Jan 25, 2006
By MIKE LOFTUS
The Patriot Ledger
BRIDGEWATER - Brendan O'Brien looked high, low, and for a long time.
Turns out the perfect place for him to continue his hockey career was a 15- to 20-minute drive from his home in Braintree.
A talented center whose hopes of attracting offers from New England's name'' hockey programs were derailed by injuries, O'Brien decided last fall it was time to get to school, and to play.
Stonehill College has all the time he wants.
You can't put a price tag on what Brendan's doing right now,'' said Skyhawks coach Scott Harlow. He's getting a great education, he's playing probably 30 minutes a game, he's making friends he'll have for the rest of his life.''
O'Brien, a freshman, is also making an immediate impact. His assist in last night's 6-4 victory over Wentworth at Bridgewater Ice Arena was his 22nd point in 13 games. That puts O'Brien atop Stonehill's scoring list, inside the Top 10 among ECAC Northeast players, and perhaps on the path to threatening some school records.
I've had some pretty good offensive players here at Stonehill - guys like Rob Pascale (160 career points) and Brendan Flemming (135),'' said Harlow, who enjoyed a six-year minor-league career after starring at Boston College through 1985-86, but (O'Brien) is by far the best offensive player I've had here in six years.''
O'Brien probably felt at times like it took six years to begin his college career, but it was really only two.
It's actually a long story,'' he said. And I still ended up coming here late.''
The abridged version: O'Brien went from Xaverian Brothers High School to Deerfield Academy, but a groin injury there prevented him from playing his best, so he put off school for one more year. He joined the Eastern Junior Hockey League's Walpole Stars last season, and promptly suffered a shoulder injury that cost him three months.
Right now, all I'm hoping for is a healthy season,'' he said.
Well, not really. O'Brien (4 goals, 18 assists) expects to continue to score consistently, and hopes that helps Stonehill post its first winning season since 2001-2002.
I've never really played on a losing team,'' he said.
Last night's victory means O'Brien, at least for the moment, can continue to make that claim. The Skyhawks, 8-15-0 overall last year, have won four in a row and five of their last six to improve to 7-6-0 this season, and they're within a game of .500 (4-5-0) in ECAC Northeast play.
(With only seven Division 2 hockey programs in the nation - six play in New England, one in Minnesota - the NCAA doesn't hold a national Div. 2 championship. Stonehill spends most of the season competing against Div. 3 teams from the ECAC Northeast, and has five games against schools from the Div. 2 Northeast-10 conference, which does stage a championship playoff.)
We're on a nice little roll,'' said O'Brien, and we've got to keep it going. We have the capability to win any game we play. We struggled a little bit at the start of the year, when we were trying to develop some chemistry together, but we've started to pick it up and play better as a team.''
It was clear from his four-assist debut on Nov. 12 at St. Michael's that O'Brien had the potential to be the team's offensive leader, but that was followed by three straight scoreless outings. O'Brien has since scored at least a point in eight of nine games, resulting in five selections as Northeast-10 Freshman of the Week, and one nod as Player of the Week.
We ended up switching the lines after a couple games, because the whole team went into a little slump. Nobody was scoring,'' O'Brien said. Going three games without a point was a little tough for me, but after that things took off again.''
Harlow placed senior Brian Dudley, a 6-foot, 188-pound banger, and sophomore Brian Lewis (one of my hardest-working players'') on O'Brien's wings so that the newcomer could make the best use of his best assets - skating and instinct.
Brendan's physical when it comes to being willing to play in traffic,'' Harlow said, but those other guys buy him room.''
O'Brien uses any space and time he can get to make plays.
He's very smooth, very efficient with his stride, but he's very explosive,'' said Garry Hebert, a noted skating instructor and now an assistant coach at Stonehill. He makes opponents miss him, and his instincts are to create plays all over the ice.''
Sometimes Harlow wishes O'Brien would complete some of those creations himself (He's really too unselfish ... he hardly ever shoots''), but the coach isn't about to ask O'Brien to change.
He pretty much does whatever he wants out there offensively,'' Harlow said. For us to get a kid like that is a steal and a half.''
O'Brien thinks he got a pretty good deal, too.
I love the guys on the team, the coaches are great, and the school's great,'' he said. I'm really enjoying it.''
