Stonehill Hockey Alumni Given a Great Opportunity

Stonehill Hockey Alumni Given a Great Opportunity 

Two Stonehill graduates recently received the sports opportunity of a lifetime. 

Matt Palella, who graduated in 2016, and Chris Tasiopoulos, who graduated in 2015, were both former goalies for the Skyhawks ice hockey team and both  have been named as emergency back up goalies in the National Hockey League. 

Palella will be with the New Jersey Devils and Tasiopoulos will be with the Boston Bruins.  “I’m excited to have this opportunity… I’m proud to be representing Stonehill and the great guys I played with,” Palella said. 

Emergency goalies are a crucial part of the NHL, with most teams dressing only two goalies per game. If the starting goalie is injured in the game, the team backup goalie would take over. If the backup goalie winds up injured, an emergency goalie -such as Palella and Tasiopoulos - would then head onto the ice.  

Palella and Tasiopoulos are among a group of goalies selected by their teams.  

“They wanted enough [goalies] so that if guys have work conflicts, they can adjust the schedule,” Palella said. 

“They asked us our availability for home games and then based on our availability they turned around an assignment schedule,” Tasiopoulos said. 

Despite being affiliated with their organization, emergency back up goalies are not specific to a team. They are assigned to a home arena and could wind up playing for the visiting team if one of the goalies is injured. This is a new rule this year in the NHL so that there is always a goalie available. 

For their assigned games, the emergency goalies are given two tickets to watch the game, but they are expected to be ready to play if needed.  

For Tasiopoulos, the road to becoming a back up goalie was fairly simple. Stonehill Ice Hockey head coach David Borges sent him a text asking if he was  interested, and less than a week later, an employee for the Bruins reached out to confirm his interest and to make sure he was still in good shape to perform. 

Luckily, Tasiopoulos said he had been staying on the ice since finishing his college career playing for the “Ponies,” a team comprised of mainly Stonehill hockey alumni in a league against other former college and pro players. 

Palella had a tougher process. A few weeks after moving to the east coast from his hometown of Chicago, the Devils announced that they were hosting tryouts for an emergency backup. “I decided to fill out the form and figured it would be fun just to see what would happen,” Palella said. 

Over 400 people applied, but only 15 were invited to the tryout.  

In preparation for the tryout, Palella and his brother spent time the day before working on drills and foot work to get back to speed.  

The tryout consisted of different stations held by the coaches, with current Devils players helping. 

 “The hour long session was a blast,” Palella said of his time skating at the Prudential Center, home of the Devils. 

Both Palella and Tasiopoulos are already assigned certain home games. They said it is possible that they may never play on the ice in a professional game, but they are ready if their names are called. 

  

2015 Graduate Chris Tasiopoulos stands in net for the Stonehill Skyhawks

Matt Palella stares down an attacker in the crease