Winning, spelled M-E-Y-E-R

It sounds like some kind of royalty.

Frederick Augustus Meyer IV.

Not quite the name you’d envision the captain and (perhaps) soon-to-be all time penalty minutes leader in Boston University hockey history to be sporting.

‘Freddy’ works a little better in this sport.

Freddy Meyer, of tiny Sanbornville, N.H. has overcome a history of sin bin time to lead his BU team to a No. 2 Seed in the NCAA tournament.

But while the penalty minutes may jump at you, there’s much more to Meyer’s game. That much is apparent with his selection as a First Team All Hockey East blueliner, as well as finishing runner-up for the league’s Best Defensive Defenseman Award.

‘It was a surprise when I found out at the banquet,’ said Meyer of his First Team selection. ‘It’s a great honor to receive an award like that in such a dominating league with such powerful defensemen. [Finishing runner-up for the Best Defensive Defenseman] is something to be kind of proud of too. It fits into coach’s philosophy, defense first good defense leads to good offense.’

That simple mantra sums up Meyer’s game nicely. Always dependable going against opposing forwards, Meyer’s positioning is usually excellent, and he uses his anticipation to get to those loose pucks before attackers have a chance. His speed and anticipation helps him on the other end as well, as he leads BU defensemen in scoring with five goals and 16 assists despite missing five of the last six games after separating his left shoulder, including three of four games in the Hockey East playoffs.

Those absences hurt the Terrier captain, who struggled to adjust to his role as cheerleader.

‘I get more nervous watching than when I’m down on the bench,’ Meyer said. ‘It was a tough weekend being up in the stands just cheerleading and not being able to help out the guys.’

But the wing is healing, aided by an extra week of rest as the other conferences wrapped up their tournaments to finalize the field of 16. Meyer has been skating once again with his normal defense partner, sophomore Bryan Miller, and he is ready to get back on the ice as BU takes on Harvard University in first-round NCAA action on Friday at Worcester.

‘I’m definitely gonna play, one way or the other,’ Meyer said. ‘I’m starting to feel a lot better in practice. I’m starting to take some bumps. It seems to be getting stronger.’

And while BU’s depth means that Meyer’s absence isn’t catastrophic, his coach is glad to see his star getting healthy.

‘We’re dying to get him back because he’s so important to us in a lot of ways, not just because of his skill at his position,’ said BU coach Jack Parker. ‘You add up his skill and you add up what he does on the ice, it’s nice. You add up what he does away from the ice and how he is as a captain, he’s quite an important player.’

‘He’s our best defenseman best offensive defenseman, best defensive defenseman so his presence on the ice means a lot to us,’ said Meyer’s roommate and fellow senior, right wing John Sabo.

Sabo, an assistant captain for this year’s team, has been playing with Meyer for over 10 years at this point, so he has an understanding about the New Hampshire native’s intangibles more than most.

‘He’s got me and [fellow senior assistant captain Brian] Collins working with him, but it’s his presence, the way he conducts himself off the ice, on the ice,’ Sabo said. ‘He’s the leader. I’ve known Freddy since I was 10 years old, he’s always been a leader.

‘Some guys have it, some guys don’t and Freddy was born with it.’

Meyer was also born with an intense competitive streak, something that is made pretty clear by some of those 4.7 hours he’s spent in various college penalty boxes throughout his four years at BU, not to mention his uncalculated penalty minutes through years of juniors and high school and pee wees, and yeah, it could probably go on.

‘It’s been a problem in my game through juniors and here at BU, and it’s something I’ve been trying to work on. Some games it’ll go well and other games it doesn’t turn out as well as I’d like,’ Meyer said. ‘You’re over-competitive and you try to do too much and you end up taking a risk and you have to do something to get yourself back.’

Meyer now finds himself in pretty good company at the top of that penalty-minute list, as Jack O’Callahan, former BU captain and member of the 1980 Miracle On Ice gold medal-winning hockey team, is the guy (283 minutes) he stands to pass if he picks up a single measly infraction.

Unless the NCAA has instituted a one-minute penalty over the last week, it wouldn’t be a bad bet to wager on Meyer picking up that record-breaking penalty in his next contest.

‘We’ll see, don’t know how many games we have left hopefully I don’t but I’m sure it’ll probably happen,’ Meyer said with a little smile.

His coach isn’t worried about all of Meyer’s penalties, just his stupid ones. But Parker, wizened by his 30-year stint behind the BU bench, knows how to get an undisciplined player’s attention.

‘He plays real hard and he plays on the edge,’ Parker said. ‘I don’t care if he takes some penalties, I just thought he was taking some stupid penalties, and [the solution for] that was easy. Just bench him. The final convincer is always ice time.’

Meyer took that hit when Parker sat him against the University of Maine in November after Meyer got caught for a stupid slash behind the play in the previous game. However, Meyer hasn’t sat for penalties since then, and Parker has been happy with his captain’s improved discipline.

‘I got on his case about taking penalties but he’s stopped that completely and he showed everybody how that was done,’ Parker said.

And Meyer felt no small responsibility to do so, as he is the guy sporting the C that his teammates look to for leadership.

‘Especially being captain, I have more minutes than I wanted to have this year,’ Meyer admitted. ‘It was definitely a focus and one of my goals at the beginning of the year to stay out of the box so I could help the team on the ice.’

With all those penalty minutes comes a less than stellar on ice reputation in Hockey East, but Meyer doesn’t shy away from his role as a kind of villain to opposing fans.

‘I think it’s more of a motivation factor,’ he said. ‘It’s something that gets under your skin and makes you work even harder.’

And no one gives it to Meyer more than the fans of the home-state school he spurned to come to Boston, something he is all too aware of, and from the looks of it, a bit proud of. Meyer is even more proud of the support he gets from the inhabitants of his tiny hometown than of the grief he receives from the rest of the Granite State.

‘I’ve gotta thank those people sooner or later because of all the support they’ve given me throughout my career, especially at BU,’ Meyer said. ‘I think Sanbornville is the only town in Hew Hampshire that likes BU better than UNH.’

And it is clear from the reaction Meyer gets whenever he plays against New Hampshire’s favorite sons, that the rest of New Hampshire backs up that statement.

‘Not even playing [in the Hockey East championship], when they announced I wasn’t playing, the UNH fans all cheered and stuff,’ said a grinning Meyer.

His teammates don’t worry about that reputation though.

‘He’s kinda got a bad rep for a lot of penalties and being a hack around the league, but a lot of people don’t see what he does off the ice,’ Miller said. ‘He’s a real easy kid to get along with. He brings everyone together, and that’s helped a lot with chemistry this year. It’s a lot more of what goes on behind the scenes than what’s on the ice.’

Once the season ends, Meyer will look at his options in professional hockey. Undrafted, almost certainly due to his lack of size for a defenseman, Meyer will look to further his career any way possible.

‘I’m still trying to play it by ear,’ Meyer said. ‘I’m gonna wait till the season ends. My advisor is talking to a few teams, and we’ll see if something can unfold out of that. It’s kind of up in the air right now.’

But that’s for later; Meyer’s immediate focus involves getting BU back to the Promised Land for the first time since 1997.

‘I feel our team is playing the best it has since I’ve been here,’ Meyer said. ‘We’re really looking to make some noise here to win some games and get to the Final Four.

‘It would be a huge accomplishment for the team and a great thing to be able to leave your name on.’