Mike Hewkin has become a regular on the Northeastern back line this season, and the freshman will get his first look and taste of the Beanpot tonight when the Huskies take on Harvard in the early show on Causeway Street.
"The guys have been telling me it's something I will never forget," said the 21-year-old, who grew up in St. Charles, Mo. "It will be an atmosphere, they've been telling me. I'm not sure what that means, really, but I'll be ready to soak it all up, I guess."
It has been a lean couple of Beanpot decades for the Huskies, who haven't held the trophy high since 1988 - the end of a run in which they won four times over nine years. But thanks to the likes of Hewkin and a couple of his pals from the St. Louis suburbs, including forwards Joe Vitale and Kyle Kraemer, NU this season has been more of a force in Hockey East. The Huskies, with only four first-night Beanpot victories since '88, are 12-8-3 this season and have a reasonable shot of facing either BU or BC in next Monday's championship final.
"I understand now what it takes to rebuild," said NU coach Greg Cronin, who took over the program in the summer of 2005, returning to the college game after seven years of coaching in the New York Islanders organization. "It's a lot of work, and there are times when you feel less of a coach than you are a manager."
The resurgence, which briefly had the Huskies ranked seventh among the country's Division 1 programs this season, in part traces directly to the Show Me State. In desperate need of players upon his arrival on Huntington Avenue, Cronin quickly made a series of calls to friends in the college community, asking for names of kids who might have an interest in being part of a revival show. It was June, months beyond when scholarships are routinely doled out, which left Cronin dealing mostly with kids who already had their hockey plans in place for the upcoming season.
Vitale, today the club's offensive leader, was one of those kids. He was all set to head back for a second season with his junior team, the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL.
"I had been talking to a few schools, including Maine and Colorado College," said Vitale. "I was really interested in both, but they were telling me, 'Joe, you're doing great, but . . .,' and you know, the truth is, I thought I needed more experience, too."
Enter Cronin, who inherited a program with a couple of soft roster spots, not to mention four guys who would report to training camp that fall still recovering from surgery to repair hockey-related injuries. While other schools were telling Vitale he would have to wait, Cronin was selling Huntington Avenue as Vitale's fast track to Division 1 hockey heaven. Want to play? Come to Boston, Cronin told Vitale.
Even then, Vitale had questions.
"You know, I really wasn't interested," said Vitale, who grew up just south of St. Louis, in Affton, Mo., nearby one of the area's top amateur programs, the Jr. Blues. "I didn't know the league . . . heck, I didn't even know Northeastern was in Boston."
Cronin persisted. Vitale listened. Finally, he figured there would be no harm in taking a look.
Cronin, by the way, likes to tell recruits that playing at NU, smack in the center of Boston, with the Red Sox around the corner and the Celtics just down the street, is like "playing at the Disneyland of colleges." Before he even landed, Vitale was feeling the pixie dust.
"Just flying in, and seeing that Boston skyline . . .," he recalled recently while sitting inside Matthews Arena, ". . . right away, I knew this could be something really cool."
With Vitale aboard, Cronin at least had a foothold on regenerating the NU program. But the turnaround was slow, and a bit painful, the Huskies going a lackluster 3-24-7 in 2005-06, Vitale's freshman season. Drafted by the Penguins (seventh round, 195th overall) only about a month after committing to NU, Vitale's freshman year was a lesson in channeling eagerness and passion into smart, efficient, productive hockey.
"In high school, [Vitale] was a football player first, and a hockey player second," said Cronin. "And, really, when he showed up here, he was like a football player on the ice the way he just ran people over. All energy, a great forechecker, always blocking shots . . . a consummate warrior, that kid, from day one. And now, in his third year, he's really one of the elite players in our league."
Former Bruin Tom Fitzgerald, now the Penguins' director of player development, is excited about Vitale's pro prospects. When the time comes for Vitale to leave NU, said Fitzgerald, he figures the 6-foot-1-inch, 200-pound Vitale should make a successful transition into the American Hockey League. How quickly he might advance to the NHL, noted Fitzgerald, will depend on how successfully he grasps the pro game.
"We like him a lot," said Fitzgerald. "Just a great, great kid, and he's made great strides at Northeastern."
Vitale also has served as somewhat of an adjunct recruiter to his home state. When Kraemer's name came up for consideration, Cronin turned to Vitale as a sounding board. The two had played together on the Jr. Blues, and each summer they worked out in suburban St. Louis.
Kraemer, though, was somewhat of a unique case, because he grew up playing roller hockey and didn't make the transition to the ice game until age 13. In that sense, he was a bit of a risky pick, given that the vast majority of Division 1 players take up ice hockey in earnest usually about the same time they were boarding a school bus for the first time.
"The first time I tried ice hockey, I couldn't even skate," said Kraemer. "My ankles were all turned in and everything. It was kind of embarrassing, to be honest."
Vitale vouched for Kraemer, all the while noting concern over his pal's unorthodox résumé, and Cronin kept Kraemer under consideration. While Cronin remained undecided, Kraemer accepted an offer to play for Northern Michigan, which, he recalled, didn't much please his potential coach on Huntington Avenue. But when Cronin finally came across with an offer, said Kraemer, it was fairly easy to decide between the towns.
"I sure don't regret decommitting," said Kraemer. "It came down to would I rather spend four years in Boston, or four years in Marquette, Mich., a town with one Taco Bell. Hmmmm . . ."
A year later, another of the Jr. Blues, Hewkin, also contracted the Hub bug. Like Kraemer, he also was a product of roller hockey, and that also caused Cronin and crew to take extra time to come to a decision. But Hewkin had Vitale and Kraemer in his corner, and in fairly shorter order, the third member of the Show Me State was on his way to the sprawling campus wedged between Fenway and the South End.
"It was great to have two guys here I could trust, right out of the gate," said Hewkin, who didn't dress for the first five games this season but since has become a fixture on the blue line. "When you're in a new place, it means a lot to have two guys who'll tell you the truth, and not just tell you what you want to hear."
Cronin will have the Show Me trio all in uniform tonight for the 5 p.m. show at TD Banknorth Garden. The Huskies have dipped a little over the last two weeks, but overall Cronin's program is on the rise, which should make recruiting a little easier, especially when he's telling kids around the Arch that he's holding their ticket to Disneyland.
"Having those three here helps both ways," said Cronin. "Now when we hear there's a kid in St. Louis who looks good, we think, 'Hey, we already have these kids here,' and that can help when you're talking to a kid. And there's kids back there watching them, too, and talking to them when they're home.
"It used to be all the kids were from New England, Minnesota, and Michigan. If you heard a kid was playing in California, St. Louis, or Dallas, you kinda chuckled, because it was a novelty."
Once was the time, those kids didn't know beans about the Beanpot.
"Now," said Cronin, "we're looking at a kid from Colorado, and another from California. For a Northeastern perspective, it's turned into a nice thing."
