With his aggressive style of play quickly developing. O'Regan eagerly awaited the start of play during his sophomore year. But then came the bombshell.
O'Regan was suspended from the team for the first half of the season that year. "The suspension had nothing to do with anything. I did on the team, O'Regan says. "I had some problems in the dormitory and Coach [Parker] felt he needed to take some action."
"Actually, I couldn't believe he was doing it at the time," he adds. "I just couldn't understand why he was taking hockey away from me. But now that I look back at it. I realize I was 17 years old and had some growing up to do Coach was telling me I had to settle down and mature a little. And you know, the man was right."
"I really learned a lot from the whole experience," O'Regan says. "I ended up coming back and playing a lot and I don't think either Coach or myself held any grudges."
In fact, as soon as he came back. O'Regan resumed his powerful play. He ended the year with a one point per game average.
"He responded well to the suspension," Parker says. "Ever since that problem there's been no problem. He's matured not only as a player but as a person. We certainly have no qualms with him about what happened."
And O'Regan certainly has no qualms about what has happened to his game since that trying experience. After a slow start this year. O'Regan rose to the top of his game and displayed the scoring punch that the Terriers had been lacking the past four years. At year's end both his assist and point totals were B.U.'s highest in four years.
"The team certainly seems to play up to the way he's playing," Parker says. "If he's on, the team seems to be on."
His efforts earned him the role of co-captain on this year's squad, a position he shares with Jerry August. Both he and August served as co-captains of the Matignon squad during their senior years in high school. "Being co-captains then and now is something we look at today and say it's great, it's really special."
"I'd really been looking forward to this year," O'Regan says. "We had the entire nucleus from last year's squad back, and we felt pretty confident. But then we had another real bad start. We weren't creating any offense and I was a big reason I wasn't playing well. But recently we've had some big wins and as we head into the Beanpot both the team and myself are playing with a great deal of confidence."
Parker attributes O'Regan's confidence to his play the past three summers in the National Sports Festival, which brings together the nation's top 80 amateur hockey stars.
"He's learned a lot playing in the Festival," Parker says. "He's not only a great player offensively, but he's become a great defensive player."
His future in hockey after college is still clouded, says O'Regan, who chose B.U., over B.C., UNH and Harvard. "I'm a free agent and I'd certainly like to give professional hockey a shot. I'd also like to give a shot to the Olympic squad," he says.
As for the immediate future, though, only one thing is on O'Regan's mind--winning the Beanpot. For O'Regan, who took up hockey when he was six years old "because my older brothers were playing and it was the glory days of Bobby Orr and the big, bad Boston Bruins," last year's Beanpot championship would mean little without a victory this year.
"We won it last year and we want to hold onto it," he says. "It was nice during my junior year, but it certainly wouldn't mean anything unless we win it during my senior year. I'd say it's probably my biggest aspiration to get the championship back. It would be a fitting ending."
Scoring the winning goal in the finals before 15,000 screaming fans might be even more fitting.