University of New Hampshire Athletics
Trevor and James van Riemsdyk will be signing autographs on Saturday night.
BVR: The First Family of Wildcat Hockey
1/28/2017 12:53:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey, UNH Insider
Two of them sat in a Whittemore Center suite on Friday night and watched the UNH men's hockey team battle Providence College on the Towse Rink ice below.
The third took his regular shift on an all-freshman line that has emerged as a key piece of the Wildcat fortunes.
They are the Brothers van Riemsdyk – BVR if you will – and they are the First Family of UNH men's hockey.
James and Trevor, who have been piling up memories in the National Hockey League since their days of playing in the Whittemore Center, watched as their younger brother Brendan skated below, playing left wing on a line with center Liam Blackburn and Patrick Grasso.
The van Riemsdyks delivered their share of memories to the Whittemore Center and Wildcat hockey.
Saturday night James and Trevor will be center stage at the Whitt for a UNH-Providence rematch that begins at 7 p.m. and will be carried on ESPN3.
They will be signing autographs from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. on the concourse as one of the featured attractions on Family Hockey Night in the arena for another high-profile and crucial Hockey East clash.
A free 8x10 poster of James and Trevor will be handed out for signing.
A limited number of tickets are available for the game and may be obtained by CLICKING HERE, by calling 603-862-4000 or at the Whittemore Center Box office.
The night also includes UNH's first "Shirt Off Your Back Night" during which jerseys will be auctioned off during a silent auction during the game. Pom hats will be given away to the first 1,500 fans, every fan gets a shaker stick and a balloon artist will provide entertainment.
Pictures of James and Trevor in their NHL jerseys hang in the downstairs hallway in the arena just outside the UNH locker room, alongside the photos of 44 other former Wildcats who have made it to the top of the professional hockey world.
This weekend, with the NHL on its All Star break, the professional van Riemsdyk's are getting a chance to relive come college memories and renew acquaintances with the bonus of watching their brother play.
"It's great to be able to come back for a weekend like this and see two games," James said. "It brings back a lot of great memories. You kind of walk down memory lane a little bit, too. I really enjoyed my time here and coming back here is great. Just being able to soak it all in again is nice."
Trevor drove down from Chicago to watch UNH play a game at Notre Dame last weekend.
"But to be back in the Whitt is a whole other thing," Trevor said. "It's definitely really special, brings back a lot of great memories."
James and Trevor and two of the most decorated former Wildcats.
James, a forward, played three seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers and is in his fifth season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has played in nearly 500 NHL games – he's seven away from that milestone – and has scored 153 goals and has 163 assists for 316 career points.
Trevor is in just his third season as a Chicago Blackhawk defenseman, but already has his name on the Stanley Cup. He returned from injury to play what he calls a "small, small role" in the Cup finals his rookie year.
Both played a role in some of UNH's greatest moments on ice in the past decade.
James played his second and final season as a Wildcat in 2008-09 before leaving for the Flyers.
Late that March, in most dramatic fashion, the Wildcats came from behind to knock off North Dakota, 6-5, in their first game in the Northeast Regional at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.
UNH trailed 5-3 with nine minutes left in the game and still was down a goal with 5.7 seconds to play when it earned a faceoff in the North Dakota end. Center Thomas Fortney scored with .1 second remaining to tie the game.
The Wildcats won 6-5 when Peter Leblanc scored 45 seconds into overtime.
"That was pretty cool," James said. "That was a wild game. It was one of those things where you play a game like that 100 times and probably 99 times it won't end in your favor like that. But it was a cool thing to be a part of."
The Wildcats then fell to eventual NCAA champion Boston University, 2-1, in the Regional final when the Terriers scored a power play goal with 15 seconds left in regulation.
"They ended up winning it all and I thought we gave them as much of a run for their money as anyone else did in that tournament.," James said. "That was a fun year. Unfortunately it didn't end the way we wanted it to."
Trevor pointed to his sophomore season as a highlight as well.
"A best memory?" Trevor said. "That's really hard. It's probably my whole sophomore year when we were No. 1 in the country around halfway through the year. We had a great start to the year and we won our first game in the Regionals. That was probably the most fun I've ever had. That whole sophomore year was pretty cool."
The Wildcats beat Denver, 5-2, in the Northeast Regionals in Manchester.
"I remember coming back in the locker room knowing we had won a big game," TVR said. "With the guys we had in that locker room, to share those memories with them, it was an awesome team."
Van Riemsdyk has some nice memories from his rookie NHL year as well.
"I've been fortunate enough to be a part of a great group of guys here at UNH and then an unbelievable group of guys in Chicago, to be a small part of that, too," Trevor said. "That's an amazing memory. It's something you never even know if you'll ever be a part of and to do it that first year and be a small, small piece of it, to come back for those last four games, it was pretty memorable."
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
The third took his regular shift on an all-freshman line that has emerged as a key piece of the Wildcat fortunes.
They are the Brothers van Riemsdyk – BVR if you will – and they are the First Family of UNH men's hockey.
James and Trevor, who have been piling up memories in the National Hockey League since their days of playing in the Whittemore Center, watched as their younger brother Brendan skated below, playing left wing on a line with center Liam Blackburn and Patrick Grasso.
The van Riemsdyks delivered their share of memories to the Whittemore Center and Wildcat hockey.
Saturday night James and Trevor will be center stage at the Whitt for a UNH-Providence rematch that begins at 7 p.m. and will be carried on ESPN3.
They will be signing autographs from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. on the concourse as one of the featured attractions on Family Hockey Night in the arena for another high-profile and crucial Hockey East clash.
A free 8x10 poster of James and Trevor will be handed out for signing.
A limited number of tickets are available for the game and may be obtained by CLICKING HERE, by calling 603-862-4000 or at the Whittemore Center Box office.
The night also includes UNH's first "Shirt Off Your Back Night" during which jerseys will be auctioned off during a silent auction during the game. Pom hats will be given away to the first 1,500 fans, every fan gets a shaker stick and a balloon artist will provide entertainment.
Pictures of James and Trevor in their NHL jerseys hang in the downstairs hallway in the arena just outside the UNH locker room, alongside the photos of 44 other former Wildcats who have made it to the top of the professional hockey world.
This weekend, with the NHL on its All Star break, the professional van Riemsdyk's are getting a chance to relive come college memories and renew acquaintances with the bonus of watching their brother play.
"It's great to be able to come back for a weekend like this and see two games," James said. "It brings back a lot of great memories. You kind of walk down memory lane a little bit, too. I really enjoyed my time here and coming back here is great. Just being able to soak it all in again is nice."
Trevor drove down from Chicago to watch UNH play a game at Notre Dame last weekend.
"But to be back in the Whitt is a whole other thing," Trevor said. "It's definitely really special, brings back a lot of great memories."
James and Trevor and two of the most decorated former Wildcats.
James, a forward, played three seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers and is in his fifth season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has played in nearly 500 NHL games – he's seven away from that milestone – and has scored 153 goals and has 163 assists for 316 career points.
Trevor is in just his third season as a Chicago Blackhawk defenseman, but already has his name on the Stanley Cup. He returned from injury to play what he calls a "small, small role" in the Cup finals his rookie year.
Both played a role in some of UNH's greatest moments on ice in the past decade.
James played his second and final season as a Wildcat in 2008-09 before leaving for the Flyers.
Late that March, in most dramatic fashion, the Wildcats came from behind to knock off North Dakota, 6-5, in their first game in the Northeast Regional at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.
UNH trailed 5-3 with nine minutes left in the game and still was down a goal with 5.7 seconds to play when it earned a faceoff in the North Dakota end. Center Thomas Fortney scored with .1 second remaining to tie the game.
The Wildcats won 6-5 when Peter Leblanc scored 45 seconds into overtime.
"That was pretty cool," James said. "That was a wild game. It was one of those things where you play a game like that 100 times and probably 99 times it won't end in your favor like that. But it was a cool thing to be a part of."
The Wildcats then fell to eventual NCAA champion Boston University, 2-1, in the Regional final when the Terriers scored a power play goal with 15 seconds left in regulation.
"They ended up winning it all and I thought we gave them as much of a run for their money as anyone else did in that tournament.," James said. "That was a fun year. Unfortunately it didn't end the way we wanted it to."
Trevor pointed to his sophomore season as a highlight as well.
"A best memory?" Trevor said. "That's really hard. It's probably my whole sophomore year when we were No. 1 in the country around halfway through the year. We had a great start to the year and we won our first game in the Regionals. That was probably the most fun I've ever had. That whole sophomore year was pretty cool."
The Wildcats beat Denver, 5-2, in the Northeast Regionals in Manchester.
"I remember coming back in the locker room knowing we had won a big game," TVR said. "With the guys we had in that locker room, to share those memories with them, it was an awesome team."
Van Riemsdyk has some nice memories from his rookie NHL year as well.
"I've been fortunate enough to be a part of a great group of guys here at UNH and then an unbelievable group of guys in Chicago, to be a small part of that, too," Trevor said. "That's an amazing memory. It's something you never even know if you'll ever be a part of and to do it that first year and be a small, small piece of it, to come back for those last four games, it was pretty memorable."
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
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