Hockey Community Prays for Goalie Exter

Sold-out rinks, fierce rivalries and rabid fans define New England college hockey.

But the events that unfolded last weekend at Boston College stripped all of that away, revealing a much more human and vulnerable side to the game.

Merrimack goaltender Joe Exter is still in serious condition at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with multiple skull fractures sustained in a collision with B.C. forward Patrick Eaves during the third period of Friday night’s Hockey East playoff game. According to a statement by the league late Wednesday afternoon, Exter has not regained consciousness since being hit. Exter’s family, friends and teammates are praying for his recovery—as are countless others Exter has never met.

Some of these people make up the area’s closely-knit college hockey community, which has once again put school colors aside to provide support in a time of need. Unfortunately, this has become an all too frequent occurrence in recent years.

In 1995, B.U. forward Travis Roy tragically ended his collegiate hockey career only 11 seconds after it started. Hitting the boards at an unusual angle, Roy broke his fourth cervical vertebra and has never regained full use of his arms and legs.

In 2001, former Harvard assistant coach and Boston University standout Mark Bavis perished in the Sept. 11 attacks. Later that month, Maine head coach Shawn Walsh lost his year-long battle with cancer.

Exter’s coach, Chris Serino, has also felt the united love of New England’s college hockey family after taking a leave of absence last year to treat throat cancer.

This week the college hockey community has done its best to help Exter, filling message boards on USCHO.com and the Merrimack College Web site with prayers, tributes, and words of encouragement.

“College hockey fans are some of the most loyal, most passionate people in the country,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “They have always been there for people when they need it. The human nature in you just comes out. People put themselves in their shoes. They think, ‘How would I react if that was one of our own?’ Then they realize that he is one of our own.”

“At Harvard, we don’t have that much contact with Merrimack hockey players,” said Harvard sophomore Dov Grumet-Morris. “But something like this has an affect on everyone. It’s proof positive of how small this community really is.”

Like Roy, Exter hurt himself on a relatively common play. Eaves skated into the Merrimack zone, chasing after a puck that had the potential to turn into a breakaway. Exter left the crease to stop Eaves’ progress.

“As a goalie, you’re taught to try to clear the puck off the boards, up the glass, and out,” said Mazzoleni, a former goaltender. “By the angle he took, you could see that was what he was trying to do. It’s just so tragic, what happened.

“How many games of hockey, on all levels, are played when that doesn’t happen?”

With Exter’s long-term prognosis unclear, those who knew him before the injury are left hoping that he comes out of it as the same person he always has been.

“Joe was extremely easy to talk to,” said Harvard sophomore defenseman Ryan Lannon, who met Exter last spring at a Cushing Academy alumni game. “You could tell in the first few minutes of conversation the type of character he possessed. I’ve only played with him on several occasions, but I feel like I know him very well.”

“We understand that, every night, we go out there and put our health on the line,” Grumet-Morris said. “[Exter] was in a really awkward position, because whenever goalies come out of their crease, they become very vulnerable. Our equipment isn’t designed for contact—it’s designed to take different types of stress from shots, instead of collisions from bodies. Every time we go out there, we’re taking a risk.”

Exter served as Merrimack’s captain—a rare honor for a goaltender—during this season, which ended when BC won game two of the quarterfinal series on Saturday night.

Exter, who led Hockey East with 736 saves, has been mentioned as a candidate for the league’s Player of the Year award.

Cards may be sent to Exter at the following address:

Hockey Office; c/o Joe Exter; Merrimack College; 315 Turnpike Street; North Andover, MA 01845.

Playoff Notes

The best-of-three ECAC quarterfinals begin this weekend, and, not surprisingly, everyone’s talking about defense.

“You’d better be good in goal this time of year,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “If your goalie’s not on his game, you’re not going anywhere.”

That said, two underdogs are still going places because of what their goaltenders did last weekend, and one—Vermont’s Shawn Conschafter—will be in Cambridge on Friday. He stopped 56 of 59 shots in a two-game sweep at Clarkson last weekend.

The other netminder who stood especially tall in the first round was Rensselaer’s Nathan Marsters, who made 66 saves in sweeping favored Union. His reward? A quarterfinal trip to meet Cornell, ranked No. 2 in the nation and the ECAC’s top seed.

Elsewhere, Colgate visits third-seeded Dartmouth, while Brown and Yale will meet in New Haven. The semi-finals in Albany, N.Y., on March 21 await each of the series’ four winners.

Cornell has the clear advantage in net, leaning on Ivy League Player of the Year Dave LeNeveu and his just-plain-unfair 1.16 goals against average and .943 save percentage.

Though not quite LeNeveu, Harvard sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris is not far behind. He boasts the nation’s second best save percentage (.929) and is fifth overall in goals against average (2.24).

“The old adage that defense wins championships is never more true than in the ECAC tournament,” said Yale coach Tim Taylor ’63, whose team will be challenged by Brown goaltender Yann Danis, an All-American last season. “Team defense and goaltending is going to be the key. If we play loosey-goosey hockey and don’t pay attention to defense, we can get victimized.”

—Staff writer Jon P. Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.