After posting career-best point totals and earning recognition as New England’s best defensive forward, Mark Mullen won the ultimate honor from his teammates, being chosen as the captain of the Boston University hockey team for next season.
No alternate captains were announced at Saturday’s annual Friends of Hockey banquet.
Since arriving on Babcock Street via Dorchester, Boston College High School and the Des Moines Buccaneers of the U.S. Hockey League, Mullen’s college career has in many ways been a leadership lesson in improvement by example.
Never one to knock you over with his skill and size, Mullen was a healthy scratch for five games in the first half of his freshman year. But on Dec. 29 of that season, he got into the game at the Bank One Badger Showdown and wasn’t scratched for the rest of the season.
By early March, Mullen found the net with his first career score, and scored two points in the Hockey East quarterfinals, good enough to earn him the title of BU’s Most Improved Player.
Mullen continued to get better into his sophomore season. Playing in all 38 games, he spent the first two-thirds of the year on the third and fourth lines before swapping to the first line for the season-ending stretch and closing out with five points in his last six games to finish with 17 for the year.
This past season, the once-unheralded Mullen became noticed as a dominating defender, even as he carried BU’s offense for extended lengths of the early-going. Pesky on the penalty kill and frustrating as a forechecker, Mullen scored four shorthanded goals – which tied him for second in the country – among his 13. Combine those totals with 14 assists, and Mullen’s career-high 27 points placed him second on the team.
For his two-way efforts, Mullen was named Hockey East’s best defensive forward, and last week was given the same award for all of New England.
Mullen seemed the logical choice to assume the captaincy from senior Freddy Meyer, especially with Meyer and senior defensemen Mike Bussoli and John Cronin leaving BU’s blue-line future uncertain with their graduation
But with Mullen to help down low, and team Most Valuable Player Sean Fields in the crease, the Icedogs’ defense involves more than just defensemen. Fields’s honor ends a year of accolades for the to-be-senior, including three tournament MVP awards and an honorable mention as one of the best goalies in the league.
He started the Terriers’ final 29 games, finishing with a 2.49 goals against average and stopping 91.1 percent of the shots he faced. He played a team-record 2,435 minutes, making 1,035 saves and compiling a 24-13-3 record.
Bryan Miller will also be back to bolster BU defensively. Despite his status as a sophomore, Miller was awarded the Clifford P. Fitzgerald Scholarship, traditionally given to the “outstanding junior or senior defenseman.” He finished the season with a team-best plus-22, while his 18 assists were the second most on the team.
The Bennett McInnis Award for Spirit was given to co-winners for the second consecutive season, going to Meyer and fellow senior and outgoing assistant captain Brian Collins.
Head Coach Jack Parker said it would be tough to find an assistant captain who was better liked by his teammates than Collins, who finished his senior year with 25 points and his career with 99.
Meyer’s accomplishments are many, including first-team All-Hockey East and first-team All-New England. It was also announced Saturday that Meyer will soon be named BU’s Male Athlete of the Year.
The Most Improved Player Award went to Ryan Priem, a senior who went 63 games without a goal before entering the lineup in December and scoring three goals in two games. Parker said it was the first time in recent memory a senior was named the most improved, but called the award a testament to the energy and aggressiveness Priem took to the ice every night.
Not only was Frantisek Skladany the Icedogs’ leading scorer, but he was also the team’s best student. Given the Regina Eilberg Scholarship for the second consecutive season, Skladany has completed three years at BU without a semester grade point average below 2.6, and has thus avoided mandatory study hall sessions.
Ironically, the same player the Terriers picked to lead them was the one they thought was the most underappreciated for his efforts this season. Mullen didn’t necessarily agree with his being named the Albert Sidd Unsung Hero, but accepted his honor nonetheless.
“I’m the most-sung unsung hero in history,” he said Saturday.