Brian Ferlin comes to Ithaca from his native Jacksonville, Fla. following a busy summer that involved being selected by the Boston Bruins in the fourth round of the NHL Entry Draft and a trip to the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp. He and his linemates finished 1-2-3 in the USHL scoring race last season.
 
Q: So what was the Team USA Junior Camp like this summer?
A: I was kind of a late invite, but it was definitely a really fun expereince. There were a lot of elite players, so I got to see a bunch of the top guys from all across the world. (Joakim Ryan) was there, Andy (Iles) was there with me on the USA, so it was definitely a good experience.

Q: You may have been a late invite, but you still showed well. Are you happy with how you played there?
A: Yeah, I was really happy with how I played.  I think that I just went into it with the attitude that I had nothing to lose, and just give it all I had. And I thought I played pretty well.

Q: How cool was the goal you scored?
A: Oh yeah, that was awesome. Nice pass from Kenny Agostino, who plays on Yale. But hopefully he doesn't do that in the regular season. Yeah, it was a nice play, a little deke against Finland. So it was fun.

Q: Was the whole summer crazy with the draft experience?
A: It was pretty hectic, but I mean, obviously it was all fun. There was a lot of stuff going on leading up to the draft and everything, but it was nice to have it over with and just kind of know who wanted you and who picked you. You don't have to worry about it, and then you kind of just go to development camp for Boston and then just let it all play out, but it was fun. Definitely fun.
Q: Why do you think you had such a big jump in stats between your two years in Indiana?
A: I'm from Florida, so it's not exactly top-notch competition. But I think I had the speed and skills, but it just took me a year to kind of put it together. And then I was pretty raw in some areas, defensively and other parts of the game I was never really taught. Jeff Blashill was my coach in Indiana my first year, and he really helped me a lot. Having a year under my wing and learning to speak and use everything a little more. And my second year, I played with two pretty good players, (Daniil) Tarasov and (Blake) Coleman, so I think between the three of us, we had really good chemistry.

Q: Why come to Cornell?
A: First of all, I came to a game here and that's probably by far the coolest atmosphere I've seen. And I went to some pretty good schools academically growing up and my parents are really big on getting an education. So, I just figured that it's an  Ivy League school and great hockey program, so you can't really go wrong.

Q: So what are your first impressions staying on campus now for the first few months?
A: It's good, I think that obviously being a freshman, you've got to get adjusted to school a little bit and kind of balancing everything. But I think that I've done a pretty good job with that so far. And from a hockey standpoint, I really think we have a great team and a lot of really good guys. I think that we should be good this year. We'll have a fun year.

This story first appeared in the Cornell Hockey Night program on Oct. 21.