Utah State’s Ben Froehle has transformed from a penalty machine to a complete hockey player
Ben Froehle isn’t proud of it.
But, after spending more than two hours in the penalty box last year, he had earned the dubious title of All-Time USU penalty minutes leader.
“I’m not big on labels,” Froehle [pronounced fray-lee] said. “They need to have a little asterisk by that because [penalty minutes] really weren’t kept track of until I got here,”
Still, Froehle said his time in the box isn’t a trend he’s looking to continue.
“I’m out of the penalty minutes scene,” he said. “I’ve been keeping them down. I was mean last year. I’m a little nicer this year.”
Froehle isn’t the only one who has seen a change.
“He’s probably the single most improved player on the team,” defensive coach Ned Hillyard said. “He has come from anger management last year, trying to control his anger, and this year he has come out as a leader. He has stepped up as a role player, as far as throwing his emotions on the ice and not hurting the team by doing stupid penalties.”
“I think he’s cut back a lot,” Aggie Scotty John said. “Last year, some of his penalties just weren’t as smart. He’s still getting some penalties this year, but I think that some of them are unavoidable. With his size, he gets picked on by the refs.”
Froehle said he and John trained together over the summer because they were two of the only players in town.
“We had a lot of spare time and we hit the gym pretty hard, doing weights and running,” Froehle said. “Ned, our strength coach, puts us through hell Monday nights. We did a little of that over the summer so these first couple weeks of practice we weren’t dying.”
And the training has paid off for him. Froehle said he lost 30 pounds during the offseason.
“I put on a few pounds at the end of last year and towards the end of the season it started to show,” he said.
Froehle still measures 6-feet-4 inches and 260 pounds.
“He’s a dominant force on the ice,” Hillyard said. “Every team has to reckon with him. I mean, good scott, look at his size. You can’t skate around him.”
“Some kids will be foolish and step up,” Froehle said. “For the most part, you don’t want to get hit by someone who’s 6’4, 260 [pounds] – especially when you’re moving.”
With a significant size advantage over most players on the ice, John said Froehle really intimidates his opponents.
“I honestly think teams get scared when they see him out there,” John said. “And I know for a fact that he’s hated at Weber and BYU because they know him. They know he can get in their players heads.”
Froehle said he is used to having a size advantage.
“I’m always the biggest guy,” Froehle said. “I think being bigger helps me a lot. Being in the defensive zone, I cover a lot more area.”
While Hillyard said he doesn’t believe Froehle lost 30 pounds, he still credits Froehle for being more athletic this season.
“He moves better than he did last year,” Hillyard said. “He’s moving that mass around a lot better.”
“He showed up at the beginning of the year ready to be a good goal scorer and be a good asset to our team,” John said. “And the coaches have seen that and responded to it. And they’ve been using him in good situations.”
Froehle said he knows his role on the team and he’s trying to play it.
“I just play my game,” he said. “I’m not that skilled a player. I’m not [Aaron] Burrell burying the puck and [Nick] Thiros getting hat tricks all the time. My job is to go out and get people and forecheck and make it easier for everyone else.”
“He’s playing smart,” Hillyard said. “He’s playing heads up. You expect some time in the box. But, in the last three games he’s spent a lot less time in the box. And they haven’t been stupid penalties, like after the whistle penalties. He controls his emotions.”
Froehle has not scored a goal yet this season, but he is giving himself more opportunities than last year.
“Scoring is always good,” he said. “I haven’t buried the puck yet. I’ve had a few chances, probably more than last year. I think that has to do with me being in a lot better shape than I was last year, being able to cover more of the ice. I got to start burying the puck. I’ve got all these chances. I got to start scoring though.”
Despite being held without a goal thus far, John said Froehle still dictates what kind of game the team will play.
“I think he absolutely dictates whether or not we’re going to have a good physical game,” he said. “If Froehle shows up physical and ready to play, then it gets us going. It gets teams afraid of us.”
Without Froehle’s physical presence, John said the team would have to play a much different style of hockey.
“We’ve got physical players but really without his size and without his physical ability, we’d have to cater the game a little bit more to smaller guys and more of a finesse game,” he said.
Froehle said he will continue to improve this season and he does not want to make a second home in the penalty box like he did last year.
“He better not,” Hillyard said. “But he still is Ben Froehle and he will always be Ben Froehle. He’s damn fine entertainment.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu
(Photo by John Zsiray)
Senior defender Ben Froehle. above (Photo by John Zsiray)