A sense of normalcy is in the air as the 2021-22 men's college hockey season arrives this weekend.
After last year's shortened season was delayed until late November due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the programs in Hockey East, ECAC Hockey and Atlantic Hockey are gearing up for full schedules beginning Saturday night. The road will lead all the way to April and Boston’s first Frozen Four since 2015.
UMass is coming off its first-ever Hockey East and national championships, achieving the latter during its second straight Frozen Four appearance. The Minutemen will still figure prominently in what should be a deep Hockey East race after making history alongside their Western Massachusetts neighbors, American International, who will look to continue a dominant Atlantic Hockey run.
The upcoming season will also feature a full complement of New England teams, as the Ivy League skates for the first time since the very outset of the pandemic.
Here are some of the top storylines we'll be watching throughout the winter:
Transfer trend
The most important recent change in the world of college athletics has been the boom of the NCAA Transfer Portal, as well as the subsequent implementation of a new one-time transfer rule that allows student-athletes to change programs without sacrificing a year of eligibility.
In addition to the fifth-year seniors granted an additional year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those players will be able to make an impact on their new teams immediately and will assuredly do so for programs throughout New England and beyond.
“It’s certainly a new age in college hockey,” said Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold, whose team’s five graduate transfers include forward Oliver Chau from UMass. “With the new transfer rule you’re going to see a lot more fluctuation of rosters and players are going to leave for different opportunities, so you’re going to have to find roles. I’m really happy with our group so far -- great character kids and good hockey players.”
All 11 Hockey East programs dipped into the Portal for at least one player and nine grabbed more. Vermont coach Todd Woodcroft enters his second season with five transfers. Boston College has four graduate newcomers including former Bowling Green forward Brandon Kruse, the nation’s top active scorer who led the now-defunct WCHA with 34 points last season.
Within the league, Matt Brown, UMass Lowell’s top goal scorer from a year ago, landed at rival BU, and defenseman Dominic Dockery transferred from Merrimack to Maine.
Sacred Heart’s eight transfers are more than any New England team. Atlantic Hockey rival American International has seven and Bentley five.
Defending the title
After UMass rose to the top of the heap back in April, a new season is set to begin with the defending national champion hailing from New England for the first time since 2015.
The Minutemen snapped Minnesota Duluth’s back-to-back feat and now look to become the first repeat Hockey East champion since UMass Lowell in 2013 and 2014. The likes of reigning All-American and Walter Brown Award winner Bobby Trivigno, Hockey East Rookie of the Year Josh Lopina, and fifth-year senior goaltender Matt Murray return to a team that has to replace five seniors and three players as early departures to the NHL.
“One thing I know is that last year whoever was the preseason No. 1 didn’t win it all, so the fact we’ve been giving that ranking means absolutely nothing,” said UMass coach Greg Carvel, whose team hosts Minnesota State for a sold-out season opener on Saturday. “We’ve had to fill some holes. It doesn’t matter how good those players are, it takes time … but we’re excited.”
Looking back, Providence beat Boston University to win the 2015 national crown at Boston’s TD Garden, where the 2022 Frozen Four will be held for the first time since on Apr. 7 and 9, 2022. The Friars continued their success under Nate Leaman by advancing to the next four consecutive NCAA tournaments, and a streak of six in a row ended earlier this year.
Ivy League coming back
Quinnipiac was the lone New England school to compete in a four-team ECAC Hockey schedule last season, so the new year will see the entire Ivy League back on the ice for the first time since the pandemic began in March of 2020. Cornell was the No. 1 team in the country at the time.
As a result of the long pause, youth will be a theme throughout much of the league with two classes of players that have not experienced a college game. In addition, the Ivy League’s waiver for last year’s seniors to be eligible as graduate students wasn’t passed in February.
Among the Ivies, Harvard returns in an outstanding position as four of its top seven scorers — including ECAC Rookie of the Year Nick Abruzzese and senior Casey Dornbach — are back from a 2019-20 team that finished 15-10-6. Top Calgary Flames pick Matthew Coronato and 2021 USA Hockey Junior Player of the Year Sean Farrell (Hopkinton, Mass.) are two of seven Crimson skaters who will debut this season after being drafted in 2020 or 2021.
“Adding two classes that haven’t played isn’t ideal, but we’ve chosen to focus on what we can control and we’re excited about the team we could potentially have,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said. “There will be bumps in the road with such a young group, but there’s an energy that the inexperience brings. … The guys … are looking at it as an opportunity.”
Brown, Dartmouth and Yale all lost their top scorer, top two defensemen and starting goaltenders at the very least, though the Bears did retain 17 upperclassmen including Justin Jallen (nine goals) and fifth-year senior Luke Kania in net. The Bulldogs have a 14-goal scorer in senior Justin Pearson (Nashua, N.H.). Dartmouth lost all of its top four forwards and defensemen entering Reid Cashman’s second year and first behind the bench.
Top talent
The region’s top returnees from a season ago by key statistical categories include UConn senior Jonny Evans (14 goals), Trivigno (23 assists, 34 points), Boston College captain Marc McLaughlin (North Billerica, Mass., five game-winning goals), Northeastern junior Aidan McDonough (Milton, Mass.) and Quinnipiac sophomore Ty Smilanic (six power-play goals each), Quinnipiac’s Zach Metsa (26 points by a defenseman), and Murray (1.97 GAA).
Abruzzese (first among NCAA freshmen with 31 points in 2019-20), Harvard junior Henry Thrun (Southborough, Mass., sixth among freshmen defensemen with 21 points), Metsa and Quinnipiac’s Ethan De Jong, who is coming off a 14-goal season in 2020-21, were all named to the Preseason All-ECAC Hockey Team.
In addition to Evans and Trivigno, BC’s All-American junior defenseman Drew Helleson and third-year Providence captain Michael Callahan (Franklin, Mass.) have been named to previous All-Hockey East First Teams. New Hampshire forward Jackson Pierson — one of three of his team’s top five scorers returning — and Northeastern defenseman Jordan Harris (Haverhill, Mass.) were named to the Second Team after averaging a point per game or better in 2020-21.
Fabulous freshmen
Seeing talented rookies around the local college rinks is nothing new, and BU will have another first-round pick on its roster in forward Tyler Boucher, a National Team Development Program product who was drafted 10th overall by Ottawa in July. He joined Coronato in the first round as the highest college picks outside of Michigan, while Northeastern’s Jack Hughes (Westwood, Mass.) is expected to reach first-round heights in 2022.
Defenseman Scott Morrow (Darien, Conn.) and Lopina were the top two of the Hockey East-leading four UMass draft selections in 2021, while BU and Vermont saw three future players come off the board. Vermont defenseman Luca Munzenberger and forward Andrei Buyalsky were both third-rounders, hailing from Germany and Kazakhstan, two of the nine countries represented on the roster.
Forward Matt Copponi (Mansfield, Mass.) becomes the second straight New England prep standout headed straight to Merrimack, as the Dexter Southfield product follows Gunnery star and now-sophomore Alex Jefferies (Lunenburg, Mass.) with the Warriors. The former ISL Most Valuable Player at Lawrence, forward Riley Duran (Woburn, Mass.) joins Providence after being drafted by the Bruins in the sixth round last year.
Another B’s prospect is BU’s Ty Gallagher, a seventh-rounder who set the NTDP record for career goals by a defenseman while playing with Boucher. He returns to a Terrier squad that was picked second in Hockey East and returns all but one of its top-12 scorers, led by former Thayer star Jay O’Brien (Hingham, Mass.) as a junior.
Atlantic’s team to beat
American International has once again emerged as the Atlantic Hockey favorite after becoming the first team in league history to win three consecutive regular-season titles in outright fashion last season. The Yellow Jackets have also won back-to-back tournaments dating back to 2019, following up preceding runs by both Air Force and RIT.
While welcoming in seven transfers and losing East Pod Player of the Year Brennan Kapcheck to graduation on defense, AIC will still have plenty of experience with a total of 24 lettermen returning. Perhaps the deepest club in head coach Eric Lang’s six-year tenure includes top-scoring senior Chris Theodore, whose four goals a season ago were all game-winners, and transfers like former UConn alternate captain Brian Rigali.
“I say the strength of our team is the team here, and our depth. We can play four lines,” Lang said. “Playing through the pandemic, there’s never enough guys that can contribute. Internal competition has always driven our program. It allows us to hold guys accountable to a high standard.”
Elsewhere, Bentley defenseman Drew Bavaro was the lone local player selected to the Preseason All-AHA Team as he looks to build upon a 12-point season, tied for sixth among the league’s freshmen.
New coaches
Three New England programs enter the 2021-22 season with first-year head coaches. Two work in Hockey East in Maine’s Ben Barr and Northeastern’s Jerry Keefe (Billerica, Mass.), while Bill Riga (Westborough, Mass.) joins the fold in Atlantic Hockey at Holy Cross.
Barr’s five years as the associate head coach at UMass culminated in a national championship, while Keefe spent the entirety of now-athletic director Jim Madigan’s 10-year head coaching tenure by his side with the Huskies, winning two Hockey East titles and three consecutive Beanpots before last year’s tournament was canceled.
A UMass Lowell grad, Riga served on Rand Pecknold’s staff at Quinnipiac for the last 13 years, seven as the associate head coach. He coached four All-American Bobcats including graduated first-team pick Odeen Tufto, who was the nation’s second-leading scorer last year.
