Skyler Brind’Amour, son of Hurricanes’ head coach, helps Quinnipiac win NCAA hockey title

For all of the accolades, and all of the awards Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour has earned in his hockey career, his son Skyler Brind’Amour did something Saturday that will give him dinner table bragging rights, at least for a little while.

The younger Brind’Amour, skating in his fourth season with Quinnipiac University, helped lead the Bobcats to a 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota, earning the school’s first Division I men’s ice hockey title in thrilling fashion.

And bonus: Rod Brind’Amour was in the building to see it, despite his Carolina Hurricanes — of which he is of course the head coach — playing a game at 12:30 p.m. in Buffalo. The Canes’ game ended at about 3 p.m., giving him enough time to scramble to Tampa and be in his seat, donning a QU hat and shirt by 8 p.m. puck drop.

Skyler had a prominent supporting role in the Bobcats’ third-period rally, providing a masterful netfront presence on the game-tying goal late in regulation.

The third period was all QU, but it took nearly all 20 minutes — and a timely power play — for the Bobcats to equalize. With 36 seconds remaining in the man advantage, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold pulled his goalie for an extra skater, creating a 6-on-4. The Bobcats failed to score in within those 36 seconds, but shortly after the power play expired, Collin Graf fired a wrister from the left hashmark that seemed to confuse keeper Justen Close.

The reason?

Brind’Amour was parked in front, and appeared to be ready to ram the crossing feed home. Except the puck never reached Brind’Amour, instead catching Close on the inside of the left pad and ricocheting through the keeper’s pads and into the cage.

In overtime, Quinnipiac associate head coach Joe Dumais’ set play off the opening draw worked to perfection. Jacob Quillan won the draw back to Zach Metsa. Metsa then hit winger Sam Lipkin in stride as the left winger crossed to the right side off the draw. Lipkin then turned into the Minnesota zone up the right boards and saucered the puck back across the grain to a streaking Quillan in the low slot, who buried a deke past Close.

The sequence took just 10 seconds, and delivered the Bobcats’ first national crown.

The game began inauspiciously for Skyler Brind’Amour, though. Fewer than 30 seconds into the contest, he put a big hit on Minnesota’s Mike Koster and drew a penalty call. The hit was reviewed for a possible major before he was assessed a minor penalty for incidental contact to the head, his shoulder grazing Koster’s face cage after a shoulder-to-shoulder hit.

Minnesota didn’t score on the power play, but used the momentum to maintain control of the opening period. Eventually, the Gophers scored the first goal of the game on a bad turnover in the Quinnipiac zone, John Mittlestadt getting that score, and maintained that lead to the first intermission.

The Gophers went ahead 2-0 in the second, this time on a heady play from Jaxon Nelson, who fired the rebound of a shot-pass off the back kick plate into the net for a 2-0 Minnesota advantage.

Quinnipiac was on its heels — until it wasn’t.

Metsa picked off a pass at the blue line, drew the defenders toward him and laid a pass across for Cristophe Tellier, who beat Close with a redirect to cut the Gophers’ lead to 2-1.

Rod Brind’Amour, who has won a Stanley Cup with the Canes as a player and has led the team to the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in each of his seasons behind the bench, played one season of college hockey at Michigan State, but did not win a title at that level.

The Canes’ coach has always made time for his family, even while maintaining his elite coaching level. Last spring, during the team’s playoff run, he made time to skate with his kids — Skyler and younger son Brooks — on PNC Arena ice after NHL morning skate, and he helped coach Brooks’ team with the Junior Canes this past season.

Skyler Brind’Amour was initially drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the sixth round of the 2017 NHL Draft, but never signed with the Oilers. In four seasons with Qunnipiac, he has skated in 144 games, scoring 23 goals and adding 53 assists for 76 points. His best season was this past season, with 14 goals and 32 points and a plus-23 rating in 40 games to go with his national title.