As players on the University of New England euphorically spilled off their bench and celebrated on the ice last year, Connor Amsley forced himself to take it all in.
His Endicott College team had just surrendered a Commonwealth Coast Conference championship-winning goal in overtime, the second time an NCAA tournament future had been snatched from its grasp.
The first time came when Amsley and his classmates were freshmen and league champions in 2020 and the COVID pandemic exploded, canceling the event just days before it was slated to begin.
Last year, they were knocked out with a 1-2 punch: the overtime loss to UNE and the realization soon after that they’d failed to earn an at-large bid to the NCAAs.
“I said to the boys, ‘Remember this feeling,’” said Amsley. “We had a meeting at the beginning of this year and said, ‘No way we’re going to be feeling like that again.’”
How are the Gulls feeling now? Pretty darn good.
Endicott is in the Frozen Four for the first time in the program’s short varsity history. A season that’s seen them go 23-2-2 and win the CCC kicked into another gear with a 3-0 blanking of Norwich in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals on Saturday night.
The Gulls don’t just get to participate in the Frozen Four for the first time; they get to host it as well. They will face Hobart in the late semifinal game (7 p.m.) on March 24 at Raymond J. Bourque Arena.
Defending champion Adrian and the University of New England will meet in the first semifinal (3 p.m.), with the winners playing on Sunday for the national championship.
The backbone of Endicott’s success is a 13-member senior class that’s used the heartbreak of seasons past to fuel this year’s charge.
“I feel so lucky to be a part of it,” said senior defenseman Matt Giroux (Bedford, N.H.). “With this group it’s just, ‘Let’s have a reason to keep going to the rink.’”
In between a 3-0 loss to Norwich back in late October, and a 3-2 loss to Curry on Feb. 18 – after they’d secured first place in the CCC – the Gulls played 21 games, winning 19 of them and tying two.
“It’s hard to win one game,” said eighth-year head coach RJ Tolan (Waltham, Mass.). “Every day you’re walking out the door and thinking, ‘Maybe they’ll be flat.’ Then your wife says, ‘Shut up. You’ve won 17 in a row.’”
The Gulls are the only team that ranks in the top four nationally in scoring offense (4.35 goals per game) and scoring defense (1.50 allowed per game).
A big reason for the latter is the play of their sophomore goaltending tandem, Atticus Kelly and Ryan Wilson (Shelton, Conn.).
The two played a grand total of 40 minutes last season as Concannon Award winner Conor O’Brien handled the workload and sparkled. But Kelly (1.68 goals-against average, .935 save percentage) and Wilson (1.23, .949) have kept the position an asset and then some.
“Losing (O’Brien), there was some tension in the water,” said Giroux. “Having those two sophomores coming in and playing to the level that they’re playing at is an unbelievable achievement. They’ve been awesome.”
“I think Conor O’Brien was the best goalie in the country,” said Tolan. “These guys came in, did their thing, made the program better and earned the opportunity to move the program forward. I’m so happy for those two guys.”
Tolan also tosses credit for their excellence to the team’s seen-it-all goaltending coach, Mike Geragosian, “who’s been like a hockey dad to me,” he noted.
Up front, junior Andrew Kurapov was named Player of the Year in the CCC and leads a balanced attack in scoring (13-17-30). Thirteen players have amassed double-digit points, and seniors Giroux and Zach Mazur, and juniors Jackson Sterrett and Cam Speck also earned All-Conference honors..
With 13 seniors – out of a group of 16 who entered as freshmen – there’s a groovedness to the way Endicott plays, one reinforced by daily repetition in practice.
“Every day of the week we talk about it: ‘What drill is going to be next?’” said Giroux. “And we’re usually right.”
The only wrinkle they’ve had down the stretch was a first-round bye in the NCAA tournament, a by-product of being too successful.
“Nothing’s changed at all,” said Amsley. “A guy I know here, a football guy, asked me something about bye weeks being so tough. I was like, ‘Dude, they’re not.’ Nothing changes. We’ll probably have more intense practices. The only difference is we’re going to be watching games instead of playing in one.”
This year at the Frozen Four, everyone will be watching them.
“It’s a really great group of kids,” said Tolan. “Most of the success stems from how much they care about each other.”
@MikeZhe603
mzhe@hockeyjournal.com
