By Jared Shafran, News Staff

This is the fourth in the series of articles profiling the five top male and female senior athletes at Northeastern, culminating in the Huntington News male and female Senior Athletes of the Year.

Students come to Northeastern for a variety of reasons. But for senior Ryan Ginand, he wanted to have a chance to play hockey in the Hockey East conference and win a Beanpot Championship.
‘I’m from Milford and I wanted to go to one of these East Coast schools,’ said Ginand, the team’s leading goal scorer this year. ‘I’ve always wanted to go to one of the four Boston schools and play in the Beanpot.’
But that wasn’t the only reason. He also has some family history here at NU.
‘My mom went to Northeastern and she saw the transition that the school went through when she went here in the late ’80’s,’ Ginand said. ‘It seemed like the right fit for me academically and I liked the city atmosphere, the campus life and being close to home.’
When Ginand first arrived on campus in 2005, he said he was excited to play for the team and was looking forward to immediate success. Unfortunately, his freshman season was plagued with losses and the team mustered only a 3-24-7 record that season.
‘I came in here thinking the program was going to have a good start.,’ Ginand said. ‘The previous year they were .500 and they made it to the Beanpot championship.’
As the team’s win total improved, so did Ginand’s scoring. He made a impact in his freshman year with the team, scoring 10 goals and assisting on six others.
By the end of his career this year, Ginand led the team and was fourth in Hockey East with 20 goals. In his career with the Huskies, Ginand totaled 46 goals and 32 assists.
‘We lost a lot of games by a goal and we tied a lot of games, but I always had the same mentality,’ Ginand said. ‘I thought we could win and I knew we could win.’
He said his coach, Greg Cronin, stressed the same thing from day one and stuck to the same goals every year, no matter what.
‘I always knew we could win here,’ Ginand said. ‘You can win with any team, it’s just having the right guys.’
This year, when the team struggled, Ginand was up for the challenge and said he took pride in being a senior leader.
When asked what he enjoyed most about the recent success of the team, Ginand replied with two words:’ Matthews Arena.
‘This year, when we were at Matthews for the home games, every one was special,’ Ginand said.
He said some of his fondest memories were playing in the coveted Beanpot games.
‘ ‘I thought every Beanpot game was awesome,’ Ginand said.
Having played at NU for four years, the chance to play deep in the postseason meant a lot to the always offensive minded Ginand, he said.
‘One thing I’ll never forget is when we watched as our team was selected on ESPNU to go to the NCAA Tournament,’ Ginand said. ‘That was really cool.’
In the future, he said he hopes to play internationally.
‘I think I’ll just miss going out on the rink everyday with the guys,” Ginand said. ‘I’ll miss playing scholastic hockey, playing for your school. It was a lot of fun, but it’s time to move on now.’