By Warren Kozireski —
Connor Murphy played in all but 15 minutes as Northeastern’s top goaltender last season, one year after mentoring behind a senior as a freshman. But that didn’t stop him from transferring to Union College for this, his junior campaign. And just 55 miles from his backyard growing up.
Plus it more than influenced him being 14 years old when Union first made the Frozen Four final four in 2012 and 16 years old when they won the national championship in 2014.
“I knew the culture that they had here was great and I just felt that this was a great opportunity for me to be a part of it and obviously being so close to home was a huge bonus,” Murphy said over the last weekend of the regular season.
“It was really hard for me to say no when the opportunity came.”
Murphy stands fifth in the country in minutes played as this is written with 1,878 and is sporting a 2.68 goals against average and .918 save percentage for the Dutchmen, who swept their final two games and host a first round ECAC playoff series against Princeton.
Murphy spent one season with the Tri-Falls Rivermen in Glens Falls before two-plus years with the CP (Clifton Park) Dynamo. Then it was suitcase time with ten games in Springfield in the USPHL Premier, 2017-18 split between Topeka in the NAHL and the Jersey Hitmen in the NCDC before heading north of the border to Carleton Place in the CCHL.
“I was actually not committed (to Northeastern) until halfway through my last year of juniors when I was in Canada. I was kind of bouncing around through teams just trying to find the best fit.
“A couple of teams I was with before weren’t really too good of a fit for me, so I decided to go to a couple of other places.
“But in the end, I had actually visited Carleton Place and went to their camps the two years before going there and they told me they were really interested in having me, so I decided to give it a shot and it ended up being the best spot for me.
“It’s obviously tough going from team to team, but it was worth it in the end I found a spot that I was meant to be at.”
And playing well enough with Union that he has been named ECAC Goaltender of the Week twice this season. He stands ninth in Union history for saves in a single game with 51 Dec. 10 against Maine. Entering the post season, he was also second in the nation with 939 total saves this season.
And one of 28 goaltenders named to the Mike Ritcher Award Watch List, given to the nation’s top Division I goaltender each season.
“Honestly, it’s not really great to give up a lot of shots, but I think when we do, I can tell that my game is really on and I’m more into the game, so as much as I hate to say let’s give up a lot of shots, I do like to see a lot of shots rather than just a few here and there.”
But it’s not just about hockey, even at the Division I level. As much as players dream about continuing their playing careers in the pro ranks, there is the reality of what comes after hockey.
Murphy is choosing the Business route majoring in Economics while in Schenectady.
“When I as at Northeastern I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do, so I decided to go into general Business as a major and then I switched to Marketing after my freshman year. When I came here, I knew there wasn’t a full business school and there wasn’t a marketing major, so I picked the next best thing and went with Economics.
“I’m not too sure what the future is going to hold with that and I hope to kind of figure it out in the next year or two. Where I’m from there are a lot of really small businesses and I see a lot of successful people come from there and I know a few of them personally, so it’s something I would dream about doing and that was a huge factor in going the Business route instead of science or engineering.”
(Union College Men’s Hockey Photo)
