Former Vipers Forward Tegeler Commits To University Of Maine:

Former Vernon Vipers forward Andrew Tegeler has committed to the University of Maine Black Bears for this season.  Tegeler joined the Vipers on December 5th 2012 after leaving the University of Massachusetts.  In 28 games last season with the Vipers Tegeler collected (6-15-21). 

Andrew Tegeler's Player Profile:

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=96851

This is posted on the Maine Hockey Journal website:

Gendron recruits familiar face for Black Bears

By Nathan Fournier  Published: 30th June 2013

LEWISTON – Andrew Tegeler is Red Gendron’s first recruit as the new head coach of the University of Maine, but it’s not the first time he’s recruited Tegeler.

Gendron recruited the Sewell, N.J. native when he was an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

“I was talking to a few other schools at the time, and once (Gendron) picked his staff things started to move quicker than I expected,” said Tegeler on his commitment to the Black Bears.

However, the 6-foot-2, 201-pound winger is unsure when he will be eligible next season to join the Black Bears.

Under normal NCAA transfer rules a player has to wait a full calendar year before joining another Division I school, which would make him eligible to join the Black Bears on Dec. 7. Tegeler has appealed to the NCAA in an attempt to be eligible at the start of the upcoming season because of the UMass coaching change before last season started.

The 20-year-old spent all of the 2011-‘12 season with the Minuteman scoring one goal in five contests. He left Amherst on Dec. 7 after only appearing in one game to join the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League – arguably the best Junior A league in Canada – where he had six goals and 15 assists in 28 games.

“When I got to (Vernon) I hopped on a goal scoring line,” said Tegeler. “We weren’t that good of a team. We traded away a lot of our players at the (trade) deadline for future (considerations) because Vernon is hosting the RBC Cup – the National Junior “A” Championship in Canada – next year.”

“This year was more of a rebuilding year for them and I got a lot of playing time which was what I needed with two to three months to try to get re-recruited.”

He self-describes himself as a power forward with speed. He also likes to set up goal scorers, but says he can put the puck in the net when he needed. He wants to work on being a center and getting better in the defensive zone.