By Owen Kitzan – Sports Editor 

For the first time in their history, the BU club hockey team will attend the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national tournament in Philadelphia, pursuing glory. Among the twenty teams invited to attend this year, Bishop’s ranked fifth, leaving them at the top of their respective group table for pool E. They will face off against teams from major American colleges: Liberty University, Clemson University and Vanderbilt University. The team will start their national tournament campaign in Philadelphia beginning on March 7, when the boys will load into a bus for the eight hour drive. 

Liberty, a school located in Virginia, finished sixth overall in the rankings, directly behind Bishop’s. With a student population of 110,000 students, their student body is approximately two-thirds of the population of Sherbrooke. They finished 13-5-0 on the year as a member of the Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League.

Following them are the Clemson Tigers, a team from South Carolina. The Tigers finished eleventh on the national scale. Their school is known for their standout Division 1 football program which is one the best in the nation, producing players such as recent first overall pick Trevor Lawrence. The Tigers played in the College Hockey South division this year, ending the year with a record of 14-11-1 through twenty-six games.

The final team matching up against BU in the pool is from Vanderbilt, a major Division 1 baseball team producing MLB talent, located in Tennessee. They were the last team to make the pool, coming in at sixteenth for their final ranking. Through twenty-six games, they ended up finishing at 9-17-0 to end the year. 

Bishop’s sits atop the pool with a record of 7-7-1 to finish the season. They are headlined by seven team members who were recently named as conference all-stars in the New England Independent Hockey Conference (NEIHC). Goaltender Andrew Delage, defensemen Keyan Hogan, Joe Aubert and Jack McGowan, as well as forwards Ryan Massicotte, Fred Nicolas and Cody Morton, were selected to represent Bishop’s and the NEIHC in the AAU all-star tournament. The tournament takes place from April 12-15 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. For Cody Morton, this will be a home game, as his family currently resides in Fort Lauderdale.

Schedules for the tournament as well as links to livestream the game for free will be released soon on the BU club hockey Instagram @buclubhockey, where fans can stay tuned in. 

Owen Kitzan is a member of the BU club hockey team.