Former Vernon Viper Collins Named Hockey East Player Of The Month:

Former Vernon Vipers forward Mike Collins was named the Hockey East Athletic Republic Player of the Month for January.  Collins is one of seventy seven players up for this years Hobey Baker Award. The Hobey Baker Award is an annual award given to the top National Collegiate Athletic Association men's ice hockey player. Collins is in his third season at Merrimack College. In 27 games this season Collins has (14-18-32). Collins played two season's in Vernon (2008-2010) In 119 regular season games with the Vipers Collins recorded (55-71-126)

Mike Collins Player Profile:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=122117

This is posted on the Warriors website:

Mike Collins Named Hockey East Athletic Republic Player of the Month

January 29, 2013

NORTH ANDOVER, MA – Junior Mike Collins (Boston, MA) was named the Hockey East Athletic Republic Player of the Month for January.

Collins, who was also the Co-Hockey East Player of the Week for last week, amassed a league-best 11 points (four goals, seven assists) leading Merrimack to a 4-2-1 record in January.

The junior, who leads Hockey East in scoring in league games, had three three-point games over a four-game span in January.

Junior goaltender Sam Marotta (Bridgewater, MA) was the runner-up for Hockey East Goaltender of the Month after recording a 4-1-1 record in January, with a 1.97 goals-against and a .929 save percentage.

In a showdown between two teams tied for fifth in Hockey East, Merrimack (10-10-5, 8-6-2 HEA) hosts #12/13 UMass Lowell (14-7-2, 8-6-2 HEA) Friday night at 7 p.m. on NESN with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. live from Lawler. Tickets are available at merrimackathletics.com or by calling the box office at 978-837-5341.

Fans should be advised that many tickets issued for Friday's game will indicate a 7:30 p.m. start, but the game was moved to 7 p.m. due to television.