May 26, 2009

Still only 23 and with a business degree tucked in his back pocket, Mark Roebothan isn't ready to walk away from hockey just yet.

He just closed out a four-year NCAA career at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, enjoyed a strong second half with 14 of his 19 points coming after Christmas and helped the River Hawks to within a game of winning the Hockey East championship.

Most importantly, however, there's a chance to finally earn some cash playing the game.

"There are so many options, so many places to play," said the St. John's native Sunday. "It's a chance to have some fun, see some new places and I suppose it would be cool to play and make some money for a change."

Roebothan was one of two Newfoundlanders playing NCAA Division I hockey last season, joining friend and fellow St. John's native Colin Greening.

But unlike Greening, who still has another season at Cornell in upstate New York and is an Ottawa Senators draft pick, Roebothan is an undrafted free agent.

But he's hoping to hook on with ECHL club, or maybe a team in the Central Hockey League.

Either way, he's not about to hang up the blades just yet.

"I've still got a passion to play," he said.

A graduate of the St. John's AAA Maple Leafs midget program, where he played as a 15-year-old, and a member of the province's 2003 Canada Games team, Roebothan played for two seasons in the Central Ontario junior A league with Kanata.

After his stint with the Stallions, it was off to Lawrence, Mass., and the Valley Warriors for a year in the Eastern Junior Hockey League.

Not exactly a well-worn path to the pros, but for Roebothan, it was all about landing a college scholarship.

That finally came from UMass-Lowell, and over four years as a River Hawk, Roebothan collected 52 points in 109 U.S. college games.

"I was contacted by Q (Quebec major junior) teams when I was playing junior A," said Roebothan, one of the River Hawks' co-captains last season, "but from Day 1, I always to go the college route.

"My parents were big into school and always stressed education. And I was never a huge kid, about 5-10, so college was appealing."

With the pro doors open to smaller, quicker players, the speedy forward with a decent touch around the net should land a job somewhere.

And perhaps, down the road, maybe an opportunity overseas.

"I think you've got to play in North America first, kind of carve your niche here to make yourself more marketable," he said.

It was a bit of an up-and-down season for Roebothan. He suffered a cracked sternum prior to Christmas, which sent him to the sidelines for six games. During that time, UMass-Lowell lost all six games.

"I'm not saying it was me, but I guess getting a veteran back in the lineup certainly helped," he said. "I hadn't been getting a lot of ice before I got hurt, but when I returned, I was playing a lot."

He won the Gus Coutu Award as the player best exemplifying intensity and work ethic in the UMass-Lowell program.

A middle-of-the-pack team in the regular season, the River Hawks marched all the way to the Hockey East tournament title before losing 1-0 to eventual NCAA champion Boston University Terriers in the final at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden.

In UMass-Lowell's 4-3 overtime win over Vermont in the quarter-final, Roebothan assisted on the winning goal.

Currently in Ottawa, Roebothan returns to Lowell next week for his graduation ceremony.