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Boston College ready to roll with full roster back from World Juniors

January 6, 2021, 3:52 PM ET [0 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
College Hockey Spotlight • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Head coach Jerry York and the rest of the Boston College Eagles were very much invested in Tuesday’s World Juniors gold medal game between Canada and the United States.

Current Eagles Spencer Knight, Drew Helleson and Matthew Boldy represented the United States while Alex Newhook represented Canada.

“I wanted all four to play at their maximum ability,” said York. “I’m a US citizen, grew up in Boston, I certainly favor the United States, but I wanted Alex to play very, very well. Two terrific clubs, just entertaining to watch. I more sat back and enjoyed the theatre then really rooted that hard for a team.”

The American’s gold medal victory was unexpected to some, but York has seen firsthand what Knight can do in goal for a team and how with him between the pipes, no goal is out of reach.

“We’ve watched it now for a year and a half, he’s a terrific goaltender and an unbelievable competitor. He’s fun to watch and nothing we haven’t seen in Hockey East over the last year and a half,” said York. “Great accolades coming from a lot of different people. I know his teammates appreciated what he brought to them [in Edmonton], now they’ll root against him once he starts playing these teams again.”

The Eagles are scheduled for a pair of games Friday and Saturday against New Hampshire. To expedite the quarantine process of the players returning from Edmonton, the school sent a private charter to Edmonton to bring the four Eagles back to Boston.

“We were fortunate enough to send a private plane out this morning which picked them up in Edmonton and they’ll land here in Bedford. That will let them go through the COVID sequence and they’ll able to play both Friday and Saturday night,” said York.

“If they went through commercial airlines, with COVID, they would not be able to play. We didn’t want our players subjected—they’ve been in quarantine, or lockdown, and we didn’t want to put them into major metropolitan airports.”

The Eagles haven’t played since Dec. 12, pausing their season for the holiday break. Through six games the Eagles have been one of the better teams in the country, winning five of six games to start, doing all of this without Alex Newhook who left Boston for Canada’s World Junior camp in early December.

Having so many talented players over the years, York has gotten accustomed to sending players to different parts of the world to represent their respective countries each December for the annual World Juniors tournament.

“If we have an opportunity for our players to play at that level, represent their country whether it’s Finland like we’ve had in the past, Canada or the United States we push up players, we hope they get selected and the consequences are it effects your team for sure, your present team,” said York. “But in the long run, it’s something our kids dream about.

York will sit down with the four returning players in the coming days to see where they are at both mentally and physically. But York expects that if they’re cleared to go for Friday, they’ll be in the lineup.
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