Austan Bellefeuille’s hockey season last winter ended one game before his Nichols College teammates’ season did.
It was largely a rough go for the Bison last winter, but one bright spot was an upset of Salve Regina in the quarterfinals of the Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament.
Bellefeuille (Framingham, Mass.), a junior who would transfer to Curry College for his senior year, left that game with a concussion, ending both his season and, as it turned out, his tenure at Nichols.
“A lot of things went wrong,” he said of that year.
But when it comes to injuries, that one didn’t compare to one he had to overcome a decade ago, one that produced scary symptoms and a brush with death.
Not even close.
Bellefeuille, 24, fell in love with hockey at a young age, which to those who know his family, was completely predictable.
His father, Brian, played at the University of Maine and in the ECHL. Uncle Blake Bellefeuille was a star at Boston College and enjoyed an eight-year pro career, reaching the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons.
“I always looked up to my father and my Uncle Blake in wanting to carry on that tradition of being a great hockey player,” said Austan. “I trained with Blake every summer and when I was little, I went to see his games. Having an opportunity to train with him has really helped me develop my game.”
In fact, during the two years that Austan played at Framingham High School, his uncle’s No. 13 was “unretired” so Austan could wear it.
He began his college career at Nichols and had a positive freshman season. But then came a coaching change, Parker Burgess leaving and Mike Parnell taking over, and things went downhill.
COVID wiped out all but four games of a lost sophomore year and — aside from the playoff upset of Salve — there wasn’t much for him to smile about as a junior, when his team lost twice as many games as it won.
“Me being a senior, I’d never had a winning season,” he said. “I wanted to join a team that would make a push to win a conference title, so that’s why I entered the transfer portal.
“Playing in the same conference, I saw how good Curry was. They were really talented, and I liked the way they played.”
He also was familiar with second-year Curry coach Peter Roundy, with whom he’d had some recruiting contact when Roundy was an assistant at Division 1 Holy Cross. He liked the school’s criminal justice program, and the two sides connected.
“He plays with great pace,” said Roundy. “He’s kind of an Energizer bunny out there. When he’s playing his best, he’s using his speed and creating off the rush. He wants to make plays.”
On a nationally ranked Curry team that boasted an 11-2 (7-2 Commonwealth Coast Conference) record in mid-January, the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Bellefeuille won’t finish his college career as a star. He’s a third- or fourth-line forward on a deep team who’s dressed in 10 of 13 games and produced a goal and an assist.
“It’s the most talented team I’ve been on,” he said.
But he takes the ice each day with an appreciation that most players don’t have. The reason for that appreciation has nothing to do with hockey.
It’s because of what happened on a baseball field a decade ago that almost killed him.
Karen Dmohowski was driving her car, her worry growing steadily, keeping her eyes on the ambulance in front of her, and glancing occasionally at her son’s baseball cap, which was sitting on her passenger’s seat.
An empty passenger’s seat.
“It was just so scary,” she recalled. “All his life I’d always been able to protect him and keep him safe and now …”
It was the summer of 2013 and, just a little while earlier, her son had been warming up for a Saturday summer baseball tournament game in Watertown, Mass. He never saw the errant throw, carrying significant velocity, that hit him squarely in the back of the head.
“At first I didn’t think anything was wrong,” said Bellefeuille. “I was just upset that I got hit in the back of the head with a baseball.”
His mom, a nurse, had parked the car and was walking toward the field when a coach gave her the news. There had been an accident. Her first view of her son was him sitting on the ground with an ice pack on his head.
“He looked a little dazed,” she said. “He was talking fine and he wanted to play, but his eyes didn’t look right to me. I said, ‘We’ve got to get you checked out.’ But at that point I didn’t think it was as serious as it turned out to be.”
On their drive to Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Austan’s vision began to fail. His mom pulled over and called 911, then followed the ambulance to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion and skull fracture, and taken in a special trauma unit ambulance to Boston Children’s, where he’d undergo emergency surgery for an epidural hemorrhage.
He would spend three weeks at Boston Children’s, then another two weeks at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Doctors advised him and his mother that he should no longer play contact sports.
A decade later, son and mother — who have always had a close bond — are effusive in their praise of the hospital and EMT workers, and the neurosurgeon who performed the surgery successfully, Dr. Edward Smith.
“He told me when they first got him in there and saw how the bleeding was,” said Karen, “they didn’t think they’d be able to save him.
“I still think about it, almost every day. As a parent, it’s your worst nightmare.”
Bellefeuille missed a full year of hockey before he was cleared to return, suiting up as a freshman at Framingham High and wearing the fabled No. 13.
If this is the last chapter of his career, it’s got the potential to be a good one.
Curry enjoyed success under previous coach TJ Manastersky and went 16-9-2 last year in Roundy’s first season. Undersized and dynamic forward Timmy Kent is one of the nation’s top offensive players, and a retooled defense in front of goalie Reid Cooper has shown a knack for production as well.
“The belief is that we belong with the nation’s top teams,” said Roundy. “Last year we had a good season and really built the foundation for what we’re able to do this year.”
Bellefeuille appreciates finally being able to play on a winner.
“Getting to know him, he’s got a really good persona,” said Roundy. “He’s easy to talk to, with a good energy about him.”
For Dmohowski, watching her son compete on the ice always has produced multiple emotions, pride and fear at the top of the list.
“It’s getting easier to watch him but it’s still very hard,” she said. “Even to this day, I grab someone next to me if I think he’s going to get hit. I bring prayer cards to the game.
“But ultimately, he loves hockey so much. It’s all he ever wanted to do. I couldn’t take that away from him.”
