tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6361508239778950722012-02-16T09:06:16.375-05:00A source for the scoop on Providence College sportsAl Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comBlogger5241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-51450430511155005842011-05-13T00:00:00.001-04:002011-05-13T12:49:06.999-04:00<strong>Honorable mentions<br />November 16, 2008</strong> – Providence 2, Connecticut 0: PC cashes in on the only seam at either end when Alyse Ruff deposits a 5-on-3 conversion from the porch for a 1-0 edge with 5:57 to go<br /><strong>January 24, 2009</strong> – Providence 2, Boston University 0: Jean O’Neill’s plucky shot block sparks breakout that sets up Katy Beach’s clincher late in the third<br /><strong>November 27, 2009</strong> – Providence 2, Wisconsin 2: Seesaw bout with Mark Johnson’s pupils decided by a trendy Nicole Anderson power play strike<br /><strong>March 6, 2010</strong> – Connecticut 3, Providence 2: PC rallies from initial 3-0 hole, but Huskies hold fort to exorcise their postseason demons<br /><strong>February 6, 2010</strong> – Boston College 4, Providence 2: Danielle Welch outscores Laura Veharanta, 3-2, and Melissa Bizzari tips in another Welch bid for the insurance<br /><br /><strong>10. November 10, 2007: Providence 4, Vermont 2</strong><br />This generation of Friars had a way of making “Cardiac Kids” the postgame refrain from head coach Bob Deraney. And one month into her career, Alyse Ruff set the tone for what would become her habit of performing CPR with a blade and a biscuit.<br /><br />After the scrappy, stealthy Vermont Catamounts led 2-0 through 40 minutes, Ruff literally crashed goaltender Kristen Olychuck’s unscheduled party, cutting the lead to 2-1 17 seconds into the third whilst erroneously tumbling into the cage. Two minutes and two seconds later, she tipped in a power play conversion and prompted visiting coach Tim Bothwell to use his timeout.<br /><br />It only took another five minutes for PC –which received at least one shot on goal from each of its 11 forwards- to complete its profile in persistence. Cherie Hendrickson, who led all forwards with seven SOG, converted a pass from Erin Normore (six shots) for the eventual clincher.<br /><br /><strong>9. January 31, 2008: Providence 4, Boston University 3</strong><br />In their third year as a varsity program, the pre-Poulin, pre-Wakefield, pre-pennant Terriers had a modest request for their first Hockey East playoff spot, though they showed it in flashy fashion. Holly Lorms and Sarah Appleton struck 52 seconds apart to give BU a 2-0 edge just before the halfway mark of an otherwise evenly matched first period. And it didn’t help the Friars cause to whiff on each of the game’s first two power plays, then went shorthanded themselves 54 ticks into the middle frame.<br /><br />But 64 seconds after Kelli Doolin’s jailbreak, freshman Jean O’Neill sparked the turnaround, one-timing a centering feed from Mari Pehkonen. O’Neill, a regular Terrier tormentor as her career progressed, would later give PC a 3-2 lead at 1:29 of the third, though BU was holding fort as it continued to kill penalties and test Friars’ keeper Danielle Ciarletta as regularly as PC did Melissa Haber.<br /><br />On only their second 5-on-4 chance of the night, the Terriers retied the game with 13:18 to spare in the third. But for the rest of the ride, the Friars ran up an edge in the shooting gallery (15-9 in the third) and would finalize the victory on Katy Beach’s end-to-end conversion with 5:51 remaining.<br /><br /><strong>8. February 19, 2011: Providence 3, Vermont 2</strong><br />When answering an interview in advance of the matchup, PC skipper Bob Deraney was genuinely energized to hear about the stakes in the penultimate game of the regular season. His Friars were one win away from clinching third place, the highest slot still available in the Hockey East playoff bracket. The opposing Catamounts were one loss away from missing the postseason.<br /><br />“Great,” Deraney said. “The most dangerous people are the most desperate people.”<br /><br />To start, though, only PC’s incentive was translating on the scoresheet. The Friars pestered celestial Vermont goalie Roxanne Douville with 16 first period shots and finally penetrated her for a 2-0 lead at 1:40 and 9:46 of the second. But Vermont and its veterans, besieged by perennial underachievement, bit back as expected. Junior Chelsea Rapin and seniors Celeste Doucet, Saleah Morrison, and Peggy Wakeham all brushed the scoresheet over two power play conversions to delete the deficit.<br /><br />But the dramatist Catamounts, a little too late to perk up in their season and in the game, would pay their late fee in the final minute with the notice coming from Rebecca Morse. PC’s rookie blueliner, already with an assist on the day, spooned home the game winner from the slot with 37.8 seconds left.<br /><br /><strong>7. November 21, 2008: Mercyhurst 3, Providence 0</strong><br />Head coach Bob Deraney, rarely one to take a loss without at least a dollop of despondency, told this author of the almighty Lakers, “I don’t think they can play much better than they did tonight. Unfortunately, they were playing us.”<br /><br />Even before the legacy of this contest reached hindsight, though, one could tell that by playing a complete game itself, Mercyhurst brought out the best in a rising PC stopper named Genevieve Lacasse. Staring down a strike force of otherworldly countrywomen and another Team Canada goaltending prospect in Hillary Pattenden, the Scarborough Save-ior turned in 51 saves, including 12 on Olympic gold medalist Meghan Agosta.<br /><br />And for their part, the Skating Friars found the time, space, and energy to thrust 31shots at Pattenden and draw 10 penalties on the Lakers.<br /><br /><strong>6. November 22, 2008: Providence 2, Niagara 2</strong><br />The fiery Friars were scoreless on each of their first 64 shots in the first 115 minutes and 32 seconds of weekend action, their drought carrying over from a solace-stocked 3-0 loss to Mercyhurst the evening prior.<br /><br />But once they perked up on a power play, and cut the Purple Eagles’ 2-0 lead on an Erin Normore conversion with 4:28 to spare, order was restored. Less than two minutes after Normore struck, PC drew another power play to end a 106-second shot-free, whistle-free segment. On the advantage, Laura Veharanta tested goaltender Jenni Bauer with a shot that prematurely sold the signal to the goal judge. <br /><br />As it turned out, play continued even with the flickering light, until Alyse Ruff plunged at the rebound and swiped it into the near post for the equalizer with 1:43 left in regulation.<br /><br /><strong>5. January 21, 2011: Providence 3, Boston College 1</strong><br />No later than at the halfway mark of her college career was everyone convinced that Genevieve Lacasse would pour a full bottle of White-out all over PC’s goaltending record book and replace the contents with her own entries. But Boston College has all but singlehandedly hastened her pace.<br /><br />Six weeks before she broke Jana Bugden’s all-time saves lead against these same Eagles in the Hockey East semifinals, Lacasse shook off Kelli Stack’s icebreaking shorthanded breakaway and proceeded to preserve a defiant 3-1 win at Schneider Arena. After PC usurped the lead on a power play strike late in the second and Rebecca Morse’s go-ahead goal 25 seconds into the third, it faced an inevitable reversal from the referee’s gale-forced whistle.<br /><br />The Eagles, who had dealt with five unanswered penalties over the first 40 minutes, would be granted four unanswered power plays over the final 19:14 of regulation. In that span, they charged up an eye-rubbing 33 pelts on Lacasse, including 14 power play stabs, 11 of which fell between 9:05 and 12:54, when PC committed three infractions and was down two skaters for a full two minutes.<br /><br />Yet nothing tuned the mesh. And after taking six of the game’s final seven shots, BC let Kate Bacon get away with a cathartic empty netter.<br /><br /><strong>4. February 6, 2009: Providence 3, Northeastern 2 (OT)</strong><br />The first installment of the Genevieve Lacasse-Florence Schelling rivalry could have gone exclusively to the Dogs. But the Friars, victims of a 1-0 Schelling shutout the preceding October, were just too dogged in their own right.<br /><br />All but two of PC’s skaters recorded at least one stab at Schelling, amounting to a workload of 56. That’s 10 more than the Swiss Save-ior has dealt with in any other collegiate game, before or since. <br /><br />And after the Huskies had scraped out a 2-0 lead –their goals sandwiching a washout of an alleged Friar goal that left would-be scorer Alyse Ruff and other PC personnel visibly piqued- the Friars finally cracked the Schelling code on Erin Normore’s power play tally with 9:21 gone in the second.<br /><br />And before the fundamental details of that goal were ready for disclosure over the PA system, the season-high masses at Schneider Arena –complete with a rare visit from the pep band- exulted in Jean O’Neill’s equalizer at the 9:43 mark.<br /><br />New game, sort of. Their oomph restored, the Friars continued to besiege Schelling, though she would stop each of the next 30 stabs, including 20 in a scoreless, penalty-free third period.<br /><br />But in the bite-sized bonus round, one more international VIP, Finnish Flare Mari Pehkonen, seized her long-awaited chance to glow. With one minute left before a shootout, she accepted a feed from Abby Gauthier in the slot and spooned her game-leading eighth shot of the night through the roof to stamp the 3-2 Providence triumph.<br /><br /><strong>3. October 29, 2010: Providence 2, Boston University 2</strong><br />Providence was the first team to hold phenom Marie-Philip Poulin pointless in a Division I college game. Remember that.<br /><br />But naturally, the upgraded, defending Hockey East champion Terriers had a few more prominent options to test the 6-2-0 Friars. In her first conference game with BU, New Hampshire transfer Jenn Wakefield treated the Friars no differently than when she was with the Enemy Epitome. <br /><br />For her fourth and fifth career goals, and seventh and eighth points at PC’s expense she beat Genevieve Lacasse on a bullet from the far outer hash marks and later a chopper from the high slot to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. And it’s worth noting that defender Catherine Ward, Poulin’s teammate at the Vancouver Olympics, etched an assist on both tallies.<br /><br />Other than that, though, Lacasse had an answer for the Terriers’ other 40 tries, including all six of Poulin’s, which tied Wakefield for the game lead. Meanwhile the Friars, who took more than half of their 29 total shots (15) in the first period, managed to smuggle an equalizer past the laser-beamed BU defense and rookie stopper Kerrin Sperry. As it happened, it was top gun Kate Bacon inserting her eighth goal of the season, and only nine games in at that.<br /><br /><strong>2. March 5, 2011: Boston College 3, Providence 2 (OT)</strong><br />All right, the final outcome was less than memorable for Friartownies, but one has to admit it was an exemplary serving of postseason hockey. The blood and sweat of the matchup’s most otherworldly players turned to thick ink on the scoresheet and each team had its turn rebounding from a third period deficit.<br /><br />PC stopper Genevieve Lacasse stamped a personal record 58 single-game saves, a Hockey East postseason record for most blocks in a tournament game, and surpassed Jana Bugden on PC’s all-time leaderboard for 2,556 upon repelling BC’s 32nd bid of the game. A whopping 10 of those saves held back U.S. Olympian Kelli Stack, who needed two of her understudies to bail her out in regulation.<br /><br />In an otherwise expectable goaltending duel between the Scarborough Save-ior and BC’s Molly Schaus, another Olympic veteran, a seven-minute, 27-second scoring spree saw rookie Eagles Melissa Bizzari and Taylor Wasylk sandwich strikes by the Friars’ Jen Friedman and Abby Gauthier for first blood and the game’s second equalizer.<br /><br />And fittingly, in the resultant overtime, the decisive play entailed a one-on-one confrontation between one of the decorated goalies and one of the defiant clutch scorers. On her 11th registered bid of the game, Stack laced the 19th game-winner of her college career through a mousehole and into Lacasse’s cage.<br /><br /><strong>1. November 8, 2009: Providence 2, Northeastern 1 (SO)</strong><br />Who but PC’s Scarborough Save-ior and Northeastern’s Swiss Save-ior?<br /><br />The first of only two Women’s Hockey East shootouts at Schneider Arena before the experimental format was repealed last summer remains the longest in league history. Most naturally, it was an arm-wrestling bout between Genevieve Lacasse and Florence Schelling.<br /><br />After drawing a 1-1 knot in 65 minutes of standard hockey action, the rival netminders pitched two complete shootout shutouts –i.e. six scoreless rounds apiece.<br /><br />In the top of the seventh, NU’s Danielle Kerr, ironically one of six Huskies not to etch an SOG in regulation or overtime, beat Lacasse low. But PC’s Alyse Ruff retorted with a stroll down Broadway and a trickler that somehow went through Schelling’s narrowing five-hole.<br /><br />Another six rounds ensued, elevating the likelihood of an unlikely hero ribbon being doled out at day’s end. As it happened, it went to the Friars’ stay-at-home sophomore defender, Christie Jensen, who lacked a regulation goal in 44 career games up to that point. <br /><br />For her turn in the bottom of the 13th, Jensen took on a Normorean guise as she looped from center ice to the left, then cut back to the middle en route to Schelling’s porch, where she lobbed the game winner into the upper right hand shelf.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5145043051115500584?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-1736955405642274122011-05-12T00:00:00.000-04:002011-05-13T12:51:18.919-04:00<strong>10. October 20, 2007: Holy Cross 6, Providence 4</strong><br />Each team converted three power plays. The Friars closed a 2-0 pothole and deleted three one-goal deficits all within a four-strike second period. And then, Crusaders’ goaltender Ian Dams thwarted PC’s threat to usurp the lead, regained on the strength of Dale Reinhardt’s goal at 2:52 of the third, protected despite a 12-3 shooting edge to Providence in the closing frame, and cemented by Peter Lorinser’s last-second empty netter.<br /><br /><strong>9. February 19, 2011: Boston University 1, Providence 0</strong><br />On the one hand, the Friars’ discipline was less than commendable, seeing as they drew eight penalties on themselves as opposed to two on the Terriers. On the other hand, Alex Beaudry turned in another trademark irreproachable effort, repelling 13 out of 14 power play shots and 31 out of 32 overall to keep the game competitive for the full length. And Providence equated BU’s output with 32 pelts on opposing stopper Kieran Millan, including three shorthanded tries. The only difference was Millan blinked one time fewer.<br /><br /><strong>8. January 22, 2010: New Hampshire 3, Providence 2 (OT)</strong><br />After Alex Beaudry withstood all but two of 41 regulation shots, and after his skating mates deleted a 2-0 deficit to force the bonus round, New Hampshire counterpart Brian Foster had his turn repelling a frenzied Friar storm. PC launched three unanswered, but unproductive overtime shots before starting center Phil DeSimone won it for the Wildcats on a fleeting rush to the other end.<br /><br /><strong>7. January 31, 2009: Providence 5, Merrimack 3 </strong><br />It was the last hurrah in a calendar month that momentarily replenished some optimism for the 2008-09 edition of the Tim Army Corps. One evening after tying Boston College, 2-2, before an overflowing home crowd and a NESN television audience, PC issued a balanced attack and set an early tone on the power play to pace itself past the Warriors.<br /><br />All 18 skaters, save rookie blueliner Danny New, contributed to a bushel of 34 shots. Although, New still had some tangible input with an assist on junior captain John Cavanagh’s goal that made it 2-0 and gave PC a 2-for-2 success rate on the power play.<br /><br />But on top of that, towering senior pivot Nick Mazzolini and Cavanagh both had a 100 percent connectivity rate, scoring on both of their stabs to help sculpt a 4-0 lead by the time there was 5:44 to spare in the second. Although Merrimack regrouped to wither that difference to 4-3, Mazzolini –already with a goal-assist value pack to his credit- added insurance to his game clincher on a partial breakaway tally with 2:32 left in the third. <br /><br />That effectively curtained a 4-2-2 January run for the Friars, though they proceeded to go winless for the remainder of the year.<br /><br /><strong>6. December 3, 2010: Providence 3, Maine 3</strong><br />A regular Chumbawmba theme night from a Providence perspective. They got knocked down, then up again, and ultimately couldn’t be kept down.<br /><br />The Friars thrice went down by a goal –all owing heavily to the celestial Spencer Abbott, who nailed two and aided the other Black Bear strike. But PC thrice drew a knot, culminating in Chris Rooney’s shorthanded breakaway with 4:50 remaining in regulation. <br /><br />In the bonus round, goaltender Alex Beaudry dealt with seven Black Bear bids and literally held fort long enough to bar Maine’s Tanner House from converting the walkoff strike. Initial exhilaration from the visiting sector was usurped by the Friar faithful when replays confirmed the buzzer had beaten the biscuit to the mouth.<br /><br /><strong>5. November 17, 2007: New Hampshire 5, Providence 4 (OT)</strong><br />This one featured three lead changes, double-digit shot counts on both sides in each regulation stanza, and five individual multipoint performances. The post-game three-star custom was not nearly enough to do justice to the sparkling efforts from each party. And, for Providence in particular, neither was Hockey East’s continued refusal to recognize overtime losses as regulation ties.<br /><br />Ultimately, though, the Friars had the right to feel a little stung as they led a 1-0 edge devolve into a 3-1 deficit and then seized a 4-3 edge on two goals 11 seconds apart midway through the third, only to let it all slip. More than anybody, Pierce Norton had a right to feel gypped after he had given his team two leads.<br /><br />But PC could not fault itself too much on this night, for a quartet of Wildcats were simply too stubborn to be pushed over the precipice. Visiting stopper Brian Foster did his part with 41 saves –all in regulation- and New Hampshire’s searing forward line of James van Riemsdyk, Thomas Fortney, and Paul Thompson combined for 12 of their team’s 14 points.<br /><br /><strong>4. February 9, 2008: Providence 4, Vermont 3 (OT)</strong><br />For what it’s worth, the reported attendance at Schneider Arena was 2,121. And as it happened, PC’s No. 21, senior captain Jon Rheault, was the unquestioned man of the night. A first period shorthanded strike to etch a 1-0 lead, followed by an assist on Greg Collins’ goal 62 ticks into the middle frame, pole-vaulted Rheault into the 100-career point club.<br /><br />After the Catamounts, who had surmounted Rheault’s goal the evening prior en route to a 2-1 win, deleted a 3-1 deficit to force overtime, the captain salvaged his own special night with a delightfully-timed Dalmatian point. With 14 seconds remaining in the sudden-death stanza, he set up shop on the porch and tilted point patroller Matt Taormina’s low rider home for his second walk-off goal in as many months.<br /><br /><strong>3. December 29, 2007: Providence 5, Michigan State 3</strong><br />Until the 13:18 mark of the second period, the Friars had whiffed on a cumulative 64 shots and been outscored, 7-0, by Great Lakes Invitational staples Michigan and Michigan State in 93:18 of weekend play.<br /><br />That finally changed when, on a two-on-one break, freshman Kyle MacKinnon let a wrist shot wipe off the cross bar like a skateboarder descending a staircase. The puck plopped into the crease and patiently waited for an incoming Jon Rheault to rake the rebound behind an unprepared Jeff Lerg.<br /><br />From there, despite falling behind again, 2-1, early in the third, the Friars firestorm’ only accelerated. After a 50-save shutout at the hands of Michigan’s Billy Sauer the day prior, they tested the Spartans nine times in the first, 15 in the second, and a cyclonic 21 in the third. That, combined with a little fatigue from their semifinal game and a general lack of incentive that visibly steamed MSU head coach Rick Comley, was just enough to blow the defending NCAA champion Spartans off their pegs.<br /><br />In a matter of eight minutes and five seconds, three unanswered goals via John Cavanagh, Rheault, and MacKinnon morphed a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead and paced PC to a 5-3 victory. Fittingly, the nascent MacKinnon tacked on the insurance in the final minute, capping off his second multi-goal game of the month, and second of what would be seven in his career.<br /><br /><strong>2. January 30, 2009: Providence 2, Boston College 2</strong><br />It would be the only sellout that the House That Lou Built has seen this collegiate generation –for obvious reasons beforehand and for a justified reason thereafter.<br /><br />Knowing for months that this bout with the defending national champions would be regionally televised on NESN, faces seen everywhere on campus except for the ice house overstocked the student section seeking a morsel of coveted face time. And if they took enough time to look at what the cameras were looking at, they watched a gritty grudge match that saw each team enjoy a momentary lead –BC in the first, PC in the second- before dueling goaltenders Alex Beaudry and John Muse clamped down and drew the final 2-2 knot. <br /><br /><strong>1. February 19, 2010: Providence 5, Boston University 4</strong><br />Neither party in this card had any cause to sympathize with the other. The host Friars were as few as two losses away from whiffing on a Hockey East playoff spot for the second year in a row. The defending national champion Terriers, ranked No. 19 in the country going into the weekend, needed every invisible point they could scrape out to salvage their hopes for an at-large NCAA tournament bid.<br /><br />Accordingly and appropriately, the concoction of those storylines produced a back-and-forth, lock-and-load bout. The Terriers struck twice to grab an assertive 2-0 upper hand by 8:45 of the first period, but the Friartownies’ spirits were percolated by the endless physicality that finally broke out in hives at the 9:00 mark. The previously unblemished penalty side of the scoresheet had five entries in the last 11 minutes of the opening frame, though PC failed to hit the board on three power play opportunities.<br /><br />But starting at 2:14 of the middle frame, the special teams started holding sway. PC’s Kyle MacKinnon struck twice in separate 4-on-4 segments to saw two Terrier leads in half, and it was 3-2 with only 5:50 gone. Less than 14 minutes later, after the eye of the cyclone had passed through the Schneider pond, Matt Bergland gave the Friars their first conversion in seven power plays and a 3-3 tie to take into the final stanza.<br /><br />The night had only begun. The third period alone saw an incomprehensible 17-16 edge in the shooting gallery for Providence, though BU bouncer Kevin Shattenkirk restored his team’s lead with a carry-over power play bullet just 97 seconds in. But on their eighth twirl, PC’s man-up brigade set up MacKinnon’s hat trick, drawing a 4-4 knot with 14:04 to spare.<br /><br />From there, it only felt increasingly like the Skating Friars’ fun-sized answer to Game Six of Bruins-Canadiens 2008. The Friars’ nightlong persistence, combined with the Terriers’ incurable disciplinary ailment presaged a first-time and permanent lead for the scrappy home squad.<br /><br />Lo and behold, during a 5-on-3 segment, with 5:25 to go, the MacKinnon machine fell inches short of the key conversion. He settled for an assist as Aaron Jamnick swooped in the extract the rebound and buried it through a screen of fallen columns, giving Schneider Arena its strongest dose of stimuli in at least two years.<br /><br />PC was eliminated from playoff contention the following night at Agganis Arena, but it was a refreshing sendoff to the student rooters, who would miss the season’s final two home games due to spring break.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-173695540564227412?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-32785440513061692782011-02-21T00:00:00.001-05:002011-02-20T20:11:44.094-05:00<strong>Looking fit for a run again<br />Redressed Friars set an unmatched tone for playoffs</strong><br /><br />Within the final 30 days of the regular season, only three Women’s Hockey East games ended with a margin exceeding two goals.<br /><br />On Jan. 22, the reigning champion Boston University thrashed Vermont, 4-0. Eight days later, the same pack of terrifying Terriers surpassed Connecticut, 4-1.<br /><br />And then, yesterday, the Friars uncorked a long-absent collection of carbonation, pasting Vermont, 6-1, for a most timely return to the promising persona this team was flaunting throughout October.<br /><br />With that, and a final regular season record of 21-11-1, PC has concocted its best overall transcript since the 2003-04 season. Anything they pick up in the postseason will automatically make this the Friars’ most fruitful campaign since 2002-03, when they sealed a 24-6-6 run with the inaugural Hockey East pennant in their clutch.<br /><br />Ironically, in order to match that bushel of 24 wins, they would need to storm their way to another title this year. But head coach Bob Deraney (who when pressed on this topic yesterday once again insisted on counting his team’s exhibition games with McGill University for a gathering of 23 wins) has an even loftier pinnacle in mind.<br /><br />“We stood here in April and we had a goal of 27 wins,” he said. “We’re four short, as far as I’m concerned, six short overall. And if you think about the NCAA championship game, it’s actually six wins away. <br /><br />“So we’ve put ourselves in a position that our young ladies have worked extremely hard and dedicated themselves towards, so that now they have a chance to do some things this program has never done before. So it’s really exciting.<br /><br />“But it’s not done. We know that. We’ve got a lot of work still to do.”<br /><br />But by the looks of it, there is a not-so-small amount less to do than what this elastic group was facing as recently as two weeks ago. Just in time to enter the postseason on a high note, one Friar after another has either thawed out from a protracted phase of frostbite or continued to fuel her reheated acetylene stick. <br /><br />In all, 12 skaters touched the scoresheet yesterday, six of them cultivating two points. At least one member of each forward line and each defensive pairing pitched in to the romp.<br /><br />Most startlingly, not one of those contributions was credited to top gun Kate Bacon, who still sits comfortably atop the team leaderboard with 16-13-29 totals in 33 games. Nor did the team’s most fruitful point patroller, Jen Friedman, augment her aggregation of six goals and 15 assists on the year.<br /><br />Hardly a one-woman or one-line show, these Friars are. Even with those two puckslingers two out of equation, they still posted their best margin of victory since an identical 6-1 throttling of St. Lawrence in Game No. 3 of the season and composed their best power play performance (2-for-5) since stomping Clarkson, 5-0, in Game 4.<br /><br />“You can never score enough goals,” said Deraney. “The people you have putting the puck in the net, the more diverse your team is, the harder you are to defend, the more confidence they have.”<br /><br />For many individuals, there was a cornucopia of confidence to return or reinforce yesterday. With a goal-assist value pack apiece, Corinne Buie –whose entire starting line was held pointless on Saturday- and Abby Gauthier both hit the net for the first time this calendar month. The rookie Buie’s strike made her the fourth Friar to hit double-digits in the goal column this season.<br /><br />Stay-at-home blueliners Lauren Covell and Leigh Riley each earned a rare helper, Riley’s amounting to Ashley Cottrell’s icebreaker precisely one minute into the game and Covell’s setting up Gauthier’s to make it 3-0 at 3:47 of the second period.<br /><br />And with the other assist on both Cottrell and Gauthier’s goals, six-foot sophomore Nicole Anderson kindled her first point-scoring streak since the third week of October. On top of that, classmate Jess Cohen smuggled home a power play conversion to conclude the Friars’ four-goal third period salvo and snap her agonizing 19-game goal-less skid.<br /><br />Meanwhile, after a career-worst six-game hex, co-captain Alyse Ruff has now notched a helper in three of the last four games, all of them PC victories. Fellow formal leader Jean O’Neill once had a five-game freeze going, but has since posted 3-2-5 totals in the past two weekends.<br /><br />Rookie blueliner Rebecca Morse has a three-game production tear in the works. Senior Amber Yung sprinkled another two assists yesterday for six in this month, a February point total matched only by junior forward Laura Veharanta, who is easily on her most stimulating run since the first half of her freshman season.<br /><br />“Terrific,” Deraney said of the whole onslaught. “Obviously, Vermont has played extremely well over the last month of the season. They’re very stingy defensively. <br /><br />“For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been working on goal-scoring and it think this was, not a culmination, but it is a sign that the hard work we’re putting in is starting to transform us into the players and the team I think we’re capable of being.”<br /><br />Capable of even, say, derailing second-place Boston College in the semifinals (after a quarterfinal bout with Maine, of course) and setting themselves up for a title tilt with the Terriers that ought to equate or eclipse the entertainment value of their 2-2 draw back on Oct. 29?<br /><br />Four months ago, this team looked like the best possible candidate to crash the presumptive Comm. Ave. block party that is the 2011 Hockey East championship. But now, upon sizing up everyone’s homestretch, that possibility is leaning more towards probability.<br /><br />“We’re starting to get some continuity,” Deraney said, citing the once-missing health and production across his depth chart. <br /><br />“That makes me really excited about the possibilities.”<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3278544051306169278?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-19762858053468871462011-02-21T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-20T20:10:46.782-05:00<strong>A merry ending for England</strong><br /><br />Christina England accepted her routine reserve position well ahead of yesterday’s Senior Day contest, but was nonetheless prepared to improvise in case Father Fortune were to bless her. Namely, were the game to be wrested safely out of reach, she would have the opportunity to close the game for the PC women ahead of minute-munching starter Genevieve Lacasse.<br /><br />“I kind of heard a rumor that (head coach Bob Deraney) was going to do that,” she said. “Two days ago, Genevieve had kind of secretly, accidentally told me.”<br /><br />Through two periods, the Friars were safeguarding a 2-0 lead, sculpted within the first five minutes of the opening frame, and leaning on Lacasse to ensure Vermont’s 19-17 lead in the shooting gallery went to waste.<br /><br />But moments after Lacasse repelled four Catamount power play shots early in the third, PC’s offense erupted like it hadn’t done since the first month of the season. And by the time Corinne Buie had made it 4-0 with 13:29 to spare, assistant coach Karen Thatcher approached England to inform her that her call was imminent.<br /><br />Four minutes, 20 seconds, three Lacasse saves, and one other Providence goal later, it happened. The Schneider Arena masses drove up the dinning roars as Lacasse joined the round of fist-bumps at the bench and passed on good wishes to England, whose only other relief appearance at home was a five-minute stint in the October 2009 Mayor’s Cup mayhem.<br /><br />“I’m really happy for her,” said Deraney. “She epitomizes the class and the dignity and respect of our program. I’m glad we were able to do that and the way we did it. It was only fitting that all of our seniors got an opportunity to play in today’s game.”<br /><br />In nine minutes and nine seconds of crease time yesterday, England would face but two shots, one of which found a home via Catamount power play attacker Celeste Doucet with 2:43 to go. But naturally, that couldn’t do anything to tarnish the Friars’ encouraging postseason prelude.<br /><br />Nor did it affect what will likely be England’s final transcript in the PC crease. Over four total regular season appearances, she consumed 93 minutes and 57 seconds of play and repelled 28 of 32 shots faced.<br /><br />Her lone start-to-finish outing and only decision was earlier this season when, in Lacasse’s absence to represent Canada at the MLP Cup, England backstopped a 2-1 road win over Maine Jan. 2.<br /><br />“That’s cool,” she said, sporting a gratified grin. “A 1-0-0 record is a good way to go out. I don’t have any losses against me, so it’s fine with me.”<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1976285805346887146?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-40217519934329229732011-02-20T00:00:00.001-05:002011-02-19T23:27:49.670-05:00<strong>Friars sip from last straw<br />Last-minute strike spoil’s Catamount comeback</strong><br /><br />Both teams had already traded turns splashing their respective power play droughts. The visiting Vermont Catamounts had deleted a 2-0 deficit for the first time in all of their 32 regular season games. And after her team had run up an 8-4 lead in the third period shooting gallery, Vermont’s Celeste Doucet was going off for slashing with 5:37 left in regulation.<br /><br />On the spot, PC head coach Bob Deraney, knowing a radiant break when he sees one, took his team’s one allotted break in the action.<br /><br />“It was probably going to be the last power play of the game based on the way everything was coming down,” Deraney said. “I wanted to make sure we were rested and we went over what their tendencies are and what we could exploit.<br /><br />“I thought we had some unbelievable looks on the power play. And, hey, we just have to capitalize. (Because of) the fact that we’re getting those looks more consistently, now we can take the next step and start cashing in on them.”<br /><br />If nothing else, through their fourth power play onslaught of the day, the Friars repossessed that soapy slab of momentum that was changing sides just a little less often than Brett Favre changes heart. They took seven of the game’s final eight shots on goal, the very last of which found a home courtesy of Rebecca Morse with 37.8 ticks remaining.<br /><br />Pinching into the high slot, the freshman blueliner absorbed a backhand feed from left winger Laura Veharanta and spooned it over a seated Catamount goaltender Roxanne Douville, spelling the difference in a 3-2 victory at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />“I was on the boards and somehow we kept it in,” Morse said recalling the clinching play. “Laura took it to the net, she shot, and for some reason, I knew it was going to come at me. I didn’t get it up as high as I wanted to, but luckily it went in.”<br /><br />As it happened, a little fortune was a prerequisite for both of yesterday’s contesting squads. Douville (33 saves) kept her career-long shutout streak against the Friars alive through a turbulent first period, which saw her repel each of 16 stabs and personally summon 10 out of 20 total whistles.<br /><br />After killing a carry-over bodychecking penalty to Kate Bacon to commence the middle frame, Providence finally cracked the Catamount rookie’s code at the 1:40 mark. Defender Amber Yung sent Alyse Ruff a breakout feed up the far alley and upon entry into the Vermont zone, the co-captain dished a lateral pass to Nicole Anderson, whose long-range wrister dodged Douville’s trapper.<br /><br />Eight minutes later, with Saleah Morrison off for her own checking infraction, Bacon deposited her team’s first 5-on-4 strike in 11 chances. Her initial shot dinged off the opposite post but magnetically returned to her twig. With Douville vulnerably lured out of her crease, the slick Bacon curled around the goalie and buried her 16th tally on the year.<br /><br />Their playoff prospects dissolving before their desperate eyes, the Catamounts perked right up. In the two minutes following Bacon’s goal, they took three unanswered shot attempts and drew a tripping call on Jess Cohen at 11:47. Within 17 seconds, Cohen was joined by Ruff (interference) and Vermont’s Chelsea Rapin slugged home a 5-on-3 conversion at 12:38.<br /><br />A post-goal scuffle with Friars’ defender Jen Friedman landed Middletown resident Kailey Nash in the bin for roughing, revoking what would have been another 86 seconds of power play time for the Cats. From there through intermission, it was on Douville to answer five unanswered bids.<br /><br />Vermont would not receive another invitation to test Genevieve Lacasse (21 saves) until they framed the Friars yet again at 4:41 of the third. Two-way grinder Lauren Covell went off for interference and Catamount senior Peggy Wakeham took three successive stabs, the last of which she smuggled in unassisted for the equalizer with 14:28 to play.<br /><br />“Penalties played into their momentum,” said Deraney. “And I’ve got to tell you, I’m proud of the way our kids played. You can’t control what happened out there regarding the momentum switch. It had nothing to do with us. It had everything to with the breaks of the game. I don’t think Vermont ever took any momentum in this game by themselves.”<br /><br />But moments after Lacasse neutralized their last assertive swarm of the day, blocking four consecutive shots without any stoppage, the Catamounts –likely a tad drained considering they dressed 14 skaters- effectively spilled the last of their thrust by virtue of Doucet’s penalty.<br /><br />After that, only Nash got another look at the Scarborough Save-ior while the Friars continued to whittle around Douville, culminating in Morse’s decider.<br /><br />“(The penalties) played a big part in this game, which they do in every game, really,” said Vermont head coach Tim Bothwell. “I honestly didn’t see that last penalty against us. There was a lot of marginal stuff today. It’s a tough game to referee, but you’ve still got to kill the penalties and they definitely had an effect on the ebb and flow of the game.”<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4021751993432922973?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-47378059743167670232011-02-20T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-19T23:26:15.136-05:00<strong>Next task is national relevance</strong><br /><br />The PC women have nothing further to gain in the Hockey East standings, yesterday’s 3-2 triumph over Vermont having ratified their claim to third place.<br /><br />Not quite worthy of a ho-hum heckle, but not unexpected or original to the proud program, either. The Friars have now finished among the league’s top three for the eighth time in nine seasons. They have never finished any lower than fourth since entering the newfangled WHEA in 2002.<br /><br />For something a little more ice-shattering, look up the team’s overall transcript. Yesterday’s win gave Providence its first 20-win campaign since 2004-05, the year of its first and still lone venture into the NCAA dance.<br /><br />But, still lodged at No. 10 on the PairWise leaderboard, the 2010-11 Friars have more credits to fulfill if they are not to resort to the not-so-fail-safe automatic bid. For head coach Bob Deraney, that made the question as to the stakes in today’s regular season finale too obvious.<br /><br />“Keep building a picture for the NCAA tournament,” he said. “We know we’ve been in the Hockey East tournament for a while now, so that hasn’t really been our focus, except trying to get the best seed possible. We’re still trying to create that NCAA championship resume, and that’s why (today’s) game is big.<br /><br />“I know (Vermont is) going to play extremely hard to try to be the spoiler so we’ll be ready for the challenge, and I think we’ll play even better than we did (yesterday).”<br /><br /><strong>Same game plan in goal</strong><br />Contrary to previous seasons, wherein the opening shift on Senior Day has either been shared exclusively by seniors or at least featured each member of that year’s graduating class, goaltender Christina England will hold her usual post at one of the bench doors today.<br /><br />With the aforementioned national record to think about, Deraney will give the same routine priority to junior Genevieve Lacasse.<br /><br />“I’ve always coached it as a real game,” he said of the home finale. “It just so happened that those lineups turned out that way. <br /><br />“If we didn’t do anything before the game, then that would be a way to honor our seniors. But because we do such a nice job before the game –honoring the seniors and their families and appreciate their contributions- I always approach it like a regular game.”<br /><br />England, who saw no action but dressed for 30 games over her first two seasons, will not be exercising a redshirt option. She thus figures to conclude her stay on the Divine Campus with a pristine 1-0-0 record, her only decision in three separate appearances being a 2-1 win at Maine earlier this season on Jan. 2.<br /><br />PC will return Lacasse and rising sophomore Nina Riley to constitute next year’s goalie guild. There is currently no indication of a third stopper on the team’s recruiting radar.<br /><br /><strong>Anderson reignites</strong><br />Nicole Anderson snapped a career-worst 12-game pointless streak by breaking the ice at 1:40 of yesterday’s second period. With that, the towering sophomore finally hit double digits in this year’s point column and instilled a little credibility to the latest line chart tweaks.<br /><br />Two weeks ago, Deraney broke up the fettered trio of Anderson, Jess Cohen, and Jessie Vella, replacing Cohen at the pivot with senior Alyse Ruff. Three games later, effective yesterday, Vella was swapped out in favor of junior Abby Gauthier.<br /><br />“I think we played really well together today and I think it should stay like that for a while,” said Anderson.<br /><br /><strong>Who’s up next?</strong><br />Entering the final day of the regular season, Northeastern, New Hampshire, and Maine are all potential quarterfinal visitors to Schneider Arena. The Hub Huskies are lodged in fifth place with 16 points, one ahead of the Black Bears and Wildcats.<br /><br />A UNH win its season finale against Boston College combined with a Northeastern loss to Connecticut would have the Wildcats leapfrog the Huskies for fifth and thus send Dave Flint’s pupils here next weekend. Otherwise, the Huskies and Black Bears both have the tiebreaker, meaning if New Hampshire extracts any points today, but fails to surmount Northeastern, the Wildcats will be on tap for the Friars. <br /><br />Conversely, if the Eagles win, UNH is out and Maine –which curtained its regular season yesterday- will be awarded its first postseason passport since 2006.<br /><br /><strong>Quick feeds</strong>: Senior defender Amber Yung assisted on each of PC’s first two goals, giving her a dozen helpers on the year. Yung and Ruff shared a team-best plus-2 rating on the day…Kate Bacon and Rebecca Morse assisted on each other’s goals and all four of Morse’s goals this season have been on home ice against Hockey East cohabitants…For the second consecutive game, Laura Veharanta led all participating skaters with six shots on goal. Veharanta’s linemates, Bacon and Vella, registered five SOG apiece…Freshman winger Corinne Buie missed the first shift of the third period with her helmet out of commission. Cohen filled in for her…Junior defender Jen Friedman went pointless for the first time in four games…Today will be Gauthier’s 100th career game.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4737805974316767023?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-79016161242696086842011-02-19T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-18T23:40:28.171-05:00<strong>Preserving their purpose<br />Friars vie to enter postseason on a wave</strong><br /><br />A Thursday evening press release from the league holds that the PC women will host their Hockey East quarterfinal game a week from today at 2 p.m.<br /><br />As of this morning, still no other pertinent details have cleared in the playoff picture. With three bottom feeders still eligible to claim sixth place and the two packs of Huskies from Connecticut and Northeastern engaged in a home-and-home series that will determine the other wild card site, the Friars do not yet know whom they will face next weekend.<br /><br />But with a win today or tomorrow over the dogged-but-drowning Vermont Catamounts (1 p.m. face-off at Schneider Arena), they can instantaneously slim that pool down from five potentialities to two. One more loss will automatically send the Catamounts to another February spring cleaning while one more win will cement third place for Providence. That would mean dodging a date with UConn or NU and waiting on who wins the footrace between New Hampshire and Maine –currently sixth and seventh, respectively, and pried apart by a single point.<br /><br />Whoever the eventual sixth-seeder is, it ought to be a comparatively shallow and drained adversary as opposed to either of the Huskies, who likely both have a little more bite in them than any Cats or Bears. Some draws are clearly preferable above others, then, right?<br /><br />“Personally, no, because we should be able to beat all of the opponents that we face,” said Friars’ junior defender Jen Friedman. <br /><br />“But (finishing third) should give us a bit of an advantage in terms of who we play down the line.”<br /><br />Regardless, having rinsed out the vinegar of a season-worst three-game slide with last weekend’s sweep of UConn, which pole-vaulted them to the No. 3 slot to begin with, the Friars are honing a fastidious craving for momentum. They are riding their first non-carry-over win streak since New Year’s –before which they had charged up two five-game thrill rides- and there’s no time like the present to replenish that spilled contender’s persona than the last phases of the playoff tune-up.<br /><br />“We definitely want to finish as high as we possibly can,” said top gun Kate Bacon. “I know we should be in third place. We deserve to be. And I think it would give us more momentum throughout the playoffs the higher we are. If we’re able to get third ahead of fourth, we want to do that, and I know we can.”<br /><br />The last-minute tweaks on the conference tournament bracket are to say nothing of PC’s national posture. Considering their once-radiant transcript was pillaged by Generals January and February (14-5-1 at the break to 17-11-1 on Super Bowl Sunday) like a 19th century Scandinavian army, it is somewhat remarkable the Friars are now No. 10 in the prophetic PairWise rankings. <br /><br />Any ascension to the coveted top eight, which would all but signify qualification for an at-large NCAA bid, is a negligible proposition. The strength of schedule between now and March 5 is too feathery for any string of wins to woo anyone. But by the same token, for the at-large bid to remain an option at all, there can be no missteps between now and the Hockey East semifinals.<br /><br />That means productively savoring these last three extramural skates at Schneider Arena and certainly not conceding anything more to the plebeian Catamounts. PC already relearned that old lesson in a 1-0 falter at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Jan. 30, one of the more jutting bumps in the second half of their path.<br /><br />“I know it’s going to be a tough game,” said Friedman. “Vermont is a team on the rise. They always put up a good fight in their game. <br /><br />“But I know our team is really looking forward to the game and I think everybody is going to step up and play well, especially (considering) the last game we played against them when we fell short. That’ll give us a lot of motivation.”<br /><br /><strong>Quick feeds</strong>: Vermont junior defender Kailey Nash, a Middletown native raring to play in her fourth and fifth college game in her native state, ranks second among Hockey Easterners with 57 penalty minutes. Maine’s Ashley Norum is tops in that category with 64 PIM. Nash is also last among all 16 skating Catamounts with a minus-14 rating on the year…Sophomore forward Erin Wente, the team’s leading goal-getter with eight strikes, is the only Catamount not in the plus/minus red. She bears an even rating…The Friars and Catamounts are both nursing protracted power play droughts spanning their last two-plus games. PC has deferred on each of its last nine 5-on-4 chances, UVM its last 12…Even if it whiffs on the postseason again, Vermont has already secured its most productive Hockey East campaign –collecting 12 points- since joining the league in 2005-06.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-7901616124269608684?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-26021550800331603352011-02-15T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-14T22:01:53.435-05:00<strong>PC women looking fully forward<br />With sweep comes replenished optimism</strong><br /><br />Upon answering a phone interview yesterday afternoon while his pupils indulged in their first hard-earned Monday off in recent memory, Friars head coach Bob Deraney might as well have been reciting or pitching upbeat song lyrics.<br /><br />The title/chorus/refrain: “…a sign of things to come.”<br /><br />Indeed, a copious array of elements that defined the first half of PC’s 2010-11 enterprise simultaneously resurfaced over the weekend, particularly in Sunday’s 4-3 triumph over Connecticut at Rentschler Field.<br /><br />After mustering no more than three goals per night throughout their iffy, nine-game January, the Friars concocted their best offensive outburst since thrashing these same Huskies, 5-1, Dec. 5. And the eight individual point-getters on Sunday’s scoresheet were the most they had since that same pre-Christmas feast at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />With a playmaker hat trick, top gun Kate Bacon logged her first multi-point performance in 13 ventures and her fifth on the year. With a 1-2-3 log on the weekend, co-captain Jean O’Neill contributed in consecutive games for the first time in her fall-and-rise campaign. Explosive blueliner Jen Friedman has a season-best three-game point streak in the works while stay-at-home rookie defender Maggie Pendleton earned her second career helper Sunday.<br /><br />Translation: the depth is beginning to flow back in at a comfortable, continuous rate.<br /><br />“We’ve been working extremely hard on that and I think it’s a sign of things to come,” Deraney said.<br /><br />The replenished strike force, most naturally, helped the Friars sculpt a better insurance policy than they have afforded themselves in the last month. Sunday was the first time since a 2-0 road win in New Hampshire Jan. 14 that they scored the game’s first two goals, triumphed after drawing first blood, and never trailed at any point. In the seven contests in between, they had won thrice by surmounting an initial 1-0 deficit, spilled a pair of 1-0 leads, and whiffed on two comeback efforts.<br /><br />“It’s a sign of us getting healthy and creating some continuity in our lineup,” mused Deraney. “It’s just another sign of things to come. I don’t just think that, I know that.”<br /><br />Having relocated that long-elusive, yet critical combination of an ambitious start and an assertive finish, Providence claimed consecutive victories for the first time in three weeks. It triumphed on back-to-back days for the first time since its first and only active weekend in December.<br /><br />And it polished off a three-game season series sweep of UConn. That doubtlessly neutralized the residual vinegar from Jan. 3 and Jan. 15, when the Friars deferred their chance to similarly rake away all six points from Maine and UNH.<br /><br />“It’s another sign of the growth for this team,” Deraney concluded.<br /><br /><strong>Vermont a fitting foe</strong><br />Already assured home ice for next weekend’s Hockey East quarterfinal, the only tangible gain for the Friars to claim in the immediate future is third place. They will only need one win in this weekend’s two-day visit from Vermont, which still lingers in the race for the final playoff spot but will be zapped from contention with another loss or UNH victory.<br /><br />When enlightened to those contesting implications, Deraney responded with a genuine jolt of oomph in his voice.<br /><br />“Great. That’s exactly what we want,” he said. “We want a team that has something on the line. <br /><br />“You couldn’t ask for a better opponent. The most dangerous people are the most desperate people.”<br /><br /><strong>Another laurel for Lacasse</strong><br />One more first-time-in-some-time for the Friars: goaltender Genevieve Lacasse garnered her fourth Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week award, but her first since the December deceleration.<br /><br />Lacasse, who stopped a cumulative 50 UConn shots over the weekend, is now 108 saves away from surmounting Jana Bugden for PC’s all-time lead. With as many as three guaranteed games left in the season, she will likely need to nudge the Friars into the Hockey East semifinals, if not the title game, to break the record before her junior campaign is up.<br /><br /><strong>Quick Feeds</strong>: Sunday was the Friars’ first winning effort when giving up three goals…In back-to-back years, PC has swept its regular season series with the team that had ended its previous playoff run. The Friars took all six points from New Hampshire in 2009-10 after the Wildcats dislodged them from the 2009 postseason bracket…The forthcoming Catamounts are 2-1-0 since nipping the Friars at Gutterson Fieldhouse, 1-0, Jan. 30. All but one of their last 13 Hockey East games have been decided by two goals or fewer and rookie goaltender Roxanne Douville has let no more than two opposing shots slip by in any of her last five starts.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2602155080033160335?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-30865327825927869762011-02-13T00:00:00.001-05:002011-02-12T21:03:46.299-05:00<strong>They’re digging out, but must dig in deeper<br />Leadership, transition game re-emerging for PC women</strong><br /><br />Jean O’Neill is not walking through that door. Alyse Ruff is not walking through that door.<br /><br />Wait a minute, yes they are. Perhaps you were just missing them in recent weeks, and it probably had little, if anything, to do with those new, gloomy-looking third jerseys their team has now sported thrice in the last seven games.<br /><br />The PC women’s co-captains simply were not producing like themselves, which made them personify the nadir of the Friars’ 2010-11 season.<br /><br />Entering yesterday’s action, O’Neill had not penned her name to any of the last five scoresheets while Ruff was nursing a six-game scoring drought, tied for a career worst. During that stretch, Providence had lost four out of six games, including of the last three, and scored a cumulative nine goals.<br /><br />Fittingly, both the individuals and the team in question broke their hexes yesterday in a 2-1 overtime win over Connecticut that also cemented a postseason passport. While still far from a cure-all for the Friars’ frostbitten offense, yesterday’s developments mark a timely U-turn back in the right direction.<br /><br />“Those are all really good things,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “But that’s not what we’re focusing on right now. We’re focusing on trying to play a better brand of hockey.”<br /><br />Trailing, 1-0, for a full dozen minutes in the opening frame, the Friars looked a tad panicky as they sought an equalizer and tried to dodge the insidious notion of dipping to a four-game losing streak. And after failing to make the visiting Huskies pay for back-to-back icing infractions at the 19:23 and 19:32 mark, it appeared they would have to keep fidgeting through the first intermission.<br /><br />But when freshman blueliner Rebecca Morse retrieved the remnants and yet a third UConn clear and shipped it up ice to Ruff, two profiles in persistence broke out. Ruff bolted along the near wall back onto enemy property and hit Jen Friedman with a diagonal feed to the left point.<br /><br />Stationed on the UConn porch, O’Neill waited for Friedman to let loose and, with 1.2 seconds left, deflected the defender’s slapper home. <br /><br />“That’s a great play all around,” said Deraney. “Things we work on in practice about finding the second wave, trying to one-touch it, things that we weren’t doing very well lately. It was nice to see us get rewarded for the effort we’ve put in practice on that.”<br /><br />The goal, O’Neill’s seventh of an injury-chopped senior season, granted Ruff a team-leading 16th assist and doubtlessly pumped some invaluable momentum into PC’s tanks.<br /><br />By day’s end, O’Neill had set up Jessie Vella’s walk-off goal and she skated off sharing the day’s best plus-2 rating with her co-captain, former Princeton Tiger Lilies teammate, and off-and-on linemate.<br /><br />Over their first three seasons as Friars, O’Neill and Ruff shared a hand in 18 scoring plays, or 40 percent of O’Neill’s first 45 career points and 27 percent of Ruff’s first 66. The bulk of those collaborations were from the PRO Line days with Mari Pehkonen in 2007-08 and last season when Jess Cohen supplemented the starting trio.<br /><br />Since O’Neill’s post-holiday return, the captains have been separated on the depth chart, but Ruff has assisted on two of O’Neill’s goals, the other coming on Jan. 9 at Boston University.<br /><br />Simultaneously breaking their fetters yesterday might not compel Deraney to reconfigure the lines yet again, seeing as he just did that two weeks ago, but it does set a tone for a return to normalcy up and down the Friars’ roster.<br /><br />“It’s always great playing with (Ruff) together on the power play,” said O’Neill. “She leads her line and we have other players stepping up on other lines, so it works out.”<br /><br />It did yesterday, anyway. If Providence is to build upon this and verify its return to formidable status before the postseason, it will need more consistent tangible output from all classes and positions.<br /><br />“I really think our captains have Cs and they do a good job, but I think we have a team of leaders,” said Deraney. “We expect leadership from everybody and we expect everybody to contribute to the success of the team. Obviously, the rest of the team takes that cue from our captains, and they do a wonderful job of leading by example.”<br /><br />For their part, O’Neill, Ruff and their classmates can help the team’s cause by flaunting more of their unmatched seasoning. But for their own sake, they could stand to acknowledge the waning ice chips in their collegiate hourglass a little more.<br /><br />The five seniors are the only active Friars to have suited up for a Hockey East championship game, which they lost, 1-0, to New Hampshire in March 2008. A return trip to the final frontier will only come if everyone –from the top of the hierarchy downward- relearns how to reward their reliable defense and finish more plays around the adversary’s net.<br /><br />Assessing yesterday’s performance, Deraney said, “We attempted more shots (23) than they got on net (14) after the second period, so those are things we can correct right away.<br /><br />“I thought defensively we played pretty well. Our honest effort on defense to get back and do the right things gives me a lot of optimism about going forward, because if you play good defense, good offense will come from that, and that’s what happened today.”<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3086532782592786976?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-27412595623385668462011-02-13T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-12T20:18:27.677-05:00<strong>Sudden death to Vella’s spell</strong><br /><br />On the final shift of the third period yesterday, Jessie Vella nearly sent a message straight to Old Man Overtime’s smartphone telling him he would not be required to visit Schneider Arena.<br /><br />When she failed to deliver that, speedily churning the puck around the Connecticut cage and into the slot, only to watch her assertive backhander leap over the crossbar, her coach let her know she had whiffed on a particularly radiant opportunity.<br /><br />“I kind of gave her evil eye and she kind of gave me the evil eye back,” said PC women’s skipper Bob Deraney.<br /><br />No surprise there. The Pickering, Ont. product had just seen her goal-less streak extended to 22 consecutive 60-minute battles, dating back to Oct. 23. She was still without a non-empty netter since Oct. 9, two days before her home country’s Thanksgiving, equaling a hex of 27 regulation games.<br /><br />But in the subsequent sudden-death stanza, long-awaited gratitude was right around the corner –specifically, the far corner of the Huskies’ zone- for Vella. Friars’ defender Amber Yung slugged the puck from the near point behind the net, where winger Jean O’Neill retrieved it and found Vella waiting on the porch.<br /><br />A simple one-time snapper on O’Neill’s pass beat UConn goaltender Nicole Paniccia, ended the game, ended Vella’s drought, and wrapped up PC’s bid for a Hockey East playoff spot.<br /><br />“I’m just really excited,” Vella said. “I’ve been working really hard and the whole goal of this weekend was to drive to the net, get there, work really hard, and sacrifice your body. I drove the net, Jean made a nice pass and we were rewarded for it, finally.”<br /><br />Vella’s walk-off strike was her third shot on goal of the day, her fifth overall attempt, and her 24th SOG in her last seven games, nearly doubling her bushel of 25 from the season’s first 23 dates. Apart from that, save for an assist on Jan. 2, her contributions since New Year’s had been strictly intangible. But those included consistent stinginess on the penalty kill and using her turbine blades to draw regular opposing infractions a la top gun Kate Bacon.<br /><br />“She put herself in a good position to score goals and just didn’t get rewarded for it,” said Deraney. “And that’s probably the least skilled play she made today, is the one she scored on. But if you keep going to the hard areas, you’re going to get rewarded, one way or another. <br /><br />“Whether it’s fancy or whether it’s ugly, it doesn’t matter. It was nice to see her hard work get paid off. She had been putting a lot of pressure on herself because she’s a winner, she’s a competitor, and she wants to contribute to the success of this team as much as anybody.”<br /><br />That desire had not been enough of late, until after Vella got that disgruntled glare on the bench.<br /><br />Did it help?<br /><br />“Definitely,” she said. “Coach is always there to inspire you and he definitely did inspire me in his own way, and it’s just nice to finally contribute to the team the way I know that I can.”<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2741259562338566846?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-27277940035752575962011-02-08T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-08T19:19:42.329-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Deraney will let new lines mold</span><br /><br />In the past week, doubtlessly out of the urge to bump his forwards back up from the nadir of their 2010-11 campaign and to maybe find the right formula for the last month of the ride, PC women’s coach Bob Deraney made the season’s most drastic set of shuffles to his depth chart.<br /><br />Between their 1-0 falter in Vermont last weekend and their subsequent 4-2 home loss to Boston College on Sunday, the Friars’ starting line of Jean O’Neill, Ashley Cottrell, and Corinne Buie was the only unruffled row on the depth chart.<br /><br />So far, Deraney has had but one game to gauge the newest configurations. And with two-way skater Lauren Covell filling a void on the blue line for the still-ailing Christie Jensen on Sunday, the paint on this easel has still not been fully applied, let alone dried.<br /><br />As a result, by all accounts, the same arrangements should be kept intact for the upcoming home-and-home series with Connecticut. With Jensen expected to return, Covell should focus exclusively on her offensive post, which would give the Friars a quorum of 12 forwards for the first time in four games and only the sixth time all season.<br /><br />Only then, the skipper reasoned, will he have a cause to judge his own revisions.<br /><br />“We’ve got to stick with it, see what it looks like,” said Deraney.<br /><br />As it happened, Covell’s presumptive linemates, sophomores Jess Cohen and Emily Groth, pitched in a combined seven shots on goal while generally latching on with ringers from the top nine. Cohen’s four stabs at BC goaltender Molly Schaus were the most she has taken in a game since Nov. 2 at Yale, while Groth –returning from an injury that sidelined her for the team’s excursion to Vermont last weekend- recorded three SOG for a season high.<br /><br />Above that, there wasn’t much to judge right away, for better or worse. The natural exception to that was the third unit, comprised of Laura Veharanta, Kate Bacon, and Abby Gauthier.<br /><br />Veharanta led all participants in Sunday’s contest with six shots and tuned the mesh twice to irrigate her 10-game pointless drought. Her new linemates were on the ice for both of her goals, the second of which granted Bacon an assist.<br /><br />Referring to Veharanta’s line in secret agent code language –identifying them by their uniform numbers and practice jersey colors- Deraney admitted that’s a start. Especially considering PC had gone scoreless for a cumulative 126 minutes and 13 seconds of play when Veharanta struck at 14:08 of Sunday’s second period.<br /><br />“Obviously, the blue line scored some goals, the new combination of (Bacon, Veharanta, and Gauthier),” he said. “Really, two good individual efforts by (Veharanta), but still, you’ve got to create some continuity, have some patience. <br /><br />“And, hey, we scored two goals. We haven’t scored two goals (in a single game) in a while, so that’s not bad.”<br /><br />So far as the scoresheet will project, the Friars’ newfangled second line is the one most raring to ripen. Sandwiching the hot-then-cold senior pivot Alyse Ruff, sophomores Nicole Anderson and Jessie Vella are still looking for their first points since Dec. 5 and Jan. 2, respectively.<br /><br />Vella once again flaunted her lately sharpened appetite for destruction on Sunday by charging up three shots while Anderson and Ruff mustered one apiece.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: With an assist on Veharanta’s first goal Sunday, junior blueliner Jen Friedman’s point total of 19 surpasses the 18 she aggregated over her first two seasons…The PC women’s hockey and women’s basketball teams are both scheduled to host their Connecticut counterparts at 2 p.m. this Saturday. Although a mass influx is expected down at Alumni Hall to see the team that recently won an NCAA hoops record 90 consecutive games, there is no indication that the Skating Sorority will change its face-off time, even if it means sacrificing a little fanfare…UConn took sole possession of third place in Hockey East and clinched a playoff spot with a 2-2 tie versus Northeastern on Sunday. With no more than eight points for anyone left to gain, the Huskies clinched by virtue of winning its season series with seventh-place Maine…One more win for the Friars or one more loss for the Black Bears assures PC its own postseason passport…With this Sunday’s bout scheduled to be played outdoors at Rentschler Field, the Huskies will ultimately go at least three weeks without a game at their official home barn. Safety concerns stemming from heavy snow accumulations on the roof of Freitas Ice Forum forced last Sunday’s UConn-Northeastern game to relocate to the XL Center in Hartford.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2727794003575257596?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-69894058551483159042011-02-07T00:00:00.001-05:002011-02-06T20:14:25.339-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Welch, Eagles overpower Friars<br />Comeback effort crumbles in third straight setback</span><br /><br />The way things were going yesterday, the Friars had the very last two things they needed glowering at them within the final three-and-a-half minutes of the third period.<br /><br />Her team trailing, 3-2, on the strength of a hat trick by Boston College forward Danielle Welch, co-captain Alyse Ruff was flagged for hooking with 3:22 to spare. And less than a minute into her sentence, Ruff watched helplessly as the puck found none other than Welch’s blade on the straightaway point.<br /><br />Welch unleashed a searing slapper that brushed off the stick of teammate Melissa Bizzari and over the mitt of besieged Providence goaltender Genevieve Lacasse (20 saves) with 2:35 left. It was the Eagles’ second power play conversion on five opportunities, as opposed to one connection the Friars mustered over seven chances.<br /><br />And, naturally, it was the dagger in a vinegary 4-2 loss at Schneider Arena, amounting to a season-worst three-game skid.<br /><br />So, as far as head coach Bob Deraney was concerned, never mind the fact that Laura Veharanta splashed her 10-game scoring drought with a pair of goals to briefly pull even at 2-2. Never mind that PC did what only one other team (Quinnipiac on Oct. 22) has done by deleting a multi-goal deficit at the hands of BC.<br /><br />In the words of Matt Foley, it didn’t amount “to jack squat!”<br /><br />“It just appears to be we’re standing still,” Deraney said. “This is very disheartening for me because I’m the coach and it’s a direct reflection on me. We are the exact same team right now as we were when we came back from Christmas. What have we been doing in the last month?<br /><br />“I don’t take any solace at all. We’re supposed to be playing our best hockey now, and we’re not.”<br /><br />However much of it they dug on their own, the Friars tumbled into an early hole in the opening frame. On the day’s first power play, with PC rookie Rebecca Morse caged for boarding, Welch tipped Ashley Motherwell’s low-riding point shot home to open the scoring with 5:09 gone.<br /><br />Earning their first 5-on-4 segment 49 seconds later, the Friars proceeded to test visiting stopper Molly Schaus (29 saves) five unanswered times and owned the shooting gallery, 10-4, for the next 12 minutes.<br /><br />But even with bountiful in-your-face pressure, Schaus wouldn’t yield, and moments after repelling a low straightway bid from Amber Yung, she watched Welch one-time a diagonal feed from Mary Restuccia past Lacasse for a 2-0 cushion with 1:46 till intermission.<br /><br />“We weren’t playing very well at that point in the game, so you really don’t deserve to get those types of breaks,” Deraney said. “They played with a little bit more purpose than we did and that’s why they ended up jumping to a lead.<br /><br />“I thought in the second period, we kind of took over and that’s what led to us getting back into the game.”<br /><br />Over the first 14 minutes of the middle frame, Providence went on a 14-2 SOG romp, six of those bids distributed over three more power plays, including two on a 71-second 5-on-3 advantage.<br /><br />Red daylight finally broke at the 14:08 mark, when Veharanta strolled with Jen Friedman’s feed into the high slot and slipped it through Schaus’ five-hole, giving the PC power play its first conversion in six tries.<br /><br />Restuccia was cited for bodychecking merely 33 ticks thereafter, but the Friars’ lone shot attempt, courtesy of Morse, was blocked. That effectively ended another laborious outing for the Eagles’ penalty killing brigade, and their lead was still intact.<br /><br />“Our PK has been doing great all year long, and to continue that is great for our team and I think our kids really feed off it,” said BC coach Katie King. “It’s tough when you get that many penalties called. It seems to be a trend for our team lately, so we’ve got to really get out of that habit, but our PK has done a great job.”<br /><br />Likewise, Lacasse and Co. were, if only temporarily, up to the task when the zebras turned their whistles on them. And in between two successful kills, Veharanta nailed her equalizer at 3:35 of the third, traveling up the near wall out of her own zone and roofing a long-range wrister over Schaus’ blocker.<br /><br />But at 8:14, Welch wreaked another dose of havoc in the slot, taking Kelli Stack’s drop pass and slugging the winner over Lacasse’s trapper.<br /><br />None other than Veharanta tried to answer without hesitation. Off the very next draw, she swooped down to Schaus’ estate from the far lane, but her sixth and final bid of the day was swallowed by the otherworldly goaltender.<br /><br />“We’ve got re-learn how to get a lead and keep building on it,” she said. “We’ve been struggling with that, so hopefully we can start doing that again soon.<br /><br />“We needed that third goal today, but it didn’t come.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-6989405855148315904?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-39171164846045658672011-02-07T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-06T20:13:21.734-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Veharanta reignites<br />Junior winger lone star in Friars’ loss</span><br /><br />Laura Veharanta sat motionless on the threshold of a third consecutive double-digit-point campaign for precisely nine weeks. <br /><br />After an insurance goal in a 4-2 home win over New Hampshire Dec. 4 upped her bushel to nine points in 18 games, a pointless outing versus Connecticut, a four-week respite, and a barren January formulated a 10-game drought for the winger who once led the PC women with a 16-15-31 log as a rookie in 2008-09. <br /><br />That elusive 10th point finally arrived yesterday afternoon in the form of Veharanta’s first power play goal of the season. After Molly Schaus had denied her thrice, including twice on previous power plays, Veharanta beat Boston College’s stronghold goaltender for the first time in six career meetings, hitting the five-hole at 14:08 of the second period, sawing a 2-0 deficit in half.<br /><br />Proving she had a little traction, Veharanta –who took a team-leading six shots on goal in the 4-2 loss- would later pull a 2-2 knot with 3:35 gone in the closing frame. Linemate Kate Bacon won a defensive zone face-off back to blueliner Amber Yung, who made a forward shipment to Veharanta along the near wall.<br /><br />Veharanta would singlehandedly tour the puck from zone to zone and roofed the equalizer on a long-range wrister, bringing her up to an 8-3-11 scoring transcript on the year.<br /><br />In the midst of cracking through her chrysalis, Veharanta bailed a quartet of playmakers out of their own personal fetters. With assists on her first strike, two-way junior Lauren Covell garnered her first point in 20 games, dating back to Oct. 23, while the normally prolific point patroller Jen Friedman earned her second helper in three games after going arid in her previous five outings.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Bacon, still PC’s top gun with 24 points on the year, averted what would have been a season-worst three-game scoreless skid. And Yung now has two assists in her last five ventures after previously trudging through a 10-game hex.<br /><br />“It’s great when you get scoring from different people,” said Friars’ head coach Bob Deraney. “We’ll take scoring from anybody. It was just nice to see Laura take ownership today and try to contribute. We need more people to do that.”<br /><br />Yesterday was also Veharanta’s third multi-goal effort of the season –on top of Oct. 9 versus St. Lawrence and Nov. 2 at Yale- and the fifth of her career.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stack silenced</span><br />Kelli Stack, the face of BC’s offense and now the all-time leading scorer in Hockey East regular season action, failed to tune the mesh for the first time in five games. Although she assisted on Danielle Welch’s third goal, her own strike would have tied her with former teammate Allie Thunstrom for most in a single WHEA season (21).<br /><br />Stack’s most stimulating chance to light the lamp firsthand fell with 1:37 remaining in the second period, when teammate Taylor Wasylk blocked Yung’s shot and initiate a counterattack. Floating down the left alley, Stack soaked in Wasylk’s feed and skated to within prodding distance of Friars’ goalie Genevieve Lacasse.<br /><br />Lacasse held her post to summon a whistle and the officiating crew went to video review to confirm Stack had not scored. But with the assist, barring a post-season encounter, the BC Olympian will still finish her college career with seven goals and 18 points in 13 games against Providence.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jensen sits once more</span><br />Junior defender Christie Jensen, still flushing out the remnants of an injury that has kept her out of game action for two weeks, took part in yesterday’s warm-up period, but made a game time decision to return to the sidelines.<br /><br />“Hopefully, by doing that, she’ll be with us for the long haul,” said Deraney. Translation: Jensen should be available for practice this week and will be ready to resume extramural action by Saturday afternoon, when Connecticut drops in at Schneider Arena.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The art of drawing</span><br />Jessie Vella drew three of BC’s seven infractions, although none of them precipitated any power play goals.<br /><br />With 5:46 remaining in the first period, Danielle Doherty was found guilty of holding Vella back as she tried to push through neutral ice. In the final minute of the same stanza, Meagan Mangene pursued a little too much contact as she and Vella stepped over the Eagles’ blue line, earning herself a two-minute sentence for interference.<br /><br />And at 3:12 of the second, Mary Restuccia committed a flagrant tripping foul that sent Vella sliding into the boards along the PC bench and herself to the bin, giving the Friars a two-player advantage for 71 seconds.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: Of the 11 full-time forwards to suit up for Providence yesterday, co-captain Jean O’Neill was the only one not to register a shot on goal…Alyse Ruff lost 17 of her 26 face-offs and went pointless for the sixth consecutive game, tying a career-worst drought that spanned Jan. 12-26, 2008…Veharanta, Cohen, and Emily Groth were all credited with three shots on goal in the second period…Veharanta and senior defender Leigh Riley were the only Friars to earn a positive plus/minus rating. Seven other PC skaters, including all five starters, finished one point in the red…BC’s Dru Burns and Restuccia each charged up two assists.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3917116484604565867?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-20567096238793098752011-02-06T00:00:00.000-05:002011-02-05T23:45:13.815-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Home cooking the perfect formula<br />PC women can close strong with heavy home slate</span><br /><br />The Friars have had a savory succession of six days –their longest stretch of non-game days since the holiday break- to ice and thaw out every physical and emotional sore stemming from the nadir of their season.<br /><br />In hindsight, it falls a few strides shy of an utter shock that a few lesions have surfaced amongst Bob Deraney’s students. And the explanation barely brushes the fact that vertebral goaltender Genevieve Lacasse was missing for the first three, or that co-captain Jean O’Neill was re-gelling her way into the top six, or even that three bodies (Christie Jensen, Emily Groth, and Amber Yung) went down over last weekend’s setbacks at Boston College and Vermont.<br /><br />In a nine-game slate in the month of January, PC was home for only two engagements, those being a 2-1 falter to New Hampshire and 3-1 triumph over BC. The rest of the way, between seven games in six enemy venues, the Friars compiled a 3-4-0 portfolio, surrendering 13 goals while cultivating eight for themselves.<br /><br />By all means, it ought to replenish a little mettle to know that, of their five remaining games in the Hockey East playoff derby, four will be on the Divine Campus. The other, a week from today versus Connecticut, will barely require an hour-long bus ride and be in an environment –Rentschler Field- just as unfamiliar to the hosts.<br /><br />No more missed classes, no more sleeping outside one’s dorm or apartment room, and barely any more bus legs until after the ice chips have settled on the playoff picture. It will all help, assuming recent history is a passable prophet.<br /><br />On the road this season, the Friars are on the .500 fence in the way of both an 8-8-0 transcript and a cumulative 37-37 score. Conversely, at Schneider Arena, they bear a 9-2-1 record, outscoring their adversaries, 41-15.<br /><br />Deraney, who accepts the half-full road glass, is hardly surprised by the more radiant performances in the House That Lou Built and wouldn’t have expected much less.<br /><br />“Even when I was a player at BU, I always thought it was very challenging to play there, and I can’t really explain why,” he said.<br /><br />“Obviously, we love having our fans there and we owe it to them to make sure they leave happy with another win.”<br /><br />But, he added, “There’s no guarantee (the trend will continue), especially the way we’re playing right now.”<br /><br />True enough, Providence is coming off its second string of three away games in eight days, during which they mustered three goals for a median of one. Previously, in the first week of January, they went an identical 1-2-0 in a two-night visit to Maine and a day trip to Boston University, but compiled seven strikes for an average of 2.33 per night.<br /><br />So, venues aside, the Friars are still overdue to rekindle many of their acetylene sticks. But when they take the ice for this afternoon’s bout with BC, they will certainly not have fatigue or any related nuisances clutching and grabbing them up neutral or in the opposing slot.<br /><br />All they will have to surmount is a flock of Eagles –record-breaking scorer Kelli Stack, laser-beamed goalie Molly Schaus, and all- raring to wrap up a first-round bye. All that would take is a win combined with a Northeastern triumph over Connecticut.<br /><br />Just the same, with Maine’s loss to Vermont last night, the Friars can wrap up their playoff berth by bumping BC. Not to mention, they could capitalize on a generous mulligan –having stayed in the No. 9 slot of every relevant national poll even in the aftermath of last weekend- and send out a bold-faced memo by wresting the regular season wishbone away from the sixth-ranked Eagles.<br /><br />Afterwards, it will be all about asserting their supremacy over two ostensible underlings in UConn and Vermont. Although tied for third with PC in the conference standings, Heather Linstad’s pupils still have yet to prove themselves capable of staying with a heavyweight for 60 minutes, as evidenced by Friday, when their 2-0 lead over BC at the second intermission devolved into a 3-2 overtime loss. And the Catamounts, like a smudgy CD, are once again picking up belated traction in part because of a recent gift from Providence.<br /><br />Even if they whiff today, the Eagles are virtually bound to confirm their free pass to the Hockey East semifinals, as are the first-place Terriers. All buffs based beyond the Comm. Ave. neighborhood might as well let that wish go before it gets too ripe.<br /><br />But by settling down and redressing while they can, the Friars should, with relative facility, claim a hard-earned bonus contest at Schneider for the wild card round. By then, if all goes according to logic, they will be around 13-2-1 or 12-3-1on their pond and sculling along a timely stream of momentum.<br /><br />Sure beats having to cram on cramped bus legs, does it not?<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2056709623879309875?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-41788222154644113762011-01-28T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-27T21:38:46.263-05:00<span style="font-style:italic;">Author’s note: In a nod to The Hockey News and the recent release of its annual Goalie’s Issue, the Free Press offers this list of the top ten Genevieve Lacasse highlights so far in her sparkling PC career, one that will likely see her rewrite the program’s goaltending record book and may pilot her to a steady job on the international platform.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">1. January 8, 2011</span><br />Granted, her praetorian guards did their overwhelming part by issuing a 60-shot, six-goal salvo on Sweden goaltenders Sara Grahn and Valentina Lizana. But Lacasse didn’t exactly let up in the gold medal game of the MLP Cup, her first international tournament, repelling all 37 shots she faced for the shutout and the title. Lacasse would finish the tournament with a seamless 2-0 record, complete with 55 saves for two goose-eggs.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2. January 21, 2011</span><br />Purportedly poised for a storming succession of penalty kills –after all, visiting Boston College had taken each of the game’s first five whistles- Lacasse watches as three of her teammates are simultaneously stuffed in the sin bin with 9:06 remaining in regulation and a 2-1 advantage on the line. <br /><br />By the time the Friars are finally back to full strength after three minutes and 49 seconds of shorthanded action, the Eagles have unloaded 11 power play shots, yet still trail. They will continue to own the shooting gallery, 10-2, in the final 7:06 of regulation, but Lacasse will match a career high with 51 saves and a head-turning 3-1 win for PC.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">3. November 8, 2009</span><br />Surprise, surprise. The short-lived shootout’s grand hurrah was built around the rivalry between Lacasse and Northeastern’s Florence Schelling.<br /><br />Locking masks for the third time in their respective careers at Schneider Arena, the Scarborough Save-ior and the Swiss Save-ior yield one goal apiece through 65 minutes. Likewise, they both blink in the same seventh round of the shootout –that is, after playing impeccably through six innings, the equivalent of two ordinary shootouts.<br /><br />The bout continues through yet another six rounds, and after Lacasse denies the Huskies’ 13th bidder, Casie Fields, Friars’ stay-at-home defender Christie Jensen beats Schelling on a swooping roofer to give PC the walk-off.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">4. November 21, 2008</span><br />A Cyclopean Mercyhurst strike force permeated with Canadian ambassadors, including 2006 Olympian Meghan Agosta, extracts a hard-earned 3-0 win at Schneider Arena. But from PC’s perspective, it is a rare losing effort that calls for not even a single ice chip of redress. The almighty Lakers run up the shooting gallery, 54-31, but cannot beat the Friars’ rookie stopper until Agosta –who scores twice on an improbable 14 SOG- smuggles the biscuit between a slim five-hole at 2:56 of the second period.<br /><br />More than anything, Lacasse’s 51-save effort –a quantity matched only once so far- confirms that she is the nucleus of the Friars’ future and their heavily leaned-on class of 2012.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">5. February 21, 2009 </span><br />In the four games leading up to the regular season finale at Boston College, all of them regulation losses, PC’s bid for a first-round bye in the new Hockey East playoff format had rapidly devolved into a struggle just to salvage home ice for the preliminary round. With the Friars needing two points in their own right, plus a New Hampshire win over Connecticut the following day, to cement fourth place, Lacasse tussles with BC’s celestial stopper Molly Schaus to a shootout. After Ashley Cottrell converts PC’s first bid, Lacasse denies the explosive Allie Thunstrom, Kelli Stack, and Mary Restuccia to rake away the requisite two-point package.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">6. January 10, 2009</span><br />Offensively speaking, New Hampshire could not say it didn’t try to extend its 14-game unbeaten streak (11-0-3) with the rival Friars. Out of 14 available skaters, 12 of them combine for a 43-shot blizzard, including 11 by two-way connoisseur Courtney Birchard and six from the searing Jenn Wakefield. But Lacasse has an answer for them all and her skating mates blind Kayley Herman with the red light en route to a 5-0 Providence victory at Schneider Arena. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">7. December 5, 2009</span><br />Upon stopping the aforementioned Birchard’s bid during a second period penalty kill, Lacasse ascends to the No. 3 slot on PC’s career saves leaderboard with 1,211 in only her 47th game.<br /><br />Oh, and she ultimately backstops the Friars to a 4-1 triumph, the first road win at the Whittemore Center by any WHEA team.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">8. November 29, 2008</span><br />In her first Mayor’s Cup game at Meehan Auditorium, Lacasse posts the Patrick Roy Hat Trick. She stamps her second career shutout with 37 saves, assists on Katy Beach’s clincher in the 1-0 triumph, and takes her first two-minute minor for tripping at 3:54 of the first period.<br /><br />Since then, she has blanked 10 other adversaries and attained six more helpers, but has avoided any citations from the zebras.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">9. October 23, 2008</span><br />Egregious miscommunication by the Friars amidst a neutral zone scrum in the first minute of overtime leaves Yale forward Bray Ketchum free to break in for the winning strike. Only that winning strike never comes to fruition as Lacasse gets her blocker on the disc and redirects it over her crossbar and into the left corner. No additional shots are taken at either end and the 2-2 deadlock stands pat through the final buzzer.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">10. October 29, 2010</span><br />None of her previous challengers had managed to keep Boston University’s otherworldly rookie Marie-Philip Poulin off the scoresheet. In her first seven NCAA games, the Canadian Olympic hero had already logged a 9-7-16 transcript.<br /><br />But in the first Hockey East game of the season for both teams, PC and Lacasse confine Poulin to six shots on net, none in the net, and no helpers as part of a mutually satisfying 2-2 tie at Schneider Arena.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4178822215464411376?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-84700659626612864912011-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-24T23:27:25.242-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Vella shooting for bigger game<br />Still nursing goal drought, but taking more tries</span><br /><br />Jessie Vella has not tuned an opposing cage since she inserted an empty netter versus Princeton Oct. 23. The last time she beat a real live goalie in extramural game action was Oct. 9 versus Maxie Weiz of St. Lawrence.<br /><br />Since her last goal, she has charged up 31 shots on goal over a span of 18 games and just a little more than three full months. Her only tangible contributions in that stretch have been three assists, the most recent being in the PC women’s first game back from their holiday respite in Maine Jan. 2.<br /><br />But it is worth noting that, after she sprinkled 17 of the aforementioned 31 shots across a tedious episode of 15 games, Vella has more recently pelted the opposing stopper 14 times in her last three ventures. Over an important U-turning weekend that saw PC stamp its first pair of consecutive victories since New Year’s, she tested a pair of Olympians –Boston College’s Molly Schaus and Northeastern’s Florence Schelling- five times apiece.<br /><br />The two world class stoppers grounded all of those bids. Nonetheless, Friars’ head coach Bob Deraney sees the sophomore third-line winger breaking out of her long-standing chrysalis in the near future.<br /><br />“She’s gonna score soon, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “I think she’s saving them for the most critical time of the season, and that’s pretty soon.<br /><br />“And once she gets some goals, it’s going to be a handful.”<br /><br />If that happens, it would plug one of the last outstanding voids on the PC checklist as it enters the climactic phases of the Hockey East pennant race. For as long as Vella and her fellow sophomores and linemates Nicole Anderson and Jess Cohen have been cuffed, the Friars have consistently subsisted on contributions from their top six forwards and generous offerings from blueliners Jen Friedman and Rebecca Morse.<br /><br />As evidenced by a recent mild downturn in team production –their goals-per-game median dipped below 3.00 for the first time on Sunday- the Friars need at least one more reliable trio to ensure their odds at a merry March.<br /><br />For Vella’s part, the determination to step up and pen her name back on the scoresheet is already in place. It flickered in Sunday’s game when she took two stabs on her first shift, one face-off after Northeastern had taken a 1-0 lead. And she has made no secret of her extra drive in practice.<br /><br />“Yeah, definitely,” she said. “I’ve been trying to work on my confidence with the puck, getting on the ice when no one else is on and working on my shot. <br /><br />Of the end to her drought, she added, “It’s coming, I know it is. I think the hard work will start to kick in at some point or other, but I’m hoping I can score sooner rather than later.”<br /><br />After a belated start to her college career owing to an ACL injury sustained playing soccer in the spring of 2009, Vella came out hustling as a freshman last season. She would ultimately pitch in five goals and seven helpers in 21 appearances, including three two-point efforts.<br /><br />This year, her production pothole and team-worst minus-5 rating (tied with Anderson) has done little to curb her ice time. Having suited up for all 26 games to date, Vella’s most radiant asset has been her contribution to the penalty kill, which was the patent backbone to both Friar victories over the weekend.<br /><br />In the Friars 2-1 road win on Sunday, the Huskies were allotted three unanswered power plays after Corinne Buie had roofed the go-ahead goal for Providence. But the hosts were allotted merely two SOG within those three segments. Their lone attempted shot on their second power play, off the twig of Dani Rylan, was blocked by Vella, who also made an assertive, all-her-might clear of the zone amidst Friday night’s 5-on-3 deficit against BC.<br /><br />“Anybody who can appreciate the game of hockey appreciates the things she does,” said Deraney. “She does a lot of things that don’t show up on the scoresheet, but that her teammates and coaches certainly appreciate.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Double crown</span><br />Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse, already a three-time Defensive Player of the Week, was named the league’s top overall performer of the week yesterday, owing largely to her improbable 33-save third period against BC. Overall, the Scarborough Save-ior repelled 86 out of 88 shots faced over the weekend, elevating her league-best save percentage to .945, No. 3 in the nation behind Cornell’s Amanda Mazzotta and Minnesota’s Noora Raty.<br /><br />Meanwhile, PC garnered its third Hoc key East “Team of the Week” laurel of the season.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8470065962661286491?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-24091272349590458152011-01-23T00:00:00.001-05:002011-01-23T15:49:16.198-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Rare breed of redemption<br />Jensen, PC women fixed own wound to top BC</span><br /><br />Junior defender Christie Jensen yielded the grandmother of all giveaways –at least in terms of competing against the stingy Boston College- during the second period of Friday night’s bout at Schneider Arena. But much to her gratitude, she would repeal the consequences on an identical set-up within six minutes of action.<br /><br />Patrolling the near point amidst the Friars’ third of five unanswered power plays, Jensen fumbled the puck as she attempted a routine lateral feed to defensive partner Amber Yung. With a Jaws-like sense of opportunism, Eagles’ scoring nucleus Kelli Stack vacuumed the biscuit and bolted uncontested down Broadway to cash in a shorthanded strike, giving her team a 1-0 edge at the 12:24 mark.<br /><br />Up to that point, PC had attempted a total of seven shots over two-plus power plays. Three of those were repelled by goaltender Molly Schaus, one went wide, and another three were blocked –including, as it happened, one by Jensen that Stack stepped up to squelch moments before her goal.<br /><br />“For some reason, we were worse when we were up a player than we were when we were down a player and we’ve really got to pay attention,” said Friars’ head coach Bob Deraney. “We know they try to score shorthanded and they did (on Friday) and we’ve just got to make stronger plays on the power play. Other than that, I thought we played a pretty strong game.”<br /><br />On its fifth and final 5-on-4 segment of the night, Providence did flaunt a little more purpose, pelting Schaus seven times in merely two swirls with one whistle. And when the remnants of the seventh shot, which came off of Yung’s blade, made their way back to the brim of the BC zone, Jensen would have her reprieve.<br /><br />Stationed on the far point this time, Jensen handed things over to Yung, who’s straight-lined, low-riding snapper found Abby Gauthier open along the near post. With three ticks to spare on Eagle forward Ashley Motherwell’s sentence for high-sticking, Gauthier tipped the equalizer behind a patently unprepared and likely shagged-out Schaus.<br /><br />The goal amounted to the stay-at-home Jensen’s fifth assist of the season, a new career high, and her third point in the last four games. More critically, it put a reverse 180-degree spin on the course of the game, an eventual 3-1 triumph, merely five minutes and 38 seconds after her blunder had given the visitors the upper hand.<br /><br />Second chances of the sort are, at best, an anomaly against BC. Friday was the first time this season that the No. 7-ranked Eagles lost after initially drawing first blood and their first falter out of 14 games when Stack tunes the mesh.<br /><br />“It definitely felt good,” Jensen said. “I was able to learn from my mistakes, not moving the puck fast enough on the power play, and I was definitely told that on the bench after the first goal and was just working on moving it faster on the second goal. It was awesome.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Another key clash</span><br />Friday’s result doubtlessly had something to do with the Friars ascending two spots to No. 9 in the telltale PairWise rankings, along with BC’s minor slippage to the No. 8 seed. Translation: those two parties are all but one interchange shy of earning and spilling their respective chances for an at-large NCAA passport.<br /><br />In a three-way knot for 10th place is PC’s next adversary from Northeastern, which will host today’s 4 p.m. face-off at the Kingston Bog. In a perfect parallel to their national posture, the Huntington Hounds are also one rung and two points behind the Friars in the conference standings.<br /><br />Translation: the Friars can claim a prize pack of virtually quadruple value with a win today. The stakes consist of more credit in the Hockey East and national postseason races as well as a few ice chips kicked directly in the Huskies’ faces.<br /><br />Or, as Deraney would rather put it, just more ground gained. Period.<br /><br />“They’re all important, and it’s not a line,” he said. “We’re at 16 wins overall and we’re trying to build a resume. Stumbling last week against New Hampshire and (two weekends) before against Maine, those are games that you have to try to make up some way down the road.<br /><br />“When you come back from (Christmas) break, every game’s important. They’re all relevant and they all have meaning. It doesn’t matter where (the opponents) are in the standings. You’re just trying to get a resume to get into the national tournament and have two options to get there.”<br /><br />The Huskies are bound to come out with a similar appetite for redress as they vie to halt a two-game losing streak. Yesterday, at Matthews Arena, they deleted 2-0 and 3-2 deficits, only to lose in overtime, 4-3, to the slowly recovering Wildcats.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2409127234959045815?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-12578882501348020522011-01-22T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-21T23:55:45.474-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Preparation powered the PK<br />PC women weather third period blizzard for win</span><br /><br />Around the halfway mark of the third period last night, goaltender Genevieve Lacasse watched with little surprise and controlled angst as the population of the Friars’ compact penalty box grew to a near overflow.<br /><br />“I kind of felt the penalties were going to come because we hadn’t taken any yet,” she said. “We were ready for them.”<br /><br />That they were. With Jess Cohen flagged for hooking at 9:05, Jessie Vella whistled for hitting from behind at 9:50, and Amber Yung cited for holding at 10:54, the Friars were ultimately forced to play shorthanded for a succession of three minutes and 49 seconds. It was a 5-on-3 deficit for each of those first two minutes and 29 seconds.<br /><br />And all while they were safeguarding a precious 2-1 lead against the formidable Boston College Eagles.<br /><br />But upon Yung’s jailbreak with 7:06 to spare, the difference on the scoreboard was the same –and it eventually morphed into a 3-1 victory for Providence. Lacasse repelled all 11 power play shots during the protracted PK segment and all 33 (no typo) stabs thrust at her in the closing 20-minute stanza, swelling her league-best save percentage to .944.<br /><br />BC would continue to control the shooting gallery, 10-2, in the final 7:06 of action. But already, by virtue of revoking their guests’ written invitation to turn the tide, the Friars were as good as the victors.<br /><br />“That’s the ballgame,” PC head coach Bob Deraney said of the Triple Crown kill. “Whoever emerges there, either with a bigger deficit or a closer deficit, if Boston College had tied the score at that point, they would have had a lot of momentum, and it’s a lot tougher.”<br /><br />Deraney admitted to anticipating some sort of whistling gale coming in the direction of his bench. After all, the Friars had been blessed with each of the game’s first five power plays within the first two periods. Whenever bestowed with such fortune, any seasoned participant in the game of hockey is bound to wait for the other skate to drop.<br /><br />“It’s inevitable,” the skipper said. “I think the referees called the penalties that were out there. They did their job and we just had to be aware of it and we were able to overcome it.<br /><br />“At the end of the day, I’ve never seen a game where the (penalty calls) were lopsided one-to-one, so you’ve got to make sure to play extra clean and we didn’t. We took penalties that we shouldn’t have taken but we were able to weather the storm.”<br /><br />As it happened, the four unanswered penalties in the third period –beginning with Yung’s tripping infraction just 46 seconds in, and only 21 ticks after Rebecca Morse slugged home the eventual game-clinching goal- arrived for the same reason that PC was physically and psychologically braced for them.<br /><br />The Eagles committed the only infraction in the opening frame and in the second, they were penalized four times within precisely nine-and-a-half minutes. Thus, beginning at the 6:35 mark and ending when PC’s Abby Gauthier tipped in a power play strike at 18:02, or in a total span of 11:27, they were shorthanded for seven minutes and 57 seconds.<br /><br />“In the first two periods we were on the penalty kill a lot and that takes a lot out of your team,” said BC head coach Katie King. “I think when you’re best players have to kill penalties, then it makes it tough. <br /><br />“But (in the third) we had opportunities on that power play and we just didn’t score. Lacasse played great, she made the saves she needed to make, and we couldn’t put any of those rebounds in. I think they kept us away.”<br /><br />Surprise, surprise, the otherworldly Kelli Stack –who scored shorthanded at 12:24 of the middle frame- was the nucleus of the Eagles’ power play brigade, taking five of their 11 SOG. At 10:00, she won a face-off against Ashley Cottrell and took two successive hacks at Lacasse. A subsequent frenzy in the dirty-nose area culminated in Yung going to the bin with still 12 ticks left on Cohen’s sentence and 57 on Vella’s.<br /><br />King utilized her timeout at that point and one draw later, Stack reached deftly around Alyse Ruff to usurp control of the puck and BC pelted Lacasse five times in nine seconds, the last two shots both coming from Stack.<br /><br />The Friars stalled the Eagles for the rest of the 5-on-3 and Vella, 15 seconds removed from the bin, assertively cleared the zone up the near wall with 7:55 left in the game. BC regrouped and mustered one more 5-on-4 rush, but it ended with Lacasse booting Stack’s long-distance low-rider of a shot right when Yung’s penalty expired.<br /><br />“I was really disheartened that it came down to that, that we had to kill 5-on-3 penalties,” said Deraney. “But I don’t have any fault on our kids at all. I thought they did a terrific job. No matter what comes our way, we’ve got to deal with adversity and persevere, and that’s what we did.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1257888250134802052?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-87305189265499680892011-01-19T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-18T19:22:23.635-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Keeping up with the Hub clubs</span><br /><br />Three of the PC women’s next five games are against Boston College, which recently affirmed its nominal honor of being the No. 2 favorite in the Hockey East pennant race. Another will be the season series finale with Northeastern this Sunday, a tilt that could cement or sap either program’s hopes of a satisfactory third-place finish in the league and/or continuing relevance in the push for an at-large NCAA tournament bid.<br /><br />Right now, in the wake of three losses within their last four tries, the 15-8-1 Friars are the ones who need the most work on their national posture. Ranked No. 11, they sit two slots below the 13-6-4 Huskies in the PairWise projector. <br /><br />Northeastern’s three most recent losses were to certified heavyweights –Boston University, Wisconsin, and BC. Conversely, Providence sandwiched a valiant 4-3 fall at BU with two skin-blistering shortcomings against the comparatively lowly Maine and New Hampshire, two teams that Dave Flint’s pupils happen to have topped within the last 10 days.<br /><br />The good news: these next three weekends spell an opportunity for the Friars to replenish their pre-holiday persona at the most opportune time. Should they take at least half of the allotted six points from the Eagles –or, better yet, use extra home ice to win that wishbone- and muzzle the Huskies, with whom they split a pair prior Thanksgiving, their only concern thereafter will be not eating their cupcakes too fast. Connecticut, contrary to its deceptive spot in the Hockey East standings, has yet to prove itself against the best of the league. And Vermont, due for a two-night visit to Schneider Arena to close the regular season, is all but destined for another playoff no-go.<br /><br />But between now and Friday night’s home bout with the Eagles, PC has at least three housekeeping tasks. Without redress in the following three areas, the otherwise logical notion of finishing comfortably in the top half of the league leaderboard with the three Bostonian bigwigs is in question.<br /><br />First and foremost, the Friars need at least one more reliable trinity of forwards to go with their top six. In the same vein, they could stand to pull a little more production out of their blueliners. And like six other teams in the league, Providence will have to spruce up its special teams –especially if it wants a stiff shot at derailing the champion Terriers.<br /><br />The top two lines –comprised of Kate Bacon, Corinne Buie, Ashley Cottrell, Abby Gauthier, Jean O’Neill, and Alyse Ruff- have shown little or no sign of New Year’s frostbite. Over the five games since their four-week respite, they have each produced at least two or three points. If anyone there has receded much, it’s Bacon, who had 14 goals at the break and still has 14.<br /><br />Elsewhere, Nicole Anderson, Laura Veharanta, and senior defender Amber Yung have all been loitering around the double-digit threshold since Thanksgiving. Anderson and Veharanta still have nine points on the year, Yung eight. <br /><br />(This is, by the way, to say nothing of the season-long struggles plaguing the rest of the depth chart. Other than Jessie Vella, who is working on a 2-4-6 transcript, the other six Skating Friars have four points or fewer. Even goaltender Genevieve Lacasse has four helpers to her credit.)<br /><br />Save for a two-goal outing against Connecticut Dec. 5, Anderson is without any points in her last 16 games. Veharanta lit the lamp once versus New Hampshire Dec. 4, but is otherwise barren in the last 12 outings. <br /><br />And in last Saturday’s loss to the Wildcats, Yung’s production drought reached 10 consecutive games, matching the worst skid of her career that stretched between December 3, 2007, and January 25, 2008, when she was a rookie. Meanwhile, towering junior Jen Friedman is one arid outing away from matching a season-high four-game pointless streak, this coming on the heels of a carry-over hot streak of six points in as many games. <br /><br />A rapid U-turn for Friedman is especially critical to the power play and the experimental umbrella format. Six of Friedman’s 17 points have come during a 5-on-4 advantage, though she only has two power play points in the Friars’ last 11 ventures. Likewise, Anderson bolted out for five power play points in eight games by Oct. 23, but has stalled ever since. And Bacon still leads the PC brigade with seven points, though she has not added to her lead since Dec. 4.<br /><br />As a group, the Friars have converted three of 27 opportunities since New Year’s, dropping their already subpar success rate a full point from 15.6 to 14.6 percent, fifth-best in the league and No. 19 in the country. And in their three most recent losing efforts, all decided by a single goal, they bought either the same number or more chances than the opposition, but wasted no fewer than three per night.<br /><br />One more capitalization, one more productive shift from an overdue group of scorers, one more long-range delivery from the point. Any one of those could have spelled an extra Hockey East point any of those nights. A combination of two or three could have meant another much-yearned-for win and thus a greater presence in the upper echelon of the standings.<br /><br />But if the Friars hurry, these essentials can still make the redemptive difference going forward.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8730518926549968089?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-24864407312491416552011-01-16T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-15T23:31:20.182-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">They jumped their captain’s ship<br />O’Neill’s flares of valiance wasted in loss</span><br /><br />Her first jutting highlight of the game, a slick backdoor power play goal serendipitously captured by the cameras of Cox Sports, should have been the sparkplug to an assertive triumph.<br /><br />Her second big play, an opposing penalty drawn immediately after visiting New Hampshire had knotted the score, could have been the PC women’s signal that the plebeian Wildcats would be getting diddlysquat in charity offerings from them.<br /><br />Similarly, her third notable play, a close shave that saw the puck skitter just to the goal line late in the second period with the game still tied, might have been the Friars’ new wave of inspiration. Even if it didn’t go in, it could have made for all the more motivation to bury the next one.<br /><br />Finally, with her team nursing a 2-1 deficit in the waning seconds of last night’s bout at Schneider Arena, co-captain Jean O’Neill was perched along the near post amidst the last ditch six-pack attack, raring to slug in a dramatic equalizer. But the hockey gods reminded her that this is the epitome of team sports and kept her twig from buttering that biscuit.<br /><br />And so, O’Neill’s belated regular season debut on home ice for her senior campaign was spoiled. A shortage of collective effort amongst her fellow 18 skaters was the blatant culprit as the Friars allowed the floundering Wildcats to halt their nine-game Hockey East losing streak and hand PC its third loss in four games.<br /><br />“Not scoring goals,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “It’s a simple as that. We had plenty of chances to puck behind (New Hampshire goalie Lindsey Minton). It went everywhere but in the net. Whenever you play with that small a margin of error and can’t create separation, you’re just asking for something fluky to happen.<br /><br />“Both goals they scored were direct turnovers by us. You can’t win when you don’t take care of the puck.”<br /><br />In the five games since O’Neill’s return from a three-month injury/rehab regimen, the Providence strike force has mustered 10 goals for a nightly median of two. O’Neill has had a hand in four of those goals, scoring three and assisting on another. And it’s worth noting that her two linemates, Abby Gauthier and Alyse Ruff, accounted for both strikes in Friday’s 2-0 win at the Whittemore Center.<br /><br />The Friars have converted only thrice on the power play since New Year’s. Those last two conversions, including last night, were polished off by O’Neill, who has four points and nine shots on the numerical advantage in only seven total appearances.<br /><br />And in Friday’s win up in Durham, PC started slow with only one shot on goal to speak of through the first 20 minutes. Guess who discharged that lonely SOG?<br /><br />“Not that her other teammates aren’t (showing the same desire),” said Deraney. “I think the key thing is she’s a very good player and she’s not even close to being 100 percent yet. She definitely gives us a shot in the arm and we sure are glad to have her back. She’s playing well for us.”<br /><br />The old “lead by example” adage speaks for itself here. True enough, a degree of healthily spread effort showed up on last night’s scoresheet -14 different Skating Friars took at least one SOG, led by Kate Bacon’s five and four apiece by blueliner Rebecca Morse and the fettered forward Jessie Vella. But the standard O’Neill has set reaches far beyond her registered attempts or her icebreaker at 9:36 of the first period.<br /><br />New Hampshire’s Sarah Campbell drew a 1-1 knot only six minutes and 40 seconds after O’Neill had drawn first blood. But one face-off and 22 ticks thereafter, Courtney Birchard –practically the lone star in a mighty-have-fallen program- was going to the sin bin as penance for hooking O’Neill in her unhesitant drive to Minton’s cage.<br /><br />Yep, rather than let her head droop over the unfortunate equalizer, O’Neill had chosen to try her luck at repealing the Wildcats’ momentum before it even took effect. She drove to the net looking to renew the lead, but instead drew a bonus spin on the wheel of fortune.<br /><br />The Friars proceeded to take two fruitless power play shots. Ditto their third of five total opportunities on the night. Over the two chances thereafter, they managed but one more hack.<br /><br />“Considering our power play, I’ll take 1-for-5. That’s 20 percent,” said Deraney. “When you score on the power play, you should win. We hurt ourselves tonight.”<br /><br />In a similar vein, when one of a team’s top seasoned leaders contributes, she would expect to see a little more compensation in the standings. But so far, in each of the three games where O’Neill has tuned the opposing mesh this season, PC has fallen short.<br /><br />Captain’s curse? Only in the sense that O’Neill is the one feeling plagued, along with the rest of her team, by the pesky benchwide bug of complacency and its consequences.<br /><br />“We’re just trying to get better and we didn’t get better tonight,” Deraney concluded.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2486440731249141655?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-84229387689477703972011-01-10T00:00:00.001-05:002011-01-09T19:01:32.297-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Full bench, empty pockets<br />Riley, PC women toil, but whiff again</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Report based on Gametracker</span><br /><br />BOSTON- For the first time in all of their 24 ventures, McGill exhibition series and all, the Friars doled out ice time to a maximum limit of 18 skaters yesterday. As fate would have it, they did so against a pack of Boston University Terriers who are inclined and perfectly equipped to chase after any 18-wheeler. Either that or maybe they are a bunch of race hounds who can dare a machine of any caliber to catch up with them.<br /><br />Come what may, the host Terriers did chase PC goaltender Christina England to the bench after she answered all but two of 14 first period shots and found her mates facing a 2-1 deficit.<br /><br />Freshman netminder Nina Riley validated her spontaneous insertion long enough, turning away 26 of the first 27 shots she faced, including 17 in the third period alone, while her skating mates repeatedly deleted one-goal deficits.<br /><br />But the fourth time was a charm for the tireless Terriers, who escaped with a 4-3 victory at Walter Brown Arena on the strength of captain Holly Lorms’ second strike of the game with 55 seconds to spare in regulation.<br /><br />For the second time in as many intercollegiate twirls, Riley was virtually abandoned in the final frame, kicked up a valiant struggle, but ultimately took an L-shaped albatross decided by one measly goal. BU owned the third period shooting gallery, 18-3, and pulled off a critical penalty kill moments before Lorms inserted her decider.<br /><br />At the 14:25 mark, junior sizzler and longtime Friar-killer Jenn Wakefield was caged for bodychecking. The PC power play brigade mustered three shot attempts, only one on net, before a turnover allowed the Terriers to take three shorthanded hacks at Riley.<br /><br />Riley withstood four more unanswered bids until Lorms raked in the winner from the deep slot. Thirty seconds thereafter, as she had done last Monday in Maine, Riley took a seat and watched a six-pack attack’s vain struggle to salvage at least one point, which the overall effort certainly warranted this time.<br /><br />During England’s abbreviated shift, wherein she faced one more shot than she did in a full 60-minute tangle with Maine (13) last Sunday, the discipline detonated for both parties. But England and her four praetorian guards deterred the Terriers’ superior power play well enough, squelching an aggregate six SOG over four separate opportunities.<br /><br />Furthermore, BU would not receive another numerical advantage at any point in the second or third period. The Terriers thus went scoreless on the power play for the first time in seven games.<br /><br />But in the opening frame, clearing the zone in the aftermath of the penalty kill was another issue for Providence. At 12:47, within 28 seconds of Amber Yung’s release from a two-minute bodychecking sentence, the Friars were caught with too many skaters on the ice.<br /><br />Emily Groth took the fall to the bin, and then came back into the equation after England repelled three power play shots. But the Terriers continued to churn long enough that, 14 seconds after things returned to 5-on-5, Wakefield converted a feed from Louise Warren at 15:01 for the 1-0 lead.<br /><br />It was only the presage to a wintry mix of citations and scoring plays that closed out the final four minutes before intermission. During that span, two Terriers and two Friars were whistled, Jean O’Neill knotted things up on a power play strike with 16:11 gone, and Kathryn Miller restored the BU lead to 2-1 with a 4-on-4 conversion at 17:32.<br /><br />The tempestuous air tapered off along with all the snow the Zamboni had swallowed for the middle frame. And with Riley on duty in the crease, the Friars kept BU within vaulting distance throughout a penalty-free period. Riley stopped each of the first six shots she faced in the first 10 minutes, after which the Friars went on a 9-1 sugar rush in the shooting gallery.<br /><br />At 12:46, O’Neill drew a 2-2 knot, and though Lorms finally solved Riley with 1:22 left in the period, Ashley Cottrell instantaneously retorted in a matter of 49 seconds, nimbly depositing a turnover and forging a 3-3 knot at the break.<br /><br />After Yung and Kate Bacon took successive stabs at Terrier goaltender Kerrin Sperry (21 saves) in the sixth minute of the third, Boston took 22 of the game’s final 27 shot attempts and all but one of the last 17 on net. But PC just wouldn’t break, until the last minute anyway.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8422938768947770397?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-75674724586272679392011-01-10T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-09T19:00:30.664-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Original O’Neill re-emerges</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Report based on Gametracker</span><br /><br />BOSTON- In her third game removed from a lower body injury that had sidelined her for three months, senior forward Jean O’Neill was back among the PC women’s top six for yesterday’s visit to Walter Brown Arena. She was back on the wings of her co-captain and former Princeton Tiger Lilies’ U19 teammate Alyse Ruff. She was back in the mix on the power play.<br /><br />And, albeit in a losing cause as the host Boston University extracted a painstaking 4-3 decision, O’Neill asserted her return to normalcy. She connected for her first of two goals on the Friars’ second power play opportunity, drawing a 1-1 knot with a spot-on snapper from the slot only 10 seconds after opposing defender Catherine Ward had sat down for roughing.<br /><br />O’Neill set the tone for the second period, taking a punctual shot at BU goalie Kerrin Sperry on the first shift of the stanza. Later on, in the sixth minute, the plucky forward had blocked a shot from Terriers’ blueliner Kaleigh Fratkin, effectively keeping a 2-1 deficit from swelling. Some seven minutes later, O’Neill struck once more, parking herself on the porch and thrusting the biscuit through the roof, for a 2-2 tally.<br /><br />With yesterday’s output, O’Neill once again bestowed BU the nominal honor of being her most frequently victimized opponent with six goals and seven points in nine encounters. It was her second career multi-goal game and third multi-point performance at the Terriers’ expense. She previously inserted two pucks in a 4-3 win at Schneider Arena on Jan. 31, 2008, and snagged a goal-assist value pack in a 5-3 road loss Nov. 14, 2009.<br /><br />For what five games are worth, O’Neill is still on pace to belatedly build upon her hat trick and four-point dolphin show on opening night against Robert Morris, the eve of her Oct. 2 injury. She is now subsisting on a 5-2-7 transcript, including three power play points.<br /><br />At her rate, there is little else she can still ask for, except maybe to score in a winning effort. The Friars are 0-2-0 this season when O’Neill tunes the mesh.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Five to the second power</span><br />Two Friars and three Terriers logged a multi-point game yesterday. PC junior defender Christie Jensen assisted on both of O’Neill’s goals, doubling her total to four helpers on the year. BU’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Louise Warren likewise charged up two helpers each while Terrier captain Holly Lorms beat Friars’ goalie Nina Riley twice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Taking charge</span><br />During the only power play segment of either the second or third period, with Jenn Wakefield off for bodychecking, BU forward Jill Cardella took two shorthanded hacks at Riley with 4:46 remaining in the third. An overaggressive follow-through landed Cardella her own two-minute minor for charging the goalie. A possible five-on-three for Providence was promptly negated, though, when towering blueliner Jen Friedman bought herself a citation for hitting after the whistle.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: BU senior forward Jillian Kirchner led all puckslingers with eight shots on goal. Starting linemates Corinne Buie and Ashley Cottrell led the Friars with four apiece…Poulin won 19 out of her 25 face-offs, including nine against Cottrell and seven against Ruff…Ruff and freshman defender Rebecca Morse, putting in her first appearance since the December deceleration, both recorded an assist…Abby Gauthier and Nicole Anderson were the only PC skaters to log a positive rating (plus-1)…The Friars now look ahead to a home-and-home series with New Hampshire, beginning Friday night at the Whittemore Center and shuffling back to Schneider Arena Saturday night. The mighty-have-fallen Wildcats opened their 2011 slate yesterday with a 4-2 home loss to Northeastern and have now dropped eight consecutive Hockey East games.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-7567472458627267939?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-14000252401814675692011-01-09T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-08T18:18:27.231-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Test of their spirit<br />BU stands between PC women and trendy resilience</span><br /><br />Rapid redress has been a jutting motif in the Friars’ 2010-11 season. But the trend faces its utmost threat today in Boston University, which will have the likes of Marie-Philip Poulin, Jenn Wakefield, Jillian Kircher, Holly Lorms, and Catherine Ward all raring to storm an unripe PC goaltender.<br /><br />In each of five chances so far this season, PC has promptly followed a loss with a win. The last two times, they had at least three or four days to mull over the reasons for and then bury the memories of the previous effort. This time, they have had a full five days between last Monday’s 3-2 falter at Maine and today’s excursion to Walter Brown Arena.<br /><br />A keen, long-suffering breed of hunger will be a doubtlessly precious additive to the Friars’ game plan. Whether it is Christina England or Nina Riley –both with one intercollegiate game’s worth of experience- trying her luck in the BU visitors’ Crease of Fright, it will be primarily on the strike force to pursue self-redemption. Monday was arguably their most thorough letdown yet, seeing as it was their first game out of 21 this season in which they never led and that they mustered a season-low 16 shots on goal.<br /><br />BU is tops in the league on both sides of the puck –scoring 3.8 goals and allowing 1.75 on a nightly basis- and on both sides of the special teams’ spectrum –converting 22.1 percent of their power plays and boasting a 94.7 percent success rate on the penalty kill. And even with formidable juniors Jenelle Kohanchuk and Tara Watchorn still overseas at the MLP Cup, they still flaunt enviable depth with five five-plus goal-getters and five skaters in or beyond the 10-point range.<br /><br />Further complicating the search for seams, the Terriers are riding a program-best seven-game winning streak that dates back to the weekend prior Thanksgiving, when they split a home-and-home set with Boston College. They have laid four goose-eggs and outscored the opposition by a cumulative count of 27-6 in that span.<br /><br />If the Terriers are to sport any plausible weak spots that the Friars will not need to unveil all on their own, it would likely be either a surprise case of complacency or a frostbitten goalie in Kerrin Sperry. BU’s routine starter deferred to Alissa Fromkin for last week’s 4-0 road win plebeian over Brown, meaning she has not seen extramural action in 30 days, dating back to a 5-3 win over Harvard Dec. 10. Assuming the radiant rookie Sperry has today’s nod, getting re-acclimated right away could be hit-or-miss for her.<br /><br />Regardless, PC projects to face a laborious dig as it tries to rinse out the vinegar from both its latest dud in Orono and a glowering missed opportunity in the Hub three months ago.<br /><br />In their last encounter with the reigning Hockey East champions Nov. 6, the Friars spilled a radiant invitation to pinch two points, taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission only to let it devolve into a 4-1 loss. More harrowingly, though, they were outshot in the latter 40 minutes, 41-14, after they had initially led the shooting gallery, 14-4.<br /><br />Furthermore, the Terriers were lacking the goal-per-game connoisseurs Poulin and Wakefield, as well as Watchorn, as they all served Team Canada in the Four Nations Cup. And they had their backup goalie, Fromkin, on duty. Conversely, the Friars had their go-to goalie available in Genevieve Lacasse, unlike today.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Swede-tasting trip for Lacasse</span><br />Lacasse should be arriving back in North America today with her fellow Canadian U22ers on the heels of yesterday’s 6-0 win over Sweden that sealed the MLP Cup championship in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Lacasse withstood a 37-shot firestorm for the shutout, including 18 bids in the third, although her teammates dwarfed that by charging up 60 registered stabs at Swedish stoppers Sara Grahn and Valentina Lizana.<br /><br />Lacasse, along with Vermont freshman Roxanne Douville, were perfect throughout the tournament, stopping a cumulative 79 shots over four tournament games. Lacasse took credit for 55 of those saves, having also repelled 18 Swiss shots in the opening contest on Tuesday.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: The Terriers are 9-0-0 when scoring first, making them one of two teams in the nation (Harvard is 3-0-0) to have neither lost nor tied after nabbing a 1-0 lead…The Friars have yet to go winless in a single season series against the Terriers. They are 0-1-1 this season heading into today’s finale…No foretelling today’s goaltending card, but a match between PC’s Riley and BU’s Sperry would mean pitting old U19 allies. Riley was Sperry’s backup last spring, when they partook in a USA Hockey national championship with Assabet Valley…Wakefield, the league’s most active puckslinger, is one shot on net away from cracking 100 on the year.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1400025240181467569?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-51031593778145271132011-01-05T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-04T16:57:06.734-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Reactions couldn’t go the distance</span><br /><br />Monday afternoon was hardly a savory sequel to “Birthday Bash on Ice” for PC women’s co-captain Alyse Ruff.<br /><br />Last season, on the day she turned 21, Ruff inserted both goals in a vital 2-0 arrest of St. Cloud State, a triumph that ignited a seven-game winning streak for the Friars and catapulted them to an unlikely first place finish in Hockey East.<br /><br />On the day she turned 22, Ruff –the only Friar to log at least three shots on goal Monday- watched from the sin bin as she served a two-minute slashing sentence that indirectly buoyed the host Maine Black Bears to a game-winning strike with 12:57 to spare in the third period.<br /><br />Instead of pulling out harmless celebratory candles, Ruff and Co. spent most of Monday’s 3-2 loss juggling with torches and sustained the scars that practice so often invites. The Friars conceded their first 2-0 deficit of the season and, for the first time since they were dislodged from the 2010 Hockey East playoffs, went through an entire contest without ever holding a lead.<br /><br />But moving forward into a vital week of preparation for this Sunday’s excursion to almighty Boston University, PC can at least refer back to their efforts to amend the damages during Monday’s debacle. And they might consider applying that same kind of resolve in a proactive, as opposed to reactive, context; first move rather than first response.<br /><br />Ruff herself was in on two key plays that fell as quickly as within one play, and never more than two minutes, of the Black Bears beating Friars’ goaltender Nina Riley. At 9:09 of the first period, Maine’s Kayla Kaluzny drew first blood on her team’s sixth SOG of the game. Off the subsequent draw, Ruff –who also logged her team’s first attempted shot when her power play bid went wide in the fourth minute- gave Black Bears’ stopper Brittany Ott her first test of the day.<br /><br />Similarly, one face-off after Maine scoring leader Brittany Dougherty augmented the margin to 2-0 at 13:36, PC’s Amber Yung and Ashley Cottrell each pelted Ott in succession. After Ott summoned a whistle, the Friars continued to churn off the next draw and ultimately duped Melissa Gagnon into a tripping penalty 74 seconds after Dougherty’s tally.<br /><br />In the closing frame, it only took the Friars 12 seconds after Jennie Gallo made it 3-1 to send another Black Bear, Jenny Kistner, to the box. On the subsequent power play, with the umbrella unit deployed, Ruff and lone point patroller Jen Friedman collaborated to set up Corinne Buie’s refreshing strike, the team’s first 5-on-4 conversion in 14 tries on the weekend.<br /><br />If that type of emotional spark were in commission for longer stretches, particularly when the game was still scoreless, Providence may have padded on a point or two in the Hockey East standings.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick Feeds</span>: Buie was named the WHEA’s Rookie of the Month for December yesterday. The first-line winger totaled a goal and four assists in the Friars’ lone two December games, most notably a playmaker hat trick in a 4-2 win over New Hampshire Dec. 4. She has since extended her carry-over point streak to four games with a goal in each installment of the Maine series…Freshman defender Rebecca Morse, who missed the Maine series with a mild illness, should be back in game shape well in advance of the forthcoming BU bout…When Emily Groth served the team’s second bench minor during Monday’s second period, it was the sophomore center’s first college shift in the sin bin. In 30 career games, Groth still has yet to receive a penalty in her own right…The Friars, now 14-6-1 overall, ascended from No. 9 to No. 8 in the latest USA Today/USA Hockey poll, revised yesterday for the first time out of a three-week freeze…Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse pitched an 18-save, 5-0 shutout over host Switzerland in Day One of the MLP Cup. Unless Canada coach Jim Fetter believes in sticking with the hot hand, even in a transitory tournament like this, Lacasse will likely give way to Vermont rookie Roxanne Douville for tomorrow’s showdown with Germany.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5103159377814527113?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-4069414320621876232011-01-04T00:00:00.000-05:002011-01-03T18:39:14.762-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Problems started way out of the goal</span><br /><br />It was most fitting that, with 1:49 to spare in the third period and again when there were 70 seconds to work with, PC women’s head coach Bob Deraney offered goaltender Nina Riley a breather and tasked a six-pack attack with trying to delete a 3-2 deficit against Maine.<br /><br />The Friars, who ultimately whiffed on that elusive equalizer, had strained their freshman backstop more than enough already. They had subjected Riley to a flurry of six unanswered shots to start yesterday’s loss at Alfond Arena. In the latter half of the second period, they let the Black Bears take nine unanswered attempts, seven on net. Riley repelled all 15 stabs she faced in that middle frame, but only after the opposition had sculpted itself a 2-0 lead, the first such deficit Providence has endured all season.<br /><br />What’s more, by the time Maine clicked first at 9:09 of the first period, giving it a 1-0 edge on the board and a 6-0 advantage in the shooting gallery, the game’s only power play had been granted to the Friars. But in that particular segment, between the 3:31 and 5:31 mark, PC’s lone shot was a wide attempt courtesy of Alyse Ruff. Meanwhile, the Mainers mustered two shorthanded pelts at Riley.<br /><br />Riley’s classmate, Corinne Buie, put a belated splash on the team’s weekend-old power play drought when she converted and sawed a 3-1 deficit in half with 8:55 gone in the third. By then, spanning Sunday night’s 2-1 triumph and yesterday’s downturn, the Friars had spent a grand total of 22 minutes and 21 seconds with at least one extra body at their disposal. They failed to pounce on each of their first 13 opportunities and went completely shotless on four of them.<br /><br />Late in yesterday’s second period, one of the rare moments when momentum was not a mirage, PC terminated its fifth power play 40 seconds prematurely with its second bench minor in less than three minutes. All that coming 38 seconds after Maine had killed a 42-second 5-on-3 disadvantage.<br /><br />Maine remains the decisively least disciplined team in Hockey East with 14 penalty minutes per game, but is capable of luring its opposition to the bin just as regularly. Both trends carried over into the New Year, and in their two-night stay in Orono, the Friars took a cumulative 14 penalties, the Black Bears 15. PC went 1-for-14 on the power play, Maine 2-for-12.<br /><br />Yesterday, Maine only had four extra-player opportunities over an aggregate 4:57 of clock time. In that limited window, they slipped five registered stabs at Riley, including three on one continuous buzz in the seventh minute of the second period. Riley answered all three of those, but not the one Maine senior Jennie Gallo dished out at 7:03 of the third while Ruff was serving a two-minute sentence for slashing.<br /><br />Gallo’s upfront strike augmented a 2-1 edge to 3-1 and ultimately held up as the game-winner. But by all counts, the Friars could have put themselves on much thicker ice ahead of time.<br /><br />Admittedly, this author forecasted a split in this series as soon as minute-munching mainstay Genevieve Lacasse was accepted onto Canada’s MLP Cup roster, precluding her presence on the Orono excursion and forcing two unripe stoppers in Riley and Christina England with a combined 4:48 minutes of prior experience to go on duty. That projection never wavered, mostly by virtue of the Black Bears’ steady improvement under first-year coach Maria Lewis.<br /><br />After the fact, however, it is plain that Providence could have easily wrested away the better half of the wishbone. Everyone in black played uncharacteristically yesterday –Riley for the better, what with a 27-save performance in her NCAA debut, and her skating mates for worse with a season-low 16 shots on goal.<br /><br />This strike force has compiled bigger bushels than that in single periods. Try, for instance, the last 20 minutes of Sunday night’s contest, when they heaved 19 pucks at Maine’s Brittany Ott. Although her valiance wasn’t enough to muster a rally, Ott did stop everything, raising questions about quality on the Friars’ part.<br /><br />Roughly 19 hours thereafter, the issue morphed quickly to quantity. While leaving Riley to deal with 30 of the Black Bears’ 40 shot attempts, PC took 27 hacks, four of which were blocked while another seven went wide.<br /><br />All that, and they still lost by only one. Imagine if the puckslingers had remembered to set their alarms earlier?<br /><br />Better just take those wonders and apply them to the final chapter of “Surviving without the Scarborough Save-ior,” which will be Sunday’s venture to the chemically reactive Boston University.<br /><br />The way it’s looking right now, PC’s best bet to take any BU booty is if Riley or England makes like Alissa Fromkin in the last meeting. Recall that, back on Nov. 6, Fromkin stood in for sparkling starter Kerrin Sperry and withstood the better part of a 14-shot, first period salvo en route to a 4-1 Terrier triumph.<br /><br />Either that, or the Terrier strike force –which will still have Marie-Philip Poulin and Jenn Wakefield- could take an off night, much like the Friars did yesterday.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-406941432062187623?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-62966980585204868352010-12-27T00:00:00.001-05:002010-12-27T18:05:34.200-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">PC women should have Patriotic attitude</span><br /><br />Just to deck this ho-hum point out of the way, Bob Deraney is hardly a duplicate of Bill Belichick, and for that reason the New England football press corps should feel free to envy this author.<br /><br />Public personas aside, the coach of the PC women’s hockey team would be advised to emulate the approach of the Patriots’ skipper as he pilots his pupils into 2011. The circumstances and resources at hand are similar enough.<br /><br />In the growingly distant wake of three titles in four seasons, the Patriots have not hoisted a Lombardi Trophy since 2005. Likewise, the once-dynastic Friars are going on five years without a Hockey East pennant or an NCAA tournament passport.<br /><br />As is mandated at the college level and as is practically natural in a 21st century sports world where so few athlete-franchise marriages have any sanctity, PC and New England have undergone a gradual personnel overhaul since they were last on top of their respective leagues. (Although the hockey gods know if Deraney could keep sidekicks Karen Thatcher and Erin Normore in uniform beyond practice the same way Tom Brady, when healthy, has been a mainstay at quarterback, he would.)<br /><br />And just like the newly confirmed AFC regular season champions, the 2010-11 Friars were indubitably competitive before they went into action, but have since achieved enough to pleasantly surprise even themselves. <br /><br />For the better part of their slowly dying four-week holiday, they have enjoyed being No. 9 in USA Today/USA Hockey’s national leaderboard and a tie for eighth with North Dakota in the uscho.com poll. They own the sixth best overall record in the country at 13-5-1 for a .711 winning percentage. Only Cornell, Wisconsin, Boston University, Mercyhurst, and Boston College are living larger. The almighty likes of Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth are a miniscule stride behind PC, but a stride behind nonetheless.<br /><br />When sized up with the other 33 Division I programs in the country, the Friars are a respectable No. 9 on the penalty kill. Their offense is seventh-best with 3.26 goals per game and defense is No. 8, allowing only 1.89 opposing strikes per night.<br /><br />The only team stat pining for an upgrade is the power play, which has converted a mere 15 of 96 opportunities in PC’s first 19 games. <br /><br />Which cracks open the most pivotal Patriots parallel at hand. This generation of Deraney’s pupils has yet to hallmark itself. It will not until it stamps fresh numerals on the NCAA tournament banner that glides over the team’s defensive zone at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />Furthermore, although their posture and pace in the national standings could arguably warrant an at-large bid, the Friars will need at least one more dollop of punch to hack through what’s left of the regular season.<br /><br />And the half-New Year’s champagne, half-leftover fruitcake news is this: the most taxing phase of the homestretch comes first. Minute-munching goaltender Genevieve Lacasse will be living a hard-earned dream with Team Canada at the MLP Cup while her college companions pay a two-night visit to the exponentially improving Maine Black Bears this weekend. Likewise, while the Scarborough Save-ior is wrapping up her business trip to Switzerland on Jan. 9, Boston University will still have sizzlers Marie-Philip Poulin and Jenn Wakefield back on campus raring to host Providence.<br /><br />No matter how much loot the unripe Christina England and/or Nina Riley can safeguard, or how many a strike force complete with healed co-captain Jean O’Neill can whittle away, one would like to think the Friars will gain something intangible out of the next three games. And whatever that is, it can come in gratifying use over the next 11 ventures before the ice chips settle on the playoff picture.<br /><br />The question is, how gratifying? It all depends on what they pick up to build on both in the Hockey East standings and on their national resume, a priority far more vital than the former.<br /><br />Yes, they theoretically go hand-in-hand. The higher PC finishes within the league, the more reverence it is bound to garner from the soon-to-be selection committee.<br /><br />But even if PC made good of home ice advantage and took two of its three unopened meetings from Boston College, odds are the first-place Eagles are not going to concede many more points to the rest of the league. And even with a four-point gap and two games in hand on BU, a win on Jan. 9 still does not assure a permanent pole-vault into first-round bye territory. <br /><br />So instead of overexerting on the two anointed aristocrats of Hockey East, the Friars should focus a little more on asserting itself against fellow mid-to-heavyweight Northeastern when they meet late next month. It should be sure to remind the Black Bears that they still have a few more rungs to climb. It should not shy away from kicking ice chips over rival New Hampshire while they’re down. And, of course, they ought to consider the concept of sweeping the season series with the downright disappointing Vermont.<br /><br />They do enough of that, and the Friars can be a thrilling third-place team, one that could make Boss Bertagna justifiably proud of his league’s progression. <br /><br />Of course, they are free to make their case to crash the presumptive Comm. Ave. party on the first weekend of March. But before they get there, perhaps they’d like to go up secure in the notion of having an at-large bid within tasting distance.<br /><br />That’s where Belichick could rightly envy Deraney, for the latter might not even need a conference championship trophy, just a return to the exclusive Elite Eight, to replenish his sense of excellence.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-6296698058520486835?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-49614851901880991322010-12-18T13:30:00.001-05:002010-12-18T13:32:19.376-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Nicole Anderson</span>- At one point, the towering winger had a team-leading 2-3-5 transcript on the power play, which cooled off over November along with her. A last-minute perk-up before the break, however, could bode well for the second half.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Kate Bacon</span>- In her third full season, and first injury-free, Bacon is using her turbine blades without fail to charge up a rapid career year and a team-best 14 goals, 20 points, and 92 shots on net. One only wishes that “opposing penalties drawn” could be adopted as an official statistic, for she would facilely be a team, if not league or even national leader in that category.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Corinne Buie</span>- Not much more can be asked of Buie in the second half, except of course that she not let her self-enhancing profile get to her head and self-destruct. If she stays on pace, she ought to finish with roughly 24 points for the second-best rookie campaign by a Friar in the Hockey East era, trailing only Veharanta’s 2008-09 output.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Jess Cohen</span>- Her insipid numbers –two goals and no helpers on 23 shots on net- are symptomatic of last year’s Laura Veharanta syndrome. She along with classmates and linemates Anderson and Jessie Vella ought to be the making the most vocal New Year’s pledges in the PC Skating Sorority.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Ashley Cottrell</span>- While not quite on the same productive pace (seven goals, 12 points) as her sizzling sophomore season, Cottrell is still of doubtless value and playing a routine role in the clutch. She has scored three game-winning goals, assisted on another two, and had a hand in two critical equalizers, both of which immediately preceded game-clinchers for the Friars.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lauren Covell</span>- After flexibly hopping between positions on demand, the junior grinder can expect to assume a full-time forward assignment once Jean O’Neill comes back, giving PC a long-awaited quorum of 12 forwards.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jen Friedman</span>- Now beyond the halfway mark of her career, the towering defender has established herself as a prototypical point-based puckslinger. With a 4-10-14 transcript, including 2-3-5 on the power play, she is worth emulating to her blue line colleagues.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Abby Gauthier</span>- Has fed off a resolute regimen of summer training and the contagious seasoning of her linemates. Not only has Gauthier joined in on the career year crowd with a 4-8-12 scoring transcript. She has inserted three power play goals in 19 games on the year after going without anything of the sort in a combined 67 contests her first two seasons.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Emily Groth</span>- More than anything, the sophomore center is pining for a full-time pair of linemates, which should be coming on the other side of the break.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Christie Jensen</span>- Had a booming finale to the calendar year by posting a plus-4 rating during the recent three-game homestand, which liberated her from the red in that category.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Genevieve Lacasse</span>- The nation’s leader in cumulative minutes played (1147:57) and a not-too-distant No. 3 in terms of aggregate saves with 555. Only Ohio State’s Lisa Steffes (559) and Sacred Heart’s Alexius Schutt (558) have repelled more rubber, although they have also authorized more goals. The Cyclopean task thus left to Christina England and/or Nina Riley for the first three games of January speaks for itself. But once Lacasse is back from the MLP Cup, she will be one start-to-finish game away from 5,000 career minutes, which would place her second on the Friars’ all-time leaderboard ahead of Sara Decosta.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rebecca Morse</span>- The rookie blueliner, playing under Friedman’s wing on the second unit, is anything but shy about pinching in the offensive zone and has scraped out a respectable six points as a result.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jean O’Neill</span>- O’Neill has barely had a full regular season game to set the tone for her finale, but it was a promising pledge as evidenced by her opening night hat trick. Her probable reinsertion the first weekend of January will essentially follow a miniature summer of replenishing her game, which ought to let her lend a ration of genuine depth without delay.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Maggie Pendleton</span>- Compared to the majority of her peers, Pendleton has more progress to make. Then again, this was only her first semester. The aforementioned Jensen should be tasked with continuing to help hone her young defensive partner.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Leigh Riley</span>- Riley has never seen much of her name on either side of the scoresheet in her first three seasons. This year, though, she is sneaking in to the scoring half a little more with four assists, but her game remains Lady Byng-like with only two minor infractions.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Alyse Ruff</span>- The senior co-captain has eclipsed an otherwise curious dip in goal frequency with a team-best 13 assists and a league-best plus-19 rating, the latter stat a plain testament to her two-way value. And not unlike her fellow top-six center Cottrell, she is regularly on the scoresheet when the decision is made, nailing three game-clinchers and setting up another two.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Laura Veharanta</span>- Has patently regained her confidence, as evidenced by her already exceeding her 2009-10 output under the goal (three last year, six this year) and shot (57 last year, 65 this year) headings.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jessie Vella</span>- Defensive efficiency has earned her substantial time on the penalty kill, but is not exactly reflected in her plus/minus, owing entirely to a modicum of offensive output.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Amber Yung</span>- The Friars’ leading blueliner, like her partner Riley, has continued to demonstrate commendable discipline with only two minor penalties in the first 19 games. It’s also hard to gripe over her plus-12 rating, a sign that she is filling Colleen Martin’s skates.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4961485190188099132?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-59335719416212132322010-12-06T00:00:00.000-05:002010-12-05T19:00:29.518-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Heaven in ’11? Don’t doubt it<br />Friars close 2010 slate in contender’s form</span><br /><br />PC women’s hockey head coach Bob Deraney unintentionally covered his team’s entire outlook when he assessed the 5-1 takedown his team pinned on Connecticut yesterday.<br /><br />“We’re a pretty good team, that’s what it’s showing,” he said. “And I think our conditioning is very good in that we’re pretty good closers right now. At the beginning of the year, we weren’t closing games out as cleanly or as efficiently as I thought we could, and we’re doing that now.”<br /><br />Actually, the closure these Friars have flexed is not limited to assertive third periods. Yesterday, whether or not they admit to wanting it, they cultivated a snug surplus of closure as they resurfaced their rivalry with the Huskies, who abruptly dislodged them from last year’s playoffs at Schneider Arena. (Notably, senior defender Leigh Riley did proclaim that “Because of what happened last year, there was a fire lit there.”)<br /><br />Towering sophomore winger Nicole Anderson, along with classmate and linemate Jessie Vella, brought a timely close to their respective cold streaks as they bolstered a third period surge that morphed a delicate 2-0 edge into the said 5-1 purge. Anderson was pointless in her previous 10 games until she pounced on a misguided UConn pass in her own end, traveled along the far wall, and zapped home a stunning snapper to make it 3-0 with 12:14 to spare.<br /><br />In the final minute, Vella, with only one point to her credit in the previous 10 outings, played a skating Speedy Gonzalez as she took the puck on a protracted circle tour around the Huskies’ cage and into the high slot, then handed it to Rebecca Morse. Vella’s toil earned her an assist when Anderson tilted Morse’s point shot home.<br /><br />Now with four weeks free from game action, Anderson and Vella splashed their respective droughts at a well-advised time. They can join their team in feeling a collectively seamless psyche made possible by a 13-5-1 record and carry-over four-game win streak.<br /><br />That’s where this closure motif beams at its brightest. First halves have been the perennial bane of this Skating Sorority since its last merry March in 2005. It was always about passively accepting growing pains, thawing out from those, and then cramming in vain for an NCAA tournament passport.<br /><br />But when this group reconvenes for practice after the December deceleration, the objective will not be improvement. It will be enhancement.<br /><br />“I think it’s a well-earned break,” said Deraney. “But it’s also an opportunity for us to get even better. We learned a lot about ourselves in the first half here. We have to increase our conditioning and also some systematic and technical plays. We’re really looking forward to using the next four weeks as a great benefit to springboard us into a terrific second half.”<br /><br />Development-wise and results-wise, Providence is still a few conspicuous strides behind the likes of Boston College and Boston University, the aptly anointed favorites in the Hockey East pennant race. <br /><br />The Friars will want a little more depth to complement its tireless top six –led by Kate Bacon, who potted her 14th goal and second game-winner of the year yesterday; highlighted in part by co-captain Alyse Ruff’s team-leading 13 assists and league-best plus-19 rating; and stressed by a handful of career years (Bacon, Abby Gauthier) and a radiant rookie in Corinne Buie. None of them –nor Ashley Cottrell nor Laura Veharanta- need to change anything, but a champion can’t subsist on two lines alone.<br /><br />In a related vein, they certainly want to shore up their power play, which has converted a modest 15 out of 96 aggregate chances.<br /><br />The reinsertion of co-captain Jean O’Neill will help on both fronts. O’Neill, confined to the sidelines since Game 2 of opening weekend with a lower body injury, will wisely treat the next month as a mini-summer to focus solely on replenishing her game. Not to mention, belatedly building on her opening night hat trick against Robert Morris and her 29-30-59 scoring transcript in 104 career games.<br /><br />“We expect Jean to be back the next game we play,” Deraney said. “She should be a sight for sore eyes, and I hope that’ll be the case.<br /><br />“She’s worked extremely hard to get back. She was real close, but it’s not worth it to get her back too early, especially when we have this month to really solidify her conditioning and physical strength and ability. So it’ll be a nice shot in the arm for a second-half run.”<br /><br />Come what may, the Friars now have an irreproachable winning percentage of .711, good for seventh-best in the nation. They are No. 8 in the way of offense (3.26 goals per game) and barely No. 9 on defense (1.89 goals allowed per game, trailing three teams each with a 1.88 median).<br /><br />Suddenly, an at-large bid to the Elite Eight is anything but an apparition. And the Friars, currently third in the conference standings behind the Comm. Ave. cohabitants, will have games in hand on everybody except Maine when they return for the 14 contests yet to come. <br /><br />On the one hand, they are still guaranteed nothing in this overpopulated landscape of contenders. Then again, almost nothing but preventable complacency can drop this promising vase to total shards.<br /><br />“I know everybody’s going to take care of themselves,” said Riley. “We know how to prepare in the off-time and I think we’re going to come back stronger.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5933571941621213232?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-65747389853348956902010-12-05T00:00:00.001-05:002010-12-04T22:54:32.206-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Friars best Wildcats in finishing department</span><br /><br />The trends are likely to breach at some point. But for the moment, the PC women’s hockey team is a wholesome 4-0-0 when conceding a 1-0 deficit and 3-0-0 when trailing at the first intermission.<br /><br />“We’re definitely resilient. There’s no doubt about it,” said head coach Bob Deraney in the wake of yesterday’s rallying 4-2 triumph over New Hampshire at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />Notorious for sometimes spilling precious points when drunk on their own success and facing a statistically second-rate adversary, the Friars probably needed UNH, now losers of its last seven games, showing up yesterday like novice skiers need a ring of fire before them on their first downhill endeavor. But for once, they didn’t wait to perk up too long; just enough to only give their fans a startled jolt.<br /><br />The Wildcats struck first at exactly 3:00 and held fort until long after the Zamboni’s first shift, and they later deleted a 2-1 deficit while the Friars suffered from a brief hangover after scoring their own go-ahead goal. But for the climactic phases of the game, the refined Rhode Islanders imposed their will on the survivors of the bygone Granite State Goddesses.<br /><br />“You have to take into consideration the mentality of both teams,” said Deraney. “UNH is on an uncharacteristic losing streak right now, and I’m just glad it didn’t end today against us.<br /><br />“The game played out the way I thought it would play out. I wasn’t really nervous about the first five minutes, but I thought after that, we dominated the game from start to finish.”<br /><br />Based on their level of inspiration in those first five-plus minutes, the Friars all but warranted a pre-holiday pep talk from Matt Foley the Motivational Santa. The Wildcats registered the game’s first five shot attempts, three on net, and one in the net at the three-minute mark on a much-too-facilely executed play. Forward Kristine Horn, standing unsupervised on PC’s porch, whiffed on her attempt to tip in Courtney Sheary’s bullet from the far point, but linemate Julie Allen had no trouble swooping in and spooning the rebound through the roof.<br /><br />Providence didn’t test opposing goaltender Kayley Herman (27 saves) until near the end of the sixth minute, though from there until intermission they led the shooting gallery, 8-2. Unable to establish anything close to a sustained flurry, the Friars’ strike force spent the day sniffing out seams and charging for the gusto on fleeting rushes.<br /><br />Herman was ready for them all, until there was 8:40 gone in the middle frame and less than a minute to spare on PC’s second power play. Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse (17 saves) wiggled out of her crease to field a UNH clear and lobbed the puck to a lone ranger Corinne Buie in the far alley. On cue, Buie and Kate Bacon concocted a two-on-one rush, culminating in Bacon one-timing Buie’s cross-ice dish along the near post for the equalizer.<br /><br />“We were just forechecking really hard the whole time,” said Buie, who ultimately scored three assists and took five shots on net. “To finally put that one in, it really helped us as we tried to keep rolling from there.”<br /><br />Amidst their first of three penalty kills, the Friars savored and squandered their first lead of the day. Ashley Cottrell morphed a turnover in her own end into a shorthanded breakaway with 7:53 remaining in the second period. But one play and 27 ticks later, Hannah Armstrong buried her own interception around the Providence cage for the 2-2 knot.<br /><br />“I think we handed them both goals,” Deraney said. “We had the puck on our stick on the first one and we batted it right to their kid and the second one we deflected in front of our own net. So I think we scored five goals and assisted on the sixth.”<br /><br />In the third period, though, all of the remaining salsa-based biscuits were force-fed to the floundering Wildcats, who have now allowed more closing frame goals (19) than what they’ve authorized in the first 40 minutes (17).<br /><br />Point patroller Jen Friedman drilled in her second consecutive game-winner at the 3:30 mark, beating Herman over the blocker on a straightaway blast. And a mere 2:16 of game time later, Laura Veharanta finalized the 4-2 difference, cutting to the slot and slugging in a one-timer off Buie’s upward feed.<br /><br />“We took the victory today,” Deraney concluded. “They didn’t hand it to us, we took it from them and I was very excited about that. We have people who are willing to make the tough play, sacrifice their body even though they know there might be some harm taking it to the front of the net, and that ended up scoring the fourth goal. It was a wonderful play by Buie taking it to the paint and Veharanta putting it top shelf from in tight. That doesn’t happen if Buie doesn’t take it to the front of the cage.<br /><br />“A lot times we’ve been going behind the net. Now I’m seeing people take it to the front of the cage for a change. And we got rewarded for that.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-6574738985334895690?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-74781361074497185702010-12-05T00:00:00.000-05:002010-12-04T22:53:33.238-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Friedman charges power surge</span><br /><br />For only the second time since Halloween weekend, the PC women’s power play converted twice in a single game yesterday. Were it not for an extra five seconds last Sunday against Union, it would have been the third occasion and point-based puckslinger Jen Friedman would have had an integral role both times.<br /><br />In last week’s 2-1 triumph, Friedman slugged home an insurance -strike-turned-decider with 12:21 to spare in the third period just as an opposing Marissa Gentile was coming back into the equation at the conclusion of her tripping minor. It was simply one of those old keep-the-swarm-going conversions.<br /><br />Yesterday, from the same straightaway position, Friedman nailed a true 5-on-4 tally, granting the Friars a 3-2 lead with 16:30 remaining en route to a 4-2 victory over New Hampshire. It went down as her second consecutive game-clincher, her third goal in as many games, and her fifth power play point on the year, tying her for second on the team with Alyse Ruff and Nicole Anderson, all with 2-3-5 transcripts apiece.<br /><br />“Jennifer Friedman, she and (fellow point patroller Ashley) Cottrell are really getting some chemistry back there and it’s really nice to see,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “I think we’re growing and that bodes really well for the future. Also, we’ve moved around a little personnel based on how people are developing, so I think we have a pretty good combination.”<br /><br />Over the course of seven opportunities yesterday, the Providence power play brigade took nine registered stabs at New Hampshire goalie Kayley Herman. A leading three of those were off Friedman’s twig, which ties her with Corinne Buie for second on the team with 17 power play shots this season.<br /><br />In all, Friedman has landed 35 SOG, eight of them coming just within her last two games and 15 coming in her last five. And after she had established herself as a long-distance playmaker to start her junior year with 10 helpers in her first 12 games, she is now pleasing her coach with suddenly broader horizons and more firsthand contributions in the attacking zone.<br /><br />“She’s always been able to shoot it, we’ve always encouraged her to shoot it,” said Deraney. “Not only is she shooting it, but she’s shooting it intelligently, with some accuracy, and when you have that type of talent, the fact that she’s using it really excites me. She may not score every time from the point, but boy is she going to give our forwards a lot of wonderful opportunities to get some goals around the net.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fresh sheet for UConn matchup</span><br />This afternoon, PC alumna Heather Linstad’s pupils from Connecticut will make their first business trip to Schneider Arena since they dislodged the Friars from the 2010 Hockey East semifinals.<br /><br />As is his custom, Deraney repelled any suggestion of icing a vengeance-minded pack in the rematch.<br /><br />“We’re chasing something bigger than winning a hockey game,” he said. “We’re chasing a style of play, something that will be indicative of the type of team we are. The past has nothing to do with it. This is a different team with a different mentality and different ability.”<br /><br />Still, the likes of Friedman admit that there is still some residual sting from last spring’s Husky-inflicted dog bite, regardless of how it factors in to the team’s 2010-11 endeavor.<br /><br />“This is a new season, but yeah, we always remember what happened last season,” she said. “So we would like to get revenge. Looking back to last year, we always want to build off each season, but it’s a new team, new season, so we’re just going to go from where we are.”<br /><br />Not unlike yesterday’s visitors from New Hampshire, the Huskies are on a startling slide. Yesterday’s 4-0 loss to Boston University docked them to 6-9-1 overall.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Charitable recognition</span><br />A pregame ceremony yesterday had the Friars’ coaches and captains presenting a $540 check to the Sojourner House in Providence, all compliments of the domestic violence awareness fundraiser that took place around the Oct. 23 game versus Princeton.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick Feeds</span>: Ruff was credited with an assist on Laura Veharanta’s insurance strike, giving her a team-leading 13 helpers on the year and one in each of her last three games…Yesterday’s game was the 125th of Ruff’s college career. Defender Amber Yung will achieve the same milestone today…Sophomore Kristina Lavoie, one of the few sizzling specimens at New Hampshire, led her team with five shots on goal…The Friars and Wildcats split in the face-off department, winning 33 draws apiece…Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse notched her fourth assist of the season, setting up the rush that amounted to Kate Bacon’s second period equalizer. The Scarborough Save-ior now has seven helpers to her credit in 82 career games…Bacon grabbed a goal-assist value pack and drew four out of seven New Hampshire penalties, including each of the first three…Buie took the quick Crash Davis resort when asked about her playmaker hat trick. “My teammates did a really good job of finishing everything off,” she said.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-7478136107449718570?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-74275860158500910672010-11-27T00:00:00.001-05:002010-11-26T19:16:21.359-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">They should make more shots count</span><br /><br />Yesterday, for the sixth time this season but the first time in six games, the PC women discharged at least 35 shots on goal. And they could have upped that bushel well beyond 40 had they more fuel in the climactic phases of a narrow 3-2 Mayor’s Cup triumph at Meehan Auditorium.<br /><br />“Narrow” is a much more operative term than “triumph” for this one, although given the Friars’ recent road woes and inconsistent output in the standings, there are still some luscious contents in this cup of lessons.<br /><br />The Friars were leading the shooting gallery, 12-5, by the time Laurie Jolin scored her first of two goals to pull Brown University ahead, 1-0, with 16:11 gone in the first. <br /><br />After defender Jen Friedman drew the 1-1 knot at 5:19 of the second, they issued quite the assertive follow-up flurry. Five different skating Friars pelted goaltender Katie Jamieson with six shots in a matter of two minutes. The madness was disrupted when a suddenly vulnerable Brown team went to the box on a roughing infraction to Kelly Kittredge. But there was still no mutation on the scoreboard.<br /><br />By the second intermission, things were drawn at 2-2 and PC led, 28-17, in the way of registered stabs. Out of 17 active skaters, 14 had already taken at least one.<br /><br />Translation: the quantity was there, the diversity in participation hardly warranted complaint, but there was not enough at the heart of the stats sheet to instill any due comfort to Bob Deraney’s coaching cabinet.<br /><br />The tension only tightened in the last three quarters of the closing frame. When there were 14 minutes to spare in regulation, the Friars had 33 shots to the Bears 20. They mustered only three more afterward –the last one being Ashley Cottrell’s cathartic clincher in the final minute- with those shots each spaced apart by no fewer than four minutes. In that stretch, goaltender Genevieve Lacasse handled eight shots from the newly energized Bears.<br /><br />Partial credit is owed to Jamieson for keeping it interesting early on, but PC owes every ounce of its acclaim to Lacasse for preserving the potentiality of a cardiac win. And going forward, the strike force owes its trusty backstop a return, or at least a halfway drive back, to the thick of October, when 40-plus shots and four-plus red lights on the other end were more the norm.<br /><br />When the second period clock hits 10:00 during tomorrow’s tangle with Union at Schneider Arena, the Friars’ 33-game regular season schedule will be half-finished. And generally speaking, at this point, most anybody with fewer than five goals and/or 10 points on the year are those who could either stand to pick up the pace or elevate her own individual standards.<br /><br />Junior Kate Bacon, who kindled a momentary 2-1 lead at 9:32 of the middle frame yesterday, is the PC Paramore’s only exception. Or at least the only undisputed one. Her latest goal is No. 12 in 16 games on the year, equating her combined output in 62 games as a freshman and sophomore.<br /><br />Furthermore, Bacon has been doling out multiple servings of salsa-based rubber on a constant basis, her latest platter being a team-best seven shots yesterday. She now has 75 of those for an even 16 percent connectivity rate.<br /><br />Not much more to assess over there. Bacon remains the team’s singular paradigm of quantity and quality. And Cottrell, last year’s top gun, is not far behind. She now has six strikes out of 50 shots for an exact 12 percent accuracy. <br /><br />The Friars’ second- and third-busiest puckslingers, Corinne Buie (60 shots) and Laura Veharanta (56), are both still on pace to bag at least 10 goals before the playoffs. But there is no sense in settling down. And Buie, in particular, is slowly showing the need for a Bauer blow dryer to reverse the threat of freshman frostbite.<br /><br />Everybody else just needs to let more out in the hopes of putting more in. Right now, everyone outside of the aforementioned has yet to reach 40 in her SOG column and they all have fewer than five tallies.<br /><br />Collectively, the sub-Bacon crowd sketches a plain illustration of the team’s outlook, as did yesterday’s Divine City dance.<br /><br />The prognosis: they’re good, but to meet their potential, they can’t afford to pass on a slight, simple upgrade.<br /><br />At 10-5-1, the Friars are all but in a watertight position to take fulfilling confidence rather than frenzying consternation into the December deceleration. But odds are they will not find themselves escaping unscathed if they juggle with torches the way they did yesterday at any point in the Hockey East pennant race.<br /><br />So instead of daringly juggling their acetylene sticks, they should refuel them and direct them solely at the adversary from here on out. No one in that dressing room needs to be told that Hockey East goalies are usually a tad tougher to mollify than Jamieson.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-7427586015850091067?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-51310099390906644722010-11-21T00:00:00.000-05:002010-11-20T23:33:01.609-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Better by chances<br />PC offense redresses self by pouncing more</span><br /><br />Outside the door to the PC women’s hockey locker room sits a simple, hand-drawn placard reading “0-0.” The attitude it preaches –in a novel diversion from the trite “no lead is safe” pep talk- is quite fitting for a team like this.<br /><br />Through 14 games in their 2010-11 season, the Friars have gone up, 1-0, on 12 occasions. They have outscored their adversaries, 13-3, in the first period. And their defense, fifth in the nation with an average of 1.79 opposing goals per game, is especially reliable when granted a multi-goal cushion.<br /><br />Such a luxury has technically not been lacking of late, but it has been a little less automatic than it was in the middle three weekends of October. When it doesn’t come, whiffed opportunities and foregone chances are to blame. In turn, a few radiant chances to win and opportunities to ascend the conference and national rungs have been spilled.<br /><br />But yesterday, Bob Deraney’s strike force exploited an unlikely victim in Northeastern stopper Florence Schelling, using a productive jumpstart to set the pace for a 4-1 triumph at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />It was the first time in seven total encounters that the Friars put more than three pucks behind the Swiss Save-ior. And it was the first time in six outings that they tuned anybody’s mesh more than thrice, after it had been the norm in their first eight games.<br /><br />“I’m just glad to have our team back,” said Deraney. “I don’t know where they were the last couple of weeks, but we played the type of hockey today that I’d like to see on a consistent basis. <br /><br />“It was fun to watch,” he added.<br /><br />Rarely does such an assessment occur to someone with a direct stake in the action. Partisan and nonpartisan spectators can accept and indulge in the tension of a contest with leads and momentum prone to swaying at the rate of a New England weather forecast. But the people in control of the game want, well, more control of the game.<br /><br />“It’s just important that we have the momentum right at the start of the game and when we get that first goal, we have to keep the momentum going from there,” said top gun Kate Bacon, who inserted her 10th and 11th goals of the season, both on the power play.<br /><br />Amidst a timely nine-day break away from game action that ended on Tuesday, Deraney stated his desire to “not be our own worst enemy.” Indubitably, in the team’s five “non-wins” on the year, the offense has been PC’s foremost self-inhibitor simply because it was subconsciously satisfied with brittle, early 1-0 advantages.<br /><br />But yesterday, Bacon and defender Rebecca Morse each beat Schelling a mere minute and 45 seconds apart before the game was nine minutes old. Bacon struck again at 3:06 of the second period, intercepting a Northeastern clearing attempt at the brim of the zone and snapping a low 5-on-3 conversion to the right of Schelling.<br /><br />“We talked about it this week,” said Deraney. “We have created scoring opportunities, but we never really created scoring chances, and there’s a big difference. If you really looked at the quality of our opportunities, they weren’t scoring chances, they were just opportunities. Today, we tried to take those opportunities and turn them into chances, and because of that we were rewarded.”<br /><br />The whole principle couldn’t be simpler. The greater the gap, the higher the pressure on the adversary to start kindling something of their own and the less time they have to do so.<br /><br />“We let them jump out to a quick two-goal lead and it’s tough to bounce back from that,” said Huskies’ head coach Dave Flint. “Especially with the goaltending they have. You know you’re not going to get a bunch of goals against (PC goalie Genevieve Lacasse).”<br /><br />Ironically, Flint was away serving as one of Mark Johnson’s U.S. Olympic sidekicks when, exactly one year to the date of yesterday’s meeting, his pupils deleted a 3-0 deficit and laced a 4-3 albatross around Lacasse and Co.<br /><br />But those Friars were still thawing out from the residual numbness of growing pains. These Friars know how to keep their challengers in a deeper hole, assuming they dig it for them first.<br /><br />Yesterday, Flint watched his pupils dig desperately through the third period, ultimately pelting Lacasse with 26 shots on goal. The Scarborough Save-ior repelled everything but a power play conversion via Katie MacSorley with 13:10 to spare.<br /><br />With a game total 39 stops, Lacasse leap-frogged Molly Schaus of Boston College for the top save percentage (.945) in Hockey East. But it could have been a less pleasurable workout, perhaps one like the 20-shot second period against Dartmouth this past Tuesday or the 26-puck salvo via Boston University two weeks ago.<br /><br />The difference this time: a bulkier differential in her favor on the scoreboard.<br /><br />“I don’t know if you stress it,” Deraney said. “Every time you come that’s the goal, is to get one and just continue to build on it.”<br /><br />Kind of like how the Friars got one more assertive victory –their first in a while- and would be wise to build upon that.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5131009939090664472?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-39336023247921409902010-11-17T20:58:00.001-05:002010-11-20T23:33:16.718-05:00<span style="font-style:italic;">Author’s note: In its NHL Team Reports section, the current edition of The Hockey News is focusing on impactful rookies. In a nod to that, the Free Press offers a similar report on the PC women’s team.</span><br /><br />In only her second twirl wearing game time attire for the Friars, Corinne Buie stepped up to fill a void left by Jean O’Neill, who withdrew from the second of two exhibition games with McGill University due to a mild ailment before the third period. Little did anybody know Buie would answer the same ring under the same circumstances almost as soon as games started to matter.<br /><br />After the senior co-captain O’Neill went down by way of a lower body injury in Game 2 of the regular season, head coach Bob Deraney promoted junior Kate Bacon to the first line and assigned Buie to supplement the top six. For what little he had seen of her, it was a reasonably comfortable decision, given that she inserted three goals in two bouts with Robert Morris.<br /><br />Since then, in 11 games on the second line right wing, the frosh from Edina, Minn. has worked entirely with juniors and seniors. But she has let the seasoning rub off on her for the better, charging up a 2-3-5 scoring transcript, leveling 44 shots at the opposing net, and garnering regular minutes on the power play.<br /><br />Through 13 games overall, Buie is second on the team only to Bacon with 51 SOG and has been allotted no fewer than two shots on a single night, a testament to consistent individual effort.<br /><br />Maybe more critically, as an early testament to her two-way proficiency, Buie bears a plus-10 rating, tied for third-best among all Friars with left side linemate Laura Veharanta.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3933602324792140990?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-26206554296994044482010-11-16T00:00:00.001-05:002010-11-15T20:29:14.904-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Shootout advocate Deraney cites tie epidemic</span><br /><br />Women’s hockey head coach Bob Deraney, being an archetypically civil Division I hockey coach, is hardly the smug type. But in the wake of a weekend that saw a pair of knots drawn in two other Hockey East series –namely Boston University versus Vermont and Maine versus Northeastern- he did offer a blunt, told-you-so statement in defense of the long-gone shootout.<br /><br />The Black Bears and Huskies arm-wrestled one another to a 0-0 decision last Thursday and followed that up with a 2-2 final on Friday. Meanwhile, in the Hub, the Terriers deleted three one-goal deficits on the weekend to salvage 1-1 and 2-2 splits with the Catamounts.<br /><br />For Deraney, that’s as good as a virtual win and a loss apiece for all parties involved, when under the abandoned system somebody could have extracted four precious conference points out of the weekend while forcing their adversaries to settle for two.<br /><br />“All the coaches that voted against the shootout surely wish they had the shootout now,” he said yesterday. “You’re looking at a coach who wanted the shootout, believed in the shootout. It would alleviate a lot of the problems that are coming down the pike right now. So, hey, the coaches got what they deserved as far as I’m concerned.”<br /><br />The main problem, of course, is the specter of parity-induced gridlock across the New England Eight standings. If there were still three-point games after a 65-minute stalemate, Deraney reasons, it would be slightly easier for teams to create breathing room in the pennant race. Accordingly, come February 20, when the ice chips settle on the regular season, there would potentially be less chance of a messy, off-ice tiebreaking process to determine playoff seeding.<br /><br />Already, out of 21 games played so far between Hockey East cohabitants, eight have ended in a deadlock. New Hampshire is the lone tenant that has yet to hatch the goose-egg in its “T” column. Five teams have been involved in at least two draws, the Catamounts leading with four to their credit and a 0-4-4 league record coupled with a peculiar 1-4-7 overall transcript.<br /><br />“It shows the parity in our league,” Deraney said. “You have BU, the (then-) No. 4 team in the country and yet Vermont ties them (twice), so it shows the first tie wasn’t a coincidence. It shows they’re a really good team, so from top to bottom I think we’re the best league in the country right now.”<br /><br />In its two years of experimental operation on this coast, the Friars went an aggregate 7-4 in Hockey East and interleague shootouts, none more epic than a record-setting 13-round triumph of Northeastern on November 8 of last season. <br /><br />And with the consistently composed Genevieve Lacasse, who encountered nine shootouts and stopped 28 out of 35 bids to go 6-3, they indubitably would have welcomed more one-on-one lightning rounds. Ditto the likes of NU with Florence Schelling and Boston College with the peerless Molly Schaus in their cage.<br /><br />At the same time, Deraney says, there is a plus point to stress for his team, which still has a league-leading 18 conference games yet to come.<br /><br />“What happened this past weekend opens a door for us,” he said. “Basically with BU tying two games, they split with Vermont, so that puts another loss in their loss column. Northeastern did the same thing. So if we can just continue to take care of business, the door has been cracked open a little bit. We have to make sure we can walk through that door and push it open a little wider. So I was really excited to see what happened.<br /><br />“We’ll take anything that other teams are willing to give us. There’s an opportunity there for us, we’ve got to make sure we take advantage of it.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2620655429699404448?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-45209927611405821442010-11-10T00:00:00.000-05:002010-11-09T20:13:07.554-05:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Clearing the ice on their outlook<br />Lengthy gap between games equals assessment time for PC women<br /></span><br />No need to be shy about asserting it this time. The Friars’ pluses patently outnumber the minuses after their first dozen games of the 2010-11 season.<br /><br />With a brief intermission at hand after the first period of their 33-game schedule –they don’t play again for another six days- the Friars are best advised to savor the sweet spots of the tone they have set and translate it to the energized pursuit of improvement.<br /><br />It is rarely an accident when a team leaps out to an 8-3-1 start and, after six weeks of knocking on the door between the honorable mention section and the Top 10 leaderboard, is finally recognized in a relevant national poll. PC was tied for 10th with Harvard in the eyes of uscho.com, as told in Monday’s revision. And last night, the Friars picked up three more votes for a total of 13 in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll, four notches shy of the No. 10 Crimson.<br /><br />One can argue that they ought to be 10-1-1 and might have crashed the rankings a tad sooner. But the fans’ ability to gripe over regurgitated cupcakes against Robert Morris and Rensselaer only speaks to this team’s promising posture.<br /><br />Providence isn’t tops in any conventional category on the Women’s Hockey East stats spread, but the invaluable balance is plain. With freshman blueliner Maggie Pendleton’s assist on Corinne Buie’s goal Sunday, which for her redeemed a helper two games prior that was ultimately retracted, every Friar who has seen action this season now has at least one point to her credit. Among the New England Eight, only New Hampshire can make the same claim.<br /><br />PC boasts a league-leading seven skaters with at least three goals, including co-captain Jean O’Neill, whose lower body injury has restricted her to merely two games played. <br /><br />In a credit to their collective play on both sides of the puck, all but two Friars have a positive plus-minus rating. As a group, they are plus-19, second to no one on this coast.<br /><br />And goaltender Genevieve Lacasse, the only Hockey East stopper to have consumed all of her team’s crease time, has handled her peerless workload well enough to rank second behind Boston College’s Molly Schaus with a .944 save percentage.<br /><br />Lacasse is often the best personification of this program’s highs, lows, and medians. Suffice it to say, this is one of those moments. She like her teammates has earned the breather that comes with this nine-day gap between Sunday’s 3-1 triumph over Maine and the next extramural engagement with Dartmouth.<br /><br />“The first third of the season is grueling from a school standpoint, a schedule standpoint, just-trying-to-get-acclimated standpoint,” said head coach Bob Deraney.<br /><br />“These nine days we can use very effectively to work on the things that we need to, get the rest that we need to, and hopefully on the other side of it become a much better team. So we’re excited about it.<br /><br />“The bottom line of the goal is to be a better team at the other side of the break.”<br /><br />To that point, with this reward comes responsibilities. Beneath a passable 2-1-1 record over the last 10 pre-break days sat evidence of fall frostbite in the Friars. Deraney had his reasons for interchanging his top two centers, Ashley Cottrell and Alyse Ruff, going into last weekend’s action. His strike force had gone from nailing four-plus goals in each of its first five regular season ventures to reaping two or fewer in four of the last seven.<br /><br />In fairness, defensive games are bound to increase in frequency as the Hockey East pennant race revs up. But more notably, in the last four games, including its first three against conference cohabitants, the PC power play went a cumulative 0-for-15, including six spilled opportunities in the first 40 minutes against Maine.<br /><br />All that came after the 5-on-4 brigade converted nine of its first 50 chances, equaling an 18 percent success rate. That rate has since dipped to 13.8 percent.<br /><br />Then again, it’s not as if the opportunities have been abundant of late. Over their first eight games, the Friars drew a nightly average of 6.25 infractions on the opposition, contrasted to a mere 3.75 in the latest four.<br /><br />For that reason, it is vital that Providence recharge its flustering flare at even strength as much as it reheats the acetylene sticks for those numerical advantage segments.<br /><br />Rest and reflection, on top of a standard block of about four or five practice days is exactly the recommended formula here.<br /><br />“I know a lot of people feel a little run down,” said Ruff. “But we just need to make sure we keep playing the same way that we’re playing, keep the intensity up, and keep our legs fresh.”<br /><br />“So it might be a nice break, but hopefully it won’t hurt us. And I don’t think it will because we are a pretty good team and we’re starting to come together as a team and starting to figure out who we are.”<br /><br />Then the question is: how will they continue? Keep your eye on the cooler, but do not open until next Tuesday.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4520992761140582144?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-55784640243679482552010-11-07T00:00:00.002-04:002010-11-07T00:01:59.157-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Friars fail to finish off BU</span><br /><br />BOSTON- As uncontrollably eager as the PC women may have been to think otherwise, the Boston University Terriers could not be fazed frozen by any of the would-be speedbumps they faced yesterday.<br /><br />“I think they had a very good game plan against us,” mused head coach Bob Deraney in the aftermath of a vinegary, fall-from-ahead, 4-1 loss at Walter Brown Arena. “Nothing that we didn’t know was coming. I just don’t think we handled it as well as we could have<br /><br />The absence of their top three point-getters –Jenn Wakefield, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Tara Watchorn, all serving Team Canada in the Four Nations Cup- wasn’t enough to curb BU for a full 60 minutes. Neither was the added challenge of protecting an unripe goaltender in Alissa Fromkin, curiously getting the start in lieu of the hot-handed Kerrin Sperry.<br /><br />Not even a five-minute bodychecking major issued to rookie blueliner Kaleigh Fratkin with 5:34 to go in a deadlocked second period could biff the Dogs into a suffocating, broken Whack-a-Mole hole. That was probably because the Friars never applied the mallet.<br /><br />PC would squander four minutes of its all-you-can-score buffet on two penalties to Alyse Ruff and one to Rebecca Morse, and by the time Fratkin’s sentence was through with 34 ticks till intermission, Boston was savoring a 3-1 lead.<br /><br />With five seconds to go, blueliner Kathryn Miller made it 4-1. By day’s end, the Friars had spent a cumulative 3:24 of clock time on the power play (three chances) when they could have spent as much as 7:27.<br /><br />“I didn’t have a problem with any of the penalties that (the referees) called or the way they called them,” Deraney insisted. “Probably the worst thing that happened to us was getting that five-minute major penalty called against BU, because it looked that we kind of let down a little bit.<br /><br />“That’s the one thing that we need to do a better job of: trying not to let down our guard. We trap ourselves that way. It’s that 10 minutes again that we talked about earlier in the year. There’s a 10-minute span where we just kind of get a little lost or a little loose, and all of their goals were scored in 11 minutes. It’s that 11 minutes where we’re learning to play a full 60 and until we do that, we’re still trying to find the team we’re capable of becoming.”<br /><br />The prototype Deraney desires, or something close to it, was visible enough in the first period, wherein the Friars ran up a 14-4 edge on the shot clock and etched an early lead at the 5:30 mark.<br /><br />Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse (season-high 41 saves) safely vacated her crease to play rolling BU dump-in and lobbed a feed up along the wall to Ashley Cottrell in front of the PC bench. Cottrell strode into the Terrier territory and roofed her third goal –and the Scarborough Save-ior’s third assist- of the season.<br /><br />Cottrell’s strike, in effect, snapped an early rut of end-to-end air hockey-paced action in favor of a Friar-issued flurry. In response, Fromkin (27 saves) brought forth a strategy more conservative than the Tea Party. Within the last 10 minutes of the opening frame, four out of eight whistles were summoned when the BU stopper either lassoed in a shot or elected to smother a loose rebound or dump-in.<br /><br />Accordingly, she kept her worthily poised mates in the game, and they put a 180-degree spin on everything in the middle stanza, discharging 26 shots at Lacasse, four behind Lacasse.<br /><br />With 8:03 gone, not long after another brief segment of fleeting back-and-forth play, captain Holly Lorms snuck undetected into the deep and absorbed a feed from Meghan Riggs to slip home the equalizer.<br /><br />And then, 40 seconds into the Friars’ major power play –as it happened, their last 5-on-4 chance of the day- Ruff was flagged for tripping. She was released as soon as Louise Warren shoveled a backhander into the top right corner of the net with 3:19 left in the period and still 2:45 left in the Fratkin penalty.<br /><br />Morse drew a citation for holding 39 seconds thereafter and was joined right off the next draw by Ruff, booked for interference. Now with a 4-on-3 advantage available for as long as 1:57, the Terriers only needed 33 seconds to set up world class point patroller Catherine Ward, who magnetically absorbed the remnants of Lacasse’s stick save and slugged home her first NCAA goal.<br /><br />Miller, credited with the lone helper on each of the previous two goals, collected her own on Jenelle Kohanchuk’s upward feed, which she drilled low from the right point into the opposite post to complete the eruption.<br /><br />“They picked up the tempo of the game,” Deraney said of the decisive middle frame. “They started stretching, they started skating, things that we’re accustomed and that we usually handle well. But for some reason today, I don’t think we handled their adjustment as well as we could have.”<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5578464024367948255?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-57568882550893261982010-11-07T00:00:00.000-04:002010-11-06T23:59:35.017-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Hockey Log<br />Black Bears looking better</span><br /><br />BOSTON- For the University of Maine women’s hockey team, few developments are more indicative of improvement than a couple of early wins against opponents not called Sacred Heart.<br /><br />The Black Bears and first-year coach Maria Lewis visit the Friars at Schneider Arena this afternoon at 4-5-0, their best nine-game start since they sprinted out to 5-2-2 in 2005-06, which was three coaches ago (Guy Perron, followed by one year under Lauren Streble, then three years of Dan Lichterman).<br /><br />Although 18 of their 32 goals were scored over a two-game throttling of the independent Pioneers, the Mainers are still flaunting faint signs of long-term life on offense. Save for a 3-1 win at Niagara on October 22, they have capitalized on at least one power play every night for a respectable 22.8 percent success rate. And that includes three conversions a pair of growing-pain losses to almighty Mercyhurst.<br /><br />Sophomore forward Brittany Dougherty, the Black Bears’ top point-getter with a 6-7-13 transcript through nine games, has already surpassed her rookie log of 3-6-9 in 28 games and only been barred from the scoresheet twice. Her classmate Chloe Tinkler already has two goals and three assists to her credit after mustering nothing but two helpers as a frosh.<br /><br />Senior Jennie Gallo (8-3-11), along with juniors Myriam Croussette, Danielle Ward, and Dominique Goustis are likewise all on pace to cement quick and easy career years. It’s a notion with enough credibility, seeing as none of them have notched any fewer than three points in their first seven post-Sacred Heart games.<br /><br />Finally, the potential to supplement the work of a sympathetic stable of goaltenders long relegated to 40-, 50-, or 60-plus shot nights from opponents who pace themselves to close victories.<br /><br />“I’ve watched some tape on them. They work extremely hard, they make you earn everything,” said Friars head coach Bob Deraney. “We’re going to have our hands full. One of the best goalies in the league is coming in Brittany Ott. And we’ve got to play a lot better than we did (in yesterday’s 4-1 loss to Boston University), that’s for sure.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Centers switched</span><br />Deraney tested his first major voluntary (i.e. not forced by injury) line chart tweaks yesterday, having centers Ashley Cottrell and Alyse Ruff swap lines. Cottrell started with Kate Bacon and Abby Gauthier on the wings while Ruff ran with Laura Veharanta and Corinne Buie after the two pivots had played the reverse roles for eight games.<br /><br />“Just trying to create a little bit more offense for us,” Deraney said. “And I thought there were some good results that came out of it. But we’re trying to jumpstart our offense to go to another level. We haven’t scored a lot of goals lately.”<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Sizzling Bacon cools</span><br />Bacon, still the top gun and now the only Friar currently boasting a point-per-game average higher than one, went scoreless yesterday for the first time since October 1, halting a nine-game production streak that saw her roll up nine goals –including one power play, one shorthanded, and one game-winner- and three assists. The opposing BU Terriers also confined Bacon to a mere three shots on net for the second time in as many meetings.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Quick feeds</span>: Bacon drew a five-minute major on an opponent for the second time in four games yesterday, when she absorbed a strident bodycheck from Kaleigh Fratkin during a footrace into the right corner of the BU zone. She previously endured a hit from behind via Princeton’s Rose Alleva back on October 23…The Friars scored the first goal for the ninth time in 11 games and are 5-3-1 in that scenario…Terriers goalie Alissa Fromkin, putting in her first appearance in a month after overcoming a lower body injury, earned her first win since she beat Maine in last year’s regular season finale…Providence was confined to one goal for the first time in 14 meaningful games, the last time being an identical 4-1 road loss to Connecticut on February 13 of last season…Veharanta led all Friars with five shots on goal while Jill Cardella, Lauren Cherewyk, and Catherine Ward registered seven apiece for BU…Gauthier was the only Friar to earn a plus-1 rating on yesterday’s scoresheet…Today’s opponent from Maine is the only team in Hockey East still yet to play overtime, to lose after scoring the first goal, or to win after shedding first blood.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5756888255089326198?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-81895311514892396362010-11-03T00:00:00.000-04:002010-11-02T22:31:51.229-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Veharanta has turn on balance beam<br />Born-again scorer contributing to, feeding off deeper roster</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Report based on Live Stats</span><br /><br />New Haven, Conn.- With the first period of the PC women’s 33-game regular season schedule nearly completed, Laura Veharanta holds a 5-2-7 scoring log. This puts her on pace to finish her junior campaign with no fewer than 16 goals, the same bushel she bagged in 36 games as a radiant rookie.<br /><br />Granted, it’s a notion easy enough to lose touch with, given her not-quite-queenly stance on the Friars’ dense scoring charts. Even after her two-goal outburst in the first period made the difference in last night’s 3-1 victory over Yale at Ingalls Rink, she still trails three of her teammates in the point department.<br /><br />This is owed primarily to Kate Bacon, the primordial frontrunner for this year’s team MVP award, and the fact that four other forwards are seeing action on the top power play unit.<br /><br />But beneath those ice chips, it is plain that Veharanta has thawed out from last year’s letdown, which saw her dip from a 16-15-31 log to a 3-9-12 transcript, from a team-best 140 shots on goal to a mere 57, from a plus-seven rating to an even. <br /><br />Before last night’s match was but five minutes old, Veharanta had already attempted five shots. Four were on net, and two were in the net. She ultimately logged nine attempts on the night and put six on goal. (Only the top gun Bacon, who inserted an empty netter with 55 ticks left in the third period, registered more stabs with eight. Bacon, by the way, has now set herself a career high with nine tallies on the year.)<br /><br />At 4:17 of the first period, Veharanta inserted her fourth goal of the season, converting linemate Ashley Cottrell’s pass and instantly exceeding the three she accumulated during her sophomore slip. Just 10 seconds later, she nailed her second multi-goal game of the year.<br /><br />Her second strike would eventually go down as her second game-winner of the season and was also her 50th college point.<br /><br />Veharanta entered last night in a tie for third on the team in most every relevant offensive category. With a 3-2-5 scoring transcript, she had joined Nicole Anderson, Jean O’Neill, and Alyse Ruff in a four-way knot for third on the Friars in goals. Her five points were matching those Cottrell and defender Amber Yung, good enough for seventh on the team. She and Cottrell had 32 shots on goal apiece, trailing only their linemate Corinne Buie (36) and Bacon (40).<br /><br />On the other side of last night’s horn, she is tied with Buie for second under the SOG heading, each of them brandishing a 38. <br /><br />Translation: with not quite one-third of the schedule consumed, Veharanta is already two-thirds of the way towards equating her sophomore output of 57 bids. She along with Anderson, Bacon, Buie, and Cottrell are all on an early pace to break triple digits in that category. Providence has not had five strikers each amass 100-plus shots in a season since 2003-04.<br /><br />Much more critically, the Friars as a whole have not averaged more than three goals per game since the 2005-06 season. As of this morning, through 10 games, they boast a 3.64 median with 13 individual goal-getters and at least one point for everyone who has seen game action –goaltender Genevieve Lacasse (two assists) and all.<br /><br />If everyone stays on course, Veharanta and classmate Abby Gauthier will likely join Bacon in posting a career year in goals while at least eight veteran Friars could set themselves new bars under the points heading.<br /><br />The important note to take here: Veharanta is but one ingredient on a healthily offensive-minded squad, unlike in 2008-09, when she jutted as a performer beyond her years pledging the future of a rebuilding program.<br /><br />The mere difference this season is that Veharanta is getting fewer turns to stand out. But her volcanic inclination last night was contagious, particularly during the productive first period jumpstart.<br /><br />The two sophomore Jessicas, Cohen and Vella, had a mere 10 and nine shots, respectively, on the year going into last night. Vella would pelt Yale goaltender Genny Ladiges four times, Cohen three within the 20 minutes alone. Cohen tested Ladiges once more in the third.<br /><br />In all, the three-party input of Veharanta, Vella, and Cohen constituted 69 percent of the Friars’ first period, 16-shot salvo. In the previous nine games, they had contributed 51 of the team’s 306 SOG for 16.7 percent. During those other games, it was simply Anderson, Bacon, Buie, Cottrell, Gauthier, O’Neill, and/or Ruff doing the bulk of the work.<br /><br />But if this is an awakening for the likes of Cohen (one goal and no assists so far, Vella (two goals and a helper), then maybe they will join in on the collective quest for new standards.<br /><br />Odds are Veharanta would take whatever that brings to her 7-2-1 team over the lonelier limelight of her freshman season.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8189531151489239636?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-13655122524067188002010-11-02T00:00:00.000-04:002010-11-01T21:00:55.006-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Day-by-day routine<br />PC women centered solely on immediate future<br /></span><br />Friday night’s clean, classic 2-2 tie with the almighty Boston University didn’t quite cut it for the Friars to advance in USCHO’s weekly poll. In fact, upon yesterday’s revision, the deadlocked and gridlocked Providence team had one vote fewer (10 total) than it did last week as it stayed in the honorable mention slab, carrying half the points of the No. 10 ranked Harvard.<br /><br />Odds are the Friars were one goal away last Friday from tipping the scale and crashing the glamorous echelon of the national leaderboard for the first time in the 2010-11 season.<br /><br />But if they get their way on the ice all this week –starting tonight with a visit the 0-2-2 Yale Bulldogs, continuing with Saturday’s BU rematch at Walter Brown Arena, and rounding out in a home date with Maine on Sunday- any dispute should have some traction if they are not ranked at this time seven days from now.<br /><br />No guarantees, of course that they’ll earn their spot come next week –regardless of one’s definition of “earn.” What is certain is head coach Bob Deraney won’t devote any breath to debate if his pupils fall short again.<br /><br /> “Don’t really care,” he said. “Honestly, I just want to continue to play better. I really don’t care what people think of us. All I care about is that we continue to be better. <br /><br />“In order to be great, you have to play great against great teams. You have to know what it’s like and what it takes, and I guarantee you our kids will be preparing harder because they now know what’s out there.”<br /><br />Naturally, the flipside to this week’s stakes is the ever-present danger of dawdling through a bout with statistically weaker opponents. That label fits the Bulldogs right now, with their winless transcript and a combined 12-6 score working against them through four games.<br /><br />In the same vein, a wasted opportunity against the Black Bears –in spite of their surprisingly irreproachable 4-4-0 start- would likely prompt the pollsters to confiscate every table scrap the Friars hold until further notice.<br /><br />Bottom line at ice level: PC just wants to play to win and check what happens on paper later.<br /><br />“It’s just another game on the schedule,” Deraney said. “Another game in which we need to play great and try to get better. And I’m not giving you clichés, that’s our mentality. <br /><br />“We have to get better. We have our sights set on a lot of different things this year and you can’t get there unless you take care of what you need to do today.<br /><br />“I think it’s a really healthy mindset. It doesn’t allow you to take anything for granted, it doesn’t allow you to get too complacent, and it doesn’t allow you to get down. It’s just a really healthy way to go about it and we’ve got a terrific team that I think all the way through feels the same way. We’re just trying to be the best we can today.”<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Lacasse splits weekly crown</span><br />Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse, who tied a season high with 40 saves last Friday, garnered her second Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week laurel in three opportunities yesterday. She shared this week’s prize with New Hampshire junior Lindsey Minton, who repelled a cumulative 39 shots in two shutout wins over Niagara.<br /><br />Minton and Lacasse are Nos. 1 and 2 among Hockey East stoppers and rank second and third, respectively, in the country with .955 and .949 save percentages. Lacasse, though, has worked up a denser sweat. She leads the nation in total saves with 281 on 296 shots faced.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: Yale assistant coach Jess Koizumi, part of the first-year Joakim Flygh staff in New Haven, inserted four goals for the CWHL’s Boston Blades in a pair of weekend victories over Burlington at the Whittemore Center. PC assistant Karen Thatcher assisted on her game-winner in a 3-0 triumph on Saturday…The Friars are winless (0-4-1) in their last five annual meetings with the Bulldogs, snapping a four-game losing streak with a 2-2 tie at Schneider Arena last autumn. PC’s most recent win at Ingalls Rink was a 2-0 decision on December 10, 2000. The Friars have since gone 0-3-1 in that barn…Among active Friars, junior forwards Ashley Cottrell and Laura Veharanta lead the program with a goal and an assist apiece in their career against the Bulldogs…A win tonight will assure Providence a winning nonconference record (currently 6-2-0) for the first time since 2002-03, when the team went 9-5-5 in interleague games.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1365512252406718800?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-49032295697423077462010-10-30T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-30T00:00:03.185-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Matchup was “knot” what it promised</span><br /><br />For one party, the unsurpassed tradition saturating its rivalry with New Hampshire is irrevocable. For the other, everyone by now ought to have carpal tunnel from underlining November 20, when the revamped women’s Battle of Commonwealth Avenue has its first showcase of the season. Both programs alike have their reasons for healthy, mutual spite with Northeastern.<br /><br />But last night’s 2-2 draw between Providence College and Boston University at Schneider Arena confirmed an equal, if not greater, matchup concocted with succulent mirror imagery and intensity.<br /><br />Going in, the Terriers and Friars alike were just polishing off the most productive Octobers either incumbent coach has ever enjoyed. Now at 6-2-1, Bob Deraney is enjoying his best start in 12 years on the Divine Campus. BU’s founding father Brian Durocher has his program off to its best start in its six-year history at 6-1-1.<br /><br />Why? Both teams are overstocked on offense. Both have stability in the cage. Both are keen and capable on each side of the special teams’ spectrum. Both have shown that they prefer to omit the word “quit” in their dictionary.<br /><br />And especially in the wake of last night’s seesaw sibling-smoocher, both know they have their wrinkles to flatten in advance of their rematch a week from today up at Walter Brown Arena.<br /><br />“They’re obviously a well-coached team, and they play real hard,” said Durocher. “Early in the game, I thought every time we got near the puck, they got a stick on it or had an arm or a hand on us and we weren’t quite ready to match their intensity. So for 10 minutes, they were kind of in charge and giving us fits. After that, I think we got grounded and played a pretty good game.”<br /><br />When asked what he expects next time around, Deraney said, “Two heavyweight fighters in the middle of the ring duking it out. They have great players, we have great players, they’re going to execute, we’re going to execute. Whoever makes the most of those opportunities is the one who’s going to win.”<br /><br />Last night, the Friars had the bulk of the early opportunities. Freshman blueliner Rebecca Morse spawned them a 1-0 lead at 14:46 of the first and PC drew each of the game’s first three power plays all within the first 11 minutes of the middle frame.<br /><br />Trouble was, BU is not one to be fazed by 1-0 deficits. After last night, the Terriers are 3-1-1 when authorizing the first goal and they have only trailed by multiple goals once this season.<br /><br />Furthermore, their penalty kill is tops in the nation with a 95.6 success rate. And in those three shorthanded segments, they blocked four out of seven PC shot attempts and forced two others to go wide.<br /><br />On the flip side, once the Friars started going to the box, they awakened a thawed-out, star-studded strike force. In two unanswered deployments, Boston’s top power play unit –comprised of Jenn Wakefield, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Jenelle Kohanchuk up front with Lauren Cherewyk and Tara Watchorn patrolling the points- leveled seven shots at PC stopper Genevieve Lacasse.<br /><br />The seventh of those went in off the stick of Wakefield, who one-timed Catherine Ward’s feed from the far outer hash marks into the opposite shelf with 1:03 left in the second.<br /><br />Apart from that and Wakefield’s go-ahead goal with 3:59 gone in the third, Lacasse stood firm for a 40-save dolphin show. Of the Terriers she met this past summer at Team Canada camp, she repelled four other Wakefield stabs, blocked all six bids by Poulin, and four each from Kohanchuk and Ward.<br /><br />“She played fantastic,” said Durocher. “We got a lucky goal, the second one, which took a lucky bounce and was in the toughest spot to stop. I don’t think she nor anybody else saw it bounce, but it did.<br /><br />“You take herself and (Molly) Schaus and (Florence) Schelling at BC and Northeastern, and we’re going to have a run at tough goalies as the year goes along, that’s for sure.”<br /><br />That would be something for the Terriers and Friars –averaging 4.25 and 3.78 goals per game, respectively- to each bear in mind during the Hockey East pennant race. They taught each other that lesson last night in their first intraleague contest.<br /><br />BU freshman Kerrin Sperry nearly enhanced her young career record to 6-0-0, denied the full two-point package only by Providence speedster Kate Bacon’s equalizer with 8:25 to spare in regulation.<br /><br />Then again, Sperry may have endured her first loss had the Friars sculpted a heftier lead during their 15-shot flurry in the first. Or if they had poked one in on one of four power plays. Or if, at 8:47 of the second, Jessie Vella had put on the brakes in time to avoid a crease violation that waved off a delayed-penalty goal that would have made it 2-0.<br /><br />“Put a couple of goals in there, and maybe it’s a different game,” said Deraney. “Against a team like that, when you get opportunities to score, you need to score. If you don’t, it could come back to haunt you. That’s what happened tonight. <br /><br />“But a lesser team, too, when they went ahead, 2-1, would have said ‘Hey, good effort tonight. Let’s look forward to the next game.’ Not our kids. They’re going to fight until somebody tells them they can’t fight any longer.”<br /><br />Complementing that, Durocher and Co. can ask for little more than a better jumpstart and a slightly more assertive finish next Saturday. It will be especially crucial for his pupils to step up while Poulin, Wakefield, and Watchorn represent their country at the Four Nations Cup.<br /><br />“I expect both teams to be playing hard and we’ve got to ramp it up right from the get-go,” he said. “We’re going to have to play a smart game, an intelligent game, and make sure we match their intensity.”<br /><br />As if these two weren’t matching each other enough already, another good promotional omen for Hockey East.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4903229569742307746?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-29981983566627741432010-10-29T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-29T00:00:04.414-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Friars: BU just another adversary</span><br /><br />Where the fans should be seeing stars tonight, Bob Deraney and his pupils plan to simply see a band of skaters wearing a uniform different from their own.<br /><br />Where pollsters see the potential for the Friars to hop over the dasherboards separating them from the Top 10 crowd, the pucksters just see another opportunity to whet their blades.<br /><br />Really? Is there no absolutely aroma of intrigue behind the fact that the reloaded Boston University Terriers will come back to Schneider Arena for the first time since raising the Women’s Hockey East playoff trophy here last March and give the Friars their first league test of the season? Not to mention, the fact that PC is likewise offering the No. 5-ranked, 6-1-0 Terriers their first intraleague opponent?<br /><br />“Just looking forward to our next game, no matter who it’s against,” said Deraney. “We come to play and we want to play the best. That’s what we talk about all the time. We wanted RPI to bring their best (last Friday), we wanted Princeton to bring their best (last Saturday), and we want BU to bring their best, because the only way you’re going to get better is if people play their best against you. <br /><br />“We don’t want people to have a crappy night. We want people to bring their best because whether you win or lose, it doesn’t matter, it’s going to make you a better team.”<br /><br />The last time BU confronted a Women’s Hockey East cohabitant was a revolutionary battle at Schneider Arena, culminating in a 2-1 overtime win over Connecticut for the program’s first conference crown.<br /><br />Nearly eight months and one Cyclopean recruiting spree later, the Terriers come to start defending their title with the likes of ex-New Hampshire Wildcat sizzler Jenn Wakefield, Canadian Olympic hero Marie-Philip Poulin, and graduate defender Catherine Ward, another gold medalist from the Vancouver Games.<br /><br />All has gone according to plan in the first month of action for Brian Durocher’s capstone class. Poulin –the scorer of both goals in Canada’s 2-0 gold medal triumph over the United States- leads the NCAA with nine strikes and the team with 16 points. Wakefield boasts an 8-5-13 transcript in her first seven college games since transferring from Durham.<br /><br />As a team, the Terriers have had 11 different scorers contribute to a median of 4.57 goals per game. The power play likely still has yet to hit its stride, but already has a 21.9 percent success rate. On the flip side, Poulin, Wakefield, and junior defender Tara Watchorn have combined to give the team a frightful pile of six shorties.<br /><br />BU has even hinted at answering its topmost question in the crease. Freshman goaltender Kerrin Sperry is a seamless 5-0-0 and has authorized merely eight goals on 107 shots faced.<br /><br />That should be plenty from goal line to goal line to test the 6-2-0 Friars and their own nascent well-rounded roster. And while the collective data probably anoints Boston as the favorite on all betting lines, Providence may have one advantageous X-factor in goaltender Genevieve Lacasse.<br /><br />The Scarborough Save-ior enters tonight’s matchup armed with familiarity. She spent large ice chips of her summer, as well as the last weekend of September, training under the Mighty Maple Leaf with the likes of Poulin, Wakefield, Watchorn, and reckonable BU junior Jenelle Kohanchuk.<br /><br />Yet even from Lacasse, the word on the matchup still translates to “nothing special.”<br /><br />“We’ve been doing a little bit of trash talking, I guess,” she said. “It helps a little bit, I know their moves, but who knows if they’re trying to play mind games? If they’re not going to pull their moves on me, pull something different? So I’m just trying not to think about it, pretend like they’re any other opponent.”<br /><br />Lacasse was pressed further to imagine a potentially bigger-than-usual audience tonight, which would be drawn particularly by the presence of Poulin.<br /><br />“It might,” she said. “I’m excited for it. Whatever comes our way, we’ll take it.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: Last year, BU won the season series with the Friars for the first time since its 2005 inception, claiming two of the three meetings. Counting their two Hockey East playoff wins, the Terriers are 3-7-0 all-time at Schneider Arena…In her two seasons at UNH (2007-09), Wakefield mustered an aggregate 3-2-5 scoring log in seven meetings with Providence…Both BU alums, Deraney and Durocher will ironically square off only two nights after their former college coach –men’s skipper Jack Parker- received a share of the 2010 Lester Patrick Award at the TD Garden. Parker, who has taught the Terrier men since 1973, was honored on Wednesday along with fellow recipients Jerry York (Boston College men’s coach), Cam Neely (Hall of Fame player and former Bruin), and Dave Andrews (president of the AHL).<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2998198356662774143?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-12170910986369222132010-10-27T19:05:00.000-04:002010-10-27T22:06:28.295-04:00<span style="font-style:italic;">Author’s note: In its NHL Team Reports section, the current edition of <span style="font-style:italic;">The Hockey News</span> is having its contributors “look back at their favorite moments covering their team.” In a nod to that, the Free Press offers a similar report on the PC women’s team.</span><br /><br />Nobody who was on hand November 8, 2009, when Schneider Arena morphed into the OK Corral, can still rightly stand by the notion that defensive hockey is dull hockey.<br /><br />The budding personal rivalry between Friars goaltender Genevieve Lacasse and Northeastern stopper Florence Schelling hit a fast new height when the contesting sophomores pushed their third career showdown to a 13-round shootout.<br /><br />Schelling had already repelled 36 regulation shots, Lacasse 27. Each only had to deal with one opposing stab in the five-minute overtime to retain a 1-1 tie and secure at least on Hockey East point for her respective team.<br /><br />Odds are nobody was thinking about a record-length shootout when the 65th minute of standard hockey action expired. But if, in that second year of shootout usage in the league, one had to guess the goaltending card that would set a runaway record, which other two goalies would one pick?<br /><br />The first six shooters on each side whiffed. By that point, the record was already in place, but there was still not a single red light in the bonus round.<br /><br />Then, in the top half of the seventh, Northeastern’s Danielle Kerr nudged the Friars to the brink of gut-socking defeat by beating Lacasse on a low-rider shot. But PC’s Alyse Ruff coolly countered by cutting down Broadway and letting the vital equalizer trickle through Schelling’s five-hole.<br /><br />Another five scoreless rounds ensued. And by the time Lacasse denied Casie Fields, the Huskies 13th shooter, the Friars –shorthanded by an ongoing smattering of injuries- were but four rounds away from returning to Nicole Anderson at the top of the order. <br /><br />In the meantime, stay-at-home defender Christie Jensen was spontaneously tapped to try her luck, and with all the open ice, she would reveal an inner portion of herself that neither 5-on-5 nor 4-on-4 nor even, most likely, 2-on-2 would ever permit.<br /><br />Jensen –who at the time had no regulation goals in her career- took the puck from the center dot and made a dramatic swoop to her left, making no use of the smoothed lane the Zamboni had left specifically for her and her fellow shooters. She gradually cut back to center until she was face-to-face with Schelling, and spooned the game-winner over the Swiss phenom’s catching glove.<br /><br />A hard-earned two-point package for the victors, well-deserved partial credit for the runner-ups. A bout like that can irrefutably justify what is often maligned as the “loser point.”<br /><br />Epic battle? That’s an understatement. This author was quick to dub this contest “A Game Worth 10,000 Words.” That is, if we only had the space for it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1217091098636922213?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-30613962069520011402010-10-24T00:00:00.001-04:002010-10-23T23:42:45.751-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Coming back together<br />Friars stay buckled, tame Tigers</span><br /><br />When his pupils went into yesterday’s second intermission carrying a brittle 1-0 edge and still nearly half of a five-minute, all-you-can-score buffet courtesy of a hitting-from-behind major to Princeton defender Rose Alleva, PC head coach Bob Deraney opted to screen the Zamboni in the dressing room. Namely, the choice between the specter of squandering the juicy combination of a fresh sheet and interminable power play or cashing in for a bonus breath of momentum.<br /><br />“You don’t want to talk about that because what happens is, if you don’t score, now all of a sudden, it takes on a different meaning,” Deraney said.<br /><br />The urge to repel any pressure only heightened at 1:58 of the third period, when Abby Gauthier’s power play goal was placed under review to confirm it was not converted on a high-stick.<br /><br />While referees Bill Doiron and Robert Tisi made the crucial call upstairs, Deraney huddled his entire team at the bench.<br /><br />“I said to them, no matter what happens, if they call the goal back, it doesn’t matter, just continue to compete and that’s what I was most proud of. For 60 minutes, we were able to compete as hard as we did from start to finish. Much different than last night.”<br /><br />As it happened, the goal stood, granting the Friars a 2-0 lead. And in the 18:02 of clock time that remained, they paced themselves to an assertive 4-0 triumph at Schneider Arena, rapidly redeeming Friday’s fall-from-ahead, 3-2 loss to Rensselaer.<br /><br />“It was really nice because we all played together this game,” said Gauthier, credited with her second goal in as many nights. “(On Friday), we were playing really individualistic. Today we played together, and my goal came from all my teammates. It just shows you can’t do it alone.”<br /><br />Some of the common themes from the Friars’ previous three weekends back on display after Friday’s hiatus: a few power play strikes, one or two double-digit shot bushels in a single period, a point for at least one member of each full forward line, and a final margin of three goals or more.<br /><br />“It was really good,” said goaltender Genevieve Lacasse, who charged up a game total 35 saves for her 11th college shutout.<br /><br />“We played great defense. All over the ice, we were really quick. First period, we dominated. We just started off way better than (Friday). (Friday’s) game wasn’t us at all. Today we came out and showed who we really were.”<br /><br />After a relatively uneventful first period, characterized chiefly by minimal penalty calling and a digestible flurry of 16 shots at Princeton stopper Cassie Seguin (40 saves), the Tigers turned around and stirred the better half of the offense through most of the middle frame.<br /><br />But the Friars, bolstered by Lacasse’s 17-save performance, constantly salted the ice for their opponents. All but one of Princeton’s four second period power plays, including a rich 1:57 carry-over from the opening frame, was terminated prematurely by an infraction of their own. That slippery slew climaxed in the five-minute sentence to Alleva, drawn by Kate Bacon as she went to retrieve the remnants of her shorthanded bid.<br /><br />“I guess it was just a momentum builder,” said center Ashley Cottrell. “We always talk about keeping our feet moving, using our speed to our advantage, and if we use our speed, take them wide. That draws penalties and it always works to our advantage.”<br /><br />Amidst the cunning power play chopping spree, all five skating Friars touched the puck en route to their icebreaker at 6:24 of the second. Christie Jensen made the moving breakout feed from in front of her net to fellow blueliner Jen Friedman. Venturing up the far lane, Friedman found Laura Veharanta, who carried the disc into Princeton territory and left a drop pass for Corinne Buie, whose shot was guided into the opposite corner of the cage by Cottrell’s tip.<br /><br />Once Gauthier broadened the lead by swatting home Bacon’s bloop shot from the opposite post, Providence increasingly flustered the Tigers. Within 40 seconds of Gauthier’s goal, Krystyna Bellasario was whistled for a blunt checking infraction, having blown both mitts in the face of Nicole Anderson in the near corner of the Friars zone.<br /><br />Less than six minutes later, successive tripping and checking minors to Sally Butler and Paula Romanchuk gave PC a 32-second 5-on-3 segment. With 19 seconds left in Romanchuk’s sentence, Anderson won a face-off back to Lauren Covell, who fed her point partner Friedman for a blast over Seguin’s trapper, making it 3-0 with 10:08 to spare.<br /><br />When 3:29 remained, a fresh-out-the-box Jessie Vella finalized the 4-0 upshot when she absorbed Cottrell’s pass along the near wall and strolled in to bury an empty netter.<br /><br />“Obviously, we were hoping that we had learned a lesson from (Friday’s) game and I think we did,” said Deraney. “We played well from offense to defense to where our goaltending was superb to our special teams where our power play scored two goals, which is terrific, and we obviously shut them down on the penalty kill. It was a total team effort.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3061396206952001140?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-85740812001095391912010-10-24T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-23T23:41:43.066-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Friedman puts defense on board</span><br /><br />Although none of his blueliners had contributed firsthand in the first seven games of his program’s offensive renaissance, PC women’s head coach Bob Deraney was quick to commend their combined 20 assists and additional intangible contributions.<br /><br />“I think we’ve gotten tremendous shots from the point,” he said. “And that’s what we want to see. Our defenders have taken good shots, but they haven’t hit the net.”<br /><br />That finally changed at 9:52 of the third period yesterday when Jen Friedman, the nation’s leading helper coming into the weekend with nine assists, slugged a high-flying puck from the near wall over the glove of Princeton goaltender Cassie Seguin. As it happened, fellow junior defender Lauren Covell was credited with her second assist on the play.<br /><br />And there was a slight positional role reversal in Friedman’s goal. Deraney singled out one of his forwards, Jessie Vella, for promptly bolting the face-off circle to screen Seguin, all within the three seconds it took for the puck to drop and to ultimately find its way home.<br /><br />No point for Vella there, but an integral part of the goal, Deraney said.<br /><br />“That’s a terrific shot, and a lot of people won’t see it with Vella going to the net and basically taking away the goalie’s eyes. And it’s just a great shot by Friedman to walk into it and put it top shelf.”<br /><br />Friedman’s goal was her fourth power play point of the year, already matching both her freshman and sophomore totals.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Cottrell steps back up</span><br />Junior center Ashley Cottrell, the team leader last season with 14 goals and 31 points, stamped her first multi-point game of the season with a goal-assist value pack yesterday. With that, she bumped her 2010-11 scoring transcript to 2-3-5 through eight games.<br /><br />Although still a few strides behind six of her teammates and not yet producing at quite the pace most had expected, Cottrell takes comfort in the depth of her crew.<br /><br />“I don’t think there was any pressure (on me),” she said. “Points don’t really matter to anyone on the team as long as we’re winning, working together as a group.”<br /><br />Cottrell, the only player to attain a plus-2 rating yesterday, does have one jutting distinction. After posting the icebreaker in yesterday’s 4-0 win, she has two clinching strikes on the year, joining her with teammate Alyse Ruff and only 10 other NCAA skaters already with multiple game-winners.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Towers tangle</span><br />Sophomore forward Nicole Anderson had not received a penalty prior to yesterday’s game. That changed promptly on her first shift when she had a chippy encounter with her fellow six-footer, Princeton defender Sasha Sherry, behind the Tigers’ net. Both were escorted to the sin bin for coincidental roughing minors at the 2:40 mark.<br /><br />The injured Jean O’Neill and freelance forward Emily Groth are now PC’s last two skaters yet to do time for a single offense this season.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />PK perfect again</span><br />In all four of their regular season home games, the Friars have gone 21-for-21 on the penalty kill. The Princeton power play came up empty yesterday on five opportunities, whiffing on eight total shots.<br /><br />The Tigers’ promising moment came after PC’s Laura Veharanta was called for cross-checking at 3:52 of the second period. They mustered a cyclonic three stabs within 25 seconds, but by then their 5-on-4 time had ended prematurely with Paula Romanchuk going off for slashing.<br /><br />On the other side of the special teams’ spectrum, the Friars piled on 17 power play shots –their most since heaving 20 at Robert Morris on October 1- over nine opportunities, converting twice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: Ruff was retroactively credited with an assist on Abby Gauthier’s goal in Friday’s 3-2 loss to Rensselaer, keeping her tied with Friedman for a team-leading 10 points…Kate Bacon launched a team-high nine shots on goal yesterday and extended her point-scoring streak to seven games with an assist on Gauthier’s third period goal…PC and Princeton played an aggregate five minutes and 13 seconds of 4-on-4 action…As a team, the Friars own the best plus-minus rating in Hockey East at a collective plus-15…The defending Hockey East champion Boston University is next on PC’s agenda, slated to visit Schneider Arena this Friday. The Terriers tied a program-record six-game winning streak yesterday, warding off Clarkson at Walter Brown Arena, 3-2.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8574081200109539191?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-80870239436127319942010-10-23T00:00:00.002-04:002010-10-22T23:47:08.662-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Rest-hungry Friars zapped in OT</span><br /><br />Kate Bacon –who is garnering attention and accolades in the young weeks of her junior season as fast as she can pull off a Noremorean end-to-end rush- bought herself a surplus of chances to be the Friars’ hero last night.<br /><br />She drew five of the opposing Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s seven penalties on the night, all of which could have been cashed in to grant PC another trendy multi-goal lead. She directly augmented a 1-0 edge with her team-leading seventh goal of the year in the first minute of the middle frame.<br /><br />And even after RPI deleted that 2-0 difference, Bacon nearly buried the winner in the dying seconds of regulation, just failing to corral the pass in front of a gaping left slab of the net.<br /><br />Ultimately, the Friars as a whole seemed too preoccupied with looking through a catalog of Halloween queen costumes to symbolize their recent five-game winning streak. As a consequence, that hot streak wilted in the form of a 3-2 overtime loss at Schneider Arena, the Engineers’ first win of their season after absorbing an acrid 0-3-2 transcript coming in.<br /><br />“You can’t go by records and I think we underestimated them,” said Friars’ skipper Bob Deraney. <br />“We played the record instead of playing the team. I knew they were a good team, we told them they were a really good team.<br /><br />“I think it was a combination of both their desperation and us undeservedly feeling good about ourselves.”<br /><br />That would explain a lot. All things considered, the first period ended much closer than it could have as a thorny RPI defensive force killed four unanswered penalties, allotting PC six power play shots in that space.<br /><br />By night’s end, Providence had whiffed on all seven of its advantages, taking eight vain stabs at the net in a cumulative 12:16 worth of 5-on-4 time. None of those failures jutted more than when the Engineers’ Kristen Jabukowski went off for hitting from behind at 14:19 of the first, and then was joined by Katie Daniels (cross-checking) at 16:08, spawning a 12-second 5-on-3 segment and 3:49 straight minutes of lopsided action.<br /><br />Before Jabukowski’s arrest, the Friars were ahead, 1-0; ditto after Daniels’ jailbreak.<br /><br />“We had some opportunities there,” said Deraney. “We could have had a bigger margin there, and we missed it. They made a nice adjustment afterwards and we made an adjustment, but I think that played a lot into the game, us not scoring on the power play early.”<br /><br />The Friars did muster one even strength strike to nab the initial lead at 12:21 of the first. Defender Leigh Riley shipped a sound diagonal feed from the far point to the porch of the net, where an unbothered Abby Gauthier poked in her first goal of the season.<br /><br />Gauthier promptly chipped in again to commence the second period, accepting Amber Yung’s pass out of her own end and touring down the far alley. Once parallel to the net, she sent a cross-ice pass to Bacon, who maneuvered around an unstrung, seat-sliding goaltender in Sonia van der Bliek (27 saves) with 44 seconds gone.<br /><br />Through the rest of the stanza, the Engineers controlled the shooting gallery, 9-5, after being romped, 11-4, in that department in the first. Carrying their newfound energy into the first two minutes of the third, they converted twice on three hacks at PC stopper Genevieve Lacasse (24 saves).<br /><br />Center Alisa Harrison got the rally going at the 0:48 mark, skulking undetected to the far post and raking in a cross-ice pass from winger Jordan Smelker.<br /><br />Right off the subsequent face-off, RPI nearly buried the equalizer when Harrison swooped the puck in from the far lane and dished an assertive lateral pass to Clare Padmore. Lacasse foiled that one on a rod-hockey-goalie-like slide, but was less fortunate following the next draw.<br /><br />With 1:44 gone in the period, the persistent Engineers stormed Lacasse’s estate and Jakubowski, looping behind the back of the cage, fed Toni Sanders for a one-time conversion behind the unprepared goalie.<br /><br />The visitors reran that congesting, dirty-nose act in the bonus round, with Jill Vandegrift setting up Taylor Horton to roof the winner and send the Friars into mental retooling mode.<br /><br />Deraney admitted that today’s do-over with Princeton dropping in for a 4:00 p.m. tangle is timely enough.<br /><br />“It’s done. You can’t change it,” he said of last night’s drawback. “We need to learn from it and move forward. It’s the hardest season in the entire NCAA: Division I college hockey. It’s a grind. There’s too much parity, men or women, it doesn’t matter. Every time you show up, you have to come ready to play because anyone can beat anyone on a given night, and that’s the lesson we learned tonight.<br /><br />“If we learn something from this, I’ll take it if we can win more hockey games because of it. I’ll sacrifice this loss for 10 more wins.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8087023943612731994?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-34998009051592036562010-10-23T00:00:00.001-04:002010-10-22T23:46:32.290-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Gauthier in a groove<br />Veteran winger hints at more fruitful year</span><br /><br />Compared to her linemates, and many of her peers for that matter, PC women’s hockey starting right winger Abby Gauthier has been several strides behind in the productivity department.<br /><br />Entering last night’s showdown with Rensselaer, Gauthier’s two left side partners, the now-ailing Jean O’Neill and her successor Kate Bacon, had combined for eight goals and two assists in six games on the top line. Centerpiece Alyse Ruff had charged up a succulent 3-6-9 scoring transcript.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Gauthier had scraped out a mere three assists, slotting her in ninth place on the Friars’ scoring charts. <br /><br />Still, through six games, that gave her an irreproachable median of half a point per night. And after last night, with a goal and an assist in the losing effort, she is suddenly on a stark pace to make like many of her fellow upperclassmen and cruise to a career year.<br /><br />Gauthier, once a hype-magnet for battering the record books at St. Mary’s of Lynn High School, mustered a mere 10 points as a rookie and followed that up with nine last year. But this season, she suddenly has five points in seven games. It took her 15 games to reach that height as a frosh, 19 games as a sophomore.<br /><br />“I think that Abby’s really come along nicely,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “Even from the beginning of the year, she’s been doing some terrific things out there that she hadn’t shown in her first two years. I think it’s a credit to her work ethic, her preparation for the season, and it’s nice to see her rewarded for that. She deserves it.”<br /><br />Gauthier’s multi-point performance was the fourth of her college career and the fourteenth pulled off by any Friar this young season. Additionally, she was one of only three PC players –along with senior defenders Leigh Riley and Amber Yung- to finish last night with a positive plus-minus rating.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Covell drops back</span><br />After filling one of the two line chart cavities in the forward department, two-way connoisseur Lauren Covell stuck strictly to patrolling the points last night, effectively giving the Friars a bonus blueliner and 10 forwards –i.e. three full lines with a remainder of one. <br /><br />The third line simply had the likes of Nicole Anderson, Jess Cohen, Emily Groth, and Jessie Vella, rotating in and out each shift. Covell likewise partnered with a variety of designated defenders, most strikingly starting the overtime period with Yung at the other post.<br /><br />With O’Neill still out indefinitely with her injury, only time will tell when Deraney can deploy a quorum of 12 strikers. So for the time being, Covell is likely to alternate her position on demand.<br /><br />“We use different players in different situations based on who we’re playing and personnel groupings,” the coach explained. “There’s no rationale behind (switching Covell’s position). We’re just trying to put people in positions that’ll be successful.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The drawing board</span><br />It is not an official statistic at any level of the sport, but odds are Bacon reached a career high in drawing five opposing penalties last night, including three out of four in the first period and both of the Engineers’ third period infractions. Four of the whistles were for bodychecking, the other a cross-checking citation to RPI defender Katie Daniels.<br /><br />In addition, Bacon’s second period goal expanded her career-high point-scoring streak to six games. One more strike will match her career high with eight on the year.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Promotions today</span><br />Two special events will surround this afternoon’s game versus Princeton (4:00 p.m. face-off). It will be the one annual game wherein all money raised through ticket, concession, and contest sales go to domestic violence awareness charities. After the final buzzer, the Friars will also invite fans to skate with the team.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: PC has scored the first goal in both of its losses and 3-2-0 overall when striking first…Corinne Buie, Laura Veharanta, and Yung led the team with four shots on net apiece last night…Until last night, the Friars had been riding a 12-game unbeaten streak (2-0-10) in OT matches. Their previous sudden death loss was a 3-2 falter at Clarkson on Oct. 9 of last season…For the third time in as many regular season home games, the PC penalty kill was flawless, repelling all four of the Engineers’ power plays and granting them six shots…The Friars had their best night at the dot so far, winning 40 out of 64 face-offs with all four centers taking the majority of their draws. Ruff went 18-for-29, Ashley Cottrell 11-for-15, Bacon 6-for-11, and Vella 5-for-9…Princeton, this afternoon’s opponent, commenced its regular season last night with a 2-1 loss at Northeastern. Paula Romanchuk potted the Tigers’ lone goal…Prior to last night’s game, junior defender Christie Jensen, the mastermind behind September’s “Road Hockey Rumble” event, assisted in presenting a $700 check raised from that tournament for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Rhode Island.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3499800905159203656?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-33132985452901947962010-10-19T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-18T21:01:34.761-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Friedman happily helpful<br />Blueliner leading with heavy gush of assists</span><br /><br />In the PC women’s hockey team’s first six games, not a single defender has scored a goal. Given the surprise blizzard of 26 team strikes divided among 10 different contributors, that revelation is almost material for one of Lewis Black’s “I will repeat that” bits.<br /><br />Still, five of the six designated blueliners has at least one assist to her credit. In all, the backline brigade has combined for 17 of the 39 helpers. That translates to 43.5 percent of the assists, 26.2 percent of the total points, and repels any pressure to unleash an old fashioned scorcher from the point.<br /><br />“I think scoring is coming from everyone on the team, which is really good,” said junior Jen Friedman, whose four assists over the weekend spiked her to the team lead with nine on the year. That also ties her for tops in the nation in that category with Quinnipiac freshman forward Kelly Babstock and she leads all NCAA defenders in scoring.<br /><br />She added, paraphrasing the Crash Davis Guidebook, “I think just everyone is doing their own job has been working well to help the team.”<br /><br />In her first two seasons with the Friars, Friedman took at least five games to etch her first point. She had no more than three before January, which has customarily been her most productive month.<br /><br />Until this year, anyway. Two more points and she will have already cemented a career year with 11 and counting.<br /><br />With 27 games yet to come, and a horde of her allies on similarly revolutionary paces, it is all but assured that Friedman will pioneer a plethora of individual bar-raisers in Friartown’s Skating Sorority this winter.<br /><br />“Just the experience I’ve had over the years has helped,” she granted. “And also the team is doing well overall, so that helps a lot. When the team as a whole does better, everybody gets better.”<br /><br />Friedman has also pushed light-years ahead of schedule in the way of power play productivity. After finishing with back-to-back 2-2-4 transcripts on the advantage, she has already pitched in three assists, the most recent being on Nicole Anderson’s equalizer in Saturday’s 2-1 triumph at Colgate.<br /><br />Over the last four games, one PC point patroller –whether it be Friedman or senior Amber Yung- has had a hand in all five of the Friars power play conversions. Knowing that –along with the fact that the Friars have yet to surrender a shortie- it is all the more likely that the new umbrella formation, with four attackers digging deep and leaving one lone ranger on the straightaway point, is here to stay.<br /><br />Which is all good by the likes of Friedman.<br /><br />“I really like it, and I trust my forwards to get back if there’s a breakdown,” she said. “I know that they’ll backcheck and be able to help me. But I really like the formation. It puts us in a good position to score goals.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: Despite the elongated winning streak, the Friars failed to reenter USCHO’s top 10 leaderboard yesterday. With 20 points, they were one notch behind No. 10 Ohio State, which is one of five WCHA teams formally ranked this week…Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse, who pushed away 61 of 63 shots faced during the two-day New York excursion, was named the league’s defensive player of the week yesterday…Starting center Alyse Ruff is one of only three Hockey Easterners to already have two game-winning goals on the year, joined by Boston University flamethrower Jenn Wakefield and New Hampshire sophomore Kristina Lavoie.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3313298545290194796?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-47119938578145508362010-10-11T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-10T21:39:05.216-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Net access still a cinch<br />Stingier opponents not cutting Friars’ output</span><br /><br />“Replay!” was the refrain from PC women’s head coach Bob Deraney for nearly half a minute when play stopped at the 10:05 mark of yesterday’s second period. His towering forward Nicole Anderson had just drawn a hooking minor on Clarkson’s Carly Mercer whilst swooping to the net, but in his eyes, she had already stuffed the puck home.<br /><br />Deraney finally got the replay he requested, in the eyes of referees Paul Driscoll and Derek Zuckerman there was no conclusive evidence to back his claim. And so, the Friars settled for the power play that would have been cancelled had Anderson’s goal been verified.<br /><br />But a mere 14 seconds off the ensuing draw, Deraney watched another breed of replay. It was an active rerun of a previous 5-on-4 strike with Jen Friedman and Anderson collaborating on the center point and right wing, respectively, to feed Alyse Ruff, who nailed it home from the slot.<br /><br />Guess the disapproval of Anderson’s would-be conversion really sparked the Friars there, did it not?<br /><br />“I don’t think they were (extra) motivated. We just know how to grind,” said Deraney. “Okay, so we didn’t score there. We go out with the same enthusiasm whether it went in or it didn’t go in. We’re going to go back out with the same objective which is to score goals as quick as we can. So there wasn’t any motivating factor there. It was just us executing.”<br /><br />Come what may, those visually identical goals, coming at 2:25 and 10:19 of the middle frame, certainly sparked the Friars. They spawned a 2-0 lead en route to a 5-0 victory at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />As it happened, Ruff’s goals were the only two registered stabs that the power play brigade could muster on five opportunities. The rest of the time, the Clarkson defense deployed the same basic laser-beamed wall that also confined the puckslinging Friars to a mere 18 total shots on the game. That’s nine fewer than what they lobbed at St. Lawrence on Saturday and a distant downturn from the 90 they charged up over two games against Robert Morris.<br /><br />But while the ammo is coming out at an exponentially lower rate, the explosive results on the scoreboard remain steady. Providence has yet to pack any less than four goals in a single regular season game, flaunting a nightly median of five.<br /><br />And yesterday, when it seemed somebody had finally cracked their code, Clarkson owning the first period shooting gallery 14-2, the frenzied Friars ran up a productive sugar rush to the point where opposing starter Lauren Dahm was forked out in favor of freshman Erica Howe. (Sophomore Emily Groth finished her off when she scored her first collegiate goal for a 3-0 edge at 13:13 of the second. It made for three goals on eight second period shots at Dahm.)<br /><br />Dahm, who went 23-11-5 and sat comfortably among the nation’s top 10 stoppers in every vital category last season, is now personifying her team’s startlingly lifeless start. She is 0-4-0 coupled with a 3.74 goals-against average and .899 save percentage. Yesterday, upon surrendering three goals on 10 shots in 33:13 minutes, she failed to finish what she started for only the second time since the start of last year. The other was just 10 nights ago at almighty Minnesota.<br /><br />Considering the Gophers’ part in that barometer, perhaps more credit is owed to the PC strike force, which sniffed and promptly thrived on a shot of momentum to dismantle the Golden Knights goalie.<br /><br />“First of all, she’s a terrific goaltender,” Deraney said. “I just think we made some unbelievable plays. Those first two goals, you can’t draw them any better. You’re looking at a shot from the slot that is basically with a lot of people moving in front. She really didn’t have a chance on either one. I would like to rather look at our execution than her not being up to the challenge.”<br /><br />Barring any more jolts, favorable or unfavorable, to the active roster in the near future, Providence is likely to continue with its top umbrella power play unit with forwards Ruff, Anderson, Ashley Cottrell, and Corinne Buie up front and Friedman dotting the lone point. For what the slim two-week window is worth, they are already the most dependable quintet Deraney has deployed with the player advantage. <br /><br />Most distinctively, out of PC’s five power play strikes this year, yesterday’s are the only two to be inserted within the first minute of the opponent’s sentence. It took one 45-second round of cycling after Brittany Mulligan sat down for Ruff to one-time the icebreaker through Dahm’s five-hole. And it required a mere 14 ticks before Ruff snapped another conversion glove-side.<br /><br />Contrast that with the 1:50, 1:25, and 1:36 it took the Friars to convert in previous games and explain the improvement.<br /><br />“I think our kids are doing a good job of identifying what (the opposing penalty kill is) giving us and not trying to force it and just making things happen based on what they’ve decided to give us,” said Deraney. “It’s not so much that we score so quick as that we’re making the right reads.”<br /><br />Not to mention, squeezing through smaller seams just enough times to hoist the upper hand, an ability this energetic bunch will need down the road when games grow increasingly defensive.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4711993857814550836?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-19925388656979374132010-10-10T00:00:00.001-04:002010-10-09T22:34:03.127-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Adjusting on the fly<br />In O’Neill’s absence, top six keeps thriving with tweaks</span><br /><br />PC women’s hockey head coach Bob Deraney, safeguarding sensitive details surrounding his wounded co-captain the same way he once monitored Jack Parker’s net for Boston University, hugged the post tightly when the press tried to score more helpful details as to Jean O’Neill’s status.<br /><br />Nothing but the bare basics was admitted. O’Neill is out indefinitely with a lower body injury. And for the moment, Providence will just have to subsist on whatever its 10 active forwards can collect.<br /><br />“I was saying to my daughters last night, everyone has injuries and those aren’t excuses not to get things done,” Deraney said in the wake of yesterday’s 6-1 triumph over St. Lawrence at Schneider Arena.<br /><br />Of O’Neill, he offered, “She is a very valuable player for us. Obviously, it’s going take a lot of players stepping up to fill the void of Jean O’Neill and we’re going to try to do the best we can. I thought our kids did a good job of that today and we just want to get her better and get her back in the lineup as quick as possible.”<br /><br />Once that happens, the last thing any of O’Neill’s mates will want to do is retract what they appear to be building up as they press on without the senior winger who entered this year with a career scoring log of 26-29-55 in 102 games and had just set the tone for a fireworks finale with a hat trick on opening night last week.<br /><br />Uncannily enough, Kate Bacon stood in for O’Neill on the starting left wing yesterday and pulled off the exact same feat. She thus leads the Friars with four goals in the wee stages of this season, including one power play strike, one shorty, and one game-winner. <br /><br />And based especially on her portfolio, the speedy junior is on pace to potentially “upset” some preseason suspects for the team’s MVP award. Her four goals on the year already constitute one quarter of the 16 she has charged up since she enrolled two autumns ago. And with 13 shots on net –tied for the team lead with classmate Laura Veharanta- she flaunts a satisfying 30.8 success rate.<br /><br />“Kate can play anywhere and make people around her better just because of her natural speed,” said Deraney. “But now she’s so much smarter. Her hands have caught up with her head and her feet.”<br /><br />Meanwhile, Bacon’s new center, senior Alyse Ruff, and senior defender Amber Yung garnered three helpers apiece yesterday. All three of Ruff’s helpers and two of Yung’s were on Bacon’s scoring plays.<br /><br />With that, Ruff –who by all counts still needs to wait until next week’s visit to Colgate to collect her own goal, as has been the case three years running- is off to her hottest start with five points in three games. Likewise, Yung is suddenly retaining a point-per-game median for the first time in her long stay on the Divine Campus.<br /><br />Perhaps more importantly, the same holds true for Veharanta, whose line Bacon left to join the starting trinity with Ruff and Abby Gauthier. Veharanta, still working with Ashley Cottrell as her centerpiece but with freshman Corinne Buie filling the vacant wing, nailed the first two goals of her season for a 2-1-3 transcript.<br /><br />In the four games –two exhibition, two regulation- that they spent as a unit, the Bacon-Cottrell-Veharanta line amassed a cumulative six goals, 15 points, and 55 SOG. Yesterday, with Buie in lieu of Bacon, the second line amassed three points and six shots together, along with a plus-2 rating each or better.<br /><br />The first of Veharanta’s goals, which ultimately proved the game clincher, was the finishing touch of a two-on-one bolt initiated by Buie when she escorted the puck out of PC territory along the near wall. Buie ultimately found Veharanta waiting at the backdoor, where she buried a 2-0 lead with 11:38 gone in a volcanic opening frame (three goals on 16 SOG).<br /><br />The point to take here: there is little to fear in the way of delicate line chemistry for these Friars, who are now averaging exactly five goals per game.<br /><br />“We play interchangeable players,” said Deraney. “We really don’t put a lot of stock in line combinations, and what I mean by that is because of the way we play we can more people around and have them play primarily with a different group, but there really isn’t a transition time between that and you got to see that today. <br /><br />“Veharanta is used to playing the offside (left wing), so this was a nice chance to get her back to the offside, move Buie up. And I think it keeps that line intact in terms of what they brought to the table.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1992538865697937413?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-50405373883107364342010-10-10T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-09T22:30:28.008-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">PC PK leaves Saints feeling empty</span><br /><br />With 14:09 remaining in regulation yesterday, the PC women started pushing their luck with a 4-1 lead when freshman defender Maggie Pendleton was flagged for interference, already the team’s second infraction of the third period.<br /><br />Suddenly, St. Lawrence head coach Chris Wells summoned goaltender Maxie Weisz to the bench in favor of an eccentrically early six-pack attack. Up to that point, the Saints had whiffed on all but one out of 30 stabs at PC stopper Genevieve Lacasse and had missed on their last five power play shot attempts.<br /><br />That trend continued for the moment as Kayla Sullivan shanked a bid wide while Friars’ defender Amber Yung blocked Lauren Brozowski’s shot. But down two skaters and unprepared for the surprise scenario, Providence could not clear its zone long enough until the Saints did it for them, ultimately forcing Weisz back into the net at 7:19 when an offside play brought the face-off back into the visitors’ territory.<br /><br />Less than four minutes after her jailbreak at the 7:51 mark, Pendleton was in the bin again for hitting from behind. With that, the Saints forked Weisz out yet again, still with 8:20 work of clock time to start nibbling at a potentially brittle three-goal cushion.<br /><br />But Lacasse denied three separate bids by Michelle Zimmerman, then one by Brooke Fernandez. And then, 65 minutes into the kill, the Friars’ Kate Bacon carried a feed from Alyse Ruff out of harm’s way and activated her turbine blades en route to an empty netter, augmenting the lead to 5-1 with only 7:15 left.<br /><br />“I actually think that was a turning point in the game,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “I didn’t realize it right away but it just showed some desperation by St. Lawrence. I thought it was a very interesting tactic by them, and good teams will capitalize on that opportunity and we capitalized on it. <br /><br />“We put the game out of reach at that point. We proved we’re a good team because they gave us an opening and we basically put the nail in the coffin there.”<br /><br />Maybe not so coincidentally, the Saints, their hope-deprivation suddenly elevated, did not so much as attempt another shot in the 55 seconds of power play time they still had. After Pendleton was released, they would distribute two far-between shots, both repelled by Lacasse, before they pulled Weisz yet again and watched as Laura Veharanta golfed home an extra dagger all the way from her own end with 3:05 to spare.<br /><br />“That 6-on-4 goal, that’s a character goal,” said Deraney. “They score there, they make it 4-2. Instead, we make it 5-1 and the game is over. Great teams find a way to exploit that opportunity and that’s what I’m most proud of.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5040537388310736434?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-78959533295608878972010-10-08T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-07T23:12:09.965-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Getting on their marquee<br />Weekend poses 10-11 Friars’ greatest NC barometer</span><br /><br />The conflicting causes will be common enough this weekend when the PC women host St. Lawrence tomorrow and Clarkson on Sunday. On both afternoons, a Five-Hour-Energy-sized gulp of redress will be on the line for a pair of teams coming off a slight chink in their national status.<br /><br />Less than two weeks ago, all three parties concerned were either within the Top 10 or just on the borderline of the two most relevant preseason polls. The Friars tied New Hampshire for the final slot on USCHO’s exclusive leaderboard and joined the Saints among USA Today’s honorable mentions. Clarkson was No. 7 in the collective eyes of both panels.<br /><br />At the start of this week, the idle Saints retained a few table scraps, but gained nothing by default. The Golden Knights did themselves no favors submitting to almighty Minnesota, the same team that terminated their first NCAA title run last spring, by a two-game score of 8-0. Those two losses docked them to the reserves list with a mere 16 and 17 votes from the two polls.<br /><br />And Providence is now off the USA Today screen and sitting among five almost-theres, clinging to but one USCHO point in wake of a split with the comparatively plebeian Robert Morris.<br /><br />“The game we lost to Robert Morris was a big game,” PC head coach Bob Deraney said of last Friday’s fall-from-ahead, 5-4 falter in the season opener. “You’ve got to win those games, and I think that fueled our fire for the next time we played them.”<br /><br />With that very fuel, the Friars pulled no surprises by sparking itself right back to the .500 fence with a 5-2 lashing of the Colonials. Now is the time to sprint forward and start kicking plenty of ice chips over the remnants of that first night flop.<br /><br />For Deraney, “now” would simply mean scrapping for the same nightly cause from now until all of the pre-tournament ice chips settle on March 6. But if the Friars want to hit the most telling springboard and set the most strident tone for themselves and the nation, “now” means right now, as in the next seven days.<br /><br />“Somewhere along the way, we’re going to have to make up for our misstep (last) Friday night,” said the skipper. “Our kids know that. We know that as a staff. We can’t change what happened. All you can do is look forward to the next game and we’re very excited to take on St. Lawrence and Clarkson.”<br /><br />Based on the platter of image-enhancing opportunities they have, specifically on the interleague front, there will be no chance more radiant for the Friars to assert themselves than this weekend. Barring unforeseen surprises from someone like Princeton, the Knights and Saints are the lone two teams capable of heavyweight status who will visit Schneider Arena this season until the Hockey East slate opens.<br /><br />It is not a bad idea to throw next Friday’s excursion to Syracuse under the same “key matchups” heading. But beyond that, PC won’t be testing itself against any other nonconference rivals of this magnitude.<br /><br />Neither of the forthcoming adversaries can quite understand that shortage. After this weekend, Clarkson will still have another four tussles with certified Top 10 challengers: UNH, Boston University, and Syracuse (twice). The Saints will have six more statement games, visiting the Terriers and Wildcats one time apiece, hosting Boston College for two nights, and paying a two-night visit to Mercyhurst.<br /><br />Translation: if they are paying attention, and not taking too much or too little care, the Friars should have the upper hand in the way of incentive these next two days.<br /><br />Of course, no one from without –especially anybody from the fourth estate- is going to extract such importunate ideas from within PC’s offices. You have better odds of cultivating fresh New England vegetables on Thanksgiving Eve.<br /><br />When pressed to assess the special implications of the two games featuring Elite Eight veterans, Deraney insisted, “They’re all big, and I’m not giving you a line there.” <br /><br />“College hockey is just so well-balanced right now that every game is important,” he added. “Whether (the opponent is) ranked or they’re not ranked, they all count towards our one and only goal and that’s (to make) the national tournament.”<br /><br />Technically true enough. And as the half-full/half-empty upshot last weekend proves, the more winnable games are especially crucial to keeping whatever footing an aspiring powerhouse already has. There is always more to be lost than to be gained out of a bout with Robert Morris, Brown University, or Colgate.<br /><br />For the moment, though, it is all about adding layers. The Friars’ focus should be hunting down those priceless national points, which tend to come with a free bonus parcel of confidence.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-7895953329560887897?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-10466561973093117992010-10-05T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-04T22:31:05.314-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Buie feeling immediate power</span><br /><br />The greater of the two opening statements is tough to judge. First, PC women’s rookie winger Corinne Buie nailed three goals over her first weekend of NCAA competition, including a dirty-nosed power play strike in Friday’s near-miss rally.<br /><br />And then, yesterday, her numbers earned her a Hockey East rookie of the week laurel, ahead of even Boston University crowd-puller Marie-Philip Poulin, who stamped a 3-1-4 transcript (including two shorties) in her team’s set with North Dakota.<br /><br />Come what may, the Friars’ third-liner does not deny, and vigorously appreciates, her rapid acclimation here.<br /><br />“Coming into this week, I’m just excited to keep going at this level,” she offered. “Obviously, I feel a little more comfortable having put one in the net and now I’m just ready for this weekend’s tough games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.”<br /><br />Buie, who totaled seven shots on the weekend, hatched her goose-egg with 4:26 to spare in Friday’s 5-4 loss to Robert Morris, whittling a 5-2 deficit to 5-3 on PC’s second power play goal of the game.<br /><br />The next day, shortly past the halfway mark of the third period, she was churning around the Colonials zone on a unit featuring the likes of Anderson, Ashley Cottrell, Alyse Ruff, and defender Jen Friedman dotting the umbrella. Just as RMU’s Jamie Joslin was being released from her two-minute sentence, Friedman imported a pass from Ruff and pelted goaltender Daneca Butterfield. <br /><br />Buie was on the porch to bury the soapy rebound within six seconds of the power play’s expiration, expanding PC’s lead to 4-1 en route to a 5-2 triumph, which she sealed herself with an empty netter.<br /><br />So no extra credit for that second strike, but enough credit for her nonetheless<br /><br /> “I’m really happy to be on the power play when I can be,” Buie acknowledged. “We’re still getting used to everything, but I think we’re developing it more and it should get better as we go.”<br /><br />Although she has yet to collaborate on the scoresheet with her full-time, even-strength associates, Buie credited the likes of her fellow young-ins, sophomores Jessie Vella and Nicole Anderson, with helping her ease in to the college ranks.<br /><br />“I really like working with them,” she said. “Vella is a really hard-working person, good defensively. Anderson has such a good shot and a long stick that when I pass to her she can always catch the puck.<br /><br />“I just like them as people, too. Other than playing with them, they’re really nice and encouraging.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">O’Neill still supportive</span><br />No timetable has been determined for the return of Jean O’Neill, injured late in Saturday’s game after inserting a hat trick the previous night. Odds are she will be out for a while, missing the forthcoming home dates with St. Lawrence and Clarkson at the very least.<br /><br />That aside, the senior co-captain graciously offered her take on this weekend’s importance for the Friars, who in the Saints and Golden Knights will confront the two most potent interleague rivals on their schedule.<br /><br />“You want to go into every weekend with the same mentality,” O’Neill said yesterday. “Every game is important, whether it be a Hockey East game or any other team, so I think it’s just a matter of working hard in practice all week and doing the little things right and improving on what we did wrong the previous weekend and carrying over the good things we did. We had a good momentum-changer Saturday with the win, so I think that’ll help carry over.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Forecasting firestorms</span><br />Counting the two McGill exhibitions, the Friars so far have launched no fewer than 39 shots on goal in a single game. The slimmest advantage they have had in a given shooting gallery was a plus-10 (41-31) in last Friday’s loss at Robert Morris.<br /><br />It’s no coincidence, head coach Bob Deraney said whilst tumbling into a temporary cliché trap.<br /><br />“Great offense comes from great defense and that’s what we’re all about. Our defense is what resulted in so many shots at the other end. So yeah, I think that shot differential will continue. That’s when we know we’re playing our type of hockey.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: The Friars dropped just a few strides out of uscho.com’s revised poll this week, retaining one vote…Friedman, along with Maine’s Chloe Tinkler and Mercyhurst’s Pam Zgoda, are currently tied among all of the nation’s defenders with a median of 1.5 points per game…PC will resume practice today after taking a breather yesterday.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-1046656197309311799?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-27603724475591465212010-10-03T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-02T23:16:37.432-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Breadth and balance will buoy this team<br />Diversity key to PC women’s offense</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Report based on Live Stats</span><br /><br />PITTSBURGH- Well before the second intermission yesterday, all 17 Skating Friars in uniform had at least attempted a shot on goal. By that point, and by game’s end, everyone with the exception of Emily Groth and Jean O’Neill had pelted Robert Morris goaltender Daneca Butterfield once or more.<br /><br />O’Neill’s emptiness under the SOG heading, in particular, may have been a tad startling in wake of her hat trick and four-point effort on Friday. But then again, the co-captain had doled out more than her share one night and a smattering of her mates took their collective turn the next.<br /><br />Not so coincidentally, whereas Providence spilled multiple leads and lost, 5-4, on the night that their output didn’t trickle far beyond O’Neill, the Friars kneaded a redressing 5-2 victory yesterday with four individuals tuning the Robert Morris mesh and 11 personalities brushing the scoresheet.<br /><br />Overall, with one meaningful weekend now in stone, the Friars have a combined 23 points shared amongst all 11 forwards to dress in their two-game set with the Colonials plus freshman defender Rebecca Morse and junior goaltender Genevieve Lacasse, who nabbed her fourth career assist whilst curtaining Saturday’s victory. And 16 skaters made at least two contributions to the weekend’s back-snapping bushel of 90 SOG.<br /><br />This is what the priceless asset they call depth is all about, and this is what ought to be PC’s defining trait in its 2010-11 Hockey East crusade.<br /><br />Boston College will have its Kelli Stack to bang in the bulk and feed her surrounding remoras. And the favored Boston University will have its volcanic strike force with Jenelle Kohanchuk, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Jenn Wakefield as the mere beginning.<br /><br />Barring surprises, the Friars will not see anyone finish within even 10 or 15 points of those hot hands from the Hub. <br /><br />So be it. Based on the progression and potential of each veteran forward, at least four of Bob Deraney’s pupils –Ashley Cottrell, O’Neill, Alyse Ruff, and Laura Veharanta- can make as many 35 points fall into place for themselves. Other returnees such as Jess Cohen and Nicole Anderson are capable of plunging into the 20-point range before the 33-game regular season is up. For the rest, forwards and defenders alike, the low-to-mid teens are a reasonable request, but more would be welcome.<br /><br />If all of that happens, or something not far off the mark, Deraney should have the product he has been itching to harvest ever since he was rounding up the heavily leaned-on class of 2012. And it will happen if the Friars can keep up the fruitfully frenzied appetite they collectively showed yesterday.<br /><br />The only aspect still squealing for attention is how quickly they start stuffing the basket. It took nearly 35 minutes, a wake-up call in the form of Colonial Cobina Delaney’s icebreaker, 54 cumulative attempts and 33 registered stabs before Anderson cracked the code. (Although, if the post didn’t have Butterfield’s back in the nineteenth minute of the opening frame, PC would have had the upper hand and rookie Corrine Buie would have had her second college goal in as many career games a little earlier.)<br /><br />Once they had that icebreaker, though, the Friars were quick to avoid the same mistake that cost them the season opener on Friday. They collected swift insurance from Cohen, who broke the 1-1 tie Anderson had drawn 43 seconds prior, and from Kate Bacon, who tied rookie blueliner Rebecca Morse with six shots on the day.<br /><br />Of the three full forward lines in action, the starting trinity of O’Neill, Ruff, and Abby Gauthier landed the fewest shots with six. But Ruff and Gauthier both penned their name on the scoresheet when they collaborated on temporary freelance forward Cohen’s go-ahead goal.<br /><br />Ruff ultimately joined junior Jen Friedman (two helpers apiece) and Buie (two goals) in the day’s cozy multi-point club. Granted, the prospect of that becoming a regular occurrence is as likely as the Friars scraping out a median of 4.5 goals all season. But to reiterate, this team is more apt to be gauged based on the number of individual contributors than the number of individual contributions.<br /><br />To date, the 2010-11 Friars have scored thrice on 39 shots against McGill, six goals on 44 shots at the same Marlets, four goals on 41 shots at RMU, then five on 49 bids versus the Colonials. That equals a four-game median of 4.5 goals on 43.25 shots for a 10.4 percent success rate.<br /><br />The foremost reason one should expect the red light tempest to taper off a little is simply that there won’t be many more Robert Morris-esque cupcakes to savor (or carelessly regurgitate). Especially within Hockey East boundaries, most opponents will prove a little more resistant to the rubber blizzards PC has launched in its first two weeks of competition.<br /><br />Still, the habit won’t hurt anything. And most critically, more players are gradually phasing themselves in to the equation. Morse along with fellow defenders Maggie Pendleton and Leigh Riley all etched multiple shots yesterday after having none on Friday. Similarly, the bottom half of the forward brigade was several strides ahead of its productivity in the McGill series.<br /><br />More sources, more resorts, more reinforcement, more cushion. The Friars can be glad to have that assuming they prudently translate it to more wins prior Thanksgiving.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2760372447559146521?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-46333472019306953212010-10-02T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-02T00:00:03.363-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Protection was the Pitts<br />Failure to build costs confidence, game</span><br /><br />PITTSBURGH- For the decisive phases of their regular season opener, the PC women’s hearts and minds were as fragile as their leads.<br /><br />The longer of the Friars’ two advantages lived to be a mere 3:15. Conversely, the host Robert Morris Colonials held a single edge for a good 20:15 straight, in large part because they actually added on to it.<br /><br />Such was never the case for the visitors, whose 5-4 loss last night resulted from a missing quantity of robustness they apparently neglected to buy in a Steel City gift shop before entering the Island Sports Center.<br /><br />True, upon absorbing a toe-curling 5-2 deficit, the Friars screwed their lids back on and rekindled their productive flames for the final six minutes. But valiant cramming sessions will do them no favors making a first impression in the national polls, especially since this was against a team projected to finish just one step out of the cellar in College Hockey America.<br /><br />Even if they had nailed the equalizer, the middle hunk of the game would still call for an emergency back-to-basics lecture before today’s rematch. And assuming they regroup to salvage a split in this series, the 1-1 showing is still all but bound to cost them a share of Top 10 territory in the coming week.<br /><br />That will only be fitting as much as it may be acrid. For “favor” and all of its relatives extending to at least second cousins was conspicuously absent in the Friar Puck glossary all last night.<br /><br />It didn’t help, psyche-wise, that after swiftly deleting 1-0 and 2-1 deficits, the Colonials nabbed their first lead of the night with a mere 15 ticks to spare till the second intermission. Nor did it help to know that go-ahead goal by Thea Imbrogno fell 13 seconds after they had whiffed on a power play. And it was anything but elevating for PC to see its celestial stopper Genevieve Lacasse, wearing her game time attire for the first time in her junior campaign, observe Opposite Night and repeatedly succumb to frostbite after stretches of inactivity in her zone.<br /><br />But just the same, the Friars didn’t do much to compensate themselves or their newly anointed co-captain Jean O’Neill, who compiled a hat trick by spawning the two early leads and later sawing a 5-3 deficit with 2:13 remaining in the closing frame.<br /><br />And data be darned, they did too little on too few occasions to pester Colonials sophomore goalie Kristen DiCiocco, who surprisingly earned the start ahead of the much riper Daneca Butterfield.<br /><br />Of PC’s 41 registered stabs at the RMU cage, 20 were unloaded on the power play. Two more were recorded within the last 45 seconds, during which Lacasse was benched in favor of a six-pack attack. And another two were reaped on fleeting shorthanded rushes.<br /><br />Nothing wrong with any of that, especially seeing as the Friars went a respectable 2-for-6 on the player-advantage. But consider the kicker: over the 42 minutes and 29 seconds they spent skating at even strength, more than two-thirds of the total game clock, the strike force mustered less than half (17 SOG) of what it did on the night as a whole.<br /><br />Only once did DiCiocco need to act twice between whistles while playing 5-on-5. It happened late in the first period when she denied Ashley Cottrell and Laura Veharanta and then sent teammate Kelsey Thomas the other way to test Lacasse.<br /><br />Granted, the Colonials did not stir up much of a cyclonic attack around Lacasse’s property, either. But they didn’t need to so much, seeing as four of their successful onslaughts lasted only one shot. The other simply consisted of Cobina Delaney collecting and cashing her own rebound.<br /><br />Even a couple of power plays could have gone a little better. Between the 5:30 and 10:50 mark of the third period, with her team safeguarding a 4-2 edge, Thomas served a pair of two-minute sentences for tripping. But the Friars, conspicuously disconcerted and passively pining for the woebegone momentum, notched a mere three shots over those two chances. And within three minutes of Thomas’ second jailbreak, Providence took two unanswered penalties of its own and the Colonials’ Maria Stoa pounced for her second conversion of the night for the eventual clincher at 13:49.<br /><br />Still, it all goes back to those pivotal moments after O’Neill had nudged her mates ahead. After she struck at 3:42 of the first, no whistles were blown and no shots were taken at either end until Dayna Newsom drew the knot for Robert Morris at 4:19. <br /><br />When O’Neill restored the edge at 4:31 of the second, PC again failed to dare DiCiocco when she was most prone to cave in. It would be three more minutes before Cottrell took a shorthanded stab. And seconds later, Stoa made it 2-2.<br /><br />For the next 26:03 of action, RMU outshot the Friars, 20-11, and outscored them, 3-0. Carve out that stretch and the shooting gallery would have read 30-11, the scoreboard 4-2, advantage Providence on both fronts.<br /><br />But because they failed to pick up any traction, PC broke down and broke character. And as so often happens, the collective glitch jutted out the most.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4633347201930695321?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-50185358892426585462010-09-28T00:00:00.000-04:002010-09-27T22:02:21.980-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Yung pleased to pitch in</span><br /><br />In both of last weekend’s preseason friendlies against McGill University, no PC women’s defender mustered more than two shots on goal, save for senior Amber Yung. She leveled three at the likes of Taylor Salisbury on Friday and tested Andrea Weckham five times on Saturday.<br /><br />And in Saturday’s come-from-behind 6-4 triumph, Yung’s puckslinging may have been the most clutch facet in the Friars’ kit. With his team ahead, 3-2, at the 4:49 mark of the second period, only 119 seconds after Ashley Cottrell had sawed a 3-1 difference, Martlets head coach Peter Smith decided to utilize his timeout.<br /><br />So much for halting whatever shift in momentum Smith must have detected. Within seven seconds of the post-timeout face-off, Yung lined up along the far-center point, absorbed a pass from partner Maggie Pendleton, and nailed a bar-down equalizer.<br /><br />One period later, with Providence on its fifth power play and a barren 0-for-4 on the advantage, Yung set up shop along the far circle-top and her slapper cleared a well-placed screen with 8:23 to spare, granting the Friars a 5-4 lead and herself the eventual game-winner. It was her first deciding strike in a collegiate game, exhibition or otherwise.<br /><br />Could there be more of this to come? A greater improvement on the five goals she supplied last year, which buried an arid sophomore season?<br /><br />“Just whatever helps my team win, I’m gonna do,” said Yung, who during another shift on Saturday was spotted going out of her way to grind for the puck behind the McGill cage a la Erin Normore. <br /><br />“I don’t really care about my points, as long as we win.”<br /><br />On the home front, where Yung is naturally expected to lead, PC held fort Saturday in part due to a staggering 17-0 advantage in the third period shooting gallery. Playing before two unripe goalies in Christina England and Nina Riley, the defenders grated McGill’s ammo to a fairly digestible 33 shots within the weekend’s first five periods. The only trouble worth noting was when England authorized two goals on four shots and gave way to Riley at 13:34 of Saturday’s opening frame.<br /><br />And only in Saturday’s second period were the Marlets allotted more than 10 shots (11). In the other five stanzas, they took no more than eight.<br /><br />Was there added motivation to make this a painless practice quiz for Genevieve Lacasse’s reinforcement tag team? Did the defensive brigade gain enough comfort being backed by the newbies?<br /><br />“It goes both ways,” said Yung. “We helped out our goalie and the goalie saved our butts a couple of times too, so I think it was a good effort by both parties.”<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Cohen back, O’Neill still to come</span><br />Sophomore forward Jess Cohen, out of commission all last week with the remnants of an offseason injury, was back in uniform for yesterday’s practice. Meanwhile her former linemate, senior Jean O’Neill, was still confined to the sidelines due to the same mild ailment that had her withdrawing from Saturday’s game during the second intermission. That puts her at least one day behind her original timetable for a rapid return.<br /><br />Head coach Bob Deraney is still holding out hope that both players will be ready to give his team a quorum of 12 active strikers come Friday’s regular season opener at Robert Morris.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tangled with poll Cats</span><br />The Friars tied age-old rival New Hampshire with 18 points apiece for No. 10 in yesterday’s uscho.com preseason poll. Boston University leads all Hockey East institutions with a No. 6 ranking (86 points) while Boston College ranks ninth in the nation with 32 points<br /><br />Of the 11 non-WHEA teams featured in the preseason rankings, only two are included on PC’s schedule, but both are coming quick. Clarkson, ruled No. 7 with 51 pollster points, comes to Schneider Arena on Sunday, October 10, one day after a visit from St. Lawrence, who received an honorable mention with two points.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Quick feeds</span>: Lacasse returned to campus yesterday after flying back from the five-day Hockey Canada National Team Evaluation camp in Calgary. She figures to return to her normal routine without delay… USA Today will release its preseason national poll today…Schneider Arena will host one home game for Boston’s new CWHL team, featuring PC alumnae Katy Beach, Cherie Hendrickson, Brittany Simpson, and Karen Thatcher. The still-yet-to-be-named Hub franchise –which commences its schedule against Burlington at the end of October- will host Montreal at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 28, five-and-a-half hours before the PC women battle Union.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5018535889242658546?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-7888347907308977312010-09-26T00:00:00.000-04:002010-09-25T22:02:16.271-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Sizzling weekend for Bacon<br />Speedy winger, linemates bolster preseason sweep</span><br /><br />Odds are Jim Gaffigan is not a major hockey fan, much less one following the women’s team at Providence College. But for the rink-going Friartownies who do exist, now may be the time to channel one of the food-loving funnyman’s most notable bits.<br /><br />“I want more. More bacon.”<br /><br />Kate Bacon, that is. The junior winger has entered this campaign as one of the heavily hyped class of 2012’s members still trying to really crack her chrysalis. And for what the somewhat slim window is worth, she exited this weekend of exhibition play with a 1-4-5 scoring log coupled with 12 shots on goal in two games.<br /><br />More markedly, in yesterday’s come-from-behind 6-4 triumph over McGill University, Bacon not only led the Friars with a 1-2-3 transcript and a plus-3 rating. She also turned on her turbine blades with enough force to directly draw three of the six total infractions committed by the Marlets.<br /><br />With a mere 12.9 ticks to spare in the first period, at which point McGill was savoring a 3-1 advantage, Bacon toured the puck along the far alley into enemy territory when defender Cathy Chartrand got her crook around her and paid with a two-minute sentence carrying over into the middle frame.<br /><br />PC didn’t cash in on the fresh sheet, 5-on-4 advantage combo, but within a minute of Chartrand’s release, Bacon and Laura Veharanta set up linemate Ashley Cottrell for a deficit-cutting goal.<br /><br />Later on, 10 seconds into a third period Friars’ penalty kill, Bacon tried to skate the puck beyond her own blue line, but was again impeded by Chartrand, who was flagged for interference. Chartrand’s illicit maneuver cost her team a whopping 1:50 worth of potentially tide-turning power play time. The fact that the Martlets were ultimately not credited with a single third period SOG could very well be attributed to the sudden loss of that power play.<br /><br />And with 9:59 to spare, Bacon was advancing through the neutral zone when Logan Murray made the wrong kind of backcheck, bumping her from behind and receiving an interference minor. PC’s Amber Yung would score the deciding goal on the ensuing power play and, perhaps fittingly, Bacon was on the ice at the time.<br /><br />“She is the fastest kid in college hockey,” asserted PC head coach Bob Deraney. “There is no doubt, hands down, it’s got to be undisputed. There is nobody who steps out on the ice and all of a sudden elevates the game the way she does with her speed. And yeah, I believe that’s something that’s going to be consistent throughout the year because she has also learned how to use it productively. It’s a credit to her.”<br /><br />Bacon started producing yesterday on a play when she was late rounding out a line change and thus working with Abby Gauthier and Alyse Ruff by default. Hugging the biscuit deep to the left of the McGill cage, she momentarily darted with a fly’s sense of direction, but then found blueliner Rebecca Morse swooping in for a pass. Morse accepted Bacon’s feed and buried the game’s first goal to the right of goalie Andrea Weckham with 6:55 gone in the first.<br /><br />After collaborating with her usual linemates to produce PC’s second goal, and after Yung slugged in an equalizer at 4:56 of the second, Bacon granted the Friars a new, 4-3 lead at 9:44. Hovering around the far side of the cage, she waited for Veharanta’s pass from behind and smuggled in a wraparound.<br /><br />That would be all of the tangible contribution from the starting forward trinity this weekend. And all it consisted of was the aforementioned 1-4-5 log by Bacon, three goals from Cottrell, and a 1-3-4 line from Veharanta, who also made a good screen of herself on Yung’s game-winner.<br /><br />“That’s why we put them together,” Deraney said. “They have all worked extremely hard. They all had skill, there’s no doubt about that, but the questions is how hard did they work in the offseason to become the players that they’re capable of becoming? And I think you’re just seeing them being rewarded for their hard work.”<br /><br />“Ultimately,” he added, “they have a long way to go. They haven’t even come close to reaching their full potential and that’s the really exciting part that their having success now.”<br /><br />If the 2010-11 season is to really unfold according to plan for the Friars, then Bacon currently stands as their ideal personification. After a decent 8-4-12, 111 SOG performance as a frosh, a few injuries early last year dulled her progression as she settled for 28 sophomore games with a 4-6-10 transcript and 54 registered shots.<br /><br />If her chemistry with Cottrell –her former teammate with the U.S. U18 team- and Veharanta maintains its fizz, there is no reason to think she cannot hit double digits in both the goal and assist column. Likewise, as they reemerge one year riper with 13 juniors and seniors, there is no reason why the Friars shouldn’t at least come within tickling distance of a 20-win season, a prospect that has tantalized and eluded them since Bacon and her classmates first enrolled.<br /><br />When asked for a 1-to-10 scale on his team’s preparation for their run, Deraney offered, “I think we’re about a five or a six, and I think that’s where you should be. You hope that you’re very best hockey is still far in the distance and that’s the way I see it. We have a lot to work on, a lot of great things to build upon.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-788834790730897731?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-25375267008936987492010-09-25T00:00:00.000-04:002010-09-24T23:38:38.467-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Their breakout passes<br />PC Women get dirty, rewarded in first exhibition</span><br /><br />The other skate never dropped on the Friars this time. The visiting McGill University team could not rerun its tornadic comeback from last year’s preseason encounter, when the Martlets deleted a 3-0 PC edge and bagged six third period goals en route to a 7-4 victory.<br /><br />Instead, an identical 3-0 lead just negligibly dropped to a 3-1 Providence triumph at Schneider Arena last night. This even after the Friars might have depleted their tanks following a 26-4 shooting edge (and 2-0 scoring edge) in the second period. Even with unripe senior goaltender Christina England taking the very first start-to-finish shift of her college career. And even when, with the 3-1 differential in place, a pair of penalties to Abby Gauthier and Jen Friedman with 8:19 remaining instantly broke PC’s disciplinary record out in hives and led to a 72-second 5-on-3 penalty killing segment.<br /><br />In breaking out their game night attire for the 2010-11 season, the Friars simply masked the blemishes and held up a petit platter of promise in a few key areas. The most prominent, all-encompassing of those areas would be the ability to defend a lead against a potent and adamant adversary.<br /><br />“Every season is a new season,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “That’s exactly what you expect as a coach. You expect you got better from a year ago.<br /><br />“I have to tell you, we didn’t talk anything about what happened (last year). It was just us trying to be better, and I think tonight proved that our kids worked extremely hard in the offseason.”<br /><br />No two individuals made a more glistening first impression last night than England and Laura Veharanta. England, 52 weeks removed from letting the Martlets score four goals on eight shots in a mere 9:27 of crease time, stood in for the away-on-business Genevieve Lacasse and repelled 16 of 17 bids throughout the night. In a major credit to her praetorian guards, her sweatiest period was an eight-shot, eight-save opening frame and she rarely faced much of a sustained swarm.<br /><br />Accordingly, England’s test was resisting frostbite and not letting the lead shatter with her psyche once McGill got on board via Logan Murray at 5:48 of the third. She seemed to meet that wager.<br /><br />“I think we played really good defense. I think Christina had to make some saves and she made some saves when we needed them,” said Deraney. “We are a team and we should be able to play anybody on the ice at any given time and that’s what tonight displayed.”<br /><br />Meanwhile, Veharanta opened the scoring at 13:11 of the middle frame by polishing off a three-zone, two-on-one tear with Kate Bacon and notched an assist just 2:14 later. She thereby submitted her first multi-point game since penning a 2-1-3 transcript in last year’s McGill exhibition.<br /><br />On the surface, that two-and-two equation may not make for the most favorable omen. But whereas last season Veharanta was on a regal ride of lofty expectations, she enters this autumn with unadulterated determination after her 13-goal, 19-point sophomore downturn.<br /><br />“There were a lot of people I was really happy for, Laura being one, Kate Bacon being another, Christina England being another,” said Deraney. “You can see they worked extremely hard this summer to prove something and I’m glad they had a chance in the first game to show that their hard worked paid off.”<br /><br />Veharanta’s classmates and linemates, Bacon and Ashley Cottrell, joined her in the night’s two-point club, Cottrell nailing PC’s other two goals on four shots.<br /><br />As for the other 14 skating Friars, well, there was comfort to be taken in the reminder that this was merely a vaudeville act with one more of its kind to come this afternoon.<br /><br />Starting senior winger Jean O’Neill led all PC puckslingers by contributing eight of the team’s 39 SOG. Her pivot Alyse Ruff, who set up Cottrell’s second strike from the far circle-top, took six stabs at Martlets’ goalie Taylor Salisbury. Bacon recorded seven, a tantalizing suggestion that she has rekindled her heavy shooting habits.<br /><br />But even with their overloads of ammo, none of those three tuned the mesh last night, and beneath the top six, no Friar forward was credited with more than one shot. Amber Yung was the lone blueliner with multiple shots.<br /><br />Then again, there’s time for refinement. That time is between 4:00 and 6:00 this evening.<br /><br />“Our skill level isn’t where it needs to be,” Deraney granted. “But at this time of year, it’s your character that gets you through, and I think we displayed a tremendous amount of character tonight.”<br /><br />Indeed, it carried them through a full 60-minute tussle with the Canadian answer to any one of the three WCHA bigwigs.<br /><br />So then, what’s the next test?<br /><br />“I expect tomorrow will be just as tough and that’s why we scheduled (McGill) back-to-back,” Deraney said. “We need to learn how to play 48 hours, 120 minutes. Tomorrow’s going to be a better test for our conditioning, their conditioning, and we’re going to be in a better place, there’s no doubt in my mind, afterward.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2537526700893698749?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-32929343244040802912010-09-24T00:00:00.001-04:002010-09-24T00:02:25.915-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Double drilling makes for progressive step <br />Extra preseason bout should hone Friars a little better</span><br /><br />Ladies and gentlemen, your PC women’s hockey schedule tweak of the year.<br /><br />Two years ago, it finally occurred to head coach Bob Deraney that handing his pupils their game time attire for one Sunday in September, then putting it back in storage for another two weeks of strictly internal tune-up did nothing to achieve an early winning flow. The solution: get the PWHL scrimmage over with, and then keep up the rhythm by starting intercollegiate competition within the next week.<br /><br />Last season, it came time to sack the underage Canadian visitors, for they were anything but an accurate simulation of a fellow college program. Enter in their place CIS powerhouse McGill University for one night, after which Maine was atop the Friars’ agenda.<br /><br />But in the ice-chipped wake of yet another costly losing October, Deraney has enacted another slight preseason reformation for the 2010-11 campaign. The same Martlets who last September deleted a 3-0 deficit en route to a 7-4 exhibition triumph are here for both tonight and tomorrow night.<br /><br />The chief rationale: while engaging a Canadian college heavyweight for one night fittingly replicates a single NCAA game, holding two bouts with the same team makes for a better simulation of a typical weekend of college hockey action.<br /><br />“If you look at our schedule, we’re playing back-to-back (every weekend) the whole month of October,” said Deraney. “With that being said, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to have a team like McGill, one of the best teams in Canada, come down and play two games that really don’t hurt our record one way or the other, but allow us to get used to playing back-to-back against a quality opponent.”<br /><br />Technically, much the same way today’s airlines will nibble some $25-50 off your credit card for checking an additional bag, adding a second preseason game comes with a slight fee. For the first time since Deraney’s rookie year in 1998-99, the Friars will play one regular season game less than the maximum allotment of 34.<br /><br />And inevitably, the said sacrifice will have to be a nonconference game. This, from at least one angle, means slightly less of an opportunity to make an all-important interleague impression on the national pollsters.<br /><br />On the other hand, Deraney was apt to note that many of the programs his team emulates –i.e. the ones who are usually all but placing their stamp on an at-large Elite Eight bid when they are also stamping their Christmas cards- have always done more with less on the nonconference table.<br /><br />“There’s a lot of teams that play less games,” he said. “Teams like (Minnesota-Duluth) and Harvard and UNH, they consistently play not a full schedule, so I don’t think one less NCAA game is going to affect us one way or the other. And that went into our factoring when we decided to play two exhibition games.”<br /><br />Ultimately, if the Friars are to buck the tiresome trend of stalling early in the year and then paying the price when they whiff on the Hockey East pennant, they just have to be skillfully, mentally, and psychologically sharp when the time comes to play those crucial nonconference games. (By the way, the first eight of their regular season games are all against CHA and ECAC foes.)<br /><br />What better way to acquire that fiery baptism than to twice tangle with a team that had just won 86 straight CIS games before losing their national title to Alberta last spring?<br /><br />And what better time than now for Providence to ditch its comfort zone to the furthest possible extent? After all, reigning team MVP Genevieve Lacasse is in Calgary for the weekend amongst the other 63 of Canada’s best active female pucksters. And Deraney indicated yesterday that the Scarborough Save-ior will also miss three games in early January while her Canadian U22 team pursues the MLP Cup.<br /><br />This means Christina England will have to add a less negligible sum of minutes to her resume, which currently contains but 4:48 worth of NCAA crease time. Likewise, rookie Nina Riley will have to break in her pads without delay.<br /><br />“It’s extremely critical for everybody’s development,” said Deraney of this weekend’s scrimmage series. “We can’t rely on Genevieve to win us games. If we’re relying on our goalie to win us games night in and night out, then we’re not the good team that I think we’re capable of becoming.<br /><br />“This is a wonderful opportunity for the goalies to show what they can do and I think it’s also an opportunity to show what we can do without Genevieve. Obviously, Genevieve is very valuable to this success of this program, but we have to make sure we’re not relying (solely) on her. It’s a great opportunity for us to learn how to play without her, because that’s going to happen.”<br /><br />“That’s what happens when you recruit great players. You have to expect them to leave, but at the same time, it gives an opportunity for other people to step up. <br /><br />“And this is an opportunity early on, and not to pay a heavy cost.”<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3292934324404080291?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-44530679967284861872010-09-18T00:00:00.000-04:002010-09-18T00:00:05.497-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Future much more now or never<br />Scrutiny should only rise for PC women’s 2012 class</span><br /><br />As soon as PC women’s hockey head coach Bob Deraney summons his pupils to take a knee before the Plexiglas whiteboard at today’s opening practice, there will be more formal Friartown moments behind than ahead for Genevieve Lacasse, Ashley Cottrell, Jen Friedmen, and their five class of 2012 sisters.<br /><br />In mid-December of 2007, when he was still half-finished confirming his next collection of newbies, Deraney memorably likened the incoming posse to that of 2005. You know, the class that set the still-unsurpassed standard of the Deraney era by sweeping through four conference pennants and culminating in the Friars’ first passport to the NCAA tournament.<br /><br />As of their midterm, things have not gone quite in accord with the syllabus for this qualitative and (to a certain extent) quantitative group. Although in each of its first two seasons the now-junior class has produced the Friars’ leading scorer, their starting goalie, and a towering defensive stalwart, it has not helped to cultivate another crown or Elite Eight bid.<br /><br />A perfectly explicable year of “growing pains” in 2008-09 left little improvement from the recent databases, but still enough of an impression that everyone would soon bolster a genuine resurgence as soon as they ripened. Lacasse was now the consensus crease keeper, Laura Veharanta had an acetylene stick, Cottrell was a promising playmaker, and Friedman was a first-unit defender.<br /><br />Last year, many of the said elements escalated, a few others receded. But still nothing amounted to lasting glamour. The Friars pulled off quite the District-Five-to-Ducks turnaround in the regular season, but then left things off on a letdown when a rabid Connecticut team stormed into Schneider and Heimliched their home ice advantage, 3-2, in the Hockey East semifinal.<br /><br />To be fair, when they were scrupulously scrapping to sculpt their legacy, the likes of Rush Zimmerman, Danielle Bourgette, and Amy Thomas never had to deal with any sort of Boston University or Vermont team (both rivals landed under the Hockey East heading within months of the 2005 class’ graduation). Nor were Boston College and Northeastern anything quite like the threat they pose in the present day.<br /><br />But try telling that to a Divine Campus devotee like Lacasse, who went so far early in her freshman campaign as to cast aside her patriotic Team Canada mask in favor of a lid depicting the Rhode Island State House flanked by caricatures of her netminding ancestors Sara Decosta and Jana Bugden.<br /><br />For the players, a ring is a ring, two rings are two rings, and an utter lack thereof is an utter lack thereof.<br /><br />So for the anointed revivalist class, the first of two years on the upper half of the maturity echelon is the time to put their collective picture in focus. Some members, particularly the exponentially prolific Cottrell and unflagging Lacasse, are advised to look forward and not think too much. Others, most visibly Veharanta, will want to grip the opposing fists of one more (16-15-31 totals) and less (3-9-12) memorable season and hoist the former as representing her true self.<br /><br />And beneath those who have made for stronger media magnets, there are four other juniors vying to stabilize their game and cement their indispensable roles. Lauren Covell went from an arid freshman forward to an effective sophomore blueliner (nine assists). Stay-at-home defender Christie Jensen recompensed an abysmal minus-10 rating circa last Thanksgiving and formulated a sound tandem with rising senior Amber Yung. More of the same will be in order from those two.<br /><br />Up front, a once-bouncy puckslinger (111 shots on goal as a frosh) in Kate Bacon lost some of her touch last year to off-and-on injuries that cost her seven games and couldn’t offer an indication of improved accuracy. And everyone is still waiting for Abby Gauthier, the former volcano at St. Mary’s of Lynn, to crack her college chrysalis after seeing her roll up gentle 3-7-10 and 4-5-9 scoring logs.<br /><br />Every one of them has a customized level to step up to, but as a group the 2012ers should be expected to flaunt their overwhelming seasoning this year. Strictly among skaters, the 2010-11 Friars will return the most NCAA experience of any Hockey East team with an aggregate 975 games played between 15 individuals. The junior class alone accounts for 485 –or 49.7 percent, a fingernail less than half- of those games. And they account for 66 (41.7 percent) of the team’s 158 returning goals.<br /><br />Behind all of that, the keystone Lacasse is fresh off a summer of international progression, which ultimately led to her invitation to next week’s Team Canada national evaluation camp, as was announced yesterday. When she is not otherwise preoccupied with future Eh Team odysseys, she will be here building on her arguably easy trek to revise the Friars’ goaltending record book. She is already more than halfway en route to surpassing Bugden’s career minutes (6631:57), appearances (115), and saves (2,555).<br /><br />Delivering PC’s next Hockey East playoff title and/or impaling their flag securely on the national leaderboard to woo the selection committee is a whole other matter than asking these eight players to at least fuse and consistently prove their mellowness in 2010-11. But given their jutting presence on the roster and the stats sheet on both sides of the puck, a shortcoming in step-upmanship would only stick their team in neutral.<br /><br />If the 2012ers were not the Friars topmost key to restoring regality before, they are now.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4453067996728486187?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-43338482147520463832010-09-12T00:00:00.002-04:002010-09-12T00:00:02.549-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Nicole Anderson, F</span>- One can expect the most physically imposing Friar to take what she did as a rookie in November 2010 (eight games, six goals, seven points, three power play strikes) and see if the hot hand can sustain its sizzle a little longer this time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Kate Bacon, F</span>- The former Minnesota high school star and U.S. U18er has so far seen her supposed college breakthrough fenced in by inexperience as a freshman and by injury as a sophomore. Is this the year she breaks double digits in the goal column? The year she flirts with a point count in the 20 range?<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Corinne Buie, F</span>- The rookie Buie should start young on the lower half of the depth chart but will be expected to take regular shifts and collect fast seasoning as the Friars will have but 12 forwards at their service this season.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jess Cohen, F</span>- Cohen’s college career started not unlike her four-year stay at the powerhouse Shattuck-St. Mary’s. For a rookie, she was gratifyingly productive (6-13-19), albeit with a heavy imbalance favoring assists. With a few more firsthand strikes this season, Cohen will be on the right track to one day fill the roomy skates occupied by the classes of 2011 and 2012.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Ashley Cottrell, F</span>- The team’s most consistent producer all last season as a sophomore, Cottrell’s topmost pledge in 2010-11 should be to continue to spike her scoring rate. If by season’s end she has averaged a little more than one point per game –preferably teetering on the brink of 40 total- she will have played her part.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Lauren Covell, D</span>- Although likely to remain on the third defensive unit by default owing to the seniority of a few colleagues, Covell can still expect to dress every night and lend valuable experience to a blue line brigade consisting of two seniors and three juniors.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stephanie DeMars, F</span>- DeMars’ college prep background from the National Sports Academy closely resembles what Cohen brought to the Divine Campus last autumn. Accordingly, she is a can’t-miss contender to crash the top six level of Bob Deraney’s depth chart. And even if that doesn’t happen, but she nonetheless acclimates quickly, she will still lend a few more inches of valuable depth.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Christina England, G</span>- Depending on how the outlook of the 2010-11 schedule takes shape and how incumbent starter Genevieve Lacasse persists, England might get a little more of a chance to break in her pads. Regardless, she will be there in the event of an emergency, in which case one will only hope the trough of pure practice hours pays off.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jen Friedman, D</span>- Now that she is stripped of the training blades that came with working with Colleen Martin, Friedman’s greatest challenge will be partnering with someone new, possibly even switching from mentee to mentor and working with one or both of PC’s two freshmen blueliners.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Abby Gauthier, F</span>- For Gauthier, who will almost certainly find herself on the third or fourth line to begin her junior campaign, the key to an increased productivity level is sniffing out and seizing more opportunities. She nailed four goals over a rather slim 28 shots on goal in 35 games. As a frosh, it was three strikes on just 20 registered stabs.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Emily Groth, F</span>- The Friars will barely have a quorum to fill out all 12 offensive spots on game night this year, so Groth should be ready to suit up regularly after slurping only nine games’ worth of action as a frosh.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Christie Jensen, D</span>- Assuming their chemistry has a shelf life longer than a seven-month offseason and assuming Deraney doesn’t detect any better arrangements, Jensen and senior Amber Yung could once again be a pair on the blue line. And with Colleen Martin’s graduation, they will likely constitute the starting unit.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Genevieve Lacasse, G</span>- No more surprises from and no more elevated expectations for the Scarborough Save-ior as she enters her junior season. She might not start all 33 games as she did in 2009-10, especially now that she has an additional crease colleague in Nina Riley. But depending on how rigid the competition gets, don’t rule out another all-out minute-munching year.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rebecca Morse, D</span>- A point-based puckslinger at the U19 level, Morse may or may not be immediately ready to lend the Friars a reliable rearguard on the power play. But outside of that, she along with fellow freshman Maggie Pendleton should at least push Deraney to a healthy habit of splitting their shifts as the sixth defender to dress on game night.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Jean O’Neill, F</span>- Odds are O’Neill will see the “A” over her heart morph into a “C” this autumn. If that happens, she can take that as a symbol of the call for an encore after her stirring 14-16-30 junior year. All but sure to once again partner with old friend Alyse Ruff and a third player to be named on the top line, the best way for O’Neill to lead the Friars would be assertively crashing into a point range not reached since Kristin Gigliotti and Sonny Watrous graduated.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Maggie Pendleton, D</span>- What the aforementioned Morse brings in the form of a two-way game, Pendleton offers in the form of size, rivaling upperclassmen Jen Friedman and Amber Yung with her 5-foot-10 posture. She will at the very least garner substantial action to break into the college ranks.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Leigh Riley, D</span>- Returning with the best rating (plus-7) among all PC defenders, Riley could simply continue to work with the likes of Covell, as she did for the better part of her junior year. Or –especially depending on what becomes of the freshmen- she could be rewarded with a promotion to the first or second unit.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Nina Riley, G</span>- Ditto England. Logic says the rookie Riley is the future of the Friars’ crease, so when possible, a few introductory shifts would be in order for the 2010-11 season.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Alyse Ruff, F</span>- Consistently noticeable, but never quite jutting in her first three years, all of which she has finished in or near the 20-point range, Ruff will be leaned on to do just a little more as the Friars’ incumbent starting center. Her freshman bushel of 14 goals still remains a career high and she still tends to saturate the stats sheet with periodic multi-point games rather than ongoing hot streaks. But senior seasons are all but meant to perfect one’s game, anyway.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Laura Veharanta, F</span>- Trying to erase the remnants of a dreaded sophomore slide, Veharanta can stand to revive her acetylene twig as well as cut down on her penalty time. Last season, she upped her PIM total to 36 (50 percent more than her freshman count) and trailed only Ruff for the team lead in that category. Whether the restoration comes from more time on the ice and less in the bin, or if more productivity amounts to less frustration and thus fewer infractions, Friartownies just hope it comes.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Jessie Vella, F</span>- Though confined to a mere 21 games played due to injury last year, Vella made an impression by only once going more than two consecutive appearances without a point. Assuming she stays healthy, only more can be expected of her as a sophomore, even if there is temporary gridlock keeping her out of the top six.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Amber Yung, D</span>- Now that she is the elder stateswoman of the defensive corps, Yung’s chief concern will naturally be shoring up the home front. Nonetheless, she should also be expected to step in and pitch in during onslaughts at the other end, even if some of that goes down as a secondary or even uncredited contribution.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4333848214752046383?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-76850419923467965642010-08-15T00:00:00.000-04:002010-08-14T14:07:38.768-04:00<strong>How to fan the flames of fandom</strong><br /><br />There is no way to hide it. The experience of attending a women’s college hockey game is usually lacking in a quality atmosphere. On a constant basis, attendance and outspoken interest in PC’s team, among countless others, is much too shallow to do any justice to the main attraction down at ice level.<br /><br />Too often, it appears as if the ticket holders are casually socializing and passing through the concourse and the Friends of Friar Room, oblivious to the rink in the middle as if it were the ceiling cavity on the third floor of Providence Place Mall.<br /><br />What can be done to improve this? Well, where do you want to start? There are several relatively easy methods of enhancing the vigor in the arena on game night and promotional ideas to maintain attention.<br /><br />I’m not naïve by any means. I understand that Schneider Arena does not have all of the resources to replicate the atmosphere of the TD Garden or even the Dunkin Donuts Center. But just the same, even with what it does have to give, the pleasure of attending a Friars game has yet to play to its full potential. More energy and more professionalism are needed behind the scenes.<br /><br />This author may not have much experience working a sideshow or running a public relations office, but he does have enough experience with, well, experiences (both good and subpar) at sporting events to confidently suggest the following five steps to reeling in more fanfare at PC women’s games:<br /><br /><strong>Shoot out the lights</strong>- There’s something about darkening the building and enlisting a couple of spotlights that draws more attention to the ice and instills extra adrenaline leading up to game time. The PC men’s team has already been doing this for two years running, so why not the women’s?<br /><br /><strong>Power up the playlist</strong>- To build on that last point, more needs to be done to corral the attention of the fans early, get them to anticipate the game more keenly, and keep them engaged when they have fixated their eyes on the ice. It all starts by playing more heart-pumping, sweat-flowing music. (Urgent note to the DJ: Sugar Ray never hit a real sports fanatic’s sweet spot and it never will.)<br /><br />Again, compare/contrast the vibe in Schneider Arena for a men’s game versus a women’s contest. The men’s team typically storms out to the likes of “Enter Sandman” or “Always Hardcore.” The Skating Sorority gets stuck with a canned, dead beat version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Even worse, that darned clunker of a fight song is recycled for every goal and the start and conclusion of every period.<br /><br />That’s not to say this is the sole reason why attendance at women’s games is so sparse and why it’s so easy for the visiting masses to have their voices heard and usurp home ice advantage. But it is definitely an accomplice at best. In fact, so far as this author can tell, this particular area needs to be addressed more than any other if teams like the PC women are going to pile up on public relations.<br /><br />The solution: first, the quick fix for goals. Ever heard of Rock and Roll Part II? If not, then look up “Providence Bruins goal horn” on YouTube. Or how about Kernkraft 400? For that, simply query “Boston Bruins goal horn” and it’ll cut you to the chase.<br /><br />As for the pregame buildup, the list of options is vaster and deeper than Team Canada’s Olympic tryout roster.<br /><br />You could try any one of these (remember, lights off) for the last 3-4 minutes before the players emerge for the first period: “New Divide” by Linkin Park; “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence; “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” by AC/DC; “The Pretender” by Foo Fighters; “Boom” by P.O.D.; “Burn It To The Ground (radio edit)” by Nickelback”; “State of Massachusetts” by the Dropkick Murphys; or even “Time to Go” by the Dropkick Murphys.<br /><br />And then, once the starting goaltender sets her first blade on the pond, try the opening portion of one of these: “Crazy Train” by Ozzie Osbourne; “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC; “Animals” by Nickelback; “Right Now” by Van Halen; or “Kickstart My Heart” by Motley Crue (as the P-Bruins have proven, once that song reaches “Kickstart my heart, hope it never stops,” you can sense that everyone is ready to go).<br /><br /><strong>Book some good guests</strong>- Nothing like two local sports teams crossing their personnel over to show that they are in it together catering to the same fan base. The PC women can easily benefit by –at least on occasion- bringing in other Rhode Island sports figures to drop a ceremonial first puck and/or sign autographs in the lobby at intermission.<br /><br />Whether it’s a hype-magnet of a new PC men’s basketball recruit, a locally bred PawSox player within tasting distance of the major leagues, or an-ex PC icer now with the P-Bruins (by now you’ve heard Nolan Schaefer is coming back to the Divine City), the possibilities abound. They should be utilized.<br /><br /><strong>Host a team Superskills competition</strong>- It doesn’t get a whole lot of publicity at the pro level, and it’s not even clear if any teams still do it. But in the past, NHL teams have been known to assemble a crowd at their home arena, split their team into two squads, and let them flaunt their flair with proceeds going to charity. When the Bruins did this, such events included hardest shot, fastest skater, puck control relay, shooting accuracy, and breakaway relay.<br /><br />It couldn’t hurt a publicity-starved team to try such an exhibition. The best time for the Friars to do this would probably be a Friday evening when the PC men are slated to play a game at 7:00 while the women are tuning up for a Saturday/Sunday weekend slate. Perhaps, in lieu of the usual 4-6 practice window, Bob Deraney’s pupils could test and flaunt their skills for those waiting to watch the Tim Army Corps. Fans could be let into the building an hour earlier than the usual 6:00 doorbust and be enlightened to the sport’s diversity.<br /><br /><strong>Start a YouTube channel</strong>- It came to this author’s attention earlier this past season that the Friars already have a Facebook and Twitter page, so why stop there? Within the WHEA alone, four programs –Boston University, New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Vermont- regularly post game highlights and quick features on YouTube. And once you’re there, you literally have a planet’s worth of prospective viewers.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-7685041992346796564?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-64746614197713116322010-07-25T00:00:00.001-04:002010-07-25T00:00:00.176-04:00Let’s see: two Minnesotans, two Mountaineers, and a Minutewoman. <br /><br />This year’s freshman class won’t exactly be the most geographically diverse the Friars have sported in recent years. In fact, this reads more like the product of a vintage college hockey recruiting spree, having touched on and extracted talent exclusively from the State of Hockey, Assabet Valley, and an upstart prep program perched in Lake Placid, N.Y.<br /><br />How much, though, can this quintet of rookies do to help revert Bob Deraney’s program back to its own “vintage” persona? You know, the way it was when YouTube, iPhones, and <span style="font-style:italic;">America’s Got Talent</span> were still cultural afterthoughts?<br /><br />It is a safe bet, at the least, to assume each member will be integrated into the band early enough. Barring any further roster shifts (always be mindful of invariable summer transfer winds) in the next eight weeks, the Friars figure to converge 22 players at training camp with but one surplus skater and one more goalie than the maximum game night roster limit.<br /><br />As best as one analyst can read and interpret potential, here is the lowdown on each incoming Friar in alphabetical order:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Corrine Buie, forward</span>: A Top Five finalist for Minnesota’s coveted Miss Hockey laurel, Buie was the consensus catalyst on Edina High School’s run to a berth in the Class AA state title game, scoring 36 goals and 55 points along the way. If there are any lingering questions for her to address, it will be whether she can handle a slightly lengthier, more intensive college campaign right away. As rising junior Kate Bacon and sophomore Nicole Anderson –themselves Minnesota high school alums- have variously proven in the last two years, that’s always hit-or-miss or something in between.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stephanie Demars, forward</span>: In April, Demars boldly confessed to the <span style="font-style:italic;">Lake Placid News</span> that she “cried for half an hour” when her National Sports Academy team was eliminated from the USA Hockey tournament quarterfinals. That was not before she established herself as a two-way connoisseur and charged up a 24-45-69 scoring log in her senior campaign, including four points in as many Nationals games. Translation: she has shown she cares about results and can do her part to scrape out those results. If she can transfer that same productive passion to the college level, she may be PC’s most valuable rookie this season.<br /><br />Although Demars does have some experience patrolling the points, the Friars will already have seven full-time blueliners and barely a quorum of forwards when she enrolls, meaning she will likely be a pure attacker on Deraney’s strike force. There’s nothing wrong with that, though, based on her credentials. She might even challenge for a spot on the starting line before her first season is up. But none of that should rule out the temptation to let her quarterback a power play unit.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rebecca Morse, defense</span>: A longtime teammate of Demars at the NSA, Morse was also a prolific point patroller at the U19 level, amassing 61 assists and 89 points in 71 games and leading the team with an otherworldly plus-92 rating. Her 28 goals on 280 registered shots made for an even 10 percent accuracy rate. She was also the potent Mountaineers’ top playmaker, contributing 12.2 percent of the team’s total assists.<br /><br />Recall, in the wee stages of the Friars’ hot-cold-hot 2009-10 campaign, that a handful of designated defenders made a daring habit of straying into the depths of the attacking zone. That trend ultimately receded and from mid-November onward, Amber Yung was the lone blueline brigade member to regularly pen her name to the scoresheet. Morse has the potential to offer welcome reinforcement –not to mention, the ability to mail in more homeward bound pucks from the office.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Maggie Pendleton, defense</span>: Coming from the same state and the same level as Buie, Pendleton inevitably has the same question marks as to how much she can handle in her first college season. Look for her, at least initially, to split the shifts with one or more of her upperclassmen as the sixth active defender. <br /><br />In her class’ welcome statement last winter, Deraney lauded Pendleton as a top-notch “first-pass” breakout artist. And she does rival the likes of Yung and Jen Friedman with her 5-foot-10 posture. If she promptly and diligently uses that frame to her advantage and the team’s, she can cement her permanent spot on the game day roster sooner rather than later.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Nina Riley, goal</span>: With the ever-stiffening success of Genevieve Lacasse, it is hard to envision Riley emerging as PC’s answer to Tuukka Rask. But based on her resume –an embarrassment of shutouts with Lexington High School and two national titles at two different levels with Assabet Valley- Deraney may want to at least give her a few slurps of action this season. Lacasse is only half finished with her career, but sooner or later, Riley will have to get some consideration as the heir apparent. And it would be wise to make this a gradual torch-pass a la Jana Bugden to Danielle Ciarletta circa 2006-07.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-6474661419771311632?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-49202277009455643302010-06-20T00:00:00.002-04:002010-06-20T00:00:01.472-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Some rules aren’t meant to be changed</span><br /><br />Late this past week, the authoritative U.S. College Hockey Online ran a detailed lowdown on an astoundingly long list of proposed rule changes that appear primed to go into effect for all NCAA men’s and women’s leagues in 2010-11. And perhaps the only aspect tougher to digest than the quantity of amendments (25 in all, 24 applying to both genders) is the number of repulsive recommendations.<br /><br />Granted, there are a few instances where the NCAA Rules Committee did not hesitate to shoot for an easy empty-netter. One would like to think that all are in favor of new contact-to-the-head restrictions. Any type of head contact with discernable recklessness or malice aforethought should be punishable by a major penalty and/or expulsion from the game. (Now let’s hope the NHL starts to pick up on this.)<br /><br />That aside, USCHO visitors who scanned the collection must have reached a point where they feared they would eventually see the words “trapezoid” and “touch icing.” Luckily, that didn’t happen, but the damage akin to the Hawks’ casual dismantling of District Five was already plain.<br /><br />Here are merely two fistfuls of the all but forthcoming new rules -all of which are unfavorable- and this author’s own detailed reaction.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Shorthanded team not allowed to ice the puck.”</span> This one seems to have coaches peeved more than any other amendment, and with good reason.<br /><br />While one could make the argument that the status quo is hypocritically benefitting shorthanded teams, I argue that the proposed new rule would also take something away from the power play team. When the puck skitters behind your goal line and there is no icing, chances are your shorthanded opponent is not going to send one of its skaters after your retriever. Instead, they must brace themselves for a renewed end-to-end 5-on-4 rush. They have less time to prepare for an offensive like that than they would have for a face-off in their end. <br /><br />Under the current system, when play continues after what would otherwise be an icing stoppage, shorthanded teams are allotted no time to catch a little breath and next-to-no time for mental rehearsal. Instead, the attackers are coming right at them whether they are ready or not. And if they’re not, so much the better for your chances to score a savory power play goal.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Delayed penalty enforcement.”</span> I definitely have to say no to this one. Usually, when a team scores amidst an imminent power play, they do so with a no-risk six-pack attack. In other words, they are playing with one extra skater than the offending team and thus, for all intents and purposes, are already on the power play. Therefore, logically, if they score, they have already earned their power play goal. You could argue that the guilty individual should still have to serve his/her two-minute sentence for whatever he/she did, but the whole team has already paid its price. And this is the ultimate team sport, after all.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Faceoff location.”</span> This basically means holding a face-off in the attacking zone for any routine whistle that was blown in that zone, regardless of whose stick was last to touch the puck. If a shot goes off the net and out of play, then that means a member of the offensive team was the last living thing to touch it. And in any sport, whichever team is last to touch the ball or puck before it goes out of bounds should be at a disadvantage for that. In this case, that means pulling the faceoff back to neutral ice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Awarding goals.”</span> That is, awarding a goal to a puck-carrier who is about to deposit an empty-netter, but is fouled by a trailing defender before he/she can do so. But hey, for all you know, that puck-carrier might have still missed the net on a mortifyingly unfortunate twist. Just ask ex-Dallas Stars forward Patrik Stefan about the night (January 4, 2007) when he nearly nailed a dagger on the Edmonton Oilers –or just look it up on YouTube. Bottom line: every goal has to be earned by conclusively putting the biscuit in the basket.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />On so-called “Holding teams at the end of periods.”</span> This means slapping a team with a bench minor if that team’s locker room is located directly behind their bench and a player steps onto the pond after a period ends. Well, this is certainly impossible to enforce at Schneider Arena, where the PC women’s runway is situated directly behind their cage. Seeing as not all rinks are created equal, this rule is simply unfair to those programs whose teams have the potential to mistakenly break it. So please spare us.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Commercial logos.”</span> No thanks. As much as this author loves to devote his free time to P-Bruins games at the Dunkin Donuts Center, one thing I cannot cope with there is the mess the corporate bug has made on that ice. Four on-ice ads located neatly within the neutral zone are enough. We don’t need any behind the goal lines or within the defensive zones. (Some buildings, though, don’t even sell all of their dasherboard ad space, so perhaps we’ll get lucky and this will go unnoticed.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Use of timeout to change players.”</span> If a team utilizes its timeout after an icing, the sole purpose is to give its players –stranded on the ice by icing law- a unique chance to quickly recharge. Let’s keep it that way. Don’t let them put on fresh personnel, as this new rule would. Let them see if resting the players who iced the puck for 30 seconds works or backfires.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Hybrid icing.”</span> I’ve read the explanation and I still don’t quite get this one. Essentially, though, it means letting the linesman wash out an icing if a member of the offending team was closer to touching the puck before it crossed the goal line. Such an approach would do nothing but amount to a multitude of unsolvable arguments at every single game.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Hand passes legal in all zones.”</span> The players carry sticks for a reason. Make them use them. End of story.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On so-called “Delayed penalty situation.”</span> Oh, come on. You’re not seriously going to make the zebra wait to make his/her call until the guilty team gains possession outside of their own zone, are you? This would do nothing except kill more clock and create more numbness in the raised arms of refs. Don’t even think about experimenting with this policy.<br /><br />Despite what I or anybody else says, though, it looks like that’s just what the NCAA is going to do.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4920227700945564330?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-49659358320931437522010-06-03T00:00:00.000-04:002010-06-03T00:00:01.133-04:00<strong>A Whale of an opportunity</strong><br /><br />Unlike the debate over the merits of a Super Bowl in metropolitan New York –a full-scale quarrel with no ending in sight even with the event already set in place- no visible breath can be considered wasted when speaking in favor of the occasional outdoor hockey game.<br /><br />The Providence College women’s team, which based on longevity was probably the only Hockey East team left out of Frozen Fenway that could claim it was snubbed, got rapid reparation yesterday. The Friars will be reeled in to Rentschler Field in East Hartford next winter, when they shall tangle with rival Connecticut on February 13 as part of a 10-day celebration of hockey in The Nutmeg State.<br /><br />Yesterday, the people in charge of a new movement to revive the Hartford Whalers –an endeavor just as controversial as proposing a Snowglobe Super Bowl- proved they have this much going for them. The committee, led by seasoned NHL executive Harold Baldwin, will stage the so-termed “Whaler Hockey Fest” with, to the best of their ability, every available trimming to match the unique week everyone had in Boston last January. With further details still yet to be finalized, events will reportedly range from a Bruins-Whalers alumni clash, to an AHL Hartford Wolf Pack game, to innumerable youth hockey contests.<br /><br />Whatever this might ultimately do to bring The Show back to the area, the countless remoras coming over to Rentschler are sure to get the goods they desire. <br /><br />Of the event’s impact on his group, Friars’ head coach Bob Deraney said in a statement, “Not only does it showcase the sport of women’s ice hockey, but it also features two formidable Hockey East teams that have developed a fierce rivalry with one another.<br /><br />“Every team wants to play in an outdoor event like this and we are grateful to have this opportunity for our student-athletes, staff and fans.”<br /><br />For the Friars, who will be in their thirty-seventh year of operation, this is a chance to breathe the same kind of pond hockey air as what the 30-year-old Northeastern and 33-year-old New Hampshire programs soaked in at the Yawkey Yard. It is PC’s chance to reassert itself as being among the grassroots girls of Division I hockey.<br /><br />And in this particular sport, few methods of seizing attention are more highly recommended than pitting two institutions that are already prominent in the more privileged sports. So for both participating clubs, this will be an unprecedented opportunity to flaunt the flair of the PC-UConn rivalry and let more people know the animosity is hardly confined to basketball. Some novice spectators might even agree to take a history lesson and learn that, unlike in hoops, the two hockey teams have routinely met in the postseason, including each of the last three years.<br /><br />For the women’s hockey world in general, this will be a helpful follow-up on what was likely the most publicly progressive season in at least a decade. There will be no Olympics in 2010-11 (although plenty of world class players are coming to study and skate around these parts), but there is now another bonfire to be stoked.<br /><br />Barring any announcements elsewhere in the nation akin to that made yesterday in East Hartford, this will be only the third event of its kind in NCAA women’s history. The other two have happened within the last five months, those being the UNH-NU clash and Wisconsin’s home date with Bemidji State back on February 6.<br /><br />Predictions are precarious, and there isn’t a whole lot of history to help shape one’s speculation, but this game is sure to draw extra eyes. The Fenway women’s game, which was largely looked upon as an opening act to the BC-BU men’s battle, had a listed audience of 6,889 fans plus an indefinite number of regional TV viewers on NESN and national watchers on the NHL Network. The Badgers played in front of a reported 8,263 fans at Camp Randall Stadium before their male counterparts arrived on the scene along with a much heftier mass of 55,031 rooters.<br /><br />There is no certainty of live TV coverage for the Friar-Husky game. And unlike the previous doubleheaders, this one will not follow the classic “ladies-first” policy. Rather, it will be the UConn men’s game versus Sacred Heart preceding the Friars’ tangle with Heather Linstad’s pupils. <br /><br />The difference between seeing who shows up early and watching who sticks around as a courtesy to the female athletes should be interesting. The difference it makes in terms of attendance, if it does make any difference, will only be certain come game day.<br /><br />But it will be, at the very least, a small plus if the Huskies can play before a crowd bigger than what their full-time home, Freitas Ice Forum, can accommodate. That dinky barn, which in terms of size and atmosphere is far better suited for a Junior B program, seats a mere 2,000 fans. Once they shuffle things over the Rentschler, the maximum capacity will instantly swell up to around 40,000.<br /><br />Cue the cliché tempest. This means that the limits are astronomically high. And on the eve of the next Valentine’s Day, some new people might learn to love women’s puck.<br /><br /><em>Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4965935832093143752?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-8250007367319731172010-05-19T19:03:00.002-04:002010-06-10T16:07:33.011-04:00<strong>Ten key dates on the PC women’s 2010-11 schedule</strong><br /><br /><strong>Friday, September 25</strong>: Part I of a two-game exhibition series with McGill University at Schneider Arena. The Friars will tune up with the help of the Canadian Interuniversity powerhouse for the second straight season.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, October 1</strong>: The first of two regular season-opening visits to Robert Morris University.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, October 9</strong>: The Friars’ first regular season home game versus St. Lawrence.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, October 22</strong>: A visit from Rensselaer will mark the first women’s hockey bout between the Friars and Engineers, whose male counterparts once clashed for the NCAA championship a few generations ago in 1985.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, October 29</strong>: PC’s first 2010-11 Hockey East game and the lone visit of the season from the defending conference champion Boston University Terriers, who according to numerous sources have just signed Canadian Olympic hero Marie-Philip Poulin. Poulin, the youngest member of the Mighty Maple Leaf team, nailed both goals in her country’s 2-0 gold medal triumph over the United States in February and is occasionally labeled the Sidney Crosby of women’s hockey.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, November 27</strong>: The 16th annual Mayor’s Cup game across town at Brown University.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday, November 28</strong>: A visit from Union College will mark the Friars’ first-ever encounter with the Dutchwomen and conclude the interleague portion of the 2010-11 season.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, December 4</strong>: The first of three routine regular season meetings with time-honored rival New Hampshire, and the first of two PC-UNH bouts to be conducted on the Divine Campus this season.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday, December 5</strong>: The first face-off with Connecticut since the Huskies abolished the Friars from the WHEA semifinals in March. The rematch will be conducted on the same Schneider pond and almost precisely nine months to the day of the fateful playoff bout.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday, February 20</strong>: Senior Day versus Vermont.<br /><br />The full schedule, as it was tentatively released on Wednesday, can be viewed here via the team’s website:<br />http://www.friars.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/prov/sports/w-hockey/auto_pdf/2010-11WIHSchedule<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-825000736731973117?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-9815363504581586712010-05-16T00:00:00.001-04:002010-05-16T00:00:00.263-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Central focus on Anderson</span><br /><br />It seems that for every dozen inches she consumes upon standing, there is a radiant reason for the PC women’s hockey team to convert rising sophomore Nicole Anderson to a full-time center for the 2010-11 season.<br /><br />At an exact six-foot posture, Anderson is the most physically imposing forward to come and play for Bob Deraney in the coach’s decade-plus tenure. She out-towers even the tallest of active Providence defenders, namely the 5-foot-11 Jen Friedman. Combine that with her scoring touch, which should get better and more consistent as she gets older, and handing her a two-way job description is too sensible to avoid.<br /><br />Utilizing her peerless stature and wingspan, Anderson has already projected a penchant for imposing her will on the opponent’s doorstep, which amounted to six gritty power play goals last year. If she can grow to put herself in a similar position and repel opposing attacks on Genevieve Lacasse’s property during even strength action, she has a hefty slice of the job description covered.<br /><br />Plus, she has done a little of this before. Although, she might have been a victim of circumstances and assigned to the middle of the line before she was ready. In that sense, she was not as fortunate as rising senior Alyse Ruff, who waited on the wings for two years while she ripened her all-around game, or soon-to-be junior Kate Bacon, who was not a regular center until Thanksgiving weekend last year.<br /><br />But there will be no better time than the coming autumn for PC to phase in a new full-time pivot. Based on the line charts from their most recent ventures, the Friars figure to return three seasoned centerpieces in Ruff, Bacon and Ashley Cottrell, the last of whom landed a briefly prolific gig on a unit with Anderson and Laura Veharanta.<br /><br />As unwelcome as this revelation might be, however, the luster of that line faded like a rain-peppered satellite signal together with Veharanta’s dreaded sophomore funk. But that’s beside the point anyway. Whether or not we see something closer to the vintage Veharanta this autumn, it is better that Cottrell and Anderson part ways and spread their wealth a little more. Better that the two learn to start running their own breakout plays rather than one set them up for the other.<br /><br />On a similar note, in the waning weeks of the regular season, Anderson –who totaled 11 strikes for fourth on the team and third among Hockey East freshmen- splashed her own little scoring drought by depositing a couple of visually identical goals against Northeastern and Vermont. On both plays, she vacuumed a loose puck or a pass in the neutral zone and revved up some turbine blades en route to the cage, which she reached virtually unchallenged.<br /><br />A move like that projects the potential to pull off a few of those Normorean net-to-net journeys not unlike what we saw out of Cottrell on a regular basis this past year. While not required, it would be a can’t-hurt and can’t-miss addition to the Friars’ transitional flair if Anderson can indeed master that trick.<br /><br />More critically, she will have to prove herself capable of raking away at least half of her face-offs. For what it’s worth, while filling in on the dot amidst PC’s early season injury plague, she did go 33 for 70 over the first eight games of her young career. That equals a .471 success rate, one little notch above Bacon’s .470 winning percentage and not very shabby for an inexperienced interim center.<br /><br />Under ordinary circumstances, only those who were tried and true centerpieces in their pre-collegiate days are thrust into that position once they enroll. But the circumstances around the Friars last October were anything but ordinary, what with multiple injury-induced cavities appearing on their depth chart every night.<br /><br />All things considered, therefore, Anderson fared reasonably well when she anchored the third line, often with Bacon and Abby Gauthier on the wings. Although, it was best to lessen her load once it was possible, as evidenced by a second half attack of freshman frostbite that had her sprinkling on a mere two goals and one helper in the last 16 games.<br /><br />But she is hardly the first to fight through that breed of growing pain. Assuming she has felt the worst of it, the time may be coming for Anderson and Bacon to accept their lot on a nominal “bottom six” half of the strike force.<br /><br />If the Friars want to attain that elusive and elite distinction of “four rolling lines,” they can start by planting four certified, productive centers. With what they’ve got, they won’t need to bring one in to fill that void. With Anderson, they just need to finish making one.<br /><br />***<br />The Friars are reportedly pursuing a third jersey and want public opinion to help influence the design. Not that this author’s take should hold any sway, but it would be cool if they went with a scheme similar to those sweatshirts you can buy in the PC bookstore with a solid black body and the Providence shield logo on the chest.<br /><br />Also, the very topic of third jerseys, which at least nine times out of 10 are on the dark side, makes one wonder if college hockey might consider adopting the NHL’s unchanging policy of home teams donning their colored uniforms. That would take a little, or a lot of, adjustment for the eyes of every beholder, but it could be worse. Someone in charge could take a puck to the head and decide to institute the trapezoid.<br /><br />***<br />PC’s own Alyse Ruff and Jen Friedman, along with recently graduated Northeastern forward Lindsey Berman, constituted half of the Jewish Sports Review Women’s College Hockey All-America Team earlier this month.<br /><br />***<br />As of this write-up, only three Division I women’s hockey programs have disclosed their 2010-11 schedules and the rest have offered not one ice chip’s worth of a hint as to what will be on their itineraries. Accordingly, all Friartownies can know for certain right now is that their team is dropping in on the upstart Syracuse program on Friday, October 15 at the compact Tennity Ice Pavilion. Everything else –or at least the 12 remaining interleague slots- is up to sheer speculation until further notice.<br /><br />Here’s betting, though, that there will be no games lined up for Monday, October 25. Good sign for any fatalistic Friar Fanatics, whose team has endured three rancid defeats in as many years on that date (5-0 at Connecticut in 2007, 3-1 versus Boston College in 2008, and 5-1 versus Brown last year).<br /><br />***<br />To paraphrase PC men’s coach Tim Army, who is known for stressing that “Games in hand are only effective if you win them,” experienced scorers are only effective if they come back hungry for more.<br /><br />That being said, Bob Deraney will be the only WHEA coach returning all of his top five point-getters this fall. Although, Boston College and Boston University will not be far behind, each expecting to bring back Nos. 2-6 from their 2009-10 stat sheets. And the Commonwealth clubs will both be bringing in another certified sizzler in Olympic silver medalist Kelli Stack (BC) and New Hampshire transfer Jenn Wakefield (BU).<br /><br />Still, for all three of those teams, there is nothing like having a thick packet of proven returnees to offer a mental cushion at training camp. And they’re all going to need it, seeing as six Hockey East teams are all returning at least one reliable goalie.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-981536350458158671?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-31493102436370736102010-04-25T00:00:00.000-04:002010-04-25T00:00:00.238-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">Glance at past reflects promising future<br />As underclass MVP, Lacasse’s feat bodes well for PC women</span><br /><br />It comes as no real surprise that sophomore stopper Genevieve Lacasse left the Providence College women’s hockey awards banquet yesterday with an MVP trophy firmly in her clutch like an opponent’s futile slap shot. Some could even argue she was a year overdue for such recognition.<br /><br />And although this part wasn’t the case, no one should have been perplexed if Lacasse’s latest hunk of hardware came with the special inscription “Please don’t change a thing.”<br /><br />Lacasse is the Friars’ first non-senior to claim the team MVP prize since then-junior Karen Thatcher in 2005. She earned it by giving a perfectly passable follow-up on her freshman season that consisted of 29 games played, a Hockey East goaltending championship, and a league Rookie of the Year laurel. And she earned it by shrugging off a little added pressure that came with having one unripe backup in Christina England this year as opposed to the three elder colleagues with whom she shared the crease in 2008-09.<br /><br />On an individual base, there wasn’t a whole lot more for Lacasse to prove in her second season, but she did it. First, she had to prove herself resistant to the urban legend they call the sophomore slump. Granted, her goals-against average crept up from 1.94 to 2.14, her save percentage did dip a little from .933 to .920, and she posted three fewer shutouts. But none of that seemed to prod head coach Bob Deraney into giving her a night off.<br /><br />On the contrary, he put her in for every last game on the schedule, only forking her out for the occasional purpose of deploying a six-pack attack and for giving England one four-minute, 48-second shift of firefighting duty in a forgettable 5-1 loss to Brown University.<br /><br />Accordingly, Lacasse followed up on those 29 freshman appearances with 35 swirls, thus tying Amy Thomas of 2004-05 for the program’s single season record. She consumed 2128:41 minutes for exactly 99 percent of the team’s crease time and, with 3799:09 worth of ice time on her career, ascended to No. 3 behind the barely mortal likes of Sara Decosta and Jana Bugden.<br /><br />And those 878 shots she repelled over these last 35 games and 2128:41 minutes? That would be a new single-season record, surpassing the 794 saves Decosta made as a freshman in 1996-97. On the whole, her 1,634 career saves again rate her behind only her two bar-raising predecessors. Ditto those 64 career games, which is already more than half of the all-time leader Bugden’s 115.<br /><br />And unlike last spring, Lacasse is now eligible for listing on the Friars’ career GAA leaderboard. At 2.05, she currently rates higher in that category than Decosta and Bugden.<br /><br />That’s all compelling data, which makes a gourmet feast for the talkers and typists who love those feel-good record stories. But what has this amounted to for PC on the ice?<br /><br />Try the fact that, with the Scarborough Save-ior on duty, the 2009-10 Friars surrendered a two-goal differential on only six occasions and went through a full seven-game winning streak in January without trailing for a nanosecond. Discounting empty netters, they confined the opposition to two goals or fewer in 23 out of 35 games.<br /><br />All of that is reasonably reminiscent of Lacasse’s rookie year, when she only authorized seven multi-goal deficits in 29 appearances and finished what she started 26 out of 28 times.<br /><br />Furthermore, one of the reasons she has rapidly piled on the minutes is because 11 of the Friars’ 35 games went to overtime last season. And she often played an unquestionable part in pressing those games on to a shootout. <br /><br />She ultimately went 1-1-9 in the fourth period, stopping a cumulative 25 of 26 opposing shots in an aggregate 50 minutes and 55 seconds. Add that to the four OT games she worked as a frosh, when she stopped five of seven shots face and charged up 13:34 of bonus action.<br /><br />Kind of makes one tempted to change that 64 to 65 career games, does it not?<br /><br />Only at the halfway mark of her stay in Friartown, Lacasse shall enter next season much like she did the last one. Not an overwhelming quantity of questions, but a few biggies at that.<br /><br />For the addicted cynics, can she fend off the “junior jinx” (if one is to believe in such a thing)?<br /><br />More notably, she vacuumed 15 victories in her first year, then gulped down exactly 15 more Ws last season. Can she, together with the teammates she so often pampers, get her up to at least 16 or 17?<br /><br />Then, of course, for all the accolades she has to herself, Lacasse has not so much as stretched her season beyond the Hockey East semifinals. Guess that kind of speaks for itself.<br /><br />But whenever a team has its formally pronounced MVP returning to defend her title, as the Friars now will come September, that’s a decent starting point for a viable postseason run.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-3149310243637073610?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-47911638469366425652010-04-18T00:00:00.001-04:002010-04-18T00:00:01.342-04:00<span style="font-weight:bold;">MVP, Jean O’Neill</span>: Together with the team, O’Neill’s stats surged in the second half of the season and she ultimately tied Ashley Cottrell for the club lead with 14 goals. Save for one three-game funk, she appeared on the right side of the scoresheet in all of the latter 15 games. In that span, she charged up 11 goals and nine helpers and had a credited hand in six game-winning plays.<br /><br />Even on nights when the team in general was out of commission, out of synch, or out of sorts, O’Neill still had what it took to smuggle the puck into the net. Two particular examples: she had the lone goal in an otherwise vinegary effort against Vermont on January 29 and she briefly stimulated the Schneider masses when she cut Connecticut’s lead to 3-2 late in the season-ending conference semifinal loss.<br /><br />And amongst all of the regulars in the PC lineup, O’Neill saw nearly the least of the penalty box time, committing only six minor infractions all year.<br /><br />Runners-up: It’s tough to overlook O’Neill’s classmate, old U19 friend, and off-and-on linemate, Alyse Ruff, who likewise had a solid finish en route to a career year. And Cottrell did top the team’s scoring charts, although her productivity rate actually lessened a little bit in the second half. Behind the strikers, while she didn’t quite duplicate her freshman stats, minute-munching goaltender Genevieve Lacasse warrants some sort of recognition for starting all 35 contests, finishing 34 of them, and keeping the Friars in most all of them. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Seventh Player, Arianna Rigano</span>: The criteria for this award are officially described as going to “the player that performs beyond expectations and is an integral part of the team’s success.” With that in mind, be honest. Could anyone have expected Rigano to build as much as she did on a rather humble beginning to her abbreviated Division I career? Did anyone expect her to go from dressing in 26 games and sprinkling a mere 2-2-4 log on her junior transcript to playing all 35 contests this year and upping that scoring bushel to 7-7-14?<br /><br />Better yet, did anyone expect Rigano to lead the team in shots on goal for as long as she did and ultimately finish with 94 registered stabs (58 more than the previous year)? And did anybody expect that she would lead all Skating Friars under the plus-minus heading with a sound plus-10, especially when she was a minus-6 to curtain her junior campaign?<br /><br />Case in point.<br /><br />Runner-up: Upon making her belated debut on the cusp of Thanksgiving, freshman forward Jessie Vella showed next-to no residual pain from a summer ACL injury. She had her first helper in only her second appearance, picked up her first two goals in her fourth game at none other than New Hampshire’s Lake Whittemore, and ultimately stamped a 5-7-12 log on a rather small load of 20 shots.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Most Improved Player, Jess Cohen</span>: A case of freshman frostbite lasting from about Halloween to New Year’s temporarily inhibited the winger’s promising rookie season. But then, Cohen earned the right to link up with the proven producers O’Neill and Ruff and earned the right to stay with them on the top line for the entire homestretch. In particular, she rediscovered the playmaking penchant she had flaunted throughout her U19 career, contributing nine assists throughout January and February.<br /><br />Runners-up: If we weren’t already bestowing her with the Seventh Player prize, this hunk of hardware would likely belong to Rigano as well for the same reasons mentioned above. At the same time, one has to credit sophomore defender Christie Jensen, who not only closed the gap on her plus-minus rating (minus-8 at midseason to even at the end), but also left her stay-at-home comfort zone to contribute six points.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unsung Hero, Jen Friedman</span>: Regardless of which team was getting the citation, PC’s towering sophomore defender was almost always among those lining up for the next face-off after a penalty call. In the process of logging all of those minutes on both halves of the special teams’ spectrum, Friedman pitched in 24 shots and four points on the power play and had the blue line brigade’s second-best rating at a plus-5 (trailing only Leigh Riley’s plus-7).<br /><br />Runners-up: The aforementioned Riley, her defensive partner Lauren Covell, and senior center Jackie Duncan were all sparsely used compared to most of their peers. But their inner fight always flashed in the ice time they did afford, and it occasionally spilled over to the stats sheet.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4791163846936642565?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-1502053983328872762010-04-04T00:00:00.001-04:002010-04-04T00:00:00.164-04:00<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Nicole Anderson</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Her acetylene stick from November lost a lot of heat after New Year’s, especially on the power play. Granted, she eventually perked up for two February goals, both of them executed in breakaway fashion, but Anderson should just as soon start looking forward to a more complete campaign as a sophomore next year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Kate Bacon</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- One of the more admirable performers in PC’s season-ending loss to Connecticut, Bacon kicked plenty of ice chips on an iffy, injury-plagued first half to her sophomore season. After etching three goals and three helpers in her first 21 appearances, she closed up shop with a goal (in the semifinals, no less) and three assists in the last seven.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Jess Cohen-</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"> Clearly stricken by freshman frostbite throughout November and December, the Friars’ most-hyped rookie thawed back out once she was linked with Jean O’Neill and Alyse Ruff on the starting line. Not unlike Ashley Cottrell of the year before, though, she could stand to step up her firsthand productivity (six goals) to go along with her playmaking proficiency (13 assists).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Ashley Cottrell</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- While she was not quite as consistently productive in the latter phases of the season, Cottrell still finished as both the team’s scoring leader and face-off leader (.534 winning percentage). And as a testament to her two-way proficiency, she also made a fair number of Normorean, 200-foot rushes with the puck.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Lauren Covell</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- The ex-forward’s conversion to defense last autumn ultimately amounted to the following improvements: 14 more games played, nine more points (all assists), 17 more registered shots, and six steps up the plus/minus ladder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Jackie Duncan</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Duncan’s doggedness was self-evident as she played through her fourth consecutive injury-nibbled campaign. Though hardly prolific and sparsely utilized, she earned a regular spot as the fourth-line centerpiece and, after recovering from a preseason ailment in mid-November, saw action in 22 out of 23 possible ventures. Remarkably, that made for her smoothest ride since she was a freshman.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Christina England</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Did not see action beyond about five minutes worth of firefighting duty way back in October during the Mayor’s Cup Mayhem. The hot hand in net simply belonged to Genevieve Lacasse this year, and the backup England was presumably a good sport about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Jen Friedman</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Before the December deceleration, there were six occasions where Friedman did not log a single shot on goal. Afterwards, Friedman appeared in 15 games and had at least one (usually more than one) SOG in 14 of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Abby Gauthier</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- When the ice chips settled and the data evened out, the sophomore Gauthier was mostly the freshman Gauthier, reminding everyone that Hockey East is a long stride ahead from St. Mary’s of Lynn. She did muster a nice wraparound assist on Jean O’Neill’s deficit-cutting goal in the Hockey East semifinal, but only after going dry on the previous seven scoresheets. Then again, she has two more years to sharpen up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Emily Groth</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Not a whole lot to gauge in Groth’s nine sparsely distributed appearances, during which she simply supplemented the fourth line and went scoreless the whole way through.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Christie Jensen</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- A toe-curling, team-worst<span style=""> </span>minus-8 at the midseason break, Jensen ultimately pulled even on that front and snuck in a few more points from her perch at the brim of the zone. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Genevieve Lacasse</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- She certainly does not have Connecticut’s number anymore. But apart from a couple of shaky –and in one case, very costly- bouts with the Huskies, plus three ghastly games spread out over the first half of the season, the Friars never trailed by more than one goal at any point of any contest. Maybe not so coincidentally, they had Lacasse in the cage for all 35 of those games, a testament not only to her durability but also her priceless composure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Colleen Martin</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Not unlike a few of her defensive understudies, Martin reverted to a stay-at-home state after briefly flaunting more daring tendencies in the early phases of the season. That didn’t exactly seem to have an adverse effect on the team’s resurgent second half, though. Looking ahead, the captain’s lasting influence might be judged based on the continued development of rising junior Jen Friedman, her first-pair partner for the duration of the season.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Pam McDevitt</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- With an unholy trinity of zeroes across her goal-assist-points transcript and limited ice time in each of her 31 games played, McDevitt has to resort to the intangibles to find satisfaction in her senior campaign. To that point, she did draw a fair number of opposing penalties, seemingly more than most of her peers did.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Jean O’Neill</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- O’Neill personified the Friars’ second half performance, wherein unwavering urgency translated to a surplus of success. As PC recompensed its 4-7-6 start with an 11-3-3 finish, O’Neill had at least one point in 12 of those latter 17 games. And even on nights when the rest of the team was wilting, such as a 2-1 home loss to Vermont in January or the fateful Hockey East semifinal, she was the one finding the net and stoking any hope that remained. There may be an MVP and/or C title in her near future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Arianna Rigano</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Rigano’s pleasantly surprising data makes her a sound candidate for the team’s Seventh Player Award at the team banquet later this month. She upped a 2-2-4 scoring log as a junior transfer to 7-7-14 as a senior and more impressively finished with the best plus/minus among all PC skaters at plus-10.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Leigh Riley</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Though on the third D-unit, opposite Covell, Riley used the ice time she got to retain the best plus/minus among PC blueliners at a plus-7.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Alyse Ruff</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Along with her dynamic complement O’Neill, Ruff has made tracks on her junior campaign with nothing but great expectations for her upcoming senior season. She has gradually grown to tame the tasks that come with being a center and has done her job on both sides of the special teams’ spectrum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Laura Veharanta</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- The good news: Veharanta is only half-done with her college career. After missing the first two games of the New Year with a mild illness, the sophomore winger scraped out a mere two helpers in the homestretch and went pointless for the final eight games. Her cumulative bushel of 12 points was a harrowing 19-point drop from her radiant rookie year. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Jessie Vella</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- Vella only once went for more than two consecutive games without getting her name on the scoresheet. And after receiving a hooking citation in each of her first three appearances, she only took two more minor penalties in the 18 games that followed. That makes it tough for her and her associates not to look forward to next season, when she hopes to stay injury-free and to put more pucks on net (she had but 20 SOG, although five went in).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Amber Yung</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">- As quiet a contributor on the ice as she is soft-spoken off of it, Yung can let a little hardware do most of her talking. She would finish second only to Connecticut’s Cristen Allen in the inaugural Hockey East best defender’s derby and last week was penned to the New England Hockey Writers all-star squad. All good signs as she transitions to her senior season, when she will be heavily leaned on to fill Colleen Martin’s leadership skates on the blue line.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-150205398332887276?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-81139337392373155132010-03-14T00:00:00.001-05:002010-03-14T00:00:02.718-05:00<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Possibilities and pain were a little greater<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Maybe if they hadn’t slipped so many times in the first period of last Saturday’s Hockey East semifinal, the PC women would have an NCAA tournament game written up in this space today.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Or maybe if they had a few more minutes with which to completely delete the initial 3-0 deficit that ultimately morphed into a 3-2 loss.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Or maybe if they had started climbing out of their midseason hole just a little earlier. Or maybe if they had never fallen into that hole in the first place. Or maybe if they had a supra-.500 record against interleague rivals as opposed to the 4-5-4 transcript they ultimately settled for.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">There are innumerable little culprits that factored into the Friars’ shortcoming in 2009-10, which sentimentally speaking is just the same as the program’s shortcomings in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. No room for error when the time came for the Hockey East pennant race, and eventually no pennant or bid to the Elite Eight.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">But statistically speaking, this year’s fall was a little harder to come about and accordingly a little harder for head coach Bob Deraney and Co. to accept. This run was almost an unprompted remake of <i style="">Slap Shot</i> with rigid determination substituting the Hanson Brothers as the X-factor in a rather stirring turnaround.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“This year, there wasn’t a moment that I came to the rink that I couldn’t wait to get here,” Deraney said of the 2009-10 campaign and the group that produced it. “I knew they were going to inspire me with their play and not bore me.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">At one point, these Friars were apt as ever to distinguish themselves from their immediate predecessors, getting off to their first winning start since before the 2002-05 dynasty died. But then, a combination of injury-induced fatigue and mild conceit that rapidly soured into self-doubt turned a 3-1-1 start into a toe-curling 4-7-6 transcript at the halfway mark of the regular season.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Still, one only needed to examine the team’s list of individual games lost to injury and the quality of competition they had faced to predict some sort of resurgence. When PC finally deployed a maximum allotment of 18 skaters on November 14, it was in the midst of facing nationally ranked adversaries for seven consecutive games.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">That train of pain climaxed in a little bit of gain. The Friars would commence Part II of their schedule –and a viability-salvaging 8-0-2 unbeaten tear- by bumping the almighty New Hampshire Wildcats, 4-1, in the treacherous depths of the Whittemore Center.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">From there, long yearnings to envision a return to the glory days of a previous generation were gradually requited. In the second week of January, Providence garnered a slot in the national polls in its own right for the first time since January 2006. (Previously, the Friars enjoyed a preseason assignment to USA Today’s No. 9 slot at the start of last year, but promptly spilled that one and never recovered.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">And certainly, by the time they had confirmed their first regular season championship trophy since 2005, nobody was going to hesitate in giving these Friars a fair chance. They had kicked piles of ice chips over a shoddy start and every explanatory theory you could attach to it. At 15-10-9 overall, they were several strides above the .500 mark, whereas the previous three installments either finished right on the fence or just one game above.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">And they had home ice with which to tip the scale on their national resume, which they had already padded by confronting 18 ranked opponents in 34 ventures, going 7-7-4 in that scenario.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“It’s their hard work and dedication that sets them apart this year out of the past few years,” said Deraney. “Not to sell them short, because some of those teams made it to the (Hockey East) final.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“I haven’t been around a group of young student-athletes like I have this group. Their morals, ethics, and values go back to older days that we always dreamed about. We talk about society nowadays and the youth of America and how they’re soft and this group gives you hope. I don’t mean to be philosophical, but you asked me what sets them apart.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The coach and the databases answer that question well enough. But in wake of an arguably premature playoff exit, which once again terminated their season on the first weekend of March, some Friartownies are asking the more complicated, two-part question.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">That question would be: why did it have to end when it did? And why did it have to end the way it did?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Incidentally, the likes of the Connecticut Huskies, semifinal victors at the Friars expense but losers to Boston University in last week’s title game, could ask the same question. Ditto Northeastern. Maybe if the NCAA had a Dandy Dozen for women’s hockey instead of an Elite Eight, at least two if not all three of those programs would be bracket shoo-ins and reflect the type of season Hockey East cohabitants gave one another.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“I’m proud and privileged to be a part of Women’s Hockey East,” said Deraney, who accepted his first Coach of the Year laurel the night before his season ended. “The eight coaches that we have and the eight programs that we have, we all make each other better, and this is going to make us better. As much as it hurts now, it’s going to pay dividends for us down the road.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Still, four constituents from this particular run are making their tracks in two months. Regardless of what the returnees can reap starting next autumn, they will do so in the absence of Jackie Duncan, Colleen Martin, Pam McDevitt, and Arianna Rigano, who will make just the fourth graduating class in Deraney’s 11 years to depart the Divine Campus with no conference championship rings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The coach concluded, in reference to his full 21-player roster, “I’d be proud to call every one of them my daughters with the way they go about their business not only on the ice, but in the classroom, the way they conduct themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“That’s the difference. That’s why this one hurts –probably more than any of the others.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Al Daniel can be reached at <a href="mailto:hockeyscribe@hotmail.com">hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</a></span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-8113933739237315513?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-57896105309314126132010-03-07T00:00:00.001-05:002010-03-07T00:00:01.676-05:00<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Haunted by ill-fated start<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Season-ending loss reflects season itself<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">First the UConn Huskies, one week removed from dismantling the toughest goaltending guild in Hockey East at Northeastern, invaded the PC women’s property for Day 1 of the league’s championship weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Then they invaded the personal space of Friars’ goaltender Genevieve Lacasse enough times to plant themselves a 3-0 first period lead, enough to live off of en route to a 3-2 semifinal triumph at Schneider Arena.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Even with zero penalties all day and an offensive firestorm in the latter 40 minutes, Providence couldn’t quite recompense its initial errors. As penance for that, and for the fact that an outstanding January and February couldn’t quite redeem a sketchy October and November, the local Skating Sorority will once again have spring cleaning in its locker room during the second week of March while eight other teams reconvene to tune up for an NCAA tournament game.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“I couldn’t be prouder of my team,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “But you have to give credit to the University of Connecticut. They played extremely well today. They got out to a quick start and were able to hold off a furious comeback by us.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The positions from which each UConn goal was scored practically form a triangle when they are mapped out. Radiant rookie Lisa Stathopolous sparked the ignition at 4:18 when she waited front and center on the porch for a setup by Jenniefer Chaisson, who stripped Lacasse along the near post after the goalie vacated her crease.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Less than 10 minutes after Amy Hollstein converted just to Lacasse’s right, tucking in an in-your-face rebound left by Michelle Binning. And then, with 2:30 to spare, Binning buried her own firsthand strike from the left side.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">For the Friars and their hopes of a homemade conference title, the resultant triangle on the first period review chart spelled an ominous disappearance into the dark side of Bermuda. But equal to what they gave up at their end, an early shortage of threats in the offensive zone endangered their voyage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Deraney detected a runaway cruise ship driven by a crew with too keen an appetite to park at the Paradise Island, where his program has not been for five years running and where it once appeared to have no shot based on the first half of its season.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“I think our kids cared too much,” he said. “Sometimes caring too much could be just as bad as not caring at all. I think there’s a delicate balance there.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Bottom line: nothing but imbalance was working against the Friars at the conclusion of yesterday’s first period. On top of their commanding 3-0 advantage, the Huskies owned the shot clock, 15-4.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">More callously, even after PC’s strike force perked up and ran up an even more lopsided 19-2 edge within the second period shooting gallery, UConn sophomore goaltender Alexandra Garcia staged a goaltending clinic for her contemporary counterpart. She repelled everything leading up to the Friars’ penultimate stab of the stanza when Kate Bacon, parked along the far post, shoveled home a feed from Arianna Rigano on her backhand at 17:45.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">By day’s end, Garcia had repelled 32 out of 34 stabs, proving why she is among the top 10 netminding performers in the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Of the 30 SOG Providence piled up after the first intermission, 12 were within the same intimate vicinity as the three the Huskies poked past Lacasse. But the Friars could only connect on two of theirs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“Obviously, you have two great goalies in this game,” said forward Alyse Ruff, who was the only Friar besides Bacon to test Garcia at least once in every period. “Genevieve has always been strong in net for us all season long and Garcia’s a strong goalie as well. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“But it was a great effort by both teams. We really wanted to move the puck around and get shots off and she was able to defend those shots and they fought off both penalties.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">By “both penalties,” Ruff literally meant the only two that were issued all afternoon. They both went against the Huskies and they overlapped before the halfway mark of the third period, granting the Friars 69 savory seconds of 5-on-3.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The power play brigade ultimately mustered three shots on net and no shots in net, preserving the 3-1 difference for another two-plus minutes before Jean O’Neill scored with 5:53 to spare.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Ultimately, though, it all traced back to that trifecta of gaffes in the opening frame. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“The better team won,” Deraney said in blunt concession. “You have to play 60 minutes. You can’t give away goals. If you do that, it’s going to be awfully hard to win this time of year, and that was the deciding factor today.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">True, the Friars had already positioned themselves to host yesterday’s game by conjuring up a District Five to Ducks turnaround. They had morphed a 4-7-6 midseason record to a 15-10-9 transcript heading into the playoffs, including a league-best 11-5-5 record on their conference slate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">And realistically, they could have nabbed one more favorable bounce yesterday and mustered the same single-game magic you once saw Gordon Bombay’s pupils pull off against the Hawks or the Icelanders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">But because they didn’t, their 2009-10 campaign has abruptly wilted, ultimately reminding them what can happen when fate is tempted too much.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“This group deserved a better fate,” Deraney concluded. “But you get what you deserve. UConn deserved to win.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Al Daniel can be reached at <a href="mailto:hockeyscribe@hotmail.com">hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</a></span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-5789610530931412613?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-46109517654729512692010-03-06T00:00:00.001-05:002010-03-06T00:00:00.567-05:00<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Statement starts from the top<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Deraney’s award puts crowning touch on playoff hype<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Not so surprisingly, there was a substantial sprinkling of individual accolades to go around the PC women’s hockey team at the Providence Marriott banquet room last night. Five Skating Friars were among the 18 honorees named to the WHEA’s three All-Star squads, making the regular season champions the most broadly represented program on that ballot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">But none of those –First-Team forward Ashley Cottrell, Second-Teamers Genevieve Lacasse, Jean O’Neill, and Amber Yung, and honorable mention Alyse Ruff- jutted quite like head coach Bob Deraney, who garnered an arguably overdue laurel as the league’s top skipper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">In nabbing his first such honor in 11 years at PC, Deraney has personified the same struggle-and-triumph script he and his pupils hope to wrap up in today’s semifinal and tomorrow’s conference championship. He indubitably had ample hordes of legitimate competition for the prize he claimed last night.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">It was certainly tough to overlook, say, the likes of Northeastern co-coaches Linda Lundigran and Laura McAuliffe, who not only stood in for their boss Dave Flint while he served as Mark Johnson’s Olympic sidekick all season, but guided the still-burgeoning Huskies to 15 weeks’ worth of national poll membership.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Boston University’s Brian Durocher would not have been a laughable candidate, either, seeing how he has kept the Terriers on the cusp of the Top 10 and witnessed a 5-0-3 stretch run to the conference semis. And maybe if his players had perked up one or two weeks sooner and salvaged a long-craved playoff berth, Tim Bothwell of Vermont might have surpassed his peers on the ballot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Those are all good, but the reason Deraney conquered them all is the same reason Russian and Scandinavian militaries used to turn the table in their winter campaigns. It was good old Generals January and February.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">After sitting at a superficially distressing 4-7-6 at the halfway mark of their regular season, the Friars regrouped to go 1-0-1 in a fleeting December, that win being an icebreaking 4-1 victory at former nemesis New Hampshire. On the other half of a three-week holiday respite, Providence jostled with little disruption on a 10-3-2 stretch run.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">In recent years, Deraney has grown nominally accustomed to weaving a promising second half out of an, at best, so-so first half. But in terms of initial desperation and subsequent confidence, neither half has been quite as extreme as they both were in 2009-10.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">It has even reached a point where Deraney is willing to outright put a proud “Well Deserved” label on the regular season trophy his students sealed up two weeks ago at Vermont. Although, in combining the immediate past and the immediate future, his assessment still contains plenty of customary caution (as is expected of a seasoned Professor of Puck).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“Do I think we’re the best team in the league? I do think we’re the best team in the league,” Deraney recently professed. “But that really doesn’t mean anything if you don’t come and put on your best performance when you need it the most, and that’s what we’re focusing on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“All year long, we’ve been focusing on one thing and that’s to play a perfect game.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“And we’ve been playing playoff games for a very long time now. When you have a record of 4-7-6, every game has meaning. We’re used to playing under these conditions.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">That has to be the most encouraging point for Friartownies who will stroll onto campus for today’s semifinal engagement with Connecticut. As of last, PC was in a knot with the Terriers for No. 11 in the PairWise rankings, three thick and distant rungs short of an at-large passport to the NCAA tournament. Even a berth in tomorrow’s title tilt would guarantee diddlysquat in that department.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Translation: by their perennially lofty standards, the Friars are, for all intents and purposes, still under the same conditions they have been under since Thanksgiving. If they are to return to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2005, there is next to no room for error.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">By all counts, Deraney is well aware of that. It seems his personal hunk of hardware –which he can now add to the Vincent C. Dore award he will receive from PC’s athletic department next month- was not even part of his checklist, which is only one-third completed anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">“I think there are three jewels in a college hockey season,” he concluded. “You’ve got the regular season championship, the tournament championship, and the NCAA championship. We’re very excited and proud to have acquired that first jewel. That’s a great accomplishment, but that’s behind us now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">So, too, is all of the buildup to the playoffs. Deraney started that some three months ago by building up conviction in his would-be disheartened pupils. He ended it last night with at least one extra home game on tap and a hard-earned coach’s crown in his possession.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Al Daniel can be reached at <a href="mailto:hockeyscribe@hotmail.com">hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</a></span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-4610951765472951269?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Al Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044886023469339196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-636150823977895072.post-20524731839055802972010-03-04T00:00:00.001-05:002010-03-04T00:00:04.441-05:00<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Watching the Veharanta volcano<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Naturally, there is no sense in anybody even pretending to be a puck prophet and asserting that Laura Veharanta is going to repeat history and snap yet another scoring slump at the expense of Connecticut in this Saturday’s semifinal engagement.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">But for the Friars’ sake, there would be no better time for Veharanta –pointless in her last seven games- to not only prove that she has been storing up liters of carbonated scoring prowess, but to wrathfully release it on the likes of Husky goaltender Alexandra Garcia.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">It would, naturally, be another invaluable additive to the Friars’ cause in what ought to be nothing less than yet another defense-first, arm-wrestling bout between the Southern New England rivals. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Yet equally true, it would add another savory tally to the storytellers’ scoreboard. It would add another dollop of continuity to Veharanta’s uncanny history of shaking off bouts of Deadened Stick Syndrome when she confronts Garcia and her praetorian guards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">In last year’s quarterfinal tangle at Schneider Arena, the same site of this weekend’s WHEA Frozen Four, Veharanta snapped a six-game pointless skid by planting PC a 1-0 lead just 14 seconds into the opening frame. She later added an assist to cement a 3-0 triumph.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">And then, last November, after going goal-less in nine games throughout October, Veharanta potted the Friars’ lone regulation goal, then connected in the shootout as part of a 2-1 road victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">But ever since, she has but two additional goals to speak of. Her final regular season transcript thus reads 3-9-12 through 32 appearances, a frightful devolution from the 16-15-31 log that topped last year’s PC scoring charts and made her the only unanimous selection to the 2008-09 Hockey East All-Rookie squad.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Just as her copious collateral helped to cloud last year’s February case of freshman frostbite, the Friars’ collective post-New Year’s resurgence this season has likely obscured Veharanta’s individual slump. After she outwitted Garcia the day after Halloween, she proceeded to tune the opposing mesh twice more. That happened to be in back-to-back games, a 4-1 home loss to Wisconsin on November 28 and a 4-1 win at New Hampshire the following week. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Since then, she has dressed for 14 games and notched a mere three assists in that span. Along the way, she missed the first two games of the year 2010 with a mild illness, returned to play two games on the fourth line, then ascended back to her noteworthy assignment on the right wing with Ashley Cottrell and Nicole Anderson.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">But after six games back together and with a little less clutch clockwork the trinity had demonstrated on the power play in November, Veharanta was again shuffled down to work with senior grinders Jackie Duncan and Pam McDevitt to start the month of February. Three games later, she was reunited with Anderson and Cottrell for the Vermont series that ultimately sealed the regular season crown. Although, one thing it didn’t do was splash Veharanta’s scoring drought.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Ironically, though, Veharanta did score one recent goal that did not count towards her totals, but had indubitable repercussions in the playoff race. She beat –guess who?- Garcia to bust a 0-0 deadlock in the fourth round of a February 12 shootout, thereby granting the Friars an extra Hockey East point at UConn’s expense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">On that thought, there may be some merit to the notion of Garcia being the cure –or, at least, a cure- for Veharanta’s occasional slide, after all. But first, she will have to throw out a little more salsa-based rubber, especially since her fellow sophomore Garcia has substantially matured upon claiming the starting job in Connecticut early this season.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">In her radiant rookie campaign, Veharanta led the Friars with 140 shots on goal to flow right along with her leading productivity. Conversely, she enters the 2010 postseason with a comparatively slim 57 SOG, which places her behind eight of her teammates under that heading.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Therein lays a pattern one could probably swear by with even more conviction than banking on Garcia and only Garcia to answer Veharanta’s “Open Sesame!” cry. If Veharanta can replenish her confidence and her chemistry with Anderson and Cottrell –the latter of who has shared a hand in 22 scoring plays with her since they both arrived last year- then perhaps she can dish out a good four or five biscuits on Garcia’s property.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">That would be a start. And if it amounts to a red light, which would mark Veharanta’s first since she threw in an insurance tally as part of the revolutionary conquest of Lake Whittemore back on December 5, it could very well mean more than prolonging a personal pattern. It could mean more than one puckslinger refilling on her swagger against the same opposing goalie for the third time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">It could also mean helping to rerun a motif of PC halting the Huskies’ quest for the Hockey East playoff crown.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Either that, or the Friars and the epic bards of the media alike will have to work a little harder to get what they want.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style=""><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Al Daniel can be reached at <a href="mailto:hockeyscribe@hotmail.com">hockeyscribe@hotmail.com</a></span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/636150823977895072-2052473183905580297?l=friarfacts.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>