Montour Central In UMass’ Success

Brandon Montour is being praised as the central piece sparking the NCAA’s UMass Minutemen to a second half turnaround.

Montour was forced to miss the first half of the NCAA season due to a clearinghouse issue, and go back to the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks.

Had he been at the University of Massachusetts the entire season, things could have been very different for his team, which was 4-12-0 before Montour arrived, and have gone 4-4-1 since.

“It’s been a great couple weeks here. We’ve been playing well,” said Montour, who hails from Tilbury, Ontario, in an interview with the Daily Hampshire Gazette. “Hopefully there are more wins and more points we can steal here in the second half. The attitude and everything in the room is positive. We’re just excited to keep it going and see what we can do in the second half.”

“Since break we have posted 4-4-1 record. Although that stat might not jump out of the page it is an improvement from the first half of the year especially in the sense of how we have played every game,” wrote UMass coach Troy Power on the Minutemen website. “Coming back for the second half we knew that we needed a push and the way we have practiced day in and day out we have put ourselves in a position to have success.”

Montour has carried his offensive gifts with him to the NCAA, scoring a point per game as a defenseman since joining the league, collecting 2 goals and 8 assists in 10 games.

A former Chatham-Kent Cyclones prospect, Montour has always been an offensive threat from the backend. Last season in the USHL, he scored at more than a point per game en route to being named the USHL’s MVP and Top Defenseman, and being selected in the second round of the NHL Draft by the Anaheim Ducks.

Montour and the Umass Minutemen play the #2 ranked Boston University Terriers this weekend.