New England Hockey Journal - December 2015 - 21

CoNTENT By ANDREW MERRITT

THE NOTEBOOK

HITTING
THE ROAD
o

December 2015

www.hockeyjournal.com 21

ver the final weekend in November,
Northeastern and UMass-Lowell were set
to embark on a unique trip in the history
of college hockey. The Huskies and River Hawks
Vermont's Jarrid
Privitera scores
joined Brown and Colgate in Belfast, Northern
against Northeastern
Ireland, for the "Friendship Four," a four-game
goalie Ryan Ruck.
tournament to be played at the SSE Arena Belfast,
home to the Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League.
will amass 12,464 miles this year, including a trip to Arizona in JanuThe teams played for the Belpot, a new trophy designed for the tour- ary for a game at Arizona State. UConn, which beat the Sun Devils
nament, which was announced in April by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh
5-1 on oct. 16, will become the first Hockey East team to visit ASU
and Belfast Lord Mayor Arder Carson. It marks the first non-exhibition
since the program began its Division 1 life this season.
American college hockey games ever to be played outside the U.S. It also
Northeastern's Belfast travel partner, UMass-Lowell, is fourth on
marks the longest road trip by any Hockey East team this season (Alaska the mileage list with 11,868 miles to be covered this season. Boston
and Alaska-Anchorage claim the longest road trips of any college team
College is just behind the River Hawks at 10,764 miles. UMass, which
this year, as both cross nearly the entire North American continent to
covers plenty of ground getting from Amherst to the Boston-area
reach Alabama-Huntsville in separate journeys).
Hockey East teams, is sixth at 8,536, and Maine (7,806) and Vermont
And yet the nearly 3,000-mile journey both teams made to play
(7,012) have manageable travel schedules despite being the most
their historic games in Belfast still doesn't make them the most
remote outposts in New England.
traveled teams in Hockey East.
Merrimack doesn't stray very far from North Andover, Mass., for
That honor goes instead to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish make the
most of the season, though trips to Canisius (468 miles each way) and
fewest road trips of any Hockey East team this year, yet they'll cover more
Notre Dame (907) bump up their total mileage to 5,408. For UNH, trips
than 15,000 miles, round-trip, from South Bend to their various away
to Union (243 miles each way) and Michigan State (828) are the biggames. That includes trips to Denver (1,087 miles each way) and Brooklyn, gies, but otherwise the Wildcats stay largely close to home.
N.y. (703), but largely the Irish are the road warriors because they play in a
Bringing up the rear is Boston University, which hits the road
New England-based conference despite calling Indiana home.
16 different times this year but covers a total of only 3,952 miles.
Second on the list is Northeastern, which in addition to Belfast
It helps that while the River Hawks and Huskies make the longest
has trips to Minnesota (1,392 miles each way) and St. Lawrence
single journey of any Hockey East teams this year, the Terriers make
(364) on its schedule, not to mention its mid-November visit to
the shortest: a 2.1-mile stroll over to Harvard - not to mention the
Notre Dame. The Huskies will cover a total of 12,488 miles this year. easy commutes to Northeastern (2.2), BC (3.6) and two jaunts over
Right behind NU is another group of Huskies - UConn - which
to TD Garden (3.8) for the Beanpot in February.

THE LIST
It's never too early to start thinking about
Hobey Baker candidates, and if the last
two years are any indication, there's a good
chance this season's winner will come from
Hockey East. The league has produced three
consecutive winners twice, but not since
Chris Drury, Jason Krog and Mike Mottau
dominated the award from 1998-2000
have three consecutive Hockey East players
taken it home. Still, it's fun to dream, right?
Here are some potential Hobey candidates
in the making.

PLAYER

CLASS POS. TEAM

Thatcher Demko

Jr.

Boston College

Tyler Kelleher

Jr.

New Hampshire

Colin White

Fr.

Boston College

Jake Walman

So.

Providence

Ryan Fitzgerald

Jr.

Boston College

Dennis Kravchenko So.

UMass

Andrew Poturalski

So.

New Hampshire

Casey Fitzgerald

Fr.

Boston College

Kevin Boyle

Sr.

UMass-Lowell

Matt Grzelcyk

Sr.

Boston University

Dennis
Kravchenko

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Colin White, Boston College
While Boston College saw another highly touted
freshman in Jeremy Bracco depart
after just five games, White (Hanover, Mass.) has stuck around and
more than lived up to the hype. The
2015 Ottawa first-rounder (21st
overall) collected six goals and nine
assists in his first 10 games as an
Eagle, including two multi-point games and assists on
four game-winners.

Jake Walman, Providence
The Ontario native and St. Louis prospect (82nd overall in
2014) was pretty good as a freshman,
with one goal and 15 assists for the
national champion Friars. Through just
nine games this year, however, he was
spectacular, scoring nine goals - one
in all but three of PC's games - with
a hat trick at Colgate on Oct. 30. Those
nine goals put him way in the lead among the nation's defensemen, and his 14 points also were tops in the country.

Richard T. Gagnon/Getty Images (Northeastern); Dave Arnold/New England Hockey Journal

Nick Ellis, Providence
Standing right behind Walman, Ellis has been
fantastic for the Friars in a year when
their goaltending was expected to
be a weakness. He was undefeated
in his first eight games with a .929
save percentage and 2.09 goalsagainst average, helping PC to the
best start in its history. A Maryland
native, Ellis honed his skills at the Pomfret School and the
Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL.

Boston College goalie Thatcher
Demko has had an unforgettable start
to the 2015-16 season, and he's already
made history. He became just the second
goaltender in college hockey history to collect six shutouts over seven games, posting
them from Oct. 16 to Nov. 8. The only other
netminder to reach that level of excellence
was former Boston Bruin Blaine Lacher,
who did it for Lake Superior State in 1994.
Lacher and the Lakers went on to win that
year's national championship. ...
Maine goaltender Rob McGovern
earned a little less welcome notoriety in
that Nov. 8 game. When hostilities that
began two days earlier in BC's 3-0 victory
spilled over and exploded late in the 2-0
Eagles win, McGovern jumped into the fray
and put a BC player in a headlock behind
the net with just a few minutes to go. He
earned a roughing minor and 10-minute
misconduct for his troubles, and rather
than go to the locker room to watch the
end of the game, he chose to serve his
penalty in the box with his other guilty
teammates. That led to the fairly unusual
sight of three skaters and a goaltender,
making the Maine penalty box at Conte
Forum a pretty cozy place to be. ...
BU defenseman Matt Grzelcyk
(Charlestown, Mass.), who had surgery to
repair a torn ACL during the offseason,
returned to the lineup Nov. 13 and
promptly scored a goal and dished an
assist in BU's 5-4 win over Northeastern.
Grzelcyk, who played the final eight games
of the 2014-15 season - including the
national semifinal and championship
games - scored again the next night in a
4-1 win over the Huskies. ...
The league handed out three onegame suspensions in the first half of
November. BU freshman Charlie McAvoy,
Maine sophomore Nolan Vesey (North
Reading, Mass.) and UMass junior Steven
Iacobellis each picked up single-game
bans for on-ice infractions. There were only
five suspensions handed out by the league
in all of last season, and it took until Jan.
24 for the third to be announced. ...
Tickets for the 2016 Hockey East
Championship, set to take place March
18-19 at TD Garden, went on sale Nov. 3.
They're available at ticketmaster.com, by
calling 800-745-3000, or at the TD Garden
box office. Prices range from $17-$41, with
student tickets available for $10. ...
Tage Thompson (Orange, Conn.),
became the second UConn freshman to
score a hat trick when he potted three
goals in the Huskies' 5-2 win over BU on
Oct. 27. Thompson matched classmate
Max Letunov, who had three for UConn
in his first collegiate game on Oct. 9. ...
UMass went 6-3-1 over its first 10 games
of the season, marking its best record over
the opening 10 games since 2009-10, when
the Minutemen went 8-2-0.

New England Hockey Journal - December 2015

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