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As Jon Gillies goes, so does Providence; adventures in student broadcasting

October 15, 2014, 12:58 PM ET [10 Comments]
Bob Herpen
NCAA Hockey Analyst • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Martin Brodeur’s predecessor Chris Terreri. Human roadblock Hal Gill. Unexpected 2006 Oilers playoff hero Fernando Pisani. Giant in the crease Jon Gillies.

What do these players have in common? Starring for the tiny Catholic university nestled to the North and West of the downtown area of Rhode Island’s capital city, Providence College.

Picked to finish first in Hockey East in a preseason poll ranking the 12 member schools, it will be a tall order in the notoriously stacked conference. The experts might have missed the fact that only five institutions have ever finished first in the regular season (Boston College, Boston University, New Hampshire, Maine and UMass-Lowell) over 30 years, or maybe they’ve decided to change their tunes and go for a bold prediction after years of promoting the usual suspects.

Since joining up as an original member in 1984, Providence has only finished as high as third twice (last season and 2000-01) in the regular season, and as recently as 2011-12 placed seventh in a 10-team field. They have also won just two postseason crowns, in 1985 and for the second and final time in 1996.

Thanks to a strong in-conference schedule which included regular-season champions Boston College, playoff winners UMass-Lowell as well as New Hampshire, Northeastern, Maine, Vermont and Notre Dame – all of whom completed their schedules at .500 or better, the Friars gained an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 13 years.

A program with no marketable stars amongst its skaters did an admirable job staying afloat. Five players hit double digits in goals, while 13 different players produced double digits in points. Ross Mauermann, the team leader in both categories (19G, 36 pts.), is back for his senior campaign (one of only four fourth-year players on the entire roster) and has been tabbed one of two club captains.

Boasting only three freshman joining the ranks (current leading goal-scorer Brian Pinho, along with defensemen Logan Day and Jake Walman), and nine juniors including Gillies, it appears that any rise to the top of the Hockey East standings might occur with another year of seasoning, but with BC, Maine, UNH and BU collectively going through a down cycle, a shot at the crown is not a pipe dream.

What is a pipe dream -- or who, to be more precise -- is the man charged with guarding the crease at Schneider Arena and points beyond. Gillies, a junior who will turn 21 in late January, is once again under the microscope to repeat his performances of the last two seasons.

The 6-foot-5, 215-pound presence in the crease grabbed the league by its lapels two years ago, going 17-12-6 with a 2.08 goals-against average and five shutouts, earning the program’s first-ever National Rookie of the Year as voted on by the Hockey Commissioner’s Association. The native of Portland, Maine was the backstop for Team USA’s Gold-medal winning squad in the 2013 World Juniors in Russia, and also garnered First-Team goaltender honors, All-Rookie team selection and First-Team All-Star mention along with being voted the cream of the crop of all rookies within Hockey East.

He backed it up last year by posting a 19-9-5 mark, 2.16 GAA and four whitewashes – including a 37-save clean slate in a 4-0 victory in the first round of the national tourney – Providence’s first since 1991 -- which eliminated 2013 runner-up Quinnipiac. Both years, his save percentage was a robust .931.

A third-round selection of the Calgary Flames in 2012, Gillies could make a go at the NHL with two more quality seasons under his belt. If the organization couldn’t find a suitable replacement for Miikka Kiprusoff without raiding the Anaheim Ducks for Jonas Hiller, it’s conceivable that he could bypass Adirondack altogether, leave Joni Ortio in his wake, and land directly in the Alberta prairies for a shot at pushing Hiller for the starting job.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be rough patches. Gillies opened the season last weekend in the Hockey East-Big Ten challenge by starting and splitting two games against Ohio State. In a 5-4 overtime loss last Friday, he gave up five goals on just 25 shots, a total Gillies only allowed once all of last year and exactly twice in his collegiate career. Thankfully, the next night he reversed course, and helped the Friars to a 2-1 overtime decision thanks to stopping 25-of-26 pucks.

He’ll have a chance to fully regain form coming this week, as the Friars are only scheduled to take on the USA’s Under-18 Development Team tomorrow. Next week, it’s a two-game set at North Dakota before the Hockey East schedule kicks in with a home-and-home against Boston University and then a similar pairing against Merrimack.

If at first you don't succeed, pretend nothing's wrong

Part one of a continuing series looking back 15 years at my adventures in broadcasting BC Eagles hockey takes me back to the very first time I was on air at student-run WZBC (Your home for Eagles ... dramatic pause ... hockey action!).

Friday night, October 15, 1999. The two-time defending Hockey East playoff champions welcomed a mid-level CCHA foe in the Bowling Green Falcons before two-thirds of a packed house at Conte Forum for the home and season opener.

Taking the lead on play-by-play was a kid one year below me, Ted Graboski, a native of Long Island who would go on to work for CBS Sports for a number of years before ditching the biz and becoming a history teacher in Manhattan. Despite having no prior experience with a broadcast except for engineering a couple basketball games at the end of the previous school year, senior privilege practically dictated our sports director –- also a junior who knew which way the wind blew in certain ways -- give me a prime spot in the first hockey-cast of the year.

Three weeks earlier, after a meeting of the entire sports department ended with 20 eager souls etching their signatures on lines slotted for basketball, football and hockey broadcasts, I blurted out to no one in particular that it was the first time in 3 years at Chestnut Hill that I left a room truly happy. From the opening minute of this game, though, I wish I could have channeled that positive emotion.

Ted and I must have gone through our introductions a half-dozen times in the first period alone, never getting through more than three minutes of banter before the disembodied voice of the producer back in the studio told us grimly through our 1980's-era headphones that the connection had died and no voices were heard in the ether.

It was one of those times the “rookie” might have known better. In the midst of the second or third aborted attempt, I made it a point to apologize to listeners for some technical difficulties. I was roundly criticized for doing so by the disembodied voice, but seriously -- even the most dead-headed of the hundreds of listeners who didn’t prefer WRKO’s professional presentation in favor of the lunatics who ran the asylum could tell something was up with repeated audio cut-outs.

I prepared all week, memorized both rosters, showered, shaved, put on nice, neat ironed clothing with a tie and suit jacket and now I’m standing in a puke-yellow concrete booth like a jackass when I could have been playing drunken Trivial Pursuit back in the dorm with my five suitemates.

Salvation finally arrived at the outset of the second period. Ted cranked up his best – and roughly sixth -- “Good evening everybody and welcome to the opening game of the 1999-2000 season for YOUR Boston College Eagles, who are taking on the Falcons of Bowling Green. Along with me is Bob Herpen, and we’re going to recap the first period highlights…” and the remainder of the game went off without a hitch.

BC won, 5-2, part of a season-opening 5-1-0 clip which showed that the upperclassmen were intent on keeping focused despite a surprise loss in the previous Spring’s NCAA semifinals. The rest of the journey and that of their fellow students tabbed to describe it, wouldn't be so easy.
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