In the fall of 2009, six freshmen joined a University of Vermont men’s hockey team coming off an NCAA Frozen Four season.
Saturday evening, the Catamounts will bid goodbye and good fortune to five players.
It’s not the same five players.
Back in 2009, the addition of a talented group of first-year players bode well for UVM and each made significant contributions to a season that ended with another NCAA berth.
Forward Sebastian Stalberg followed the path of his brother, Viktor, from Sweden to Gutterson Fieldhouse. He scored six goals and 19 points.
Another forward, Chris McCarthy, was a late de-commit from Boston College. He finished with six goals and 17 points.
From Ontario came forward David Pacan, whose seven goals were the most among UVM freshmen.
Another import from Sweden, Tobias Nilsson-Roos, chipped in with four goals and 10 points.
From across the lake came Plattsburgh’s Anders Franzon, a defenseman via Sweden and British Columbia. On a team loaded with veteran defensemen, he still contributed four assists.
Finally, there was forward Ben Albertson, the local boy from Williston who played only four games with a single assist.
Of those six, only half — Nilsson-Roos, Franzon and Albertson — will be honored at Senior Night, but they’ll be joined by two other Catamounts dressing for their final Gutterson game, fifth-year goaltender John Vazzano and North Dakota transfer/graduate student Brett Bruneteau.
Stalberg, like his brother, turn professional after his junior year; his scoring and all-around play would have been beneficial this season.
Nilsson-Roos, now recovering from his third hip surgery, was never the player he was before the injuries set in his freshman year.
Pacan never made it to his sophomore season; the university dismissed him for off-ice issues.
McCarthy, also beset by injuries, is completing his junior season of eligibility and hopefully from the Catamount perspective will return in the fall to lead an improved Vermont team.
Vazzano has been the proverbial third goalie, playing barely the equivalent of two games in four appearances over five seasons. His contributions as a reliable practice goalie alone made him valuable.
Bruneteau, who earned his bachelor’s degree from North Dakota in two years, has been a reliable energy player capable of scoring the occasional goal. Of late, he has centered a strong fourth line with Albertson and Jonathan Turk.
Franzon developed in a solid defenseman, one whose experience has been important to the development of UVM’s otherwise callow group of blueliners.
And then there’s Albertson.
For three years, he bounced in and out of the lineup, playing 41 games with four goals and four assists prior to this year. Even then, for much of this season, Albertson assisted the team by switching to defense when injuries left the Catamounts too thin there for practice.
“He’s just a great story,” UVM head coach Kevin Sneddon said of Albertson this week.
“He played a lot for us last year when we had a lot of injuries. He didn’t get the same opportunities early on (this year) but he was a guy who played defense for us in practice when we had injuries and would come out in the morning and work with one of the coaches just to learn how to skate backwards better,” Sneddon said. “He was willing to do whatever he could do to help the team even though it may have been the fact he was going to get better for practice purposes.
“Then we moved him back up front and all of a sudden we started to see a spark there. He was doing things the right way. He was playing his role, blocking shots, a big physical body, so we gave him some game time and he’s made it impossible for us to even think about having him out of the lineup right now, he’s been that good,” Sneddon said. “What a great story; he’s going to go on to med school. He’s such a great student-athlete here and a great ambassador of our program.”
Speaking of Albertson and Franzon, who attended the local media session as local boys, Sneddon said, “They’re two very, very bright student-athletes that maybe they play a little bit of hockey afterwards, maybe they don’t, but you’ve got a guy who’s an unbelievably intelligent engineer (Franzon) and another who’s going to be a doctor (Albertson).
“That makes me and all our of guys very proud that the Vermont program can produce not only great hockey players but they can also produce people that are going to give back to society in very positive manners.”
Though it will be their Senior Night against the Eagles, Saturday, these seniors hope and expect to pull on the Catamount uniform a few more times before they are truly done.
Correspondent Ted Ryan covers college hockey for The Free Press. Contact him at TedRyanVT@aol.com or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TedRyanVT
