Previewing PC's Women of the Ice

Expectation are slightly tempered this year as it appears that the trend that saw the women’s hockey team fall back to the pack has not been totally changed.

The top has appeared to have pulled further ahead of the Friars and Providence’s immediate competition appears to have also gotten stronger. The dilemma for PC is that arguably their three best players are seniors so there is a sense of urgency to be competitive now... on the other hand 4 transfers and 4 freshmen means this team has done a quick makeover.

The following is a quick summary of the Women’s Hockey East in the order I see the teams finishing:

1. New Hampshire: This team spent time ranked as the number one women’s team during last season and they made the Frozen Four. Losses to graduation were minimal, losing only two contributors, one a graduate student transfer from Brown who was brought in to play just her last year of eligibility while the rest of the team gained experience. In their place they have added 6 newcomers all of whom have succeeded on every level they have played. The freshman to watch out for is Michaela Long a flashy forward from South Boston and Pomfret Academy. With the larger roster UNH has put to rest their biggest weakness depth. They can now roll out 4 solid lines and 6 defensemen.

Of the returnees the key players include Melissa Bourdon their senior goalie. She has had the best goals against average in each of her three seasons in the league. Last year she was named second team league all star after making the first team as a sophomore. On defense they are led by Martine Garland, a junior who bounced back from injury her true sophomore season to make 1st team all Hockey East last year. They also expect big things from sophomore Kacy Bellamy who had 8 goals from the blueline in her initial season. Up front the Wildcats are led by last year Hockey East Player of the Year Sadie Wright-Ward who had 28 goals and 33 assists for 61 points. She is aided by Jennifer Hitchcock a first team Hockey East all star who netted 30 goals, 36 assists and 66 points. A third star is Nicole Heckle who recorded a 12-21-33 line.

Last year New Hampshire ran away with the league title going 19-1-1 and finishing 6 points ahead of 2nd place BC. This year they may have opened the gap up even more.

2. Boston College: While easily being outdistanced by UNH, BC showed they are now a serious program as they leveraged two strong recruiting classes into a 2nd place finish. While their senior goalie gave them more then they had a right to expect out of her, BC did not rely on their seniors. Only two other seniors saw significant time, one on a checking line and the other was converted from defense to forward and thus be easier to replace. In their place BC is placing great faith in another strong recruiting class lead by forwards Allie Thunstrom, Kelli Stack and defenseman Gabrielle Beaudry. They have also added a highly regarded prep goalie in Molly Schaus.

BC now can count on the experience of their veterans. In particular major contributions are expected of junior Deb Spillane and sophomore Becky Zavisza up front. Spillane had 17 goals and 18 assists while Zavisza racked up 17 goals and 12 assists in her first season. On defense Maggie Taverna made a strong first impression and she is aided by junior Cristin Stuart. Overall BC has continued the trend of the past two years of building depth.

However one event during the summer did prevent BC from breaking away from the rest of the field. BC saw their second leading scorer transfer just as school was about to begin. To make matters worse for them, the transfer, Sarah Feldman, has gone to Providence cutting into the gap that was growing between the two teams.

3. Providence College: There are other programs knocking at the door but PC’s senior experience should hold off the challenge at least for this season. This PC team saw three of its top forwards graduate last year meaning they will be scrambling to score goals. They also have endured the growing pains of a young defense so the hope is that with a little experience that will play a stronger and smarter defense.

In goal PC brings back 5th year senior Jana Bugden. Injuries seemed to have slowed her down from her strong rookie campaign. She missed her entire junior campaign due to shoulder surgery. Last year she seemed to need the year to round back into shape, so hopefully, like a baseball pitcher coming back from serious shoulder surgery, it takes her a year to fully recover and she has a strong final season for the Friars. Backing her up is senior Lauren Florio and Minnesota Duluth transfer Danielle Ciarletta. Ciarletta was the back up for the Bulldogs last season.

It appears Coach Deraney is again using some modified form of the three back, two forward system that the Middlebury men have successfully employed and which Deraney used during the first Hockey East championship season. However it seemed to be a problem to implement the following season and he has not used it the past couple of years. The advantage is that it means you always have coverage on defense as the back with the puck or with the opening down low is the one who jumps into the play while the others are ready to fall back and play defense if the need arises.

Also making such a style plausible this year is the fact that the Friars return all 6 regulars from last year and have added a freshmen who is thought to have a lot of upside, especially offensively. It also appears that at least two of the forwards, Rachel Crissy and Brittany Lomond have slid into one of the back positions when they are on the ice. While Crissy hasn’t played back for PC before she is one of the team’s better skaters, Lomond while very small is also quick. The system also might help three of PC’s defensemen who like to jump into the play feel comfortable doing so. Kristin Gigliotti, Kathleen Smith and Erin Normore all were among the top scoring defensemen in the nation last season. Gigliotti actually led the nation’s defensemen in scoring and this year appears she has worked to gain quickness. The new system might also let her increase her total of 15 goals from last season. Smith who after making 2nd team Hockey did not seem to reach the same level last season, though she still managed to produce an 8 goal 16 assist season. Sophomore Erin Normore was named to the all rookie team last year when she scored 6 goals and 16 assists. The sophomores, Brittany Simpson and Meredith George both struggled at times last year, but both also showed signs of being steady players now they have some experience. Simpson in particular came to PC with high expectations and possibly the combination of experience and getting a little more freedom might make her a better player. Junior Caitlin Malboeuf will have to work on her quickness as she repeatedly took penalties that put PC in too many short handed situations. Gigliotti also took a lot of penalties though her penalties came from her aggressiveness around the puck. The newcomer is Colleen Martin who is coming to PC directly out of Woburn High School. Woburn has been one of the strongest public school teams in Massachusetts during her 4 years of high school; however other players who have jumped from that league to Hockey East have struggled. At Woburn she was known for her ability to handle the puck and her shot, if she can adjust fairly quickly and get better as the year goes on she will be a big asset.

The three departed seniors represented about a third of PC’s goals last season. Feldman is the only really proven scorer of the 3 forward transfers and the 3 freshman do not come to PC with well known reputations as goal scorers. So while PC most likely will struggle to even make up the missing goals they will have more depth. Last year Coach Deraney’s 4th line only scored 8 points, most of those when teamed up with one of the top players who were double shifting. This year while not blessed with snipers he can count on whoever he dresses to chip in to the scoring. His top returning player is senior Sonny Watrous, last year she lead the team in goals with 19 and was second with 40 points. Junior transfer Sarah Feldman, BC’s second leading scorer, and Minnesota Duluth transfer, sophomore Mari Pehkonen both have proven they can play at this level. Pehkonen had 14 points in her initial season, but missed roughly a third of the season to return home to play for the Finnish Olympic team.

To move up PC needs to have several forward have breakout seasons. Big things were expected of Jenna Kelich when she arrived, she was held back by a series of injuries as a freshman, last year, while scoring 10 points she still only notched 3 goals. Rachel Crissy is a top penalty killer and an excellent skater but she slumped from 8 goals to 4 last year. Kelli Doolin one of this year’s assistant captains slipped from 6 goals as a freshman to 2 as a sophomore. Cherie Hendrickson dropped from 3 goals to 1 though she scored 7 points in both seasons. The other junior being counted on is Danielle Tangredi who joins the Friars from Maine where she produced a 4-6-10 line. Of the sophomores the most is expected of Katy Beach who had 10 points on 5 goals and 5 assists. Stephanie Morris at times exhibited an ability to handle the puck and proved to be a good skater but she still was able to only score 2 goals. So far this year one of the most improved players appears to be Maura Grainger. If she can get her shots on goal with a bit more consistency she could be a key factor in PC’s forward offense.

Of the newcomers Pamela McDevitt had a strong season for Nobles and is suppose to have a good shot. Brittany Nelson from Pomfret is a good athlete who could potentially balance one of PC lines. In the early going she seemed to get as much ice time as many of the top veteran players. The biggest mystery player is Jackie Duncan who comes to PC from Quebec by way of the Kent School. She has proven in Canada to be a good goal scorer though she did not produce those type of numbers in her prep season.

Overall PC will need to find many ways to score to take the pressure off its top players as they are not the classic sniper PC has had in past seasons. PC will also need to continue to get some of its offense out of the defense. The biggest thing PC must do as the game gets called tighter and tighter is to work at taking less penalties. The team has lost their two best penalty killers to graduation and playing significant parts of the game short handed will take its toll on a team that is known to be slow on defense and struggling to get an offense going.

Despite all that if enough things go right PC should make the playoffs and from there with a veteran goalie like Jana Bugden you never know how far you can go when it becomes one and done tournament play.

4. Connecticut: Coached by former Friar star Heather Linstad, the Huskies are a fundamentally sound team. Their biggest weakness in their previous 5 season of play has been a lack of scoring. They return top scorer Jacyln Hawkins. What Linstad needs to do is to replace 1st team Hockey East goalie Katelyn Shain. If she finds that goaltending UConn is positioned to make a large jump this season. Last season they lacked depth, this year they have added 11 freshmen. The most impressive is Dominique Thibault who was named to Canada’s U-22 team.

5. Boston University: This second year program made great strides in its initial season hanging tough and fighting for a playoff spot almost till the end. As any new team would do they return every player who made a significant contribution and have added 9 freshmen and 1 senior transfer. The transfer came from Maine where she was their number 2 defenseman. At BU she should combine nicely with sophomore Amanda Shaw and give BU a tighter defense. Up front BU is lead by Gina Kearns and Cara Hendry. Often in a first season a new team catches other by surprise, BU got off to a very good start before a second half slump. Its very possible with everyone taking them far more seriously they will have a rougher time this season.

6. Northeastern: Over the past several season NU has struggled. While neither a flashy team nor one with a true sniper the team does have some balance on offense. They have senior forwards Ashley Bielawski, Crystal Rochon, Amy Goodney and Marie Desrosiers to go along with Junior Nikki Petrich and sophomore Ali Bielawski. They have also added several freshmen with potential including Annie Hogan. The defensive end of the rink is NU’s main concern. First they are looking for a top goalie as Marisa Hourihan has graduated and there is no clear cut heir apparent. They also had 2 senior defensemen graduate and a sophomore to be transfer. They will be counting on freshmen Julia Clark and Ginny Berg to mature quickly.

7. Maine: The Black Bears were hit hard by transfers (Trangredi to PC, Poulin to BU) and players choosing not to return to college (Patrice Gagnon who played only half of last season but made all rookie team and led Maine to the playoffs and Sheri Wauters), plus 3 seniors. Overall this team lacks depth. Their key players are senior Brigitte Laflamme, sophomore forward Vanessa Vani and Senior All League player Kelly Law. The top freshman recruit is Taryn Peacock. Unless Maine can get consistently strong goaltending they will struggle to repeat their playoff run of last season. Maine also has a new coach, Lauren Steblen as former coach Guy Perron joined the coaching staff of Maine’s men’s team.

8. Vermont: The Cats hired former Brown and NHL defenseman Tim Bothwell to turn their fortunes around. His late hire precludes it from being this season. As a team they scored 36 goals all of last season. They graduated their top 4 scorers, though none even scored 10 points. The rebuilding process begins with the hope that Sash Hochlander will be a cornerstone player as she gains experience. For this year another long season is in store for Vermont.