James Averill is an American retired ice hockey

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

who was an All-American for

Northeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Career

When he graduated from

Wayland High School Wayland High School is the public high school for the town of Wayland, Massachusetts, United States. During the 2021-2022 school year, there were 831 students enrolled at the high school. Wayland High School is consistently ranked as one of the b ...

in 1981, Averill was already a local hockey star. He was a Dual County MVP and had made the All-scholastic team while being a three-sports standout for the Warriors. He began attending Northeastern University the following fall and joined the ice hockey team just in time for the program's surprising jump into the big time. Prior to the 1981–82 season, the Huskies had never won a playoff game and had no 20-win seasons in nearly 50 years of play. Averill's arrival coincided with the Huskies winning the east region and finishing second the 17-team

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

. For the first time in their history, Northeastern was able to play a home-site playoff game and used a big performance by their defense to propel themselves to not only a postseason victory, but won the ECAC Tournament, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time. While the offense had led the Huskies during the regular season, it was their defense that carried them to victory in March; NU allowed just two goals in each of their three games (half of when they averaged during the regular season). For their already stellar season, Northeastern received the top eastern seed and were matched against an underestimated

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

in the quarterfinals. The teams fought to a 2–2 draw in the first match and repeated the performance in game two. With the score evenly knotted, the Huskies played the longest game in program history to that point, needing three overtimes to decide the winner. In the end Averill got to raise his arms in celebration as Northeastern scored the winner and sent the Huskies into the frozen four. In the national semifinal, Northeastern's magical run finally ended with a 2–6 drubbing at the hands of eventual champion

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

. The Huskies were sent to the consolation game and took their frustration out on ECAC runner-up

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

to the tune of 10–4. Unfortunately for Averill, Northeastern reverted to type after 1982 and the Huskies missed the postseason entirely the next two years. While the team wasn't very good, Averill led the defensive corps in scoring for three straight years, ending his time with the Huskies as an All-American in 1985 and finishing as the then-second highest scoring defenseman in program history. Averill retired as a player after graduating and was inducted into the Northeastern athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

Statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Averill, Jim 1963 births Living people AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans American men's ice hockey defensemen Northeastern Huskies men's ice hockey players Ice hockey players from Massachusetts People from Wayland, Massachusetts