By Warren Kozireski —
The Buffalo Regals and Jr. Sabres have sent dozens of players on to play various levels college hockey with two of those Army junior Zach Evancho (Derby) and Dartmouth sophomore Collin Rutherford (Tonawanda).
Evancho through 21 games was tied atop the Black Knights scoring chart with 18 points and was seeing probably too much ice time on both the power play and penalty kill while Rutherford was off to a slower start offensively after his six goal, eight assist freshman campaign. But he was getting his points when it mattered most with all but one coming against conference opponents.
The two crossed paths for two games during the 2014-15 season when the recently turned 21 year old Rutherford was called up for two games with the 23 year old Evancho seeing major minutes as almost a point-per-game player.
“He’s scored goals for us all year; little guy that plays big and can really shoot the puck and sees the ice really well,” Army head coach Brian Riley said.
At 5’8” and 165 lb. Evancho often gives up four to six inches and 20 pounds on some opponent forwards, but he often takes the hit to make a breakout pass or is feathering a pass tape to tape to an open teammate.
“I try to play as big as I can,” Evancho said in late December. “I don’t want to rely so much on skill because with the guys we play against it’s hard too, so I try to lay a little grittier, a little harder just because people don’t expect it from someone who is five-eight on a really good day.
“It’s the reason I’ve gotten this far in hockey, so I take ride in it.”
Evancho started his junior hockey career with the Jr. Sabres, jumped to the USHL in Youngstown for two years and came back to the Jr. Sabres for two more, the second where he served as team captain.
“When I left the Jr. Sabres I thought it was a good opportunity to play against top competition and it was a great organization and they treated me well. But I wasn’t getting the playing time…so I went back home and it really helped my career a lot just getting to play a lot and being a top guy on a team.
“Both organizations helped me to get where I am, but Jr. Sabres let me develop my game more and get more offensively skilled.”
His older brother Gavin played club hockey at the University of Buffalo.
“He’s the reason I got into hockey. We had a rink every winter; being in Buffalo it’s kind of natural and we would go out and skate as soon as we got home from school and then get the skates off, get in the car and go to hockey. The whole neighborhood played. It’s really been in our blood for years.
“I think it has to be the second born. We just have that drive that we want to be better than our big brother. It’s definitely pushed me to want to push past what he does, not out of jealousy, but because I want to be able to tell him I was better than him I guess.”
Rutherford played midget-minor hockey with the Regals before two full seasons in the Jr. Sabres organization followed by two more with as USHL Clark Cup champions with Tri-City and one year later helping Des Moines earn a playoff berth for the first time in a decade before heading to Dartmouth.
Hockey is in his family blood as well as his father played at Buffalo State.
“I started off (this season) pretty well, had a couple of points at the beginning and there’s been a switch in lines so it’s nice to get some chemistry with Matt Baker and Alex Jasiek. We’re jelling pretty well. We’re a smaller line, so we like to use our speed to our advantage.
“I’m trying to play to my strengths a little more, trying to get some more confidence.”
When he first made the decision to head to the USHL from the Jr. Sabres, he first was in Cedar Rapids where he was in the line-up sporadically.
“(In) Cedar Rapids I played one game out of eight, so they traded me to Tri-City and I got in the line-up a little more and tried to make a name for myself.”
A U-18 state championship with the Jr. Sabres, a USHL league championship and helping Dartmouth to the ECAC quarterfinals last season as a freshman, Rutherford is on the list of Buffalo-area alumni their teams consider good luck charms.
