CC captain follows order

Marty Sertich could have quit the Colorado College hockey team.

Nobody would have blamed him. Nobody would have questioned his heart. CC coach Scott Owens would have found another captain.

But Sertich wouldn't have been able to forgive himself for disobeying his late mother.

"Don't stop," Patty Sertich told her oldest son before she died of brain cancer last May. Sertich didn't stop. He pushed forward, and he quietly has posted the kind of numbers -- 12 goals and 25 assists for 37 points, tied for the 11th-most nationally -- that make him an outside contender to reclaim the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's top player.

"I don't think anyone expected anything else but for me to come back," Sertich said. "I love playing hockey. I know my mom wouldn't have wanted me to not come back."

Sertich's senior season has been different than last season, not only because his mother isn't in the stands. Inconsistency has plagued No. 8 CC, which is 1-5 in the past six games heading into this weekend's series at St. Cloud State.

The Tigers didn't drop backback games last season on their way to the Frozen Four. They've been swept in three Western Collegiate Hockey Association series, and the five-game losing streak they snapped Saturday against No. 11 North Dakota was the longest since Sertich's sophomore season.

Nonstop hype also has surrounded Sertich, the talk of the town everywhere CC plays.

Reporters sometimes request interviews with goaltender Matt Zaba and left wing Brett Sterling, whose 22 goals are tied for the second most nationally. But Sertich's face routinely pops up on the front page of newspapers in WCHA cities, and the Hobey Baker Award always is attached to his name.

"I'm the type of person that puts pressure on myself," said Sertich, whose 12 goals are 11 fewer than he had at this point last season. "I'm more concerned with the team. If I'm struggling, I'm upset with myself because I'm not helping the team."

As captain, Sertich has stayed positive with his teammates, figuring support is better than criticism.

Sterling, an alternate captain, often talks just as much -- if not more -- than Sertich during practices and before games. Sertich's words of wisdom, however, are more profound than Sterling's mix of motivation, trash talk and friendly banter.

"Remember, the good players play no matter what," Sertich told his teammates as they stretched after a captain's practice last month. "The good players play whether the coaches are here, no matter who we're playing this weekend. The good players want to get better."

Sertich said he thinks about his mother "every day in lots of different situations."

Before his mother started traveling to CC's games the final month of last season, Sertich called her every day.

She was in attendance when CC lost to Denver in the national semifinal and when Sertich was presented with the Hobey Baker Award at the Frozen Four. She died at 52, two days after Sertich was honored.

Asked what he misses most about his mother, Sertich said, "I can't even answer that. There's too much."

Defenseman Lee Sweatt contends it would have been easy for Sertich to leave the team after his mother's death.

"A lot of people without his character definitely would have quit," Sweatt said. "Marty is not that kind of kid. You can see it out there with every shift he takes. He's always working as hard as he can."

Right wing Joey Crabb agreed.

"Every decision is a man's own. He made the right choice," Crabb said. "I know he would love to be spending time with his family. But this is pretty important to him right now."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com

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