Jerry York has been around the block when it comes to coaching college hockey and has won more games than any coach in the game’s history, but there is a wrinkle to this year’s Boston College team that he has never experienced over a legendary 45-year career.
The Eagles do not have a single true senior on their roster and entered this season as the youngest team in Division 1 hockey for the third time in four seasons.
Age (20 years and 125 days old, on average) is just a number, and York still sees positives in his group, despite the losses of last season’s top five scorers, including Colin White (Hanover, Mass.) early to the Ottawa Senators, and players who could have been BC seniors this season — Noah Hanifin (Norwood, Mass.), Alex Tuch and Zach Sanford (Auburn, N.H.).
"I’m pretty excited about the grit and spirit of our team. We have the makeup of, I think, a pretty good club as we mature through the season," said York (Watertown, Mass.). "With the players that left early, now we’re kind of restoring our program with younger kids coming in."
The captaincy falls on three of York’s seven juniors — forward Christopher Brown and defensemen Casey Fitzgerald (North Reading, Mass.) and Michael Kim — for this unique year, and all of the team’s six freshmen played over the first two weekends of the season, contributing eight of 20 total points.
U.S. National Team Development Program product Jacob Tortora scored a season-opening goal against Quinnipiac, while Logan Hutsko had three assists and Christopher Grando two goals through three games.
"We put a lot of emphasis on the freshmen stepping up and playing a big role on this team," Fitzgerald said after the Eagles’ Oct. 15, 4-3 win over Providence. "It’s always great to see (them come through). We build off that, especially when we have all four lines rolling. The freshmen are just bringing that energy, which is something we asked of them, and they delivered."
Defenseman Kevin Lohan, who transferred to BC from the University of Michigan this fall, is the only collegiate "veteran" on the roster. Colorado College is the only other team in the nation that does not boast a senior.
In the end, York expects these Eagles to be "a tough out" for the rest of Hockey East again. "I think it’s going to be a year that will be a little bit better than some people forecast for us," he said.
THE CLASH
Northeastern vs. Boston University Saturday, Nov. 4 at Agganis Arena; Friday, Nov. 10 at Matthews Arena, Boston
The home-and-home series between Boston foes takes up portions of two November weekends this season. It should be a hotly contested pair of games again, as BU has a load of youthful talent and Northeastern a serious chance to lead Hockey East in overall scoring come season’s end.
THE NOTEBOOK
Head coach Dick Umile’s 28th and final season at New Hampshire began with a bang, as the Wildcats posted their first two-win start to the regular season since 2012 with a 4-3, 3-1 sweep of then-No. 5/9 UMass-Lowell. Conversely, Lowell had not lost back-to-back games at the season’s start since the year 2000 at Michigan.
Senior Shane Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.) and sophomore Anthony Wyse (Newton, Mass.) scored game-winning goals in the series and were two of the six players who scored the Wildcats’ seven goals in the series. Eiserman’s came with 13.4 seconds remaining in the Oct. 6 opener at Tsongas Center, while Wyse scored his second winner in as many career goals as a defenseman the next night.
After sweeping Colgate at Whittemore Center the following weekend, the Wildcats were the only Hockey East team left unbeaten and untied through the season’s first two weekends. Providence suffered its first loss Oct. 15 to Boston College as the Eagles won 4-3 in overtime, overcoming a 3-0 deficit for the first time since Nov. 16, 2012, against Merrimack. Northeastern had a twogame winning streak end with an Oct. 14 tie at RIT. …
Northeastern’s Cayden Primeau and UMass’ Matt Murray both earned victories in their first collegiate starts on Oct. 7. Primeau’s win was an 18-save shutout against Sacred Heart, while Amherst native freshman John Leonard scored the gamewinner to ensure Murray’s win at Arizona State. …
All six of Providence’s goals came from different players in a 3-1, 3-2 sweep on the season’s first weekend at Miami, its first to open a season since 2013. Sophomore Kasper Bjorkqvist won the latter game with 0.9 seconds left in regulation. …
Five of the 20 goaltenders on the watch list for this year’s Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top netminder in Division 1 men’s hockey, come from Hockey East: Providence’s Hayden Hawkey, Connecticut’s Adam Huska, Boston University’s Jake Oettinger, UMass-Lowell’s Tyler Wall and Boston College’s Joseph Woll. Of this year’s candidates from the league, only Hawkey is an upperclassman.
THE QUOTE
‘We had a bad taste in our mouth at the end of last year. We’ve certainly moved on, but we didn’t forget about it. It’s with you all summer and it motivates you.’
— Danny Tirone after UNH swept UMass-Lowell, which beat the Wildcats in the Hockey East quarterfinals last March, in a season-opening, Oct. 6-7 series
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
John Leonard, Massachusetts
An Amherst, Mass., native, Leonard recorded at least one point in each of the Minutemen’s first four games and led the team with seven total in that span. He was named Rookie of the Week after scoring two goals and assisting on the third in a 3-1 win over AIC on Oct. 14, a game in which freshmen accounted for all seven UMass points.
Alexander Payusov, Connecticut
After scoring the game-winning goal Oct. 7 in Maine, the sophomore from Montreal recorded his first hat trick (and multipoint game) in a come-from-behind, 6-4 win at AIC six days later. It was UConn’s first hat trick since 2015. Payusov’s only two points in 15 games last season were assists during the month of October.
Danny Tirone, New Hampshire
Tirone and the Wildcats made a big splash during the season’s opening weekend, completing a home-and-home sweep of reigning league champion and then-No. 5/9 UMass-Lowell. The senior from Trumbull, Conn., made 32 of his 52 combined saves to clinch a 3-1 win in the Oct. 7 series clincher at Whittemore Center.
