For Sacred Heart University senior defenseman Mike Lee, coming home might have been one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
Three years ago, Lee (Hamden, Conn.) was finishing up a two-year stint on the blue line at the University of Vermont, when he decided to transfer back to Connecticut and play for the Pioneers. After sitting out the requisite transfer year, it’s proven to have been a more than solid move, as the 6-foot, 190-pound Lee led all Sacred Heart players with 19 assists and 21 points, both career highs, just before Christmas.
He also had put together a personal 10-game points streak through a 4-2 win over Robert Morris on Dec. 8, SHU’s last game before the holiday break that also boosted its winning streak to five games. The Pioneers are now 14-7-1 overall and 13-5 in Atlantic Hockey.
“It’s been going well,” said Lee shortly after first semester exams had concluded. “We had a tough start, but we’ve turned it around and bought in to what (head coach) C.J. (Marottolo) has preached, and we’re happy and excited going into the second half.”
Lee didn’t record a point in Sacred Heart’s first three games this season, which were coincidentally all losses, but has made up for that with six multiple-point outings, included three nights with three assists each. Simply put, the Pioneers usually go as Lee goes this season, as they were 10-2 in games in which he recorded a goal or an assist.
Perhaps the biggest night in SHU’s hockey history to date came in a 4-0 shutout of storied Boston University at BU’s Agganis Arena on Nov. 26. The Terriers might not be as strong as in the past, but it was still a big feather in SHU’s collective hat.
“We showed up and had the mindset we were going to win,” said Lee, 23, who set up two goals that night. “It was a huge statement for us, and everyone around our league heard about it.
“Everyone was pumped up afterward, and we didn’t let up the next weekend,” he added of a 4-2 win at AIC where he tallied the game-winning goal. “Our goalie, Josh Benson, is playing out of his mind. We’ve showed we can do anything this year, and it gives us motivation for the second half.”
Lee played his formative hockey growing up in Connecticut, including two years at The Gunnery Prep before he spent the 2014-15 campaign with the Penticton Vees in British Columbia, where he registered 34 assists in 56 games. From there it was off to UVM, but his time with the Catamounts lasted only 51 games.
“After the second year, I made the decision to benefit myself in the long run, both for hockey and academics,” said Lee. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it (SHU) was a great move for me. I’ve known C.J. a long time, and it was a great decision.
“The news got out that I was transferring, and he was the first one to call me,” said Lee. “He said they wanted me and told me how it was going to be, and that I was needed. It was more about playing for him at first — but playing for Sacred Heart and being a part of this program means a lot to me, and I’d do anything for the program, especially now.”
Lee completed his bachelor’s degree in finance last spring and is expected to graduate in June with a master’s in finance and investment management. Despite being undrafted by the NHL, he plans to keep playing after graduation, and see where that takes him.
“Mike is an offensively skilled defenseman who plays the game with great poise,” said Marottolo to USCHO.com upon Lee’s transfer from Vermont.
More of a set-up man than a goal scorer, Lee uses his ability to skate and to pass the puck to find the open man time and again.
“My strength is moving the puck,” he said. “I think I have the ability to go back and make a good first pass, and keep the transition game going.”
He discards any notion that it’s solely his doing, however, especially with the season his team is having so far.
“It’s not just me,” he said. “My teammates are playing so well, and everybody is buying in to C.J.’s system and playing the right way. Everyone is excelling in their game.”
Sacred Heart hockey and the athletic program have been on the rise under the guidance of former New York Mets and Boston Red Sox manager and current SHU athletic director Bobby Valentine. One of those moves was to shift men’s hockey out of the venerable Milford Ice Pavilion and full time into the modern Webster Bank Arena, also the home of the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Webster Bank Arena also will host the inaugural Connecticut Ice festival in late January, which will bring SHU, Quinnipiac, UConn and Yale together for the state’s own Beanpot-style tournament to crown an annual men’s college hockey champion in the Constitution State.
“Everyone’s excited,” said Lee. “I know guys on all four teams, and we’re juiced up about it.”
He added that the entire occasion also will encompass youth, prep and high school rivalry games over its three days, in addition to the four college contests that will be played out on Jan. 25-26.
“It’ll draw in a bigger crowd,” he said of the ancillary events. “There’s a lot of players in college hockey from Connecticut, and I can’t wait to play Yale.”
The victors of the Yale-SHU and UConn-Quinnipiac semifinal games will meet for the first-ever Connecticut Ice title.
Lee hoped that seeing all four NCAA Division 1 men’s college teams from Connecticut, including over a half-dozen skaters from the state on those rosters, would help provide motivation for their younger playing counterparts. He was also thankful the tournament had finally come to fruition, after he said the coaches involved had worked for several years on establishing the event.
The Pioneers are slated to play 12 of their final 14 games of the regular season against Atlantic Hockey competition.
“I think the team is building off each other,” said Lee. “When things are going well, we stay together and keep up the pressure — and when we face adversity, we battle back.”
The grand prize would be winning the Atlantic Hockey championship in upstate New York in mid-March, and earning the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division 1 tournament. Both would be firsts for the Pioneers, like AIC accomplished last season.
“We have confidence in our locker room, and every day we’re active at the rink,” Lee said. “It’s a different culture this year. We want to win, and eventually that could end us up in Buffalo and winning it. We have the group of guys to do it this year.”
