Prior to receiving the letter, Dennehy had never heard of Plattsburgh, let alone knew anything about its hockey program. But Plattsburgh was the first school to show interest in him, so he instantly fell in love with it and convinced himself he’d one day be a Cardinal.

 

Of course, Dennehy received more letters from schools with better hockey programs, and quickly lost interest in Plattsburgh. Ultimately, he chose Boston College. He then proceeded to help the Eagles reach three NCAA tournaments.

 

Dennehy recently recounted the tale to give an example of his and his staff’s core recruiting belief: when you’re the smallest school in the Hockey East, recruiting against some of the most storied programs in the country, you have to be aggressive.

 

“We can’t be there late,” Dennehy said. “We don’t have the luxury of swooping in on a white horse and offering a player a scholarship. All we can say (to a player) is, ‘Here we are, we’d like you to come to our school.’”

 

Entering his fourth season at Merrimack, Dennehy and his staff’s aggressive recruiting approach is beginning to reap some high-quality local players. Among this season’s seven-player class are Scituate’s Joe Heffernan, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound BC High product who led the Eagles to a pair of MIAA Super 8 titles and scored 14 goals to go along with 15 assists last year and Wakefield’s Joe Cannata, who also played at BC High before spending last year with the USNTDP Under-18 team. Next year, the Warriors will welcome West Roxbury’s Mike Collins, who played at Catholic Memorial and will attend prep school or play junior hockey this season.

 

More importantly, Merrimack’s beginning to reap some tangible results on the ice. Although the Warriors haven’t improved in the standings in Dennehy’s first three years (finishing last each year), they’ve made some subtle statistical improvements. In Dennehy’s first year, his team allowed 118 goals. It allowed 111 two years ago, with 10 freshman receiving significant minutes. And last year it allowed 93, or 2.72 per game, which ranked seventh out of 10 teams. Merrimack also notched a few upset wins to show its making progress, including a weekend sweep of No. 14 Providence, a win over No. 7 Northeastern and a tie against No. 2 UNH.

 

Although Heffernan committed early in the recruiting period – giving his verbal agreement to a scholarship in February 2007 – Cannata best exemplifies how Dennehy’s aggressiveness has been able to land Merrimack top prospects.

 

When he was still a junior at BC High, Cannata attended a Merrimack game with Heffernan, who had already committed. After the game, Cannata and Heffernan met the coaches, who were already familiar with Cannata.

 

“We told him we knew who he was and we wanted to recruit him,” Dennehy said.

 

Soon after Dennehy talked to Cannata, the player’s stock rose and he was chosen to play with the USNTDP U-18 team, which competes internationally and against Division 1 programs. Cannata started 30 games for the U-18 team last year, going 16-14 with a 2.56 goals-against average and .900 save percentage.

 

Dennehy’s forthrightness impressed Cannata, and he verbally committed in April 2007.

 

“When my dad and I saw that, we said, ‘Wow,’” Cannata said. “They came right at us. There was no screwing around; no playing games.”

 

Cannata, who made the USNTDP U-18 shortly before verbally committing, admitted that he would have been flattered to have been offered a scholarship by BC or BU, but felt an allegiance to Merrimack because it was the first one to show interest.

 

“It’s really hard to pass up a Division 1 scholarship,” Cannata said.

 

The reason Dennehy was able to confidently pursue Cannata so early in his recruitment was because of the relationships he’s built in the Greater Boston area. That’s another of his core recruiting beliefs: don’t try to recruit everywhere; be strong in a few specific regions.

 

For example, the Warriors had eight players from New England on their roster last year, which was the most of any region. But they also had four from Alberta, Canada – the second-most represented area. And the Warriors will have four more this season. The Alberta connection is thanks to assistant coach Darren Yopyk, who’s an Alberta native. Yopyk played college hockey at Princeton before coaching at UMass with Dennehy.

 

Yopyk has strong relations with many teams in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, but especially the Camrose Kodiaks, one of the best junior A teams in Canada. The Boston Bruins made the Kodiaks’ best player last year, Joe Colborne, their No. 1 draft pick this year. But Camrose’s second-leading scorer and its best defenseman are going to Merrimack.

 

Jesse Todd scored 35 goals and added 35 assists, second on the team to Colborne, while Karl Stollery led all defensemen in scoring with 27 points.

 

The Warriors’ other two AJHL recruits aren’t too bad either. Forward Elliot Sheen led the Okotoks Oilers in scoring and finished fifth in the league with 29 goals and 36 assists, while Okotoks forward Carter Madsen finished fourth on the team with 55 points (29 G, 25 A).

 

“We’re lucky to have a pretty diverse staff,” Dennehy said. “We try to be good in the places we go.”

 

Of course, Dennehy could be the best recruiter in college hockey but he wouldn’t have any success unless Merrimack supported him in terms of facilities, which are foremost in some players’ minds. So far, Merrimack has. The school is about to announce a capital campaign to renovate its rink, which is the smallest in Hockey East. And the rest of its facilities are catching up to the rest of the league. Dennehy likes the message the school is sending to recruits, and also all of college hockey.

 

“It sends a message to college hockey that we’re interested in being successful,” Dennehy said. “We want kids who want to be part of what we’re doing.”