Terrier target practice

The following article appears in today’s hockey supplement of the Daily Free Press.

With a Hockey East title and a NCAA championship game in its recent history, the No. 2 Boston University women’s hockey team has successfully emblazoned a target on it’s back for the upcoming season.

 The Terriers, who were picked as the preseason favorite in Hockey East, were ranked second in the nation by U.S. College Hockey Online – the highest national preseason ranking in the team’s seven years of existence.

 “We’ve had two seasons of pretty high recognition,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “That obviously creates a bit of a target for your opponents. We also returned a pretty good group of talented players here that are going to make our team on paper a pretty good team.”

In the season following the team’s most successful campaign as of yet, BU will return most of its high-caliber players despite losing four to graduation. Missing from the team’s roster this year are forwards Holly Lorms, Jillian Kirchner, Lauren Cherewyk and defenseman Catherine Ward, the latter of whom was named the program’s first All-American.

Even though they have lost three forwards, BU can still be expected to have one of the most dynamic offensive lines in the nation.

Leading the charge is senior forward and captain Jenn Wakefield who comes into the season after a career year where she broke the BU single-season records for goals with 32 and points with 54.

“Jenn is one of the best goal scorers anywhere,” Durocher said. “[She’s a] big strong kid who’s hard to match up against because she can be a line in herself sometimes. She just has a lot of talent, a lot of individual goals and strengths.”

Expected to help lead the team in points was sophomore forward and assistant captain Marie-Philip Poulin who, despite missing nearly a month last season because of a wrist injury, still netted the second highest amount of goals on the team with 24.

Wakefield and Poulin accounted for 56 combined goal last season, which makes up more than 42 percent of the teams offensive output.

“Marie-Philip Poulin is another highly decorated player that can do everything in the game,” Durocher said.

The Terriers, however, will likely be without Poulin until December because of an abdominal injury that the standout player suffered in the first weekend of games.

Despite the dent that would put in the team’s offense, Durocher is convinced that it shouldn’t hurt the team too much.

“I think it has to be done by committee,” Durocher said of how the team will make up for the offensive loss. “If [Poulin] was to give us ‘X’ amount of points and by committee we can get 60, 70, 80 percent of those points and play hard and play tough defensively, I still think there’s an awful lot of talent here to succeed.”

One of the players that may pick up some of the slack from the Poulin injury is transfer student Isabel Menard. The junior forward, who played at Syracuse University the past two seasons, has already proved that she can handle the Terriers’ pace with four points in her first weekend of play.

“[Menard] is a very accomplished college hockey player,” Durocher said. “She will be somebody that comes into the lineup not as a typical freshman with their eyes uncertain of what’s ahead of them, but somebody who comes here with plenty of knowledge of college hockey.”

Flying “under the radar,” according to Durocher, is senior Jenelle Kohanchuk, who finished the season with 10 goals and a career-high 21 assists in 36 appearances.

On the blue line, the Terriers are returning six players from last year’s team that ranked seventh in the nation for team defense.

Seniors Tara Watchorn and Kasey Boucher lead this year’s defensemen.

Last season, Watchorn netted six goals and had 19 assists for a total of 25 points on the season. Boucher, who was named one of the team’s assistant captains for this season, finished last season with four goals and 10 assists.

“They’re slightly different hockey players,” Durocher said of Watchorn and Boucher. “Tara is a kid who has tons of range, a tremendous shot, all the skill in the world. Kasey probably plays a little more of a defenseman’s style.”

Tara Watchorn has yet to play a game this season, however, because of the lingering effects of a concussion that she suffered while at the Canadian national team’s camp in August.

Rounding out the team’s defense are junior Kathryn Miller, who was named the team’s Most Improved Player last season, sophomore Kaleigh Fratkin who had one goal last season along with nine assists, and senior Carly Warren who is the other assistant captain on the team.

“I see people every year that I’m hoping to see step forward and without a doubt Kathryn Miller on the blue line last year was our Most Improved Player and had a fantastic sophomore year,” Durocher said. “Kaleigh Fratkin is a talented defensemen and Carly Warren is someone who’s been kind of a steady eddy all throughout her career.”

In the net, sophomore Kerrin Sperry will look to repeat a strong rookie season where she won the title of starting goaltender on her way to 21-4-3 record. The netminder was 14th in the nation last season with a .929 save percentage in 28 appearances.

“Kerrin Sperry certainly established herself as the number one kid last year,” Durocher said.

Junior Alissa Fromkin and sophomore Braly Hiller will also most likely get some time in net.

The Terriers welcome four new faces and one redshirt freshman to the squad this year. Most notable are Shannon Stoneburgh, who will join the team’s group of defenseman, and forward Kayla Tutino.

“Shannon, she’s a kid with her best days ahead of her,” Durocher said. “I think through the work of Darcy Gould and our strength and conditioning program, she will get nothing but better in her balance, agility and movement.

“Kayla Tutino is an extremely hard working kid. Very strong, very competitive… we think she’s going to be somebody people recognize here quickly at BU.”

Redshirt freshman Caroline Campbell will also help out on the blue line as soon as she recovers from an ankle injury that will likely keep her out of play for another three weeks. Campbell was out for the entirety of last season because of a concussion.

“I expect her to be more than a freshman, more than somebody playing her first game because she’s been around for a while,” Durocher said.

While Durocher is confident in his team’s talent, he believes the team will need more than that to compete against the other Hockey East teams this season.

“We work hard every day,” Durocher said. “We prepare for what’s going on in games and certainly we know that we’ve got a very talented league here – a league that continues to grow with more and more elite players that are choosing schools here in the Hockey East.”