“I assumed we were playing tomorrow.”

Those were the final words from head coach Rand Pecknold following Quinnipiac’s ECAC Quarterfinals sweep loss to Clarkson — two games that the entire team and fans would probably like to forget as soon as possible.

Historically, the ECAC Tournament has not been kind to the Bobcats. Despite the fact that they now etched their name into the Cleary Cup 10 times — six times consecutively as the only team to do it in one conference — the Bobcats were only crowned ECAC Champions once in 2016.

Twenty-one seasons in the ECAC, 10 regular season titles and yet only one ECAC Championship. It’s almost impossible odds, yet that is exactly the fate of the Bobcats.

Especially since Quinnipiac has been basically dominating the conference, at least since the 2012-13 season.

Since their first season in the conference (2005-06), the Bobcats have made and traveled for the ECAC Semifinals 11 times (counting the 2021 season, where the games were hosted in Hamden due to COVID-19 restrictions). They made the championship game six times.

And even with the proverbial curse of Lake Placid, when the ECAC Tournament moved back to the Herb Brooks Arena in 2014, the Bobcats only missed out on their chance to play on the miracle ice in 2018, 2019, 2020 — even with the championship weekend cancelled due to pandemic restrictions, Quinnipiac fell to Princeton in the quarterfinals — and this past weekend.

But looking on paper, it really shouldn’t have.

Clarkson was the No. 8 seed, the lowest surviving team from the opening round. Quinnipiac beat the Golden Knights at home in the regular season in a decisive 4-1 victory in late November and tied on the road in January, losing after a shootout.

Not to say that it would’ve been an easy matchup for the Bobcats either way. The Golden Knights came into the contest determined to punch their ticket to Lake Placid, and their fight and passion showed.

Quinnipiac was 26-7-3 on the season heading into the series this past weekend. Its players have been on a roll, with four forwards notching double digits in goals and eight players having over 20 points.

That team was nowhere to be found on Friday or Saturday.

“We stunk,” Pecknold said following the first game of the series. There really is no other way to put it.

There is no question that Quinnipiac got absolutely dominated across all boards. Letting in two shorthanded goals on the same power play is not something that one sees often.

It would be easy to place the blame on junior goaltender Dylan Silverstein. The Los Angeles, California native started both games in his first weekend this season with back-to-back games and let in three goals on three shots in the latter end of the third period in game two.

But it is also important to note that despite the 3-0 loss, game one of the quarterfinal series was his best performance of the entire season, with a season high 32 saves and a .970 save percentage.

“Silvi was great, kept us in the game,” Pecknold said following said game. “Probably the best game he’s had all year.”

It would also be easy to blame junior winger Mason Marcellus, who accidentally left the puck behind on the blue line on the power play, which led to the first breakaway and shorthanded opportunity that completely shifted the momentum of the game.While, it would be easy to place the blame on one player or mishap, the truth is, this one is on the entire team.

“We just had a lot of guys who were in panic mode from the get-go, just pouty on the bench,” Pecknold said Friday night. “I think some guys didn’t wanna play hockey tonight, they thought it was gonna be easy and it wasn’t. It just perplexes me that we have this really good team, high character kids and that in a home playoff game, we can be that bad.”

Before this weekend, Quinnipiac only truly lost one home game the entire season (or in over a year), falling to Cornell Feb. 20 — excluding the unofficial shootout loss to Alaska Fairbanks that counts as a tie.

“Our buy-in has been sporadic, we had a really good run until the Cornell game and then we went off the rails a bit, the buy-in has not been good,” Pecknold said.

Maybe it was the two-week pause after securing a bye-round in the ECAC Tournament, maybe it was that dreaded 6-1 Cornell loss.

Whatever it was, the Bobcats need to work it out before the first round of the NCAA Tournament if they hope to make it back to the Frozen Four for the first time since their national championship title in 2023.

Despite falling to No. 10 in the NPI after the sweep, their appearance in the tournament is confirmed. What awaits now is which regional they will appear in and whether or not they showcase the heart and identity that Pecknold keeps preaching and fight for their chance to show they deserve their place amongst the best teams in the nation.

The Selection Sunday show is scheduled for March 22 at 3 p.m.