Former Viper Santana’s First Goal Culmination Of Three Semesters Of Hard Work:

Former Vernon Vipers forward, Ryan Santana scored his first college career goal last Wednesday night in a 5-4 win over Northeastern University. Santana played one season in Vernon (2008-09) helping the Vipers win the 2009 Royal Bank Cup.

This was in last week's Daily Free Press Boston University Student Newspaper:

Santana’s first goal culmination of three semesters of hard work

Written by Scott McLaughlin

Published Dec 9, 2010

During Monday’s practice, No. 7 Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker decided to shake things up with a game of shadow ball – basically a regular game of hockey, except without the puck. An idea taken from Ken Burns’ “Baseball” documentary that touched on the Negro League tradition of playing games without a ball, shadow ball is designed to help players get a better feel for the game and, in the case of hockey, play better away from the puck.

In Monday’s game, sophomore forward Ryan Santana, who had yet to score in a college hockey game played with a real puck, found the back of the net with the imaginary one.

“I stopped the practice and said, ‘The gates are going to open up for Ryan now,’” Parker said. “‘They’re going to come hot and heavy for him now. He’s finally got a goal.’ And we presented him with the puck. There was no puck, but we presented him with the puck.”

Sure enough, Santana netted his first real goal in Wednesday night’s 5-4 win over Northeastern University. With his team trailing 2-1 late in the first period, Santana took a pass from junior forward Andrew Glass and stormed down the left wing. He snapped a low shot through a defenseman’s legs, won the race to his own rebound and deked around sophomore goalie Chris Rawlings before sliding the puck into an empty net.

“He works hard, and it was nice to see him get it,” Parker said. “He got it the way he’s going to have to get goals, and a lot of the guys are going to have to get goals on this team, shoot the puck and go to the net.”

Santana said it felt good to finally pot his first goal.

“It was nice to get the monkey off my back, so to speak,” said the Yorba Linda, Calif., native. “Especially in a tight game like that, it’s nice to contribute on the score sheet.”

Even though he had just one assist in 30 games last year and just two assists so far this season, Santana has played in all 16 games this year because of his nonstop energy and strong defensive play. In fact, the entire fourth line, which also includes sophomores Justin Courtnall and Ben Rosen, has been great on defense. In the eight games they have played together, they have only allowed two goals.

“That’s huge, playing defense,” Santana said. “We all know defense is going to lead to offense as long as we play it well. [Junior goalie Kieran Millan] has done an unbelievable job all season, saved our butts plenty of times. So any time we can get in front and take a shot for him, you’ve got to do it.”

Santana said the fact that the coaches have kept him in the lineup has given him a lot of confidence.

“Just the opportunity I got to even be here and put on the BU uniform is amazing,” Santana said. “I just try and go out there and work hard, and they just tell me to play my game, just be hard on the puck, keep shooting. They let me know when they’re happy with my play and when they want more of a certain thing.”

He had one such discussion with Parker on Wednesday morning, and the 38-year bench boss’ advice clearly stuck with Santana.

“He told me instead of trying to handle the puck too much sometimes when I get in the offensive zone to just shoot it a little bit earlier,” Santana said. “That’s what I did tonight, and it worked out perfect. So as long as I’m listening to the coaches, it’s going to work.”