Senior Week: Ben Rosen

This is the fifth part in a series of posts about BU's 2013 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with Wade Megan on Friday. You can read part one on Ryan Ruikka here,  part two on Ryan Santana here, part three on Sean Escobedo here, and part four on Jake Moscatel here.

Copyright: Bart Hanlon, 2012. Flickr.

Ben Rosen came to Boston University as a defenseman recruit who could provide some depth to one of the best defensive corps in the nation. When he arrived on Comm Ave,  the defense was returning future professionals Colby Cohen, Kevin Shattenkirk, David Warsofsky and Eric Gryba. Rosen was a guy to provide some depth behind those guys and would only have seen significant time in case of injury. By his senior season, he was one of the best if not the best defensive forward on the team. He would leave the program a gritty centerman and a leader as well as a fan-favorite. This is the story of Ben Rosen, enjoy.

 Rosen came to BU after a year in the EJHL where he lead all defensemen in points with a 10-42-52 line in 45 games.  Rosen averaged over a point a game which is really impressive no matter what league it was in. Fighting is allowed in the EJ but we couldn't find any record of him fighting. If he did, he probably kicked some ass though. He was selected to participate in the 2009 EJHL All-Star game and also spent time playing with former Terrier Kevin Gilroy on the South Shore Kings in 2007-2008. He also had spent time in the USHL before his All-Star season in the EJ.

Rosen came to BU and was mostly a depth guy his first season. He saw action in 9 games and didn't record a point. He did ,however, provide the team important depth and would then go on to appear in 31 games as a sophomore in the 2010-2011 season. He scored his first collegiate goal during a 4-4 tie to Brown in November(the game that the goon Zolnieczyk tried to take out Clendening's knee) and added another goal and assist later in the season. He seemed to becoming a bigger part of the defensive rotation when a shortage of forwards in the incoming class forced the coaching staff to ask a position change for the Syosset, NY native. He did as the coaching staff asked and what was best for the team. This would be a common theme throughout his career. After his sophomore year, Rosen began practicing as a forward and made the transition rather smoothly as Terrier fans would see in the two years to come.


Rosen made the switch from defensemen to center easily in his junior season and put up his best point totals posting a 1-6-7 line in 35 games for Terriers. He went from the 4th line to 3rd line to the 2nd line after some unexpected departures left the team shorthanded at center in the middle of the season. His point total does not do justice to how valuable he was to this team last year. His increased role still did not stop him from making sacrifices for the benefit of the team. This is something he always did.  Rosen volunteered to sit out an exhibition game in January of 2012 so that other players could try playing at center in preparation for the stretch run. The move paid off as the Terriers made the NCAA tournament before losing to the Gophers of Minnesota. Rosen's sacrifice in a tough time is exactly what a coach and fan could have asked for from an upperclassman. Rosen was always the epitome of a team-first guy. Former Terrier captain Chris Connolly said it best when he said " I think it showed a lot of leadership on Ben's part. That is the kind of teammate we need around here"

Rosen continued to contribute to the scoring with 5 goals his senior season and was a regular on the penalty kill as well. He centered two freshmen in Sam Kurker and Matt Lane. Both of which were more than glad to give him credit for their success later in the season. Sam Kurker said that Rosen had taken both him and Lane under his wing and made them better players for it. Rosen was even named a top performer in Hockey East on February 4th. He centered the third line all year and was like a third defenseman at times. You could tell the dmen loved it when Rosen was out there, knowing that he would cover for them when they jumped up into the play(We are looking at you Grizz). If Rosen and Grzelcyk were out there at the same time, chances are Grzelcyk would be below the opposing goal line at least once during the shift usually making something good happen offensively himself.

Ben Rosen really was the ultimate Terrier. He made sacrifice after sacrifice for this team and  program. I have said on numerous times that if my team had 18 Ben Rosens skating  out there with that effort and grit, I would take whatever record came from that. He left it out there every shift and did everything he could to get a W. The worst call of the season was calling back a Rosen empty netter against BC just because the official were unable to count to 5. I believe the ref was Benedetto which would make sense.

Rosen also never hurt the team's rep off the ice. I have never heard anyone say a bad thing about Rosen. Natives of North Dakota don't count as people so that previous statement stands. Rosen became famous in the state for the now popular tweet "Just landed in North Dakota...nothing out here but 4 points" with a picture of Grand Forks attached. This is just another reason we love Ben Rosen. We may have gotten involved in a slight twitter battle in his defense but it was awesome and totally worth it(On that note, Yale kicked their ass Saturday, eh?).

Ben Rosen is a senior you hate to see go but we wish him the best on his current ATO with the Bridgeport Sound of the AHL and wish him all the best in his future endeavors. We know he will do big things either with his gritty hockey game or his SMG degree that he will earn this coming May. Best of luck to you Rosey!