Coaches seem to disappear when Adam Rockwood hits the scene. So far, the third time is working out to be a charm for the Coquitlam hockey player as his Northern Michigan University Wildcats prepare to host Michigan Technical University for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship on Saturday.
The first time a coach departed the scene just as Rockwood entered it, Coquitlam Express coach John Calvano was fired at the end of Rockwood’s first season with the BC Hockey League team.
Under new bench boss, Barry Wolff, Rockwood had his best season as a junior, leading the league in assists, and the Express went on to win the BCHL championship.
Then, after two seasons playing for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the coach who recruited Rockwood, Mike Eaves, was fired.
This time the change of regime didn’t go so well. Before even playing for the new coach, Tony Granato, Rockwood was cut.
Rockwood reached out to another coach that had expressed interest in bringing the Centennial secondary school grad into his program, Walt Kyle at Northern Michigan University.
Kyle offered Rockwood a place on his team, but collegiate transfer rules dictated he’d have to stay on the sidelines for a season until he was eligible to play again.
The Wildcats struggled, winning only 13 of 35 games, and before Rockwood was able to step on the ice as a junior for his first game with his new teammates, Kyle was fired.
His successor, Grant Potulny, knew Rockwood as an opponent at Wisconsin when he was an assistant coach for the University of Minnesota Gophers. Their newly-forged relationship has paid dividends for both.
Rockwood, 22, is leading the 19th-ranked Wildcats in scoring this season, with 48 points in 42 games, including an NCAA-leading 40 assists. Last Friday, he scored three points in the Wildcats’ 6-1 victory over 17th-ranked Bowling Green in the first game of their best-of-three WCHA semi-final. After a 1-0 loss to the Falcons Saturday, NMU bounced back with a 3-2 overtime win Sunday to advance to the one-game final against MTU.
It will be the first time since 2010 NMU has competed for a title. The winner of that game advances to the NCAA national championship tournament beginning March 23, where the top 16 Division I teams in the country will compete for a spot in the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., April 5 to 7.
Rockwood said the rocky road to renewed success has been worth it.
“I had a huge chip on my shoulder,” Rockwood said of getting cut from the esteemed Wisconsin program that has made 24 appearances in the NCAA men’s ice hockey tournament, advanced to the Frozen Four 12 times, and won six national championships. “I wanted to prove everybody wrong. It lit a new fire under me.”
Although that fire had to smoulder for a year as Rockwood had to wait out his “red-shirt” year that is required of transfer students in the NCAA. He was able to practise and work out with the team, but he couldn’t play games.
Rockwood said he took the hiatus as an opportunity to add some weight and strength, working out in the gym between his business and economics classes with a buddy who was also out of the team’s lineup because of a broken jaw.
“I knew I needed to get bigger,” Rockwood said of the 10 to 15 pounds he gained.
He also developed an appreciation for the place Wildcats’ hockey holds in the sporting culture of Marquette, Mich., where almost half the town’s population of about 22,000 attend NMU. The team regularly sells out the 4,300-seat Berry Events Centre where it plays on an Olympic-size ice sheet. Rockwood said it’s not unusual for fans to recognize him on the street.
“It’s definitely a cool experience,” he said.
And one Rockwood never imagined when his hockey career seemed at a crossroads two (or is that three?) coaches ago.
“Winning cures all and that is just so true when it comes to hockey,” Rockwood said. “You play better when you want to win for your friends and your coach.”
Correction: an earlier version of the story had the incorrect timeline for Rockwood's tenure at the University of Wisconsin.
