BY RACHEL GALATIS
It’s been two years since men’s hockey won the NE-10 championship on March 7, 2020, and graduated 14 seniors, leaving the team young and inexperienced.
“Last year, we did not play a meaningful season and sadly our seniors and underclassmen did not get to experience a normal college hockey season,” head coach David Borges said. “So where did that leave us in this 21-22 season? After graduating 14, we were young and inexperienced.”
This season, the team had a total of 30 players consisting of six seniors, eight juniors, ten
sophomores, and six freshmen. Three of the six seniors were the team captains: Charles Page, Mike Seoane, and Joshua Loveridge.
The team’s practice schedule consisted of three-to-four sessions per week for about an hour and a half each, with days depending on when games were held. The team would also schedule time to watch film.
Practices would focus primarily on “skill improvement, team systems and competitive drill games,” according to Borges.
“When we have a compete day, the team is divided into purple and white and we keep score with each game and the losing team skates while the winning team celebrates,” he said. “At the end of the practice and several compete drill later one team has the bragging rights of winning the most competitions that day.”
For the 2020 to 2021 season, official games were not held due to COVID-19 regulations. The first game of this season was played on October 29 at Curry College and ended with a close score of 1-0.
Page said that he felt the team underperformed this season due to inexperience.
“I feel that our team, unfortunately, underperformed this season, as I feel we had a lot of potential to be successful,” he said. “We were a young team and I think the inexperience showed at times.”
Despite the lack of experience, the team had some memorable games, including beating St. Anselm in the first round of the NE-10 tournament. Page said this was his favorite memory of the season, as the team won 5-4 in overtime.
“They were the number two seed, and we were the number seven seed, and we beat them in overtime; we knew we could beat them, but it felt good to prove it to everyone else,” he said.
Both on and off the ice, the team considers themselves a “tight-knit” group. At the beginning of the season, the three captains wore stickers that said “Mr. B” on their helmets in honor of Borges' late father, who passed away in December of 2020.
Seoane said that part of being a good captain is recognizing the responsibility and honor that comes with it.
“I have had a lot of great captains throughout the years who I have tried to learn from,” he said. “I try to just lead by example every day at the rink and I hope it rubs off on the younger guys for when their time comes.
The team’s season came to an end on March 1 in the NE-10 semifinals when they lost to Assumption with a final score of 5-2.
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