac roster with Connecticut roots, was introduced to the game by his father, and played for the Connecticut Wolf Pack and in the Mid-Fairfield youth programs, where Pecknold first became aware of him. He moved onto South Kent and Mount St. Charles and eventually joined the Tri-City Storm, a U.S. junior league team in Nebraska.
“I liked the way he played, and then I started to hear more extremely positive things about his character,” Pecknold said. “I knew all his coaches and everybody I came across just raved about him.”
Quinnipiac has been to 10 NCAA Tournaments, three Frozen Fours, since 2013, so a young hockey player needing to travel only about 15 miles on Route 10 to be part of the filled arena and electric atmospheres in Hamden didn’t need to think twice when the opportunity came.
“Always wanted to come here, dream come true,” Czerneckianair said. “It was an unbelievable opportunity.”
He joined the Bobcats at a most opportune time, appearing in 40 of 41 games as a freshman, getting an assist in the NCAA Tournament against Ohio State, watching how Zach Metsa handled the captain’s duties. Though he only played briefly in the championship game, the OT victory over Minnesota, Czerneckianair counts the national championship as the moment he will take with him forever unless, of course, he wins another as captain.
“Nothing comes close to that, that feeling, I can replay the memory back in brain.” he said. “The smell of the rink.”
As a sophomore, he played in all 39 games and showed his big-game mettle with a key goal in the CT Ice final and a tying and winning goal against Wisconsin in the NCAA regionals. The Bobcats then lost a heartbreaker to Boston College to end their hopes of repeating as champs. Last season, Quinnipiac was right back with another ticket, but lost to UConn in the Round of 16. This year, the Bobcats are heating up for another run; they’re 10-1-1 since the start of the calendar year, the one loss coming to UConn in CT Ice. The Bobcats beat archrival Yale, 8-0, in their most recent game.
“We’re so hungry,” Czerneckianair said. “I wish all these guys can get a little taste of it because it’s the best feeling in the world, celebrating with your team and coming back here and having the whole town of Hamden supporting you. It’s a feeling I’ll never forget, a feeling I’m hungry to get another one. … For this team, we’re more skilled, the buy-in since Christmas is so much better. Just keep building our buy-in and that’s going to be the key to our success.”
As a captain who has been to the top and knows what it takes, Czerneckianair delivers a consistent message to his teammates: “Everything matters, showing up early matters, giving your all in practice matters. Doing your homework matters. Everything adds up, and that’s what separates us from these teams that have 15 or 20 NHL Draft picks when we only have a handful. It’s been like that the last four years.”
Yes, Quinnipiac, despite it’s decade at or near the top of the sport, still plays like the team they’ve never heard of, the school they used to mispronounce.
“That chip’s always going be on our shoulders,” said Czerneckianair, who will leave Quinnipiac with an MBA, said. “Everybody is always saying the league we play in is not that good. We use that our advantage because, you see this year, against those big teams, Maine, BC, BU, we played really well. I think we can go toe to toe with anyone in the country.”
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Right size, wrong time
Hasheem Thabeet, 7 feet 3, who was inducted into UConn’s Huskies of Honor Saturday night, averaged 4.2 blocks per game during his 100 games as a Husky, with 10.8 points and 8.5 rebounds. He was the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft in 2009, but never took hold in the NBA, playing 224 games for four teams in five years. Thabeet got to the league at the wrong time.
“He got caught up in the 3-point craze, when he got drafted it was just starting to really come in,” said Jim Calhoun, who landed Thabeet for UConn. “If a big guy didn’t have outside skills, they were in trouble, as far as getting a rotation. He could rebound with anybody, he was tough enough to hold his own. He was not the future because they don’t really take shot blockers, they’d rather take a 6-10 kid who can guard the middle, but has outside skills. It was the wrong era.”
Thabeet, 38, the only player from Tanzania to be drafted at play in the NBA, had a long career playing overseas, most in Asia and Africa. He is still on the roster of Dar City in the BAL (Basketball Africa League).
Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: This CT native knows Super Bowl hype, agony; Big East and UConn and more
Sunday short takes
*First major pro coach I ever covered was Ray Handley with the 1992 Giants, who died this week at 81. Strange, sad story. Bill Parcells resigned on May 15, 1991, by which time Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin had left the Super Bowl staff. Handley had been running backs coach, and was at Parcells’ side for years as his clock-management savant, but as head coach seemed to have no idea what would be involved and he feuded with players and, needlessly, the New York media. Fired after the 6-10 season, he returned home to Nevada and was, quite literally, never heard from again.
*How’s this for an unusual UConn doubleheader at Madison Square Garden: Spurs and Stephon Castle vs. the Knicks at 1 p.m., UConn women vs. St. John’s at 7:30 p.m. It’s happening March 1.
*Did anyone expect kicker Jason Myers to be the MVP of the Super Bowl? Cool story, kicker from Marist and all, but five short field goals, none a game-winner, wasn’t trumping Kenneth Walker III’s 135 yards rushing.
*UConn’s Donovan Clingan scored his 1,000th NBA point during the week and guess how he did it? Right. A 3-pointer.
*Watching the UConn-Butler men’s game on TNT, I was rather impressed with Jamal Mashburn. Stood out among suit-wearing panelists by donning sweats and keeping it real.
*Calhoun and I will be signing books at the Barnes & Noble store on 555 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan on March 11 at noon, that’s the first day of the Big East Tournament. UConn won’t be playing until next day. We will also have a discussion of our book, “More Than A Game,” on Selection Sunday, March 15 at 1 p.m. at The Bushnell, with books available and a signing. Tickets are going fast for that one, register with the theatre.
*If a movie is ever made in which someone has to portray Yankees GM Brian Cashman, Peter Jacobson who is starring in “Death of a Salesman” at Hartford Theatre Works through March 29, would be an inspired choice. Jacobson played an annoying New York baseball scribe in Billy Crystal’s 2001 film “*61.”
*UConn, Quinnipiac and Yale, Nos. 6, 7 and 9 in the metrics, remain well positioned to give the state three entries in the 11-team NCAA women’s hockey field.
*The Charles Bediako ineligibility ruling in Alabama could be a positive development for Bloomfield’s London Jemison, 6-foot-8 freshmen with the Crimson Tide., averaging 6.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 14.4 minutes per game. Bediako might’ve taken away some of Jemison’s front-court minutes.
*UConn’s Tyler Polley, after a couple of seasons in Greece, is getting a foothold in the G League, with four straight games scoring in double figures for the College Park Skyhawks. He had 15 points, eight rebounds in his most recent game.
*Cole Carrigg, who had 15 homers, 64 RBI and 46 steals for the Yard Goats last season, will be on the roster as a utility player for Team Israel, managed by Cheshire’s Brad Ausmus, in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
*Anybody else suspecting of a conspiracy with these faulty chairs Dan Hurley keeps getting?
Last word
Bristol’s Muzzy Field. opened in 1914, was a setting for a famous Babe Ruth home run in 1919, was minor-league home to future Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Jim Rice, and now it’s a place of honor. On Wednesday, the venerable ballpark will be named Sports Field Management Association’s (SMFA) 2025 Field of the Year, in the schools and parks category, for its pristine natural grass surface, a tribute to those who maintain it and a first for the state of Connecticut.