Re: UNH Recruits - 2011 & 2012
Re: UNH Recruits - 2011 & 2012
My teenage son and I drove up the road to take in the Cushing Academy at Deerfield Academy game. While my feet may not thaw out for a couple of days, we enjoyed the prep school action. Cushing won 3-2 with a goal in the last minute. Overall impression is the boys like to skate up and down the ice without much backchecking and they like to throw their bodies at each other.
The best two-way player on the ice was 2014 recruit
Tyler Kelleher. He's a 5'6'', 153 lbs spark plug who just turned 16. He plays the off-wing - right-hander on the left wing - and is on the first powerplay and penalty kill units. He's so young it's impossible to tell how he will grow but right now he's built like Peter Leblanc with the speed (almost) and stride of Stevie Moses. Some of the bigger Cushing guys tried to push him around and he gave it back as good as he got it. It was hard to keep track of the scoring without any announcements but he definitely had 1 assist. He passes the puck well and has a quick shot. He's only a freshman and his hometown is Longmeadow - 20 minutes or so from the Deerfield campus. Who knows if he will stay at Deerfield for 4 years or leaves early for juniors. Either way, he will be an exciting player to watch when he makes it to the Whitt.
2011 recruit Eric Chevrier is Cushing's captain and a solid defenseman. He appears to have developed into more of a defensive defenseman. He plays on the penalty kill unit but not on the powerplay. Chevrier just turned 18 and at 5'10'' and 180 lbs., he looks like he's grown as much as he's going to. He was most noticable as a guy who liked to throw body checks.
A player to keep an eye on is Cushing forward Robbie Baillargeon, a 6'0", 175 lbs, lanky sophomore. He is Cushing's leading scorer with 13 goals and 22 assists in 15 games. He plays center and plays a bit like Jeff Silengo. He's very good in the high slot and around the top of the faceoff circle and handles the puck well through center ice. While he doesn't have blinding speed, he's fast.
What an enjoyable evening. One period I happened to be standing next to a guy who introduced himself as Dartmouth assistant coach Dave Peters - talking about current and past UNH and Dartmouth players and current and potential recruits. During the final period, a guy who happened to be the father of one of the Cushing players stood next to my son and I and we chatted about prep and college hockey. His son used to play with Eric Chevrier on the Toronto Marlies and he was down to watch his son for the weekend. To top it off, his son scored the winning goal.
