“It’s hard to replace a legend like Mike Gilligan,” said Vermont Captain Jaime Sifers said, “but Coach Sneddon is the best replacement they could’ve gotten.”
Nine wins later—seven in conference and five in the team’s final six games—it’s not hard to see why, as the Catamounts skate into the ECAC playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the league.
“I think we attend to little details of life much more consistently and that’s been a priority of Kevin’s—the way we approach the game of hockey and conduct their lives and as people,” Micheletto said. “It’s an overall approach to not only hockey, but life as well.
“A lot of things that we do are just things that we do as a family. The way that they attack their school—it’s a situation where you can’t just come to the rink and just do things a certain way in one aspect of your life. If you’re going to be excellent, you’re going to be excellent in more than area.”
And that’s something Sneddon has proven himself capable of since his days at Harvard, particularly under the most challenging of circumstances.
Playing on the nation’s largest stage—the Frozen Four—as just a freshman, Sneddon shone.
“I know that when we played in the Final Four, he really stepped up his game,” Roy said. “He was one of the top two defensemen in the tournament. He played a very physical game against Michigan State in the semifinals and then against Minnesota in the finals. He just took off from there.”
Though that didn’t always show up on the scoreboard.
Focusing primarily on keeping the puck out of his own net, Sneddon developed a reputation as one of the hardest workers on the team. And a guy who just didn’t score.
“He was more of a stay-at-home defensemen,” Roy said. “He punished guys in front of the net. Defense always came first with him. We used to give him a hard time because he didn’t score a goal until his senior year.”
But that overall philosophy—working to advance the team, regardless of the personal toll—has allowed him to extract disproportionate measures of success, given the talent given to him.
“He had to do it at Union for years and I think he just brought the same formula to Vermont,” Roy said. “He brings 120 percent and he expects the same from his guys.”
Even after beating his alma mater. Even on his former home ice.
“Knowing Kevin as well as I do, they won the last game, he probably skated his guys even harder,” Roy said. “He doesn’t rest on his laurels. He just keeps coming even harder.”
And that’s one thing that’ll never change.
—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.