While the New England prep school ranks get plenty of attention on the local scene, many players choose to step outside the region to further prepare for the Division 1 level.
For some players, the ideal destination turns out to be thousands of miles away from home out in the British Columbia Hockey League.
No Canadian league sends more players onto the collegiate ranks on an annual basis than the BCHL, which is comprised of 17 teams throughout the Pacific Northwest.
As the BCHL prepares to commence its postseason tonight and this weekend, NEHJ checks in with seven New England natives who performed in the league this season:
Mike Hardman
West Kelowna Warriors / F / Hanover, Mass.
NCAA Commit: Boston College
A Xaverian product and former Winchendon School assistant captain, Hardman was the third-leading scorer in the BCHL with 39 goals. He finished his 58-game regular season with 72 points. He entered the postseason with seven goals in his last seven games, including one in each of the last four. Hardman received the BCHL’s Bob Fenton Trophy as a player “who exhibited the fundamental aspects of sportsmanship while excelling at the game,” being charged with only 16 penalty minutes on the year.
Riley Hughes
Victoria Grizzlies / F / Westwood, Mass.
NCAA Commit: Northeastern
Hughes was a key offensive contributor to the Island Division champion Grizzlies as he posted the fourth-most points (58) and third-most goals (24) on the team through 53 games. Only three rookies in the entire BCHL scored more goals this season than Hughes, including Salisbury School product and Merrimack commit Kevin Wall whose 31 goals were the most. A seventh-round pick of the New York Rangers last summer, Hughes had three multi-point efforts in his final seven games and netted a hat trick and seven points during a Nov. 30 win over Coquitlam.
Matt Gosiewski
Wenatchee Wild / F / Wilton, Conn.
NCAA Commit: Bentley
Gosiewski topped the scoring charts for the Wild with 28 goals and 51 points in 50 games during his first full BCHL season; he played in 36 games for the Penticton Vees in 2016-17 before spending all of last year in the USHL. The future Bentley Falcon finished the regular season on a four-game point streak, notching four goals and six points in that span. He scored five game-winners for Wenatchee on the season, while another quarter of his tallies (seven) came on the power play.
Connor Hopkins
West Kelowna Warriors / G / Malden, Mass.
NCAA Commit: Yale
While Hardman was busy putting up points, Hopkins played nearly 60 percent of the minutes in net for the Warriors after spending the last three seasons close to home at Belmont Hill School. Hopkins earned 16 of West Kelowna’s 28 wins, including the team’s only shutout, and posted a .912 save percentage as the top qualifying rookie goaltender in the league in that category. He finished the regular season with a 39-save overtime victory over Trail last Friday.
Aidan Porter
Vernon Vipers / G / Boston, Mass.
NCAA Commit: Princeton
Porter earned BCHL All-Rookie honors after serving as the top netminder for the Vipers. The Rivers School product led all first-year stoppers in the league with 19 victories during the regular season while posting a 2.59 goals against average and .908 save percentage. Porter was the lone rookie with more than one shutout on the season, posting four to rank in a tie for second among all BCHL goalies. He allowed only three goals over his final two starts and won three of his final four.
Ben Thomas
Powell River Kings / F / Ashburnham, Mass.
Thomas increased his production during his second season in Powell River, posting 11 goals and 41 points in 51 games after recording a 3-12-15 line over 26 contests a year ago. Thomas, another Winchendon School product, was the team’s fifth-leading scorer after finishing the regular season with points in six of the last eight games. The Kings include three other New Englanders, all who have 20 points on the year: defenseman Matt Rickard (Coventry, R.I.), and forwards Matt Fawcett (Lincoln, R.I.) and Ethan Kimball (Holden, Mass.).
Teddy Wooding
Vernon Vipers / F / Wrentham, Mass.
NCAA Commit: Yale
The former Rivers School captain made his way to junior hockey for the first time this winter and joined Hughes among the league’s rookie leaders this winter, logging a team-high 21 gals and 40 points in 55 games for the Vipers. Wooding ranks 12th among first-year BCHL skaters in points and seventh in goals thanks to a late-season run of five goals in six games, including one on the power play and a Feb. 20 game-winner against Coquitlam.
