Andrew Ference (Born March 17, 1979 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a professional ice hockey defenceman with the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. He has also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Calgary Flames.

Playing career

Ference began his hockey career in the Western Hockey League for the Portland Winter Hawks, after 3 seasons with the team, Ference was drafted 208th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. Ference played 2 more seasons with Portland and made a brief spell at the International Hockey League for the Kansas City Blades before joining Pittsburgh's main AHL affiliate the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. On October 1, 1999 20-year-old Ference made his NHL debut for Pittsburgh against the Dallas Stars, and the young Canadian scored his first ever NHL goal against the Nashville Predators on November 13, 1999. He finished that season with 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points in 30 games. The next season Ference shared his commitments with both Penguins teams. Ference played in his first ever NHL playoff run with Pittsburgh, playing 18 games and scored 3 goals and 7 assists for 10 points before going out to the New Jersey Devils. Ference played a career high 75 games in the 2001?02 NHL season, and a career high in penalty minutes with 73. Ference was traded to the Calgary Flames for future considerations on February 9, 2003.

He posted 4 assists in 16 games during the remainder of the 2002?03 NHL season. The next season, he scored a career high 16 points with 4 goals and 12 assists in 72 games for Calgary and also played 26 playoff games posting 3 assists in a run that saw Calgary reach the Stanley Cup finals losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With the 2004?05 NHL season wiped out by the 2004?05 NHL lockout, Ference played in the Czech Republic for HC Ceske Budejovice. Ference returned to the Flames when the NHL re-started the next season.

With the resumption of hockey the 2005?06 season Ference remained part of the Calgary Flames defence playing all 82 games of the year. On February 10, 2007, he was traded, along with teammate Chuck Kobasew, to the Boston Bruins for defenceman Brad Stuart and center Wayne Primeau.

On December 21, 2007, he fought Sidney Crosby, making it Crosby's first Gordie Howe hat trick.

Ference's association with environmentalist David Suzuki while in Calgary led him to create a carbon-neutral program for the NHL, which now includes over 500 players who purchase carbon offset credits to counteract the negative environmental impact of professional sports.^[1]. He can be heard on the radio station WFNX's the Sandbox morning show on Tuesday mornings at 7:30.

Personal Life

Ference and Krista Bradford married in 2002. They have two daughters: Ava and Stella.^[2]

Career statistics

External links

• Stats on Bruins website

1. ↑ http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/web/COM1145122/3/index.htm
2. ↑ http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/articles/2009/04/30/renaissance_bruin/?page=1

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