Sports

WHITROCK: W. hockey poised for best season yet

The addition of a new sport to an athletic program is a lengthy and complex process. Even after the sport is added, the players are recruited and the first game is underway, the team’s evolution has only just begun. Expectations during a new team’s infancy generally focus on improvement over the course of the season, with little to no emphasis on results.

A mature and established team, on the other hand, has a different set of expectations, particularly when the team in question has a counterpart whose history and tradition of excellence is widely acknowledged. It is no longer enough to win a few games and be dispatched during the earlier stages of postseason play. The bar has been raised.

In its first year as a Division-I program, Boston University’s women’s ice hockey team was surprisingly competitive ‘-‘- had Hockey East been using its current playoff format, the Terriers sixth-place finish would have been enough to qualify for postseason play.

Subsequent seasons were highlighted by incremental improvements. In 2006-07 the Terriers picked up an additional eight league points and narrowly missed the playoffs. A year later, the team cracked the top four, making the playoffs for the first time before being cruelly dispatched by New Hampshire, 8-0. Last season’s squad produced a third-place finish and a Hockey East quarterfinals victory over Northeastern.

The Terriers’ women’s hockey program has evolved from the fledgling sixth-place team of four years ago, whose only predicted victories were moral ones. This season, with a playoff appearance as the minimum expectation and bigger and better things expected, how can BU hope to improve?

Last year was the Terriers’ strongest season to date, and a big reason for that was the team’s rotation in net. Although this year’s team is without the graduated Allyse Wilcox, a quality goaltender who performed well in many big games, Melissa Haber is more than capable of carrying the load.

Haber started 12 games for the Terriers last season and posted a goals-against average of 1.64, more than half a goal better than Wilcox’s 2.26 mark. Playing the majority of the games, including the more difficult opponents previously handled by Wilcox, will be a test for Haber, but if the Terriers falter this season, the fault will probably not lie in goal.

More troublesome than Wilcox’s departure is the loss of key defenders from last year. BU’s successes in goal last season were in large part a product of having high-caliber veteran defensemen on the roster. Among last year’s seniors were two of the Terriers’ best defensemen, Sarah Russell and Amanda Shaw.

The top five teams in Hockey East last season all allowed two goals or fewer last season. The Terriers returning defensive corps is led by last year’s Hockey East All-Rookie and second team All-Conference selection Tara Watchorn. The sophomore is off to an outstanding start, tallying a plus-minus of seven through five games this season.

With only two upperclassmen listed as defensemen on the roster, the Terriers youth will need to help hold the fort. It’s not uncommon for players to have difficulty upon arriving at the collegiate level before settling in, so look for opponents’ goal-scoring (14 through five games so far) to decrease as the year progresses. Last year’s mark of 1.90 goals-allowed per game in Hockey East play is a good target, as all of the top five teams averaged under two goals allowed per game last season.

If the Terriers are going to break out this season, the improvement will have to come on offense ‘- and there’s reason for optimism. Four of BU’s top five scorers from last year are back; several Terrier forwards have gotten off to strong starts, highlighted by Jenelle Kohanchuk’s record four-goal performance in Detroit last Saturday.

Not only are most of the Terriers’ weapons back on the ice this season, but many of them are poised to improve. Jenelle Kohanchuk led the team in points last year as a freshman. How many more goals might she score as a sophomore? Jillian Kirchner and Lauren Cherewyk were potent offensive players as sophomores and figure to be even better as juniors.

Of the major returning scorers, only Melissa Anderson is a senior. Having productive younger players last year figures to reap major benefits this year. The difference in goaltending between last year’s league champions New Hampshire and the Terriers wasn’t substantial ‘-‘- it was the 0.53 difference in goals per game that ultimately carried the Wildcats to the title. If BU wants to bring home major hardware this season, that is the gap that needs to be closed, and four straight four-goal games early in the season suggests it may.

After three consecutive years of improvement, last month’s coaches poll predicted BU to finish the season in third place. The challenge has been made ‘- the coaches, the people who have the most contact with their respective teams, expect BU’s year-by-year improvement to end here.

For a team whose every season has been characterized as a success, third place wouldn’t just be stagnant. A lack of improvement would be unprecedented. In relative terms, it would be a failure.’ The Hockey East coaches, in so many words ‘–‘- or votes ‘-‘- have publicly expressed doubt in the Terriers’ ability to take the next step.

Doubt them at your own peril.

Website | More Articles

This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.

Comments are closed.