By Warren Kozireski —
National Hockey League fifth round draft picks don’t often make it to the NHL, but don’t count out West Seneca native and soon-to-be Harvard alum Sean Malone.
Buffalo selected him with the 159th pick overall one round after they took Notre Dame goaltender Cal Petersen.
He might fall under the radar for some, but a look under the hood might tell a different story.
He and his eight senior classmates led Harvard to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1994 and just the 13th time in program history. There they lost in heartbreaking fashion on a redirection with just 27 seconds remaining in regulation in a tie game.
“I went through a lot to get here and battled a lot of adversity (including two hip surgeries), so it feels good to make it this far,” Malone said just moments after the crushing defeat.
“Absolutely. I think I have some pride for making it this far, but we set out one major goal at the start of the year to win a national championship and to come this close is kind of heartbreaking.
“I thought we played pretty well for the most part and in a single-game elimination like that it’s just a matter of bounces. We hit two crossbars at the end there which could have easily gone in and we had a goal disallowed which many people disagree with, but that’s hockey.”
The 6’0” 190 lb. center finished third on the team in points (42) and goals (18) while tying for the team-lead with 12 multi-point games.
One of 23 finalists for the Walter Brown Award, which honors the best-American-born college hockey player in New England, Malone finished his four-year Crimson career with 99 points over 115 games.
He also knows how to show up on the big stage as he racked up six points over a two-game ECAC quarterfinal sweep.
Malone also brings penalty killing and faceoff skills to the table as Harvard’s go-to forward heading into the final four with a .587 winning percentage while taking over 500 draws. More proof of his ability to perform under pressure is winning ten of 17 face-offs in the national semi-final loss to Minnesota-Duluth.
His journey started with the Nichols School before he jumped to the U.S. National Development Program for one campaign prior to starting at Harvard.
Now that his college playing career is over, he hopefully moves on to play professionally. Injuries have kept him from fully participating in the Sabres summer development camps, so even he has questions about how he will measure up.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Malone said. “I’ll talk with our family adviser and we’ll make a decision. I think I’m ready and I’ve definitely put in the work to be ready, so it’s exciting and I can’t wait for it.”
