Trivigno's Lowest Moment Gave Rise to Champion Mentality
By Matt Kalman

Grappling with defeat often leads to self-reflection.

In Bobby Trivigno’s case, UMass’ loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the 2019 NCAA title game was particularly devastating. Although he’d scored a goal in the national semifinal against Denver, Trivigno also crossed the discipline line with an elbow to the head of Pioneers forward Jake Durflinger.

Trivigno wasn’t penalized on the play, but the decision was soon handed down by the NCAA to suspend him for the final.

Without the freshman’s offensive pop (he scored 13 goals that season), the Minutemen lost 3-0. Instead of hardware, UMass returned to Amherst with life lessons, including one that marked a turning point in Trivigno’s career.

“For me as far as controlling my emotions, not letting myself to get too ramped up or too low has been probably the biggest thing for me to limit those penalties, stupid penalties, which I would call them,” Trivigno recently told HockeyEastOnline.com. “Probably the biggest thing for me was managing my emotions. And as a captain as a leader you can never let your emotions get the better of you in any situation.

“You’re the guy that always has to steer the boat, right. You can’t be the guy hanging off the side and slowing everyone down.”

photo

Three years, one national championship and several individual accolades later, Trivigno isn’t just the captain of the Minutemen, he’s also one of the premier forwards in the nation. Never mind “hanging off the side and slowing everyone down,” he’s one of the fastest players in college hockey and he’s helping drive UMass to a lofty perch among the best programs in NCAA hockey.

“He was a really gritty player early on. He’s become a very fast player,” UMass coach Greg Carvel explained. “He’s the fastest player in the league. He plays at a pace where it’s tough for teams to keep up with him. He’s got enough talent and enough skill and enough puck ability, he scores, he’s a threat every game.”

Trivigno’s skill and speed have improved from his first day on campus through now. His determination, though, has always overflowed. That’s what caught the eye of Maine head coach Ben Barr when he was associate coach at UMass.

Barr knew the Trivigno family for years and felt it was important to get Bobby to Amherst.

“I knew the character piece and I knew the never-going-to-be-denied attitude that that kid had,” Barr recalled.

Now listed at 5-foot-8, 162 pounds, Trivigno has always had to overcome doubts about his size. That’s where the chip on his shoulder came from. He describes himself as an “angry” player when he was in junior hockey. That carried over into the start of his collegiate career.

His 28 points came with 31 penalty minutes in his first year on campus. The season culminated with the left wing watching the Minutemen and the Bulldogs play for the ultimate prize.

“Having to watch that game was definitely one of the lows of my career. I obviously felt terrible in the stands, I felt like I let a lot of my teammates down,” Trivigno explained.

Carvel knew Trivigno could be an integral part of the Minutemen’s ascension if he could get through to the Setauket, N.Y. native.

“It was just obvious after a while that this was a kid that came in with an attitude of ‘I’m going to just out-compete you and I don’t care what I do,’” Carvel said. “And that’s the conversation: ‘you can out-compete everyone without having to take penalties.’ To me it was maybe the biggest example of how coachable he is, and to me that’s being a really good teammate. It’s selfless to change your ways to better the team and he does that in every way.”


“My game really thrives playing on that edge.”


Trivigno couldn’t change if he didn’t first see the error of his ways.

“Obviously getting suspended and stuff weighed a lot on me,” he recalled.

So he had to find ways to play with the conviction that made him a focal point of UMass’ attack but make sure he wasn’t in the box or the stands for some of the Minutemen’s most important moments. He leaned on people like Carvel, Barr and the rest of UMass’ coaches, including mental skills coach Mark Randall.

He found ways to internalize things in the heat of battle or while on the bench cooling down.

Then he had to find a way to balance everything out to maximize his skills. He had just 20 penalty minutes as a sophomore, but also saw his production drop to nine goals and 20 points in the pandemic-truncated 2019-20 season.

That set the stage for Trivigno’s junior season. He became an assistant captain and a player that opponents hated to face both because of his talent and his grit.

“I think last year I found a perfect balance of my discipline and holding my emotions in check but still allowing myself to have that intensity to my game and that compete and grit and physicality for sure,” Trivigno said. “So it was a little bit of a process to tone it back but not tone it back too much and find that perfect balance. Where my game really thrives is playing on that edge and being gritty and being a pest, but also staying out of the penalty box and producing goals or assists.”

The perfect balance in Trivigno’s life led to the perfect ending for the Minutemen. They won the Hockey East title with Trivigno winning the tournament MVP. He was also on the All-Tournament team and made the All-Hockey East First Team.

After UMass captured the league title, he and his teammates were handed the trophy by commissioner Steve Metcalf, who two years earlier as a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee was instrumental in the decision to suspend Trivigno.

Metcalf couldn’t help but be struck by the full-circle nature of that moment.

“Here I am in this role, presenting him with a trophy for his play and his team, and just two years prior … [I had a role in his suspension], how things had turned. Wow this has really taken a twist and a turn,” said Metcalf, who also noted that Trivigno has had a clean record since the freshman year incident.

photo

As defending national champs, the Minutemen have been taking the oppositions’ best punches this season. They’ve handled it well, led by Trivigno with a ‘C’ on his sweater and his usual combination of high-level skill and relentlessness. Carvel estimates he could play Trivigno 30 minutes a game if he had to.

“Last game, we’re shaking hands after the game and he had hardly any sweat in his hair, he said ‘I don’t play enough,’” Carvel said.

With UMass’ depth, it’s unlikely Carvel will have to go to those extremes with Trivigno’s ice time to put the Minutemen in a position to repeat. But as always, Trivigno will continue to do whatever it takes to create perfect ending to his collegiate career. Everything he’s done to get to this point has paid off.

“I’ve done my best to earn whatever I’ve gotten in the past and I know that I want another Hockey East championship and we want another national championship as well,” he said. “So I know the work’s not done and I’m going to keep battling and work as hard as I can until my time is up and it’s time to hang the jersey up.”