The play looked like a goal the moment it developed.
Sophomore defenseman Martin Nolet of the Massachusetts hockey team turned up-ice before spotting a teammate streaking through the neutral zone uncovered. Nolet made the 55-foot pass from face-off circle to red line. His teammate accepted the pass in stride with one thing on his mind – score.
The shot, a slap shot just inside the blue line on the left side, blistered through the air and over the shoulder of the opposing goaltender before tucking itself under the crossbar and rattling around the cage.
At the time, the goal gave UMass a 1-0 lead over Northeastern. But it also signaled the start of two resurgences. Firstly, UMass’s rise back into the Hockey East playoff picture and, secondly, that of junior Alex Berry – a 6-foot-2-inch winger from Danvers with a rare combination of size, skill and tenacity. It was that which attracted UMass coach Don Cahoon and his assistants to Berry in 2004 when he was 19-years-old dominating the Eastern Junior Hockey League with the Boston Junior Bruins.
Alex spent two seasons with the Junior Bruins before committing to UMass. Initially, UMass was not on his radar screen, but after both sides made contact and Alex came to a game in Amherst, his decision was easy.
“I hadn’t really given UMass much thought until I came here and I saw the kind of passion and commitment to winning that coach Cahoon and his staff had,” he says. “I came back for my official visit and just fell in love with the school and the atmosphere. I came to a few games and it felt like a great fit for me. It was a place trying to build a tradition in Hockey East, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
UMass’s run to the quarterfinals of the 2007 NCAA Tournament marked the first big step in the building process. But while Alex played his part in the team’s run to the NCAA Regionals, it wasn’t to the extent he may have anticipated. A tough freshman season in 2005-06 became a mediocre sophomore year. And in 2007-08 with his team off to the best start program history, Berry still hadn’t found his rhythm.
The Minutemen fell from No. 5 in the USCO/CSTV Division I Men’s Poll and the top of Hockey East to the verge of elimination until defeating Merrimack, 4-2, last Saturday night in North Andover to clinch a spot in this weekend’s Hockey East Tournament. UMass closed the season on a three-game winning streak after going 2-11-1 in the 14 games between the No. 5 ranking and the 5-1 win over Boston University that started the winning streak.
Since Berry scored that goal on Feb. 16 he has found the scoring touch that eluded his grasp during the first two-and-a-half years of his career with the Minutemen.
For Berry, UMass coach Don Cahoon and his teammates it just doesn’t make sense why it took as long as it did – how a player blessed with such natural ability could become a mere footnote on a team quickly becoming a power in college hockey?
Oftentimes, players can’t explain their struggles nor can they articulate their success. In Alex’s case, perhaps his emergence correlates with the success of the line he’s played on for three weeks with center Cory Quirk and winger James Marcou. But for Berry it all reverts back to the level of confidence he’s gained since firing that shot over Northeastern goaltender Brad Thiessen’s right shoulder 26 days ago.
Losing it
The summer of 2005 represented a major turning point in Alex’s hockey career. Not only was he beginning his time at a Division I hockey program in the fall, but he received even better news in early June.
After recording 52 points and rating at a plus-17 in his second season with the Junior Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs selected him in the fifth round of the NHL Entry Draft.
“Coming into the draft, I didn’t really know where I was going to go,” Alex says. “To find out I was drafted by Toronto in the fifth round was just one of the greatest days of my life and hockey career; getting picked by an Original Six team.”
When Alex arrived in Amherst, and his first season with UMass began, he failed to replicate the success he enjoyed at lower levels of hockey. As is the case with most young players, adjusting to the higher rate of failure was no easy task. But the alterations Alex needed to make were not on the ice.
“When Alex got here, he thought the transition was going to be a lot easier,” Cahoon says. “He didn’t realize how mature the players were, how strong they were, how well conditioned they were and the conviction they played with. That first year was a learning experience for him.”
Alex played on different lines during that first month but couldn’t get into a rhythm with any of the combinations. With his confidence floundering more and more through each scoreless game, Alex’s mindset took the ultimate blow.
“It was the ninth game of the season against Northeastern, and I was going into the boards to finish my check,” Alex recalls. “I came down on my knee wrong and tore my MCL; I was out for about six weeks. It was really frustrating. I was finally getting into the groove of college hockey.”
The injury forced Alex to cope with different frustrations early but never imagined they would build on each other so quickly. It wasn’t until the middle of February that Alex fully recovered from the injury. He scored the first goal of his career at the end of the month, a 4-2 win over Northeastern on Senior Night. Even with the goal, however, Alex fell short of his personal expectations and didn’t always find himself in the lineup from night-to-night, damaging his confidence further.
Finding it
He tried to move on during his sophomore season, and believed himself to be making progress within the UMass system. The off-the-ice preparations he needed to undertake became part of the routine, and he felt healthy when the season began.
So when the MCL became a problem again at the beginning of his sophomore season, his body responded and healed much faster than it did the first time around. By the time Alex returned to the lineup, it was evident that Cahoon and his staff had built something special. For the first time since he came to Amherst, Alex became the offensive weapon he hoped to be when he signed with the Minutemen,
UMass’s run to the NCAA Tournament ended with a 3-1 loss to Maine in the quarterfinals. It wasn’t easy for Alex and his teammates to deal with the loss, but the steps they took as a program represented everything Alex came to UMass to be a part of.
Midway through 2007-08, Berry scored UMass’s first goal while down 2-0 to Colorado College, leading a comeback that resulted in the program’s first-ever tournament championship. With the Lightning College Hockey Classic Championship trophy in tow, the second half of the season began with UMass in the race for a Hockey East Championship and ranked fifth in the country.
The losing streak that followed baffled everyone involved with the Minutemen, and UMass stood on the verge of elimination and a huge step back from the progress of 2006-07.
But all of it ended with a slap shot. The shot Alex took, one night in Amherst against Northeastern.
He scored another goal later in the game and hasn’t stopped since. It’s been seven games since then and Alex’s six goals in that span secured UMass’s spot in Hockey East’s postseason.
“It’s just starting to click for me. I’m playing my best hockey right now. I’m shooting the puck, getting the puck in some great spots. Shots are going in for me. I have so much confidence going for me right now. It’s so much easier to play when you’re confident,” Alex says. “In the middle of the season, I wasn’t really scoring and my confidence just wasn’t there so I was pressing a little bit. But, you get a couple of goals and the confidence builds and builds.”
Keeping it
The Minutemen will leave Amherst Friday morning for Durham, N.H., and a date with the No. 1 seed in the Hockey East Tournament, New Hamp
shire. They’re certainly not the favorite but they believe they’re more than capable of upsetting the Wildcats.
Situations like this are nothing new to Alex and his teammates. The dismal record that was their January and February turned into a 3-0 mark so far in March. There’s nothing in Alex’s head second-guessing a decision he makes in the game or during practice. He’s worked himself into a good place right now. He knows his job and where he fits it with the Minutemen. The adjustment he had to make was more mental than anything, developing sound habits, executing his assignments on the ice and playing like the physical presence Cahoon brought him here to be. And for the first time in his career, Alex is completely confident. He knows he will score if the situation presents itself, and he knows his teammates will do the same.
“I’m trying to do what ever I can to get our team going in the right direction. It came down to the last game, but we’re in the playoffs now,” Alex says. “Anything I can do to help my team, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m in a position on a good line, maybe seeing some time on special teams. But I’m focusing on the playoffs right now and going up to UNH and getting a win with my boys.”
Joe Meloni can be reached at [email protected]
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