Patrick McEachen, a defenseman from Stouffville, Ont., who originally gave a verbal commitment to play hockey at Maine, has decided to play at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.
"The last couple of years I kept in touch with the University of Maine and they said a lot of positive things," McEachen told the Georgina (Ontario) Advocate. "But late this season, they wanted me to delay my enrollment for a year by playing in the United States Hockey League and I didn't want to do that. It hit me like a ton of bricks when they did that. It's not what I wanted to do because I'm in my last year of high school and I wanted to go right into university."
McEachen did not return phone calls to the Press Herald.
Duffy, by the way, has a goal and three assists in three games with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.
***
This season has been abbreviated for Peter and Chris Ferraro, who played at Maine from 1992 to 1993 and now play for the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL.
Three Hockey East coaches - Vermont's Kevin Sneddon, Boston University's Jack Parker and Northeastern's Greg Cronin - are among the nine finalists for the Spencer Penrose Award, given annually to the top coach in Division I college hockey.
Also among the finalists: Keith Allain, Yale; Enrico Blasi, Miami of Ohio; Tom Serratore, Bemidji State; Dallas Ferguson, Alaska (Fairbanks); Dave Hakstol, North Dakota; Ryan Soderquist, Bentley.
Good-bye McEachen, don't let the door hit you on the way out. What's wrong with kids these days? If Coach Whitehead thinks you need an extra year, then you need an extra year. He is after all, a STAR maker. Ask Matt Duffy how fhe feels his game has grown after serving under the General...
Posted by KeepWhitehead April 1, 2009 08:50 AM
Boy you just don't get it.... name me one player he has made a star out of whom he recruited... Duffy is a good solid player but STAR he is not... the sifference is Shawn got the folks who were already stars... not the players no one else wanted.. they wanted to play for him... instead of Maine being their only choice...
Rachel is in her fifth year as a sports reporter at the Portland Press
Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. A former college soccer and softball player,
she covered sports at newspapers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado before
joining the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram staff in June of 2004.
Rachel takes over coverage of the University of Maine hockey team and was
introduced to Maine hockey as a seventh-grader in Annapolis, Maryland, after
reading a 1988 Sports Illustrated story about Shawn Walsh's impact on the
program. Nearly 20 years later, she still has the four-page article in her
possession.
She and her husband, Tommy (who also works for MaineToday Media, Inc.)
are avid sports fans who root for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh
Penguins and Kansas Jayhawks. After a year of marriage, their next step in
life is to find a bigger house!
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