The knot in his stomach when Brenden MacLaren initially took the ice as a defenseman in a real college game is something that he won’t easily forget.
“I remember my first couple games there were a couple times where I’m like, ‘Holy crap, there’s a forward on Mankato ripping full speed down the ice at me,’” the Ferris State senior said. “It’s kind of like a deer-in-the-headlights moment.”
MacLaren, who came to Big Rapids as a speedy, scrappy center, had only ever played defense in one game – an emergency situation during his first year in junior hockey when three or four of his Janesville Jets teammates went down with injury and illness. That game gave him a little taste of what was to come in his college career.
After MacLaren spent his first two collegiate seasons in and out of the lineup as a fourth-line forward, Ferris State coach Bob Daniels noticed something about MacLaren – he could really skate. The Bulldogs, going through something of a personnel crisis last season, needed another defenseman, and Daniels was convinced MacLaren could be the answer.
“He was a good, hard-nosed type player, but for whatever reason, it never seemed to click for him up front,” Daniels said. “Then we went through a situation where we were a little thin on defensemen with injuries and so forth, and I just asked him one day in practice, ‘Will you be a ‘D’ in practice? But I really want you to try this, not just go through the motions.’ We’ve done it with other players in the past, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but for him, almost immediately, his skating allowed him to play well on defense.”
As it turns out, since making the conversion, MacLaren has been one of the Bulldogs’ most reliable blueliners. He’s played in every one of Ferris’ 20 games this season and Daniels now trusts him to play on both the power play and the penalty kill.
Not bad for a player that, less than two years ago, was still fighting to stay in the lineup as a forward.
“It was a pretty crazy transition,” he said. “I’ve played forward my whole life. But I’ve kind of always been known, when I was a centerman, for playing good defense and not getting scored on. Because that was one of the things I hated most, was getting scored on. I’m still learning as I go, pretty much, but I think what helps a lot is how close our team is, especially our ‘D’ corps. I’m learning a lot from those guys, ‘cause they’ve played defense their whole careers. And our ‘D’ coach, Mark Hoffman, has done a great job helping me make that transition.
“I think the hardest part of changing positions would be, say there’s a turnover in the neutral zone or a quick transition, my gap control is by far the hardest thing to learn. Knowing when to turn out on a guy, when to step up, when to not, when to take your ice back. It’s hard because mainly when you’re playing up front you’re always skating forward, never backwards much.”
MacLaren also credits fellow defenseman Matt Slick with helping him improve at his position. Slick, who transferred in from Holy Cross this season, played more than 120 games for the Crusaders before coming to Big Rapids and is, along with MacLaren, a co-captain.
“We knew right when he got here, he was a great fit. He’s a great kid, a great leader,” MacLaren said of Slick. “I watch his game a lot to help my game because he’s played his position his whole life and he’s very good at it.”
One other ironic aspect of MacLaren’s move: He’s scored more as a defender than he did as a center. This year he’s got nine points (two goals and seven assists), adding to 5 a season ago. In his first two seasons, he had six points combined.
“That’s the one thing I was pleasantly surprised about, is that offensively, the numbers started to come for him,” Daniels said. “With the game in front of him, it actually opened things up and made him a better offensive player. Now all of a sudden, he’s on the penalty kill, he’s on the power play unit, and in a lot of ways, it’s really changed his game.”
It’s been a big part of why the Bulldogs (9-9-2, 6-5-1 CCHA) are having something of a resurgence following a few tough years. MacLaren was there for the infamous one-win campaign just two seasons ago.
“I think last year we obviously took a big step from our one-win season,” he said. “We could kind of start to feel it in the locker room in certain games. Last year there were moments where we had a lead on a team, and they’d score one to tie it, and the key moments in the game we would let slip away from us.
“This year we’ve got a really mature group. It seems like we finally know how to win. In my four years here, we didn’t really know how to win. This year we’ve taken an important step. It definitely helps coming in to work every day in practice knowing you’ve got a really good chance to win on a Friday night.”
The Bulldogs have yet to be swept this year and are sitting in good shape in the CCHA standings. They’re currently in the thick of a race for, at the very least, home ice in the first round of the playoffs and aren’t actually too far away from first place in the conference. And with a second-half schedule that features series against conference front-runners Bemidji State, Minnesota State and Michigan Tech – all at Ewigleben Arena – MacLaren and the Bulldogs like their chances.
“I think we want to focus on getting home ice,” MacLaren said. “Nobody likes coming and playing at our rink. But it’s really nice that we play all those teams at home, so that will definitely help our odds there. I’m confident going into any game with this group that we have. I think teams are starting to acknowledge that we’re not the same team we’ve had the last couple years, that’s for sure.”
