We like Ethan Wyttenbach’s Quinnipiac Bobcats, at 15-1 odds, to win NCAA Frozen Four
LAS VEGAS — For nearly 10 years, Ethan Wyttenbach has held the keys to his future. When he can’t sleep, he takes them from his Roslyn home, on Long Island, to open his own hockey barn in nearby Syosset.
That’s the devotion and passion we admire, why we invested in the Quinnipiac Bobcats, at 15-to-1 odds, to win the upcoming NCAA Frozen Four.
For the first time, college hockey’s premier event will be staged in Las Vegas, April 9-11 at T-Mobile Arena.
With his savvy skills, maybe even a lucky bounce or two, we hope to see Ethan’s No. 19 sweater inside T-Mobile.
Andrew Wyttenbach left a top marketing post in New York City to build, with two other families, a $1.5 million ice palace that’s connected to another indoor sports facility in Syosset.
That was the start, Andrew recently told the New York Post, of Ethan “really taking his love to another level.”
The Flames took the 5-10, 180-pound left winger in the fifth round of the 2025 NHL Draft. Having recently turned 19, today he stands tall atop Division I hockey with 1.59 points per game for Quinnipiac.
In excavating D-I hockey, to wet my beak for a Frozen Four in my own backyard, I kept landing on Quinnipiac, veteran coach Rand Pecknold and Wyttenbach.
On Feb. 20, I scrambled to the Circa Sports outlet inside the Silverton Casino to nab that 15-1 ticket, the sole piece of my college-hockey portfolio.
Confidence game
I was a bit late to the Quinnipiac party because Circa had opened its odds at 30-1 several weeks earlier.
Still, I deemed 15-1 excellent value because the returns on Michigan and Michigan State (at +400 each, or risk $100 to win $400) and North Dakota and Western Michigan (+850 apiece) paled by comparison.
Plus, I consider Quinnipiac a top squad, with a scoring margin of 2.15; the Bobcats have been flip-flopping with Michigan for that top spot.
The Bobcats’ prowess is due to Ethan Wyttenbach. In 32 games, he notched 22 goals and 32 assists for a D-I-best 54 points.
Through last weekend, he had nine goals and 12 assists in a 10-game run in which Quinnipiac went 7-1-2; it included his first college hat trick in an 8-0 smashing of Yale on Feb. 7.
Only Dartmouth freshman Hayden Stavroff (.280) has sported a more lethal shot than Wyttenbach’s 25.6% scoring rate.
“I think I’m surprising people in some aspects,” Ethan told the Quinnipiac Chronicle. “It’s just a confidence thing.”
His grandfather Heinz played professionally in Switzerland, and his three sons all played at Cornell. Islanders legend Butch Goring, a neighbor and Heinz pal, occasionally brought the Stanley Cup to the Wyttenbach home for family gatherings.
And it’s pronounced QUIN-ih-pee-ack.
Tough competition
We also like that the Bobcats own the best faceoff percentage of 56.9, ahead of Colorado College (55.2) and Bowling Green (54.7), in D-I.
Michigan State has solid scorers in Porter Martone (0.71 goals per game) and Charlie Stramel (0.63), and Penn State trumpets two keen assist men in Gavin McKenna (1.07) and Aiden Fink (1.00).
Quinnipiac, though, has been dominating the challenging ECAC, which it is in line to win for a 12th time, including seven in the last eight seasons.
(The meat of the ECAC playoffs begin March 13; the 16-team national tournament starts March 26.)
Pecknold guided the Bobcats to Frozen Fours in 2013 and ’16, and in 2023, they won their first national title with a 3-2 overtime victory over Minnesota in Tampa, Florida.
(In ’13, the Bobcats lost in the final 4-0 to Yale in Pittsburgh; three years later, they dropped the title game 5-1 to North Dakota in Tampa.)
Pecknold, 59, took over D-II Quinnipiac in 1994 and steered it into D-I in ’98. Only he (691 wins through Feb. 21), Boston’s Jack Parker (897) and Michigan’s Rod Berenson (848) have won more than 600 games at one program.
“[Ethan] finishes plays,” Pecknold told the Chronicle. “There’s a lot of players at our level that create a lot of offense . . . [but] he’s got that next gear, and he has that ability to finish those chances.
“He’s just next level, with not just the goal scoring but also the passes and the timing, and he just finishes plays.”
Vegas, revisited
Which came first, the rink or Ethan’s fire for hockey?
He told the Post, “I didn’t play the game to be mediocre . . . really, if you’re going to skate every day, that’s how you know you’re committed.”
Charlie McAvoy (Bruins) and Adam Fox (Rangers) spent time skating for the Long Island Gulls, a sterling Syosset youth program for whom Ethan played.
So did Jeremy Wilmer, a Quinnipiac forward, and Bobcats commits Jack Genovese and Nicolas Sykora.
With his own rink, Ethan does not take his good fortune for granted.
“When you think about it, put it kind of into perspective,” he told his school paper, “it’s super cool.”
Two years ago, Ethan and the Gulls won a top-tier 16-and-under national tournament in Las Vegas. He scored four times and had an assist; he punched in the overtime winner that sent the Gulls to the championship
“So the plan this season is, obviously, to get to Vegas,” Ethan said. “I think winning a national championship in Vegas again would be pretty cool.”
Ethan, so do I. Indeed, it would be super cool.
NCAA HOCKEY
To win title
Odds Team
+400 Michigan, Michigan State
+870 North Dakota, Western Michigan
13-1 Penn State
15-1 Quinnipiac
19-1 Boston College, Denver,
Providence
20-1 Cornell
25-1 Wisconsin, Minnesota Duluth
Source: Circa Sports
Scoring offense
Team Avg. goals
Michigan 4.53
Quinnipiac 4.29
Penn State 3.87
North Dakota 3.84
Michigan State 3.83
Source: NCAA
Scoring defense
Team Avg. goals
Michigan State 1.97
Cornell 2.00
Augustana 2.03
Quinnipiac 2.15
Dartmouth 2.18
Source: NCAA
Scoring margin
Margin Team
2.16 Michigan
2.15 Quinnipiac
1.87 Michigan State
1.59 North Dakota
1.43 Dartmouth
1.41 Western Michigan
Source: NCAA