One of the more unusual occurrences in a post-game TV interview in a while came after the Quinnipiac Bobcats completed a comeback to win the NCAA men’s hockey national title. Quinnipiac trailed the Minnesota Golden Gophers 2-1 with 3:28 left, and that led to head coach Rand Pecknold making the bold move to pull his goalie that early.
That move paid off, with Colin Graf scoring the tying goal 41 seconds later and then Jacob Quillan scoring just 10 seconds into overtime to give the Bobcats a 3-2 win and their first national title. And it led to quite the interview on the ESPN2 game broadcast afterwards. There, an emotional Pecknold told reporter Colby Cohen “I’m just trying not to cry. I don’t think I can do this. I’m just proud. It’s just awesome, awesome. Sorry. I can’t, I can’t. I need a hug, give me a hug,” and Cohen gave him one:
"I'm just trying not to cry. I don't think I can do this. I'm just proud. It's just awesome, awesome. Sorry. I can't, I can't. I need a hug, give me a hug." Quinnipiac Bobcats' HC Rand Pecknold got emotional, and got a hug, during an on-broadcast postgame interview Saturday. pic.twitter.com/jQEf6g4tAE
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 9, 2023
As a banner on that clip notes, this is Pecknold’s 29th season as Quinnipiac’s head coach. He took over the Bobcats’ program in 1994 when they were still in Division II, then led them through their transition to Division I in 1999. And while they’ve found incredible success there, including (as Cohen notes) more wins than anyone in the last decade, they hadn’t been able to get a championship banner until now. So it’s quite understandable why Pecknold was so emotional here, especially given his team’s remarkable late comeback. But it is rather different to see a coach’s post-game interview include a request for a hug.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
