Exhausted and defeated, then-sophomore goaltender Kerrin Sperry fell to the ground. With 10.1 seconds left in triple overtime, Cornell University managed to pull ahead and knock out the Boston University women’s hockey team from the NCAA Tournament. Sperry and her teammates were motionless on the ice as their comeback-themed season came to an end.
“It was so emotional when we played that game, and we’re still talking about it,” said junior co-captain Marie-Philip Poulin. “I think it’s great motivation for us to talk about and know that we can go there and compete against those great teams.”
Now, seven months later, the Terriers have returned to the ice with a No. 6 ranking in the NCAA, pending any changes that should happen by Thursday because of win over Boston College, and No. 2 spot in Hockey East, as well as a rejuvenated and relatively healthy squad.
Last season featured a BU team that was wrought with injuries — some to the team’s most essential players — as well as night’s when BU coach Brian Durocher had concerns about his team’s compete.
“One of the real focuses here is to try to have the entire season be a strong body of work,” Durocher said of his goals for this season. “There were certainly some ups and downs last year that partially were injury, and maybe a little bit of lack of preparation on given nights.”
Much of this depth comes from the team’s veterans, who helped keep the squad going despite the struggles last season.
Included on this list is Poulin, even with her severe injuries last season that limited her to just 16 games, Isabel Menard, who transferred to BU during the 2011–12 academic year, and Kayla Tutino, who played a dominate role in her freshman season with the Terriers.
The Terriers will also have senior Jenelle Kohanchuk back on the ice after she missed all but seven games last season due to a severe concussion.
“[Kohanchuk] is a decorated player, who’s played on the under-22 teams and was a very good player in this league, and was off to a fantastic start last year,” Durocher said. “She had a really unfortunate injury, so I hope she can … add some depth that will also be very important to the team.
Joining Poulin, Menard, Tutino and Kohanchuk are five freshmen forwards who bring a promising future with them to the ice.
One of these freshmen, Sarah Lefort, even reminds Durocher of a former Terrier star, Jenn Wakefield.
“[Lefort’s] a real power winger,” Durocher said. “She may have some of the qualities that Jenn Wakefield had — a tremendous shot, good size, very strong when she goes for the net.”
During the Terriers first game of the season — a contest against BC, who was ranked the top team in Hockey East — Lefort notched two goals, including the game-tying and game-winning tallies to put the Terriers on top.
Overall, BU added eight new skaters to its roster, including junior transfer Shannon Doyle, who comes to BU after playing two seasons at Colgate University.
After losing three of their top blueliners to graduation in the 2011–12 season, the Terriers will need senior Kathryn Miller and junior Kaleigh Fratkin to fill the void on what Durocher has called a “blue-collar” defense.
“On the back end, you got a couple of players like Kathryn Miller who is never going to be a statistical wiz out there, but she’s a kid who is very smart, plays the game well,” Durocher said. “I think the other [dark-horse player] is Kaleigh Fratkin, who is probably as good a skater, as strong as anybody out there. And she’s been around the Wards and the Watchorns and the Bouchers, but I think this will be the time for her to sort of blossom here and capture the attention of a lot of the people that watch the game.”
In the net, the Terriers will continue to use Sperry, who Durocher said had earned her spot in the top of the team’s depth chart. Meanwhile, senior Alissa Fromkin will make appearances through the year after missing most of last season because of an injury.
Third-string netminder Braly Hiller will not play this season as she goes through season-ending surgery.
With the squad back to about 100 percent, the team has a significant chance to dominate its conference. Former Terrier captain Holly Lorms said the team could very well go on to win it all.
“I think they have an opportunity to do something that no Terrier team has done before,” Lorms said. “If they stay on the path of wanting to do it and follow their leaders … I think we’re going to be seeing them on March 24. They’re going to be bringing that trophy home.”
Before they try to take home that trophy, however, the Terriers need to knock out a few strong teams during the top half of their season.
In particular, BU will need to face Cornell University for the first time since that fateful March day that featured six periods of hard-fought hockey.
“I’m sure there’ll be a little bit of added excitement there because both teams are considered strong teams,” Durocher said. “Obviously they ended our season last year, as we did the year before to them, so there’ll be some extra energy in the building that time around.”