Sept. 29, 2011
After a banner year that saw the Boston University women’s ice hockey program reach unprecedented heights, the Terriers will look to raise the bar even higher in 2011-12. BU enters its seventh season as a varsity program and will be aiming to win its second Hockey East Tournament and return to the NCAA title game for the second straight year.
The defending Hockey East regular-season champions will have 21 letter winners returning from last year’s squad that finished with a 27-7-4 record, including a 15-3-3 mark in league play. BU finished last season ranked second in the nation in both polls and will begin this season as the No. 2/3 team in the country, a program-best.
The team’s recent success and national prominence has drawn plenty of attention, and head coach Brian Durocher is ready for the challenge of playing as one of the nation’s elite.
"We’ve got a little bit of a target on our back," Durocher said. "We’ve had two pretty good years of accomplishments in a row with the Hockey East Championship in 2010 and last year making it all the way to the NCAA tournament. Getting to the final game probably shined the light a little bit brighter on us as a program and a team."
While BU lost four key players to graduation, including All-American defenseman Catherine Ward, the Terriers return plenty of talented players at every end of the ice and are favored to win Hockey East this season.
"We know we lost four wonderful hockey players, but I think there’s still quite a bit of high-end talent," Durocher said. "I like to think we’ve got ourselves in good position talent-wise, but now we’ve got to make sure we’re playing every single day and not taking things for granted or starting to think we’re a good team because of the names on the back of the jersey."
FORWARDS
11 returning, 3 lost, 3 new
BU had one of the most explosive offenses in the nation last season, finishing tied for sixth in Division I with 3.47 goals per game. The Terriers return three of their top-four scorers in senior captain Jenn Wakefield, sophomore forward Marie-Philip Poulin and senior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk; all three will be called upon to provide the bulk of the scoring again this season, but BU also has plenty of depth at the position.
Wakefield was the Terriers’ leading scorer last year with a program-record 54 points (32-22-54). Her 32 goals is also a program-record for a single season. She finished sixth in the nation in goals and tied for ninth in the country in points. Poulin finished second on the Terriers in scoring (24-23-47) and was the Hockey East Rookie of the Year. Like Wakefield, Poulin was also selected as a Hockey East First-Team All-Star and was nominated for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. Kohanchuk finished fourth on the Terriers in scoring (10-21-33) and should have another productive season up front.
"I think Jenn and Marie are high-end players," Durocher said. "Marie-Philip is more of a distributer while Jenn is the hired gun who can really fire a puck. Marie-Philip has room to grow in the sense that she missed 10-11 games last year. Jenn was healthy most of the year and had a fantastic year. We hope she continues to play her game."
"Last year Jenelle played quite a bit on the off side with Marie-Philip. This year she might be on the left wing and I think that might give her a chance to be a little more productive playing a little more on her forehand."
Six juniors will provide added depth to the forward lines, as BU returns point-getters Jill Cardella (6-8-14) and Taylor Holze (4-7-11) and Britt Hergesheimer (1-1-2). Shannon Mahoney, Samantha Pulley and Cristina Wiley will also be back and have the potential to produce points. The Terriers also welcome transfer Isabel Menard from Syracuse. Menard is a potent scorer who scored 19 goals and added 24 assists for 43 points last season.
Louise Warren (5-5-10) and Meghan Riggs are the two sophomore forwards returning. They will be joined by two true freshmen in Sarah Bayersdorfer and Kayla Tutino who have the chance to see plenty of ice time this year.
"Kayla is a very good skater, has good speed, and is an intense young lady who wants to be as good as possible," Durocher said. "I expect her to challenge to be in the top-3 lines. Sarah is a hard-working kid who as long as she adjusts to the speed and comes back from the ACL injury she suffered before last year, will give us a gritty player who sees the game pretty well."
DEFENSEMEN
6 returning, 1 lost, 1 new, 1 redshirt freshman
Despite the loss of Second-Team All-America Catherine Ward, the Terriers’ blue-line will once again be strong. Two seniors anchor the defense in Tara Watchorn and Kasey Boucher. Watchorn finished 2010-11 with six goals and 19 assists for 25 points, best among returning defensemen. Boucher notched four goals and added 10 assists for 14 points. Both players were plus-14 last year and will play key minutes this season.
Kathryn Miller is the lone junior among the defensive corps. She potted four goals and added 10 assists for 14 points last year. She is joined by sophomores Kaleigh Fratkin (1-9--10) and Anya Battaglino. Caroline Campbell is a redshirt freshman who is healthy for this year, and the one true freshman on the blue line is Shannon Stoneburgh, who will get a chance to be among the top-six defensemen this year.
"The first thing you look at is the experience," Durocher said. "Tara and Kasey are both seniors who have been killing penalties, on power plays and playing in the last minutes of a period. Carly Warren is steady back there, someone who plays on one of our power plays and knows our systems. As a group, we all have to step forward to replace Catherine Ward. I think from top-to-bottom if everybody plays 10 percent better than they have in the past we’re going to be very good. We just have to do it as a group."
"Shannon is going to play and she’s going to have to get her feet wet ASAP. She comes from one of the most established programs, the Toronto Aeros, so I think she’s going to be somebody who will learn on the go."
GOALTENDERS
3 returning, 0 lost, 0 new
Sophomore Kerrin Sperry had a fantastic freshman campaign last year, as she was the 2011 Hockey East Goaltending Champion. She went 21-4-3 last year with a 1.63 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. She is the projected starting goaltender this year, but two others will see time between the pipes and provide steady competition at the position. Junior Alissa Fromkin finished the 2010-11 season with a 6-3-1 record (2.24 GAA, .900 Sv%) and started all 10 games she played. Sophomore Braly Hiller played one game last year and allowed just two goals.
"I think what Kerrin has done speaks for itself,” Durocher said. “She comes into the year as the number one goaltender."
THE SCHEDULE
Durocher has once again challenged his club with a tough but rewarding schedule in 2011-12, as the Terriers will face strong non-conference opponents before an always competitive Hockey East slate.
BU opens the regular season by hosting No. 7 North Dakota for a pair of games on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, before Niagara comes to town the following weekend. The Terriers will conclude their five-game home stand against Union on Oct. 15, before hitting the road for games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence (Oct. 21-22). BU begins its conference schedule with a road date against Boston College on Nov. 5 before the Eagles visit Walter Brown Arena on Nov. 5.
"Hockey East continues to attract top student athletes," Durocher said. "As that happens, you know that each game in conference is going to get tougher. From one to eight, every single night is going to be a battle in Hockey East. We stretched the boundaries a bit having Harvard in the Beanpot, having a pair against North Dakota, a pair with Wisconsin and two during the always-tough North Country trip (Clarkson and St. Lawrence). We’re going to have our hands full and we’re going to have to avoid whatever may cause a slump. We want to earn our way into the national tournament, and the way to do that is to have a good body of work over the entire 34 game schedule."
Other highlights include a two-game series at Cornell (Nov. 25-26) and the 34th annual Women’s Beanpot, which will take place Jan. 31 and Feb. 7 at Walter Brown Arena. BU hosts Harvard in the first round at 8 p.m. The Hockey East quarterfinals will take place on Feb. 25-26, and the Hockey East Championship will be contested in Hyannis, Mass., on March 3-4.
