Mahopac’s Santini Completes Successful Freshman Year at Boston College
By Warren Kozireski
Like most Boston College freshmen, Steve Santini walked on to campus last fall as an 18-year-old. But unlike most of his teammates on the college’s nationally recognized ice hockey team, Santini, a mainstay on the Eagles’ defensive corps this season, was anything but a traditional freshman.
Santini and Boston College captured the Hockey East regular season title, then defeated Denver and UMass-Lowell to win the NCAA Northeast Regional and advance to the Frozen Four last week at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia.
Although they dropped a 5-4 decision to Union College on Apr. 10 in the semifinal, Santini scored his third goal of the season on a low shot from the right point in the second period to tie the game 2-2.
“It’s obviously a dream to come here and play for a national championship, but being a freshman has been kind of crazy for the past week—it’s been special,” Santini said last Wednesday the day before the semifinal. “This is what I came here for.”
Santini, a Mahopac native, arrived at Boston College this season after spending last year with the U.S. National Development Team in Ann Arbor, Mich. where the rugged defenseman registered 15 points in 66 games with the Under-18 Team and six assists in 25 games in the United States Hockey League.
In his freshman season with the Eagles, the 6-foot-2, 207-pound defenseman, also registered eight assists in addition to the three goals while providing the team with rock solid defensive play. His performance was good enough to earn selection to Hockey East’s All-Rookie team.
Boston College Head Coach Jerry York said Santini was a key contributor, along with the team’s two other freshman defensemen, Scott Savage and Ian McCoshen, in helping the Eagles reach the Frozen Four.
“The maturity doesn’t reflect their age,” York said of Santini and his fellow first-year players. “I think all three are vital cogs in how we played this year. As I look at that group, you have to be very strong, in my opinion, to advance this far from the blue line back. I knew they were going to be good, but I wasn’t sure at this level this early in their careers.”
Santini impressed National Hockey League scouts enough for the New Jersey Devils to take him in the second round (42nd overall) in last summer’s NHL Entry Draft.
He is currently ranked the second best prospect in the Devils’ system and the 67th best in the NHL, according to The Hockey News Future Watch. But Santini is still learning the boundaries of his physical style of play as he was hit with a pair of two-game suspensions for illegal hits during the first half of the season.
“It was a tough adjustment at first, but I’m extremely happy with how the year has gone and I’ve accepted my role,” Santini said. “It’s like going up any level. I had some growing pains at the beginning of the year, but our coaches have been extremely helpful and have been patient with us.”
Santini scored his first collegiate goal in just his second game—Oct. 13 against RPI–and followed with his first assist on the game-winner versus Wisconsin five days later. Aside from the offensive production, he played his way onto the team’s top defensive pair with senior and San Jose Sharks draft pick Isaac MacLeod in mid-January against rival Boston University.
One of just two defensemen for the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, Santini led the Eagles in blocked shots and was a +27, tops among team blueliners.
Earlier this season he was one of three BC Eagles to be chosen for the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team that played in Malmo, Sweden—his fourth international experience—where he scored one goal in the five games.
Santini’s rise as a top prospect started in Brewster in the Empire Junior League before he moved to New York Apple Core in 2010-11 and two more years in Ann Arbor.
Since his father played for the University of Maine in the 1980s and owns and operates Brewster Ice Arena, Santini was introduced to the game at an early age. Now, he is pushing his dream forward one year at a time, but is still grounded beyond his years both on and off the ice.
With all of the distractions, pomp and circumstance surrounding the Frozen Four festivities, Santini still made time to pick up a puck at the end of warm-ups for the semifinal game and flip it to a youngster in the stands wearing a gold Boston College jersey.
How many traditional freshmen would have thought of that while on the big stage?
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
