Forward Collin Bourque Commits to UNH for Fall 2013

Collin Bourque Commits to UNH
(Photo: pointstreaksites.com)

20-year-old Collin Bourque (DOB: 1/11/1993), a 5'7", 160 lbs, right-shot forward for the American Hockey Institute/New England Wolves, has committed to play for UNH beginning in the Fall of 2013. The American Hockey Institute (AHI), based in Waterville Valley, NH, is a post-high school facility which prepares student athletes for college hockey. Bourque is a native of Goffstown, NH.

The AHI's hockey team, the New England Wolves, played 59 games in the 2012-13 season. They played a wide variety of junior hockey clubs including teams from the Eastern Junior Hockey League, EJHL-South, and the Empire Junior Hockey League. In addition, the Wolves joined four other post-high school academies in the inaugural season of the Academy East Hockey League. The other teams are Ulysse Prep (Quebec), College Sainte-Foy (Quebec), Bridgeton Academy (Maine), and National Sports Academy (Lake Placid, NY).

Collin Bourque Scored 114 Points in 58 games for
the New England Wolves (Photo: pointstreaksites.com)

Collin Bourque was the leading scorer for the New England Wolves scoring 36 goals and 78 assists in 58 games. The Wolves won the Academy East Hockey League regular season title with a record of 13-3-0. In the AEHL playoffs, Stanstead College (Quebec) joined the five regular season teams. The AHI NE Wolves won the AEHL Championship and Bourque scored a goal and 6 assists in 3 games. The league's coaches named Collin Bourque as the Player of the Year. He was also a first-team all star.

In the American Hockey Institute's announcement of Bourque's commitment to UNH, Wolves' Head Coach Steve Jacobs provided this assessment of his leading scorer:

“Collin is a dynamic and versatile hockey player who excels in multiple roles including 5 on 5, power play and penalty killing. He is a special player who creates so much offense with his speed, agility and elusiveness. He understands the game, has a keen sense of awareness in all situations and is a great teammate. He competes hard on the puck and away from it, blocks shots and will do whatever he needs to do to help his team win. He was the best player on the ice in most of our games and we all believe UNH is a great fit and that Collin will have an outstanding career there.”

One of Bourque's assistant coaches with the Wolves is Jon Fontas, captain of the 1978 UNH Wildcats and member of the UNH Hockey Hall of Fame.

Prior to playing at the American Hockey Institute, Collin Bourque played four years with Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, MA. Bourque scored 13 points (6g, 7a) in his freshman year at Cushing, 22 (5g, 17a) as a sophomore, 11 (3g, 8a, missed 13 games) as a junior, and 21 points (6g, 15a) as a senior. In the 2011-12 season, Bourque played with 2014 UNH recruit Shane Eiserman. In the summer of 2008, when Bourque was 15 years old, he earned an invitation to the USA Hockey Select 15 Player Development Camp. In 5 games, he scored 2 assists. Other notable players at that camp included Cason Hohmann (BU), Rocco Grimaldi (North Dakota), and Tyler Biggs (Miami/Toronto).