Seventeen members of the Hobart College hockey team were named to the 2018-19 New England Hockey Conference All-Academic Team.

To be eligible for all-academic recognition, a student must carry a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and have completed one full year at his institution.

The following Statesmen earned a spot on the all-academic team:

Senior Brandon Bistodeau, economics and history double major
Junior Alexander Connal, architectural studies major
Junior Julien Denicourt, economics major
Junior Will Harrison, economics major
Sophomore Andrew Longo, economics and history double major
Sophomore Ryan Lynch, economics major
Junior Lawson MacDougall, economics major
Senior Jack Macnee, economics major
Senior Matt Pizzo, economics and environmental studies double major
Sophomore Alec Robitaille, biochemistry and mathematics double major
Sophomore Travis Schneider, economics and psychology double major
Sophomore TJ Schultz, economics major
Senior Cam Shaheen, economics major
Senior Tanner Shaw, political science major
Junior Zach Sternbach, economics major
Sophomore Mitchell Spring, economics major
Senior Jonas Toupal, geoscience and planetary science double major

Bistodeau, Macnee, Pizzo, Shaheen, Shaw, and Toupal earned conference all-academic recognition for the third year in a row, Connal, Denicourt, MacDougall, and Sternbach garned NEHC All-Academic honors for the second straight year.

The Statesmen finished the year with a 21-8-2 overall record, matching the program record for wins in a season. Hobart earned a bid to the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight year, reaching the national semifinals for the third time in program history. The Statesmen were edged by the eventual national champion, Wisconsin-Stevens Point 5-3.

MINNESOTA-DULUTH NINTH REPEAT CHAMP IN HISTORY

By Warren Kozireski–

BUFFALO, NY — Senior forward Parker Makay netted a first period power play goal and set up sophomore defenseman Mickey Anderson for a second period tally to lead the University of Minnesota-Duluth to a 3-0 victory over the University of Massachusetts to win the 2019 Frozen Four in Buffalo.

The Bulldogs become the first repeat champion since the University of Denver did it in 2004-05 and the ninth overall (Michigan twice, Denver four times, Boston University and the University of Minnesota, once each).

“Parker was coming up the boards and made a great play through the middle and I just tried to find a hole, Parker connected and I just had to put it upstairs,” Anderson said about his goal.

Freshman Jackson Cates added a late third period insurance tally as Anderson registered his third point of the contest with an assist.

The Bulldogs allowed only one goal to the first three opponents in the NCAA playoff opponents this season. In the title game, they held positional advantage outshooting the Minutemen 25-12 through the first 40 minutes and held UMass with a shot on goal in two consecutive power play opportunities.

It marked the sixth shutout in the 71 years of the national title game and the first since 2013 when Yale blanked Quinnipiac.

“So fortunate to make the regionals all four years let alone three Frozen Fours and now winning two national championships,” Bulldogs senior captain and tournament Most Outstanding Player Mackay reflected. “So happy to do it with some incredible friends…it’s no shock that we’ve been here three years in a row and I’m looking forward to watching this group in the future.”

In addition to Mackay, Bulldogs goaltender Hunter Shepard, forwards Justin Richards and Billy Exell, Anderson and UMass freshman defenseman Marc Del Gaizo were named to the All-Tournament Team.

By Warren Kozireski–

“Another blue-collar kid that you want on your team,” University of Massachusetts head coach and Spencer Penrose Award as National Coach of the Year winner Greg Carvel said about Setauket native and freshman forward Bobby Trivigno. “He’s 5’8″. I watch him weigh in. It’s always see if he got up to 150 (lb.) or not. That’s after every other kid is 200, 205. He jumps up there. I love him. He’s tough as nails, scores big goals, plays every situation.

“As coaches, there’s certain kids you want on your team. Bobby is one of those kids. Plays the game on edge. He knocks down as many guys of the opponents of anybody on our team every night. We’ll always start video on Monday showing good, physical hits. He’ll knock down three guys a game. He’s 5’8″, 148 pounds, scores goals, goes to the front of the net, does it all. We’re very fortunate to have him. Unbelievable player.”

The top scoring freshman on the Minutemen with 13 goals and 28 points scored a power play goal from his office in front of the net two minutes after Denver took a 1-0 lead in the Frozen Four semi-final; a game UMass won in overtime 4-3.

“When I’m in front of the net, it’s just take away the goalies’ eyes, try to bang in any rebounds and that particular play (senior forward Jacob Pritchard) “Pritch” shot the puck and I just tipped it into the goal and got lucky,” Trivigno said in the postgame locker room.

“When I’m in tight to the net I can use my speed, spin off players and it plays to my pros (strengths).”

Trivigno was fourth on the team in scoring and won an Anderson Cup as regular season champs last season with Waterloo in the USHL. Prior to that he spent three years starting at age 16 with the Shattuck St. Mary’s program winning a national title in 2016 with the Shattuck St. Mary’s U-16 team.

“My sister (Dana) went there before me; she was heavily recruited by them and I saw what success it brought her so I wanted to go there. (Dana was a captain as a senior at Boston College),” Trivigno said.

“While I was there it was a great experience, great culture, great coaches, teammates and you’re surrounded by players who want to do the exact same thing as you and when I got the opportunity, I wasn’t going to turn it down.”

Prior to that he played most of his youth career with the Long Island Royals program and one year prior to prep school with the P.E.L. Jr. Islanders.

Now UMass will try to deny Minnesota-Duluth a repeat championship.

“We’re super-excited, but we’re looking at it as just another game. We’ll rest, re-gen (regenerate) and be ready to play Saturday night.”

As this is written, the NCAA announced that Trivigno has been suspended for one game under the NCAA’s supplemental discipline process as a result of an incident that occurred during the third period of the Men’s Frozen Four semifinal game between Massachusetts and Denver. 

The action was taken by the committee after a review of the incident, which occurred with 3:10 remaining in the third period, in which Trivigno made contact with the head of a Denver player.

ROCHESTER, NY – Senior forward Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73’s) of the RIT men’s hockey team was as a 2018-19 Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American on Friday, April 12. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: classroom, community, character and competition.

Brown became RIT’s second Senior CLASS Award All-American, joining Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers), who was named in 2016.
 
The award, chosen by a nationwide vote of Division I men’s hockey coaches, national hockey media and fans, is given annually to the most outstanding senior student-athletes in Division I men’s hockey. Kyle Haak of Air Force Academy was named the 2018-19 Senior CLASS Award winner.

One of RIT’s co-captains, Brown, a 2018 All-Atlantic Hockey first team selection and 2019 third team pick, led RIT with 18 goals this season and added 11 assists for 29 points. On. Jan. 11, Brown became the 11th player in RIT’s Division I history to reach 100 points in his career in a win over American International. Three days later, Brown earned his second AHA Offensive Player of the Week honor and was named NCAA Ice Hockey’s First Star of the Week.
 
Brown, who set a Division I team single-season mark with 29 goals last year, finished his four-year career with 70 goals, which is RIT’s Division I school record. He is seventh in RIT’s Division I era with 115 career points on 70 goals and 45 assists in 148 games. Brown finished second all-time in the Division I era with 26 power-play goals and 11 game-winning markers. In 2018, Brown, won RIT’s Lou Spiotti Coaches Award and was recipient of the Greg Moss Hard Hat Award.

In the classroom, Brown, a biomedical sciences major, is also a three-time Atlantic Hockey All-Academic Team selection (2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18). Brown has delivered Teddy Bears to children at the Rochester Regional Health Pediatric Department after the annual Teddy Bear Toss game in both 2016 and 2017. In addition, he has volunteered with Muddy’s Buddies in Rochester, which is a nonprofit, charitable organization that seeks to improve the quality of life of children and their families whose lives have been touched by cancer and other chronic illnesses.

RIT finished with 17 wins and advanced to the Atlantic Hockey Semifinals in 2018-19.

2018-19 Senior CLASS Award Recipients
First Team
Kyle Haak, Air Force (Senior CLASS Award Winner)
Chase Berger, Penn State
Tanner Jago, Bentley
Sasha Larocque, Ohio State
Max Veronneau, Princeton

Second Team
Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73’s), RIT
Mason Bergh, Colorado College
Chase Priskie, Quinnipiac
Jimmy Schuldt, St. Cloud State
Josh Teves, Princeton

RIT GRAD DEMICHIEL ON NATIONAL STAGE WITH UMASS

By Warren Kozireski–

Former R.I.T. goaltender Jared DeMichiel took the Tigers to the Frozen Four playing all but about 200 minutes in 38 games during the magical 2010 run. Now he is back as an assistant coach with the University of Massachusetts.

After his collegiate playing career ended, the Connecticut native played one year professionally splitting the 2010-11 campaign between South Carolina and Elmira in the USHL and Hershey in the AHL.

He then spent two years as an assistant coach at Nazareth College under George Roll before jumping to the Division I ranks at St. Lawrence under head coach Greg Carvel. He followed Carvel to Amherst, Massachusetts when he was offered the job three years ago.

Now he and associate head coach Ben Barr, who played at RPI and had coaching stints with the Engineers and Union College, are credited with assembling this roster of players who won the first Hockey East regular season championship and reached their first Frozen Four in program history and will play for the national championship Saturday night in Buffalo.

“Jared and Ben do an unbelievable job getting these kids who haven’t been USA Hockey kids their whole life, but they’re high-character kids that play the game hard, good skill level,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said in a Friday press conference.

“I’m very proud. It’s a very proud week for me and my staff. Very proud of what we’ve been able to do.”

ROCHESTER’S DUGAN ENDS FRESHMAN YEAR RUN WITH PROVIDENCE

By Warren Kozireski–

Providence College received an at-large bid to the NCAA hockey tournament after their 21-win season and defeated Minnesota State and Cornell to win the East Regional to advance to the fifth Frozen Four in program history.

A huge part of that success has been McQuaid grad and native Jack Dugan’s 39-point campaign; the second most on the team.

That road ended Thursday night with a 4-1 loss to defending champ Minnesota-Duluth, which included two-empty-net goals.

“It’s really hard obviously; I can’t imagine what the seniors feel like,” Dugan said in the post-game locker room. “We obviously thought we could win it and I think we played a helluva game tonight and could have won, but it just came down to a bounce and they got it.

“I think we were the better team for most of the game.

“These guys brought me and all the freshmen in and were welcoming with open arms and accepted us. A lot of teams aren’t like that…so for me it’s been outstanding. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to be playing with and I think next year we’ll have a really good team as well, but this definitely stings.”

SABRES PROSPECT BRYSON CAPTAINS PROVIDENCE TO FROZEN FOUR

By Warren Kozireski–

Buffalo Sabres 2017 fourth round draft pick Jacob Bryson and his Providence Friars made a run to the Frozen Four on what he hopes to be his future home ice in Buffalo before falling to Minnesota-Duluth in the national semi-finals 4-1.

The Friars received an at-large bid to the NCAA hockey tournament after their 21-win season and defeated Minnesota State and Cornell to win the East Regional to advance to the fifth Frozen Four in program history.

“It just shows how special Providence as a program is to make it the three years…to the tournament every year,” Bryson said in the post-game press conference. “This was our first experience in the Frozen Four, it was unbelievable.  That shows you how good our program is.

“That’s a big reason why…I chose this place, because we wanted to win. I’m happy with our group this year. We had such a dynamic group of individuals. Even though we’re young, shows you how far we got under coach (and Cortland grad Gary) Leaman’s wing, he did a great job of coaching us and being hard on us every day in practice to get us to this point.”

The 5’9”, 179 lb. left shot and captain for Providence scored 27 points with 23 of those assists, including one assist in each of his last three postseason contests.

As for whether he is contemplating ending his collegiate career a year early and signing a pro contract, Bryson said, “I’m really not focused on that right now. I’m so excited how my team played tonight, how we’ve been over the season. We came so far, did such a great job. That’s really what I’m focused on right now.”