WHITROCK: BU’s other hockey team

BU Athletics hit an important milestone the other day, and if you weren’t looking closely, you might have missed it.
It’s OK if you did. I can’t blame anyone for missing it with all the other things that went on in Terrier sports last weekend. Women’s soccer locked up the top seed in the America East Tournament with a pair of wins. Men’s soccer fought its way back to the top of the standings. Men’s hockey started conference play. Field hockey had the only real setback of the weekend, losing at home to Maine. And, of course, there was the 44th annual Head of the Charles Regatta.
Last, but certainly not least, the women’s hockey team played two home games against ECAC foes, defeating Clarkson and tying No. 9 St. Lawrence University, 2-2. The results, while exceeding the expectations of some, aren’t really the important part.
No, the important part came on Tuesday. Tuesday, of course, marked the release of the weekly USA Today/USA Hockey women’s poll, one of the two major women’s hockey polls (the other one being the USCHO/CSTV poll).
Yes, you guessed it: After slightly more than three years of consistent improvement, the Terriers have worked their way up from the bottom and forced their way into the national polls.
Well, one of them anyway. The USCHO/CSTV poll still puts BU one spot out of the rankings, at the top of the ‘Others Receiving Votes’ list. But the USA Today/USA Hockey poll now gives BU a No. 10 ranking.
College hockey polls themselves are strange. The selection process for the various NCAA hockey tournaments ‘-‘- there are four in total ‘-‘- is far more objective than the ‘smoke-filled room’ model used for college basketball. USCHO even has a model ranking system called PairWise Rankings (PWR). PWR has accurately predicted the tournament field for the past decade.
So why are the media polls important? Because the media polls reflect public perception. It’s one thing for a team to be playing good hockey early in the season, but a national ranking is an indicator of how observers are interpreting early season results. Not only are the pollsters impressed by BU’s swift start to the season, they now expect BU to maintain that level of performance.
With the men’s team currently ranked sixth and seventh in the polls, both Terrier teams are ranked in the Top 10 in the country at the same time. While fielding two strong hockey teams was undoubtedly one of the goals when women’s hockey became a varsity sport, getting the women’s team to perform at such a high level this quickly still comes as somewhat of a surprise.
Don’t believe me? Look at Vermont’s women’s hockey team, which joined Hockey East the same year as the Terriers. While BU has shown improvement in the Hockey East standings each year, the Catamounts have never finished higher than seventh. Not only that, but Vermont had three years to compete in D-I before making the move to Hockey East ‘-‘- the Terriers made the jump to HE straight from club status in 2005.
With a win and a tie against two top opponents already this year, the Terriers are sending a message: They’ve improved since last season. Given that BU is fielding four classes of scholarship players for the first time, that shouldn’t come as a surprise ‘-‘- until you see the preseason Hockey East coaches’ poll.
After reaching the postseason for the first time last spring, the coaches marked the Terriers down for fifth place in the conference. It would be one thing to question whether BU would be ready to truly challenge UNH for the Hockey East crown, but fifth? Last year, fifth would have resulted in missing the playoffs.
The Terriers have a little more leeway this year because the conference playoffs now admit six contestants. But with 20 returning members on the team, including 10 seniors and seven juniors, this is no time for the program to start backsliding. While it’s still unclear how the blue line will fare with three freshmen joining the defensive corps, BU has loads of proven veteran talent all over the ice.
Even if BU’s highly touted rookie defenders aren’t quite up to snuff against the highest tier of competition ‘-‘- which is doubtful, given the team’s successes to date ‘-‘- Allyse Wilcox is the best goaltender in Hockey East and has the accolades to prove it. Last year, Wilcox was the First-Team Hockey East All-Star goalie, the first Terrier to receive the honor.
Go to enough women’s hockey games and you’ll be sure to see Wilcox make some circus-quality saves. At no time is that type of skill more important than in a shootout. Coincidentally, Hockey East has introduced shootouts to the women’s half of the conference this year ‘-‘- another change which seems likely to work in the Terriers’ favor.
For three years, the Terriers have had to work to build their own momentum. At first, each win was an upset. Now, the team has the talent and depth to match its grit and determination. And now, not long after starting near the bottom of Hockey East, it looks like there may still be room at the top.