There’s a special anniversary happening in Rhode Island this summer, and Kevin Rooney is excited to be a part of it.
Next week marks 10 years since Rooney’s Providence squad won the NCAA Division I national championship, claiming the national crown in front of a sold-out TD Garden in Boston with a comeback win over Boston University.
The plans are being made, the travel arrangements to follow, but Rooney is eager to reconnect with old teammates and re-live one of the best moments of his playing career.
“We just got the group chat fired up for the National Championship reunion this summer, so a lot of memories started to come up through that,” he recalled Friday. “The head coach there, Nate Leaman, does a great job with the alumni of keeping us in contact, keeping us up-to-date on the program.
“When he reached out to a few of us about setting it up, we were all really excited. We don’t have any set plans, we’re thinking about doing a golf day down in Rhode Island, and then a dinner with everyone and their families. It’ll be fun, for sure.”
The group features a few current NHLers: Rooney, Oilers defenceman Jake Walman and former Flame Mark Jankowski, to name a few. Winnipeg Jets forward Brandon Tanev scored the decider in the national final, a goal assisted on by Rooney.
Another former Flame - Jon Gillies - was named the tournament's most outstanding player.
But Rooney explained the Friars’ trip to the title game wasn’t an easy one.
“We were kinda the last seed into the tournament,” Rooney said. “We were hosting one of the regionals in Providence, so we were lucky to get a home game. Our first game was against Miami of Ohio - which was Blake Coleman’s team - but unfortunately he was suspended, so we got lucky there.
“The second game was against Denver, kinda just hung on and played a really defensive game. Then the Frozen Four was all in Boston, which was really cool, because we had a number of guys from Boston on the Providence team, so it was a lot of fun.”
Fast-forward to the final. B.U. took a 3-2 lead into the third period, but Providence stayed in the fight, and got a bounce in the final frame that set them on a course to the school’s first-ever national championship.
“We scored a really flukey goal to tie it up - from like the red line - we got a lot of momentum from that,” said Rooney. “A couple shifts later, had 'em hemmed in; they called a time out to rest their guys, we drew up a face-off play with me, Tanny and Steve McParland.
“He was able to come across fast - as he is - and bury it top corner. It was pretty cool.”
It was a goal - a moment - that sent Providence College and its 5,000-strong student body into an absolute frenzy.
"I remember after we won the last game, the school was going so crazy, they didn’t even want the team to go back to campus 'cause it was going that crazy," Rooney smiled. "It means so much to the students there, they take such great pride in the hockey team, the basketball team, all the sports."
This year’s Frozen Four tournament takes place next weekend in St. Louis. Boston University is there again, along with Western Michigan, Denver and Penn State.
The Nittany Lions are making their first appearance at the tournament, and they’re there thanks in part to the play of a Flames draftee.
Goaltender Arsenii Sergeev has - to put it mildly - been a brick wall over the second half of the college season. Since the end of January, he’s gone 11-3-1, posting win after win on this magical Penn State run to the national championship tournament.
Last weekend, he helped the Nittany Lions knock off Maine and his former school - UConn - to win the Allentown regional. Against the Huskies, Sergeev turned aside 42 shots to backstop his side to the biggest win in their school’s history.
They’re plucky underdogs - kind of like Rooney’s old Providence squad - and the Flames centreman has been keeping tabs on what Sergeev, a seventh-round pick by Calgary four years ago, has been up to.
“Weegs actually came to the rink the other day and talked about how well he played in the regional final game, it’s been nice keeping tabs on him,” Rooney said. “They kinda remind me of our Providence team. They were able to play close to home in the regional, and they beat a really good team in Maine in the first game - that was one of the top Hockey East schools.
“They’re definitely going to compete for it in the Frozen Four.”
It’s a single-elimination tournament. Beat B.U. on Thursday, and Penn State will have a crack at the same type of glory Rooney enjoyed back in 2015.
He’ll be watching, no doubt.
“What I would say is just to enjoy every moment,” Rooney said, when asked what advice he’d hand on to Sergeev. “There’s so many things that come up during the Frozen Four week, but just to stay in the moment and enjoy it, ‘cause it’s a lot of fun.
“It’s something (he’ll) remember forever.”
