By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff
There isn’t much Boston University men’s hockey sophomore David Warsofsky hasn’t done in the last eight months.
Pick up an assist to help boost his team to a national championship? Check.
Tally two assists and register a plus-5 rating in seven games as an assistant captain of a gold medal squad representing his country? Check.
Score a goal in one of the most unique hockey venues ever created –– one where his favorite baseball team has played since 1912?
How unique has Warsofsky’s run been?
“In a span of 13 months, Bill Russell won a second NCAA basketball championship, won a gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics and won the NBA championship in 13 months as a 21-year-old,” BU coach Jack Parker said when asked if he knew of any comparable runs to Warsofsky’s. “David’s was pretty good, but it wasn’t that good.”
Tuesday night, Warsofsky celebrated with teammates as the US U20 Juniors squad knocked off the Canadians in overtime to take the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Wednesday, BU held their first of two practice sessions at Fenway Park while Warsofsky was still in Canada. Warsofsky finally arrived back in Boston Thursday morning, and managed to wake himself up for the Terriers practice this morning at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.
Seven minutes into the first period, Warsofsky put the Terriers on the board. Working from the left wall, the defenseman skated to center point, where he launched a rocket into a screen set by senior Zach Cohen. Somewhere between Cohen’s 6-foot-3 frame and the dusty cloud of snow floating around the ice, Boston College goalie John Muse lost sight of the puck, which squirted behind him into the net.
“Before the game, we just wanted to get pucks to the net,” Warsofsky said. “From the point, it’s tough to see the puck in the snow. I kind of just walked the blue line and let it go and luckily it went in.”
To celebrate, Warsofsky lobbed himself an imaginary baseball and, with his best Jim Rice impersonation, knocked the invisible soft toss over the boards and towards Pesky Pole.
“We were coming up with stuff before the game,” Warsofsky said. “I actually have to give [junior goaltender Adam] Kraus some credit for that –– he came up with that one. Decided to give it a shot.
“I don’t know if the coaches were too happy about it.”
Parker said he did not see the celebration, but laughed when junior Nick Bonino re-enacted the swing in the post-game press conference.
“Hopefully they don’t see that on film either,” Warsofsky said when he found our Parker had missed the celebration.
Playing at Fenway Park was especially rewarding for Warsofsky, a Marshfield native who has cheered for the Red Sox and Bruins since he was young.
“It’s definitely special,” he said. “You grow up watching the Red Sox playing and then you see the Bruins playing, to have the opportunity to play in that venue is definitely a special opportunity.”
The eight-month run has been an amazing experience, Warsofsky said, but the chance to win in his country’s colors earlier this week might was almost certainly the highlight.
“It was an experience I’ve never had before,” Warsofsky said. “Going to the national championship, that’s all colleges, but to go to that stage with the rest of the world is definitely something I’ve never experienced and hopefully I’ll experience that again someday.”
Rewarding as the experience has been, Warsofsky is grateful to get a few days to stop and reflect.
“It was definitely a whirlwind of a couple weeks,” Warsofsky said. “Starting back all the way to April and winning the national championship –– everybody remembers that game –– and then going to Saskatoon to play for Team USA was definitely a special opportunity for me again. It was definitely an unbelievable feeling raising that gold.
“Then back here doing what we did tonight, hopefully I’ll take a couple days off if Coach lets me. Just kind of soak everything in. I haven’t even celebrated Christmas yet with my family, so I’ll go back and do that for a couple days. I’m going to go home and do that and just kind of reflect on everything that’s happened in the last couple months and soak it all in.”
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