Quinnipiac College Sports Information Office
203-281-8625, FAX 203-281-8716, www.quinnipiac.edu
 
Quinnipiac Announces 1998-99 Ice Hockey Captains
 
July 28
Hamden, Conn. - Quinnipiac Head Ice Hockey Coach Rand Pecknold has
announced that senior forward Eric Slack (Pawtucket, R.I./Mt. St.
Charles) has been named team captain for the 1998-99 season.  Senior
forward Matt Goodrich (Salem, Mass./St. John’s Prep) and junior
defenseman Kris Cumming (Manchester, N.H.) will be assistant captains.
        Slack played in only four games as an assistant captain for the Braves
in 1997-98 before sustaining a season-ending knee injury in Quinnipiac’s
9-0 win over Wentworth on 11/15.  During his abbreviated season, he
netted one goal and four assists.  As a sophomore in 1996-97, the 5’9",
170-pounder spearheaded the penalty-killing line which led the country
in penalty-killing percentage (85.9%).  He also garnered the Quinnipiac
Sophomore Scholar-Athlete award after recording the highest cumulative
GPA among male student-athletes in his class.  Slack, who maintains a
3.52 GPA as an accounting major, has played in 56 career games, scoring
six goals and adding 14 assists for 20 points.
        "Eric possesses great leadership qualities coupled with an intense work
ethic.  He is also an excellent student.  We are confident that he will
rebound from last season’s knee injury to have a great 1998-99
campaign.  He is being counted on to kill penalties and to be a top
defensive forward," said Pecknold.
 
        Goodrich, who served as assistant captain in 1997-98 as well, ranked
third on the Braves in scoring with 36 points (15G, 21A) in 1997-98. 
The 5’10", 180-pounder ranked 18th nationally with 1.57 points per game
and sports 45 goals and 44 assists in his three-year career.  Goodrich
needs only 11 points to become the 13th player in program history, and
the first this decade, to top the 100-point plateau.  As a sophomore, he
became only the second player in school history to win
Player-of-the-Year honors when he shared the ECAC South award for the
1996-97 season.  He netted 23 goals and 33 points in a breakthrough
season.
        "Matt has always been a great offensive player for us and last year he
developed the rest of his game.  He is a great competitor who will be
counted on heavily in Quinnipiac’s inaugural Division I season," said
Pecknold.
 
        Cumming, who was named to the 1998 Sports Information Director’s
Division II Ice Hockey all-America Second Team, spearheaded a Braves’
defense which set a school record while rating second nationally in
scoring defense (2.26 goals/game).  He scored four goals and added 22
assists, ranking third overall and leading all defensemen in both
assists and points (26).  His +/- rating of +40 rated second only to
Cerrella (+50).  Cumming, who has missed only one game in his two-year
career, earned all-Tournament honors at the Second Annual Quinnipiac Cup
after recording one goal and two assists in the tourney.  He also paced
the Braves with two goals in a 4-2 victory over Skidmore which closed
the team’s home season on 2/15.
        "Kris is coming off an all-American season and we expect him to just
get better and better.  He is a great leader and competitor who will do
whatever is asked of him.  Kris will once again quarterback the power
play and log a ton of ice time," said Pecknold.
 
        Quinnipiac set a school record for single-season winning percentage
(.848) and, with a 19-3-1 record, finished with the second most
victories in program history behind the 1986-87 squad which netted a
22-7-1 mark.  The Braves, who will enter the newly formed Division I
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Ice Hockey League this fall,
led Division II in scoring offense (7.22 goals/game), scoring margin
(4.96 goals/game) and power-play-percentage (31.5%), while rating second
in scoring defense (2.26 goals/game) and winning percentage (.848) and
third in penalty-killing percentage (.849).  Quinnipiac led Division II
in scoring defense (2.89 goals/game) and penalty-killing percentage
(.859) in 1996-97.  The Braves opened the 1997-98 season with a
school-record, 10-game winning streak and added another nine-game win
streak later in the season.
 
        The eight-team MAAC Ice Hockey League, which will become the nation’s
fifth Division I men’s ice hockey conference, will play its inaugural
season in 1998-99.  The MAAC Ice Hockey League features four Connecticut
institutions (Quinnipiac, Fairfield, University of Connecticut and
Sacred Heart) as well as four additional representatives from the
Northeast (Holy Cross, Iona, Canisius and American International). 
Bentley and Mercyhurst have also committed to join the league in
1999-2000.
 
        Quinnipiac College is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational
institution located in Hamden, CT, 1 ½ hours from New York City and 2 ½
hours from Boston.  The College has approximately 230 full-time faculty
and enrolls 3500 full-time undergraduates and 2000 graduate students in
its Schools of Business, Health Sciences, Law and Liberal Arts. 
Quinnipiac is rated #11 among all northern regional universities in US
News and World Report’s 1998 edition of America’s Best Colleges. 
Quinnipiac sponsors nine men's and nine women's varsity sports, and will
begin NCAA Division I competition in all sports in the fall of 1998 as a
member of the Northeast Conference.
 
-Q Sports-
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.