Roy Leaves Legacy at Northeastern

Huskies' Magic Run Ends in Cincinnati

by Max Bultman/CHN Reporter

CINCINNATI  Kevin Roy’s last college shift passed by largely without incident, a few final trips down the ice in a game that had already been decided.

When he came off, Mike McMurtry gave his captain a pat on the head and another on the back, acknowledging the likely end of their time as teammates, and the certain end of their college careers.

North Dakota ousted Northeastern from the NCAA Tournament Friday afternoon by a score of 6-2, ending a run that had seen the Huskies go 20-1-2 in their last 23 games. And that’s the ending that had Roy most emotional in the Northeastern locker room after the game.

“It’s hard to take,” Roy said. “We felt like we did have a good run here, and it ends abruptly, but as a group we accomplished some really nice things this year. At the end of the day, we’ll take that. We didn’t have our best today, and they played well, so, it is what it is.”

In his first three seasons with the Huskies, Roy was remarkably consistent. He scored 17, 19 and 19 goals in his freshman, sophomore and junior years, respectively. But with an upper-body injury sidelining him for 12 games, his production dropped off in his final season.

He went on a bit of a scoring binge toward the end of the campaign, scoring all 10 of his goals after February 7, but for most of the year, his teammates say he took on more of a two-way role, which was what they needed out of him.

Against North Dakota on Friday, even Roy’s very best game likely wouldn’t have been enough. The Fighting Hawks got out to an early 3-1 lead in the first period and extended it to 5-1 in the second.

But in a year that saw the Huskies start 1-11-2 then race to win the Hockey East tournament, Roy, who isn’t always the most vocal leader, was determined not to let his team check out before the final horn.

“The whole time, when we started going down by two or three goals, he just said, ‘Guys, we started 1-11-2, we can come back from way more than this. This deficit isn’t even close to being 1-11-2,’” said McMurtry after the game.

Ultimately, though, the Fighting Hawks were too much for the Huskies to overcome, sending Roy and his team out on a low note.

After the game, with their season over, McMurtry reflected on what Roy has meant to the program.

“Everyone’s well aware of his talent, that goes noticed on the ice,” McMurtry said. “The best thing that I can say about him this year is that he came back into the lineup and went into a role that he’s maybe not as comfortable doing just because of how well the team was [doing].

"[He had to] play a little bit more defensively, and he did it with pride.”

McMurtry noted that Roy’s game is maximized when he can have the puck on his stick. But even for a player who was a Hobey Baker candidate in his sophomore and junior seasons and an All-American in 2015, that wasn’t what his team needed from him. So he took a back seat.

And even while there’s no doubt Northeastern could have used Kevin Roy the scorer on Friday, Roy said after the game his fondest memories won’t be his individual accolades or his scoring.

“It was a great four years,” Roy said. “My greatest pride is definitely what we did last weekend (winning Hockey East) at this program, way ahead of individual things.”

Part of that attitude could be traced back to his injury this season.

“It made him enjoy and miss hockey more,” Derick Roy said of his brother. “He wasn’t practicing, he was barely at the rink. He was just, like, secluded alone by himself. I think he just missed the locker room, he missed being part of the boys and he missed being out on that ice. So I think that kind of got him fired up when he came back. You saw the fire in his eyes was back.”

Derick understands as well as anyone what the end of his career means to his brother. But after the game, there was no grand gesture commemorating the conclusion.

Instead, it was understated, the same way Roy played his final season.

“Sometimes it just takes a look to understand each other,” Derick said. “That was more what it was today. It was just like a look and a little hug, a little ‘I love you, man.’

“It was one of those times where you look at your brother, and you just know there’s nothing to say in that moment.”