It should come as no surprise that going forward Bobby Trivigno shot the winner Friday night for sending UMass back to the Hockey East championship game. It’s been a whole week like the seniors’ heads, which has been a remarkable career with the Minutemen. On Tuesday he was named the Hockey East Player of the Year Cale Makar (2019) to become the second UMass player to win the award.
On Wednesday, he was listed as a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. The athletics department has spent little time jumping into a marketing campaign. Three years ago, it came out with the slogan “Hobey needs more Cale”, distributing buttons with the phrase to media members. This time, the slogan is “Bobby T for Hobey B”, with the phrase, along with a caricature of Trivigno on buttons and T-shirts in TD Garden.
Trivigno is certainly a worthy candidate. He was named Tournament MVP after scoring the goal and helping the winner in the UMass 2-1 overtime victory over UConn in Saturday night’s championship game, and is tied for second in the nation with 48 points (20 goals, 28 assists) .
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UMass Coach Greg Carvel talked about Trivigno’s progress in his four years at Amherst.
“For kids to develop, they need to be coached and pushed and challenged,” Carvel said. “Bobby grew up that way, so coming here was not much of an adjustment for him. We’re loud and hard on all our players, we push them, but they all grew up differently, but Bobby was raised in a way that everyone Once you challenged him, he took it personally and he proved you wrong.That’s all he did all his life is to prove everyone wrong.
Trivigno and his UMass teammates will find out where they are heading for the NCAA Tournament when the pairing is announced on ESPNU on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
Meanwhile honor
It was a great moment between semifinal competitions Friday night when former Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna presented longtime associate commissioner Kathy Wynters with the Hockey East Founders Medal.
The award had come a long time ago, with Bertagna announcing that Wynters would be honored at the Hockey East Championships this season in February 2020. But the tournament was canceled while the 2021 edition was held on campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Bertagna and Wynters have resigned their roles with Hockey East after the 2019-2020 season.
After graduating from Providence College in 1982, Wynters worked with the former PC athletic director, and then Hockey East commissioner, Lou Lamoriello at the start of the conference in 1983 and coordinated the first three Hockey East Championship tournaments.
She would work her way up to associate commissioner, as event manager for 29 men’s Hockey East Championships and 18 women’s Hockey East Championships, 20 women’s Beanpot tournaments, and special events such as the Frozen Four, Frozen Fenway, and the Belfast Friendship Four internationally. Events.
One of the things she’s most proud of is the Skating Strides Against Breast Cancer Initiative. After 14 seasons, the Skating Strides program has raised nearly $ 400,000 for breast cancer initiatives.
“I had a great 30-year career. I worked with some of the best minds in the business as far as I was concerned,” Wynters said. “Lou Lamoriello and Joe Bertagna were my two mentors. You do not get much better than the two. It was a great run. “
Garden was rocking
A number of factors suggest that attendance for the championship weekend may be low. All four competition schools were on spring break; Regional are next weekend, with hopeful fans perhaps waiting to see if their school would be played in Worcester or Albany, NY; and the Frozen Four, which is almost sold out, will be in TD Garden in three weeks.
But Friday night’s semifinals drew 13,106 fans, with the evening’s second game between UMass and UMass Lowell attracting a particularly boisterous crowd.
“The atmosphere was great,” said UMass Lowell coach Norm Bazin. “These guys play all year round to play in an atmosphere like this. The place is excellent. It’s exciting, and we were thrilled to be a part of it.
Saturday night’s final drew 12,049 fans for a total of 25,155 two nights.
Follow Andrew Mahoney on Twitter @GlobeMahoney.
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