The top teams in college hockey all have similar characteristics. When looking at UMass, Providence, Quinnipiac, St. Cloud, Denver and Minnesota Duluth, they all have a great defensive corp that can move the puck up ice.
While taking care of your side of the puck and transitioning up ice and holding possession are keys in the modern era of hockey, the top two Hockey East teams in the all-important Pairwise Rankings have another key piece to the puzzle.
Both UMass and Providence play a heavy game and have an agitator or two that will get under the skin of their opponents.
As the Minutemen reached unprecedented heights during the first half of the season, including a number one ranking in both major college hockey polls, a lot of the attention focused on superstar defenseman Cale Makar. The Hobey Baker frontrunner and 2017 fourth overall pick of the Colorado Avalanche certainly deserves the spotlight. His six goals and 14 assists has catapulted UMass to a 15-3-0 record.
But, when asking coaches around the league, it’s a freshman who might be the hardest player to play against. Setauket, N.Y., native Bobby Trivigno has quickly gained notoriety around the league for how hard he competes.
He’s small in stature, standing at just 5-feet-8 and 152 pounds, but his intensity level is off the charts. He’s not afraid to knock defensemen over and play with reckless abandonment, especially on the forecheck.
“He’s a little rat,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said after an early season game. “He finds a way to win battles, draw penalties and take penalties and he just gets to the net. It’s kind of crazy. He’s the smallest guy on our team by probably 40 pounds and I got him in front of the net on the power play. But, he’s a greasy kid and he’s been effective.”
Trivigno has five goals and seven assists in 17 games. He missed a game for not tiptoeing that fine line between playing hard and taking a penalty that the league deemed sufficient enough for supplemental discipline.
It’s not just Trivigno. Sophomore Mitchell Chaffee and grad student Jacob Pritchard are tied for the team lead in scoring with 22 points. Both players are heavy, win a lot of puck battles, and muck and grind below the dots.
If there’s a blue print on how to be successful in Hockey East over the last five or six years, it can be found in the bowels of Providence College’s Schneider Arena. The Friars, under Nate Leaman, have played a structured system that relies on getting pucks deep, a tenacious forecheck, and wearing teams down with size and physicality.
This year’s version of the Friars have several players who fit this category, including first line left wing Kasper Bjorkqvist, a Pittsburgh Penguins prospect, Minnesota Wild prospect Brandon Duhaime, Vimal Sukumaran and Greg Printz.
“Ultimately, with our bigger guys, we have to be heavy. We have to be heavy and drive. We have to make teams work to get the puck back. If we can continue to do that we’ll be a load,” said Leaman after last Friday’s game against Miami.
Like Trivigno, Sukumaran has earned a reputation for being a beast to play against. The junior has been a physical force for the Friars. He does his best to agitate opposing players and get them off their games without costing his own team with penalties.
“It’s more of an energy purpose. It gets me through the game. You have to make sure you don’t cross that line. I’ve learned that over the years,” said Sukumaran, who has 125 penalty minutes over the course of his Providence career.
The Montreal, Que., native has four goals on the season, raising his career total to 22. He’s not the most skilled player so he knows his bread and butter is getting to the net and being in the greasy areas.
“It’s tough. It’s tiring. Guys are always hitting you and trying to box you out. You have to slip in and find your way in there. It’s where most of my goals are scored. I know I have success from there so I just try to get in there,” said Sukumaran.
Sukumaran tries to watch like-minded guys who have made it to the NHL for pointers to bring to his own game.
“(Philadelphia Flyers right wing) Wayne Simmonds and it used to be (former Detroit Red Wings winger) Johan Franzon,” said Sukumaran when asked who he tries to emulate. “Guys that just hang around the net and get those dirty ones.”
Sukumaran doesn’t stop getting under people’s skin when he leaves the ice. A Montreal fan, he smiles when he talks about his playful back-and-forth repertoire with New England fans on the Providence campus.
“It’s funny. All the guys around school are New England fans so it’s fun to pick at them, especially when the Habs are beating the Bruins,” said the former Salisbury School star.
Sukumaran and the Friars continue their quest for a Hockey East championship this weekend with a road contest at Boston College Friday before hosting Boston University Saturday.
