The winding road that freshman goalie Vinny Duplessis traveled to get to Boston University made his win over Boston College in his first start last Saturday all the more satisfying.
The 21-year-old from Quebec City stopped 40 shots as the Terriers –— missing top players Drew Commesso, David Farrance and Logan Cockerill — beat No. 1-ranked Boston College, 3-1.
Duplessis, who made stops in British Columbia and Alberta before enrolling at BU, was still smiling a couple of days later, and with good reason. Before last weekend, he had been third on BU’s depth chart behind Commesso and Ashton Abel.
“It’s a crazy thing, I’ll tell you that, especially with the whole rivalry thing with BC,’’ he said.
“It does feel amazing, especially because I’ve got a lot of people who have been through everything with me. I’ve got a group of friends that support me, my parents, my family,’’ he said.
“They all know what path I’ve been through. It’s even better to have them with me through the experience. I’m not the only one that gets to celebrate, really.
Before the teams even dropped the puck on Friday night — when Duplessis watched from the bench as BU lost in overtime with Abel in the net — the intensity of the BU-BC rivalry was an eye-opener.
“Obviously I’m from Quebec, where it’s more about major junior than college hockey. There’s two schools that everybody knows in Quebec — it’s Boston College and Boston University.
“We all know there’s a rivalry, but I was really surprised by how hard everybody was going after each other, if you know what I mean. On social media, you’ve got everybody, both schools, just going at each other. It’s something I’ve never really experienced before, but I absolutely love it,’’ Duplessis said.
Playing college hockey, never mind being in the middle of a historic rivalry, wasn’t something Duplessis could have imagined when he was a young teenage netminder.
“Growing up I didn’t know much about college. My mind was on major junior. I never played Midget AAA. I got cut two years in a row. At that point, I’m in Quebec and the system is if you don’t make Midget AAA, your second year or even your first year, you might as well just give up on major junior,’’ he said.
“So for me it was looking for what the options were. My mind was set when I got cut the second time from Midget AAA. Let’s look at the prep school route, let’s look at (Junior A). I knew absolutely nothing about (college hockey). My advisers really helped me through it.
“I went to prep school (at Bishop’s College School in Quebec), then three years of juniors and found a way to get here,’’ said Duplessis, who spent two years with Merritt of the British Columbia Hockey League and last season with Whitecourt of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
He found out on Friday that he would get the start on Saturday.
“We had a team meeting and (coach) Albie (O’Connell) took me aside and said you’re going to go (on Saturday). He said we just want to let you watch the first game and see what BC’s all about and then you’re in at Walter Brown (Arena),’’ Duplessis said.
“I always prepare the exact same way, whether I’m the third guy in the lineup, second guy or starter. It’s always the same. If the coach told me five minutes before the game that I’m going in, I’ll be ready.’’
Duplessis said he didn’t know what to expect before joining the Terriers but has been impressed by the team’s chemistry.
“I wasn’t sure how the guys were going to be, to be honest. You never know, because sometimes there’s high prospects who are on their own page. We were actually talking (Sunday) while watching the Super Bowl about how close we are. There’s a lot of confident guys on the team, but there’s nobody that’s cocky, that wants to take the whole space himself. Everybody knows the situation we’re in and everybody knows exactly what we want to do — win a national championship,’’ Duplessis said.
“Our team is so much stronger with the chemistry that we have. Not that it doesn’t matter who’s playing — obviously Farrance is unreal — but no matter who is in you know you’re going to have a team that’s going to go to war every night. I absolutely love it. Beating BC, considered the number-one team in the country, without these key players, just shows a lot about our character.’’
Milestone for Leaman
Providence College’s Nate Leaman is usually too busy looking to the next game, practice or recruiting call to spend a lot of time reflecting on the past.
But a few days after recording his 200th win at Providence College — a 5-1 victory at Merrimack — he did take a few minutes to talk about his first win with the Friars.
The date was Oct. 14, 2011, and the opponent was Boston University.
“It was the first game and they wanted to pack the rink. They did an unbelievable job of getting the rink full. It was a NESN game and BU paid for NESN because they wanted to show how their fans traveled. So you got NESN and you got a full rink,’’ Leaman said.
The Friars jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 2:48 of the first period on a goal by Drew Brown, who became a major inspiration for the Friars, dying of cancer in 2017.
“Drew was in the right spot on the neutral-zone defense. Guy tried to attack him, Drew picked it off his stick and went in and ripped it for a goal,’’ Leaman said.
After PC jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Terriers clawed back and tied it early in the third.
But Myles Harvey scored on a power play and Ross Mauermann added an insurance goal as the Friars held on for a 5-3 win.
“The thing I remember most about the game was we had that old locker room’’ before the makeover of Schneider Arena.
“I saw our visiting locker room like two days before BU came down and I just remember thinking to myself, ‘I can’t believe we’ve got Jack Parker in that visiting room,’ meaning it was not Division 1 quality,’’ Leaman said.
“The second thing I remember was right after we win the game you go in the locker room and the guys are all fired up. It’s your first game and you’re saying, ‘Yeah, that’s Friar hockey,’ cheering and everything.
“I walk out of the room and right there is Jack Parker. I was thinking to myself, what did I do? In my head I was like, did I forget to shake his hand? Did I do something dumb during the game? And then he put his hand out and said, ‘I just want to congratulate you on your first Hockey East win.’
“It was one of the classiest things I’ve ever been a part of. I have an amazing amount of respect for Jack Parker, for that moment in my life. It was quite a moment.’’
The only coach with more wins at PC than Leaman is the legend, Lou Lamoriello, who has 248.
Walsh sparks Warriors
Liam Walsh of Merrimack got off on the wrong foot when he was whistled for an ill-advised holding 33 seconds into the Warriors’ game at Providence College on Sunday.
But shortly after coming out of the box, he went to work.
He scored on a five-on-three power play to give Merrimack a 1-0 lead three minutes into the game, then he faked out PC goalie Jaxson Stauber to score a pretty goal at 12:30. That tally ended up being the winner in Merrimack’s 3-2 victory.
It was a much-needed win for the injury-wracked Warriors, who are without their top line and their second-line center. On Saturday, Merrimack had lost to PC, 5-1, in North Andover.
“My biggest job going into Sunday was to let the team know, that was not a 5-1 hockey game on Saturday,’’ said coach Scott Borek. “(Providence) finished their opportunities, which we gave them, and we had to do a better job in our end.’’
They got the job done on Sunday, with Walsh playing a prominent role for the second day in a row. “Walshy’s been our best forward for a couple of weeks now,’’ said Borek.
“Liam has been moved into an offensive role. Until this weekend, he wasn’t that at all. He was our third-line center. When our team was healthy and we were clicking, he was on a line that was a pace line, an energy line, a physical line. They were really good at it. Then we lost some guys, he got elevated in the lineup and his game just kept elevating.
“He’s a warrior, an absolute warrior. He’s one of those kids. Reminds me of (New York Ranger) Kevin Rooney a little bit from the standpoint of he takes that role of being third-line center, really, to heart. He embraces it and he’s really good at it.
“Kevin gives all those guys hope, with the success he’s had. There are a lot more jobs for guys like that than there are for the high-end guys. They’re getting those guys from all over the world.”
Walsh has displayed offensive skill before, potting 25 goals while captaining Cedar Rapids of the USHL in 2018-19.
“The kid’s done everything right. He’s worked hard. He’s emerging as a player in our league. Anyone who plays us knows Liam Walsh is in that game,’’ Borek said.
