PITTSBURGH – Minutes between the pipes have been hard to come by for Quinnipiac freshman goalie Jacob Meyers, who knows a little about playing on a big stage.
In high school at Benilde-St. Margaret's, Meyers backstopped the Red Knights to the state tournament, and as eager as he is to play more on the college level, he's been watching another Minnesota kid in awe most of the season.
Meyers is the understudy for senior Eric Hartzell, originally from White Bear Lake, who has led the Bobcats to within a game of college hockey's pinnacle.
Hartzell and Quinnipiac will face Yale for the fourth time this season on Saturday night in the NCAA Frozen Four championship game. The Bobcats have won the first three meetings.
In his first season s a collegian, Meyers has learned plenty in class, but he said watching Hartzell's work in practice and games has been as much of an education.
"Coming from Benilde to junior hockey to here, you get to see what it takes to get yourself to that next level," Meyers said Friday, as the Bobcats got ready for their final full practice of the season at Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center. "Getting to play behind Eric and getting to watch the kinds of things he does to get ready every day, what he does in practice and all the extra stuff he does, it's a lesson."
The Gophers were ranked atop the national polls at the start of the season, but were eclipsed by the Bobcats, who went on a 21-game unbeaten run over the course of the winter.
Still, they had never won on the national stage. Their conference, the ECAC, hadn't sent a team to the NCAA title game in more than two decades, and since they represent a school that few outside New England can pronounce, or find on a map, Quinnipiac was rarely taken seriously as a hockey program."
