The following two quotes come from the official Merrimack press release regarding Joe Loprieno’s signing with the San Jose Sharks.
Mark Dennehy, Merrimack Head Coach
“Joe has been one of our hardest workers since he landed on the Merrimack campus. He has worked for this for some time, and we are happy for and proud of him.”
Doug Wilson, San Jose Vice President and General Manager
“Joe is a tough, physical player who has shown a tremendous amount of progress under Head Coach Mark Dennehy and the Merrimack hockey program. We look forward to working with Joe to help him further his development as a professional hockey player and we welcome him into the Sharks organization.”
Of course I’d like to see Hockey East come out with the national title, but how can you not, deep down, be rooting for the Beavers? They knock off No. 1 seed Notre Dame in an impressive 5-1 fashion on Saturday, and then top Cornell in the regional final.
I’d recommend that you check out College Hockey News for a massive amount of coverage on the regional weekend. With all that went down, there is a lot to read.
Princeton and North Dakota each held a lead inside of the final second of the third period before losing in overtime. Vermont topples Air Force in double overtime to get to Washington after the Falcons blanked No. 1 seed Michigan 2-0 on Friday night.
Miami, in less surprising fashion than Bemidji, is another No. 4 seed heading to the Frozen Four.
Cornell trailed Northeastern 2-1 before beating Hockey East Player of the Year Brad Thiessen twice in the final 3:56 to send the Huskies home.
It was just an amazing weekend, really nuts. In the notebook link above, I grabbed Joe Bertagna and Jack Parker for a quick comment after the game yesterday. Combined, they have around 80-years experience in college hockey, and neither can remember a tournament as wild as this one.
NORTH ANDOVER — Merrimack junior defenseman Joe Loprieno has left the program and has signed a deal with the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League, the Eagle-Tribune has learned.
Loprieno, who just completed his junior season, finishes his Merrimack career with 5g-8a–13pts totals in 88 career games. However, statistics were never indicative to what Loprieno brought to the ice.
Loprieno has served as one of Merrimack's captains the last two seasons
A bone-crunching defenseman in his own end, the 6-foot-3, 210-pounder has already reported to Worcester on an ATO for the rest of this season. It’s possible that the Illinois native might just practice with the Sharks’ AHL affiliate, having not seen game action since spraining his knee on Jan. 24 against UMass Lowell.
Loprieno attended the Sharks prospect development camp last summer.
“I haven’t had a lot of time to let it sink in yet,” Loprieno said. “They were in contact with me for most of the year after the camp. Even after I got hurt, they kept in contact with me. It’s a special feeling. When you’re a kid all you want to be is an NHL hockey player and to sign a deal with an NHL club is, well it’s a dream come true, really.”
Loprieno’s contract marks the second-straight season in which a Warrior has left the program for the NHL. Ironically, the deal reunites Loprieno with former classmate Matt Jones, who signed a deal with the Sharks last March after his sophomore season.
It also marks the second player from head coach Mark Dennehy’s first full recruiting class to sign an NHL contract.
Much like Jones’ contract, Loprieno’s will be an NHL two-way, meaning he could be assigned to play in Worcester, but the option of an NHL call up is always present.
I’ll have more on Loprieno’s signing in my “On Hockey” column in Sunday’s Eagle-Tribune.
Here’s one writers take on incoming freshman Stephane Da Costa. The writer is Kyle from illegalcurve.com.
On a more pleasant note, there were a few other players on the Sioux City team that stood out for better reasons. 2nd year forward Stephane Da Costa (hailing from Paris, France) displayed some sublime puck skills that were reminiscent of Francophone Rob Schremp. He doesn’t possess blazing speed or a willingness to battle hard for the puck, but when he gets it boy o’ boy is it entertaining. Passing seems to be his forte, and he mans the point on the powerplay where he very effectively dishes the puck to his teammates. Passes are virtually all tape to tape and his vision is excellent, as he seems able to anticipate teammates next moves. Da Costa is college bound next fall (Merrimack College) and he should continue to put up excellent numbers. If he is ever matched with a pure shooter, watch for him to really rack up the assists. Keep in mind that he is an ‘89 birthday and has been passed over in the draft once already. Don’t be surprised if this late bloomer finds his way onto an NHL roster one day.
Merrimack received a commitment from forward Rob Morton for the class of 2013.
Morton, a member of the Syracuse Stars (EJHL), finished the regular season as the EJHL goal-scoring champ, leading all snipers with 36 tallies. He finished the year with 63 points in 45 games (5th in the league). He also served as the Stars’ captain.
Along with John Heffernan and Mike Richard, he’ll be one of three EJHL’ers coming in next season. Current EJHL alums on the roster include Pat Bowen (New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs), Joe Cucci (Valley Jr. Warriors), Justin Bonitatibus (Walpole Stars), Pat Kimball (Junior Bruins), Ryan Flanigan (Baystate Breakers) and Jeff Velleca (New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs).
The New Hartford, N.Y. native will be added to the recruit tracker tonight (along with update stats for the others). My apologies for not getting that done on Monday, as per usual. Between being out of town for a few days and having jury duty yesterday, this is one of the first chances I’ve had to sit in front of a computer the last couple of days.
Morton will be will 21 years old when he starts as a freshman this fall. He started playing for Syracuse in 2006, totalling 66g-83a–149pts in 142 games played.
According to USHR.com, Ryan Bourque will forego his NCAA eligibility and scholarship and sign a contract with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL.
Bourque, who is the son of Hall of Famer Ray Bourque and younger brother of former Boston University forward Chris Bourque, committed to New Hampshire nearly a year and a half ago. He will play for Patrick Roy, Bourque’s teammate with the Colorado Avalanche, who is the GM and head coach the Remparts.
Sources are telling Sharkspage.com that Boston College defenseman Nick Petrecki, a 2007 first-round pick of the San Jose Sharks, has left BC to ink a deal with the NHL club.
The report indicates that Petrecki will likely report to Worcester (AHL) for the rest of the regular season, as long as he can finish his classes at BC.
Make the call for yourself, but someone finally posted a Youtube link to the botched call by the Hockey East officials during Saturday’s championship game.
In my view, it’s a goal. The net never came off and the whistle, clearly, blew after the puck went in. I waited on posting my view of the call until there was video online, so others who didn’t see it could make a decision for themselves.
The only argument that the officials have in this case is to say that the referee meant to blow the whistle, but couldn’t in time before the puck went in. That’s actually okay with me, because the way I understand the rules, it’s a judgment call. The official can say that he lost sight of the puck and meant to blow his whistle. If that’s the explanation, then fine, it is what it is.
But, the announcement made in the press box was that it was no goal because the whistle blew before the puck went in, which is clearly wrong.
The other thing that makes me scratch my head is that the official standing by the net never seemed to react to anything. He didn’t point and call it a goal, but he also didn’t waive it off, either. You would think that if he meant to blow his whistle, he would know about it, and instantly waive off the goal. That NEVER happened.
Of course, maybe he didn’t see the puck go in.
Another thing – the net was bobbing up and down. Despite that if never came off its moorings, if it lifts up the way it was, the net is still technically off. But we’ve see that a lot, with no whistle ever blown.
It’s a black eye that I’m sure the league wants to see disappear as quickly as possible. UML head coach Blaise MacDonald, when asked after the game if he thought the whistle blew before the goal, promptly answered, “No.”
He then followed up with, “We thought the puck went in before the whistle.”
He’s right, too.
After the game, Jeff Howe at Insidecollegehockey.com caught up with Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna, who said:
“I heard two things. I called the booth, and I heard the referee said he blew his whistle before it went over the line. There was never a question whether it went in or not. He blew the whistle first. The second thing, which is probably not as much of a factor, is the net did go up and down in the middle of the sequence. The rulebook has said even if it goes up and comes right back down on the pins, that’s the same as being off the net. That was almost like a second reason not to allow it. The real, specific reason was (referee) Timmy Benedetto said he blew the whistle. He lost sight of it, blew the whistle and replayed it. They didn’t have sound up there, so they watched him blow the whistle, they did a count and the puck clearly was not in the net at that point. So that was it.”
You make the call on your own.
But remember this play didn’t decide the championship. Lowell had plenty of other opportunities to bury a puck in the net and didn’t do it. It did change the landscape of the game, but it wasn’t as if the game was in OT.
Merrimack received a commitment from forward Rob Morton for the class of 2013.
Mike McMahon