Commesso, Warsofsky, Yip to Face Off Thursday in Olympic Opener
February 9, 2022 | Men's Ice Hockey
The quest for gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics will begin on Thursday for three Terriers when the United States Men's Olympic Hockey Team faces China in both countries' opening game of the preliminary round.
Brandon Yip will captain China in its first-ever Olympic men's ice hockey game against fellow 2009 national champion David Warsofsky and current Terrier sophomore Drew Commesso. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:10 a.m. ET and will be televised live on USA Network. Two Terriers will be behind the American bench, as David Quinn is head coach and Scott Young is an assistant coach for Team USA.
Commesso most recently represented the U.S. at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, making 23 saves in his one preliminary-round game en route to being selected as Team USA's player of the game. He played his best hockey in December and January, going 8-1-1 with a .945 save percentage and a 1.67 goals-against average in his last 10 starts before heading to Beijing. Commesso won each of the last two Hockey East Goaltender of the Month awards.
Warsofsky is currently playing for ERC Ingolstadt in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, Germany's top professional men's hockey league. He has played 55 games in the NHL for four different clubs, in addition to 476 games in the AHL, where he recorded 57 goals and 195 assists for 252 points and also served as captain of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2019-20. At BU, Warsofsky totaled 68 points (22g, 46a) in 113 contests and also became the first Terrier to win gold at World Juniors, doing so in 2010.
Yip is captain of Kunlun Red Star in the KHL, where he has notched 112 points (58g, 54a) in four seasons. Prior to playing in Europe, Yip appeared in 174 games over parts of five seasons in the NHL, including 113 games with the Colorado Avalanche. He recorded 56 points (29g, 27a) during his NHL career. As a Terrier, Yip was the 2006 Hockey East Rookie of the Year and went on to score 45 goals and add 63 assists for 108 points in 139 games. That included 43 points (20g, 23a) during the Terriers' 2008-09 national championship season.
This will be the 15th straight Olympics that at least one Terrier will represent their country on the ice. It is also the second straight Games in which a current men's hockey player has been selected to play in the Olympics, as Jordan Greenway joined Team USA in 2018 during his junior season with the Terriers.
