Reaction & Quotes From "The Stunner In St Cloud"

"I've had a hat trick in my life, maybe a couple in Peewees, but never one in college," said Rakhshani, who is from Huntington Beach, Calif., and was the New York Islanders' fourth-round pick in 2006 (100th overall) — the same round as Weslosky (108th) also went to the Islanders. "The first one, I put right under the goalie's armpit, so that kind of worked out. The second one, I thought it hit off the goalie but that was just a good bounce. When you throw the puck at the net like that, good things happen. Tonight, the good thing happened."

"In this locker room, the kind of guys we have, there's always belief," said Rakhshani, who earlier this week was named to the U.S. team for the World Junior Championship. "This time of the season, we've talked about it, these games before the break are huge for us. Anytime you can get two points, it's huge. We learned that last year. We missed the (NCAA) Tournament by one game, so it makes you appreciate games like this."

As Rakhshani grinned he wore a hard hat — symbolic of the Pioneers' best effort — just outside the dressing room. He pointed to Mannino, however, as the anchor of the team. He stopped a point-blank chance by Swanson in the final seconds when the Huskies pulled Weslosky for an extra attacker.

"This is definitely one we're pretty pumped about," said Mannino, who was the Frozen Four MVP as a freshman and has designs of getting back there next spring in Denver. "Our captain, Andy Thomas, said after the game that 'Hey, whenever we face adversity from here on out, let's remember this.'"

“I don’t know what just happened,” Rakhshani said after the game. “Our entire team made contributions late in the game and we’re really happy to get the win tonight.”

“What a tremendous character win for our team tonight,” Pioneers’ coach George Gwozdecky said. “Rhett had a terrific third period and Peter turned in another great game. I am really proud of our guys and the way they never quit.”

"We were tentative at the end," SCSU coach Bob Motzko said. "We were back on our heels. They were on their toes. We've got to be more aggressive. This is the story of what we're living through right now. We've got to get busy and start living or we're going to start dying."