Matt Campanale skates as a member of the New York Islanders for the first time at TD Garden.
Photo courtesy Scott Slingsby.
Playing at the University of New Hampshire, Matt Campanale was no stranger to quality talent. The top forward line - comprised of Hockey East player of the Year Paul Thompson, captain Mike Sislo and Washington Capitals prospect Phil DeSimone - on the 2010-11 Wildcats put up 148 points combined, 53 of them goals and 13 of those, game-winners.
So it was all but certain that when UNH’s season ended - some would say abruptly, some would say later than expected - with a 2-1 loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA Northeast Regional Final just ten days ago, there would be a Wildcat soon trading in his UNH Blue and White for different colors and a shot at NHL glory.
Just, nobody expected Campanale would be it.
Thompson signed an entry-level deal with Pittsburgh to a substantial amount of fanfare - after all, such an injury-depleted team could use Thompson’s hands to help boost their offense. Sislo followed by signing with the Devils, which snuck under the radar, but gave the former captain as much a chance as anyone to make an NHL roster before April. And Campanale quietly signed an amateur tryout offer with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, AHL affiliate of the flailing New York Islanders.
In two games with Bridgeport, Campanale didn’t register a point, notching only one shot on goal and two penalty minutes. After practice on April 5th, he got a phone call from the Islanders front office. He figured he was heading back home to Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. But the Islanders had different plans for the blue-liner who led his alma mater in plus-minus at plus-25 and was second on the team in blocked shots with 48.
He wasn’t heading back to Pennsylvania. He was heading to Boston, to the TD Garden, to the same sheet of ice that he’d last played on 17 days earlier as a Wildcat in the Hockey East semifinals, only this time, he was going to do it as an NHLer.
“When I got the call, I was really excited; when I found out it was Boston, I was thrilled,” Campanale said after the Isles’ 3-2 defeat. “My entire family was here, and I’m not sure how many New Hampshire people were coming up, but it was probably a decent amount.”
By anyone’s standards, it wasn’t a glowing debut - the former UNHer logged only 8:21 of ice time and didn’t register a shot, getting on the score sheet only for a delay of game penalty with 11:26 remaining in the game.
“Everyone was telling me to get on the score sheet somehow,” Campanale quipped after the game.
“It was a lot of fun, but it’s an extremely high level, even compared to the AHL,” he said, admitting that he couldn’t quite get away with the things he was used to in college because the size and strength of the opposition at the NHL level was so different.
Even on familiar ice, Campanale knew it wasn’t the same game. “[The atmosphere was] a lot different, actually,” he said when asked how his first NHL game compared to the last time he played on Garden ice.
With the Islanders’ having lost 578 man-games to injury on the season, Campanale may get to see time in their last two games, Friday versus Pittsburgh and Saturday at Philadelphia. If he does, it’s safe to say he’ll relish the offseason and look forward to future tilts with, say, Florida.
Not that he isn’t relishing this chance, right now.
“It’s definitely something that nobody expected, but it was exciting that I got the opportunity and I’m just really happy to be here.”
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