On Women's Hockey: Friars Vie To Exploit Eagles

Through its ascent to real deal national relevance in recent weeks, the PC women’s hockey team has already verified the adage that preaches beating the best in order to enter the company of the best.

 

They have done so by doubly dispatching long-ranked Cornell, which earned them the No. 9 slot in last week’s USA Today Top 10 poll, and then pulling off a most startling sweep of New Hampshire, a feat which this week got them first-time admittance to the tenth slot on US College Hockey Online’s leaderboard.

 

With that squared away, now would be the right time to show the way to retain –or, better yet, build upon- such coveted recognition once one has it. The best method is showing why you are among the best and the hottest by repressing the colder teams while they are down.

 

Enter the Boston College Eagles, who are here today for Part I of a home-and-home set, slated to entertain Part II tomorrow up at Conte Forum, and still trying to thaw out from a month-long slump.

 

When PC and BC last encountered one another two weeks prior to Christmas, their records were an identical 5-7-6 overall. By night’s end, after the host Eagles claimed an extra Hockey East point in the postgame shootout, they continued to bear duplicate transcripts at 5-7-7 apiece.

 

Since then, though, the Friars and Eagles have literally been the league’s hottest and coldest teams, respectively. Providence is on a 6-0-2 tear for the nation’s second-best active unbeaten run, whereas Katie King’s shorthanded pupils are missing the input of Olympic ambassadors Kelli Stack and Molly Schaus more direly by the day. Including their knot with the Friars, they are a vinegary 0-4-3 in their last seven games.

 

And with Vermont’s surprise 2-1 overtime defeat of Boston University last night, every one of the Eagles’ conference cohabitants has now notched at least one W during their protracted famine.

 

But this slump could be a lot worse from a BC standpoint and this weekend’s matchup card could look a lot easier from a Providence perspective. The Eagles, as they have recently demonstrated at the expense of St. Lawrence and the Friars themselves, can perk up its shallow strike force when the situation is desperate enough and the opposition is not sharp enough to safeguard its lead.

 

Twice in their last six outings, while unable to seal a full two-point package, the Eagles have salvaged a tie by deleting an initial two-goal deficit in the closing stanza. They did so back on Dec. 11 when they initially trailed Providence, 2-0, before the game was 10 minutes old, only to slow down the bleeding and ultimately whip up two strikes of their own in the third. The Friars’ ordinarily reliable power play spilled five chances after the first period that might otherwise have wrested that game out of reach.

 

More recently, nine days ago up at Chestnut Hill, the Eagles let St. Lawrence sculpt itself a 3-1 advantage, but pulled even via rookie Caitlin Walsh and revivalist sophomore Mary Restuccia within the final seven minutes of regulation. And two weeks to the day, to a slightly less dramatic degree, they cemented a 3-3 draw versus Yale with five goals coming in a matter of two minutes and 52 seconds halfway through the second period. Starting at the 9:50 mark and ending with 12:42 gone, an initial 1-0 BC lead morphed into a 2-1 deficit, then a 2-2 knot, then a 3-2 disadvantage, and finally a 3-3 tie.

 

Case in point, BC’s relatively unripe and numerically challenged line chart –which has but 16 skaters, including six freshman and six sophomores, to work with on any given night- can click and make an outing worthwhile when they have the chance. And the more desperate their situation becomes late in the season, the closer they might be to blowing their top on someone.

 

If the Friars don’t want to be that victim –and they ought to detest that prospect more than anyone at the enchanting rate they’re going- they will need to come out quick and confident (as they have done a lot lately) and work towards draining the Eagles’ tanks.

 

Indeed, in all five of their January games, BC has authorized more than 10 opposing shots in the third while consistently garnering less than 10 shots of their own. And in their last four losses, they have entered the final frame with nothing worse than a two-goal deficit on their hands. In one case, they spilled a 4-3 edge and watched Northeastern rejoice in a 7-4 triumph. On other occasions, the opposition has simply laid down their insurance and laid down the law around their own net.

 

Oh, and since New Year’s, BC’s opponents have substantially outclassed them in the discipline department, giving the Eagles no more than three power plays per night while earning at least four of their own. As is common knowledge to any Friartownie, Providence has already made a habit of out-disciplining their adversaries all season.

 

Bottom line, the Friars want anything but a single ice chip of directional diversion for either party in question this weekend. First-place Northeastern is in a nonconference engagement with Niagara, and four points would mean usurping the throne atop the standings.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

On Women's Hockey: Statement-Making Friars Look For An Exclamation Point Against UNH

For the PC women’s hockey team, a sweep of this weekend’s home-and-home engagement with rival New Hampshire sounds idealistic (when does it not?), but a split is perfectly realistic.

 

Either way, collect a win over the next two days and the overwhelming concept of taking the larger half of the three-game regular season wishbone from the Enemy Epitome would actually come to life. There are few ways on this coast and in this league to stamp a much bigger, bolder statement.

 

Uncannily enough, today’s 2 p.m. bout at the Whittemore Center is not merely the first Friar-Wildcat twig-lock since Providence made history by claiming the first Hockey East road victory at New Hampshire’s expense. It is the Cats’ first home game since they grudgingly relinquished their nearly seven-and-a-half-year-old streak.

 

Furthermore, both squads are unbeaten in the six weeks since then, PC having gone 4-0-2, UNH 3-0-0. So who has the greater stake in this?

 

Well, on a dignity front, the Wildcats have a bit more to lose simply because they have more in their possession. They do not want even a carry-over losing streak on their oft-feared pond, especially if it means giving all the spoils to their timeless rival.

 

Beyond that, though, while this series is not quite apocalyptic for either party in question, the Friars clearly have more to gain, whether it be gained today or in tomorrow’s rematch at Schneider Arena. For starters, they have a chance to redo something they had, from their own self-afflicting perspective, muddled up last season.

 

Recall that, one year and one week ago, PC achieved something fairly close to slashing the Lake Whittemore Monsters on their hostile turf by handing the Wildcats a 5-0 uproar at Schneider Arena. They thus claimed the initial upper hand in the season series, just like what they have going into this afternoon’s face-off.

 

But a month after that, what might have been gained with enough of an emphatic follow-through was clearly on head coach Bob Deraney’s mind when his pupils spilled a 3-2 decision on the Divine Campus the night before Valentine’s Day. The game itself didn’t look quite so bad on the ice and certainly was not as horrid on the scoreboard as his tone suggested during postgame interviews. But something suggested it was not about that. It was a matter of having invaluable regular season bragging rights within tasting distance and just not grabbing them.

 

And Deraney knew that, even with the season series merely tied and not yet lost, it was going to be a near-impossible cramming session the following night, what with nine rookies spread out over every position about to embark on their first quest to the Wildcats’ daunting domain. Surprise, surprise, UNH assertively wrested a 4-1 decision that evening, thus amounting to a 10-game winning streak, one that would carry on well through the Hockey East playoffs, including one more fatal infliction on the Friars in the semifinal.

 

It’s not easy to implant effective speedbumps when a team like New Hampshire has momentum. But in hindsight, the Friars nearly had a bonfire that could have captured on satellite radar last February 13. Instead, what Deraney termed “overconfidence” slowed them down and ironically, overconfidence rapidly gave way to underconfidence –equally detrimental.

 

But as last month’s revolutionary win implied, this is a PC team one year more mature on every front.

 

And they are, for once, showing signs that they really could “peak” at an ideal time. Momentum is plainly on their side, but they could use a little more of it, so even discounting what happened in the previous month, winning one game this weekend against the No. 3-ranked Wildcats would be more than enough to sustain, if not elevate the posture of the No. 9-ranked Friars.

 

Then again, in terms of the WHEA pennant race, the fourth-seeded Friars are a point behind the third-seeded Wildcats, so not even a split would alter that scenario. Not to mention, UNH has a whopping four games in hand on a suddenly floundering second-place Boston College team and five games in hand on top dog Northeastern. If the Friars do not catch them now, they may never.

 

To reiterate a recent history lesson, New Hampshire went on a sonic streak last year after their loss at Schneider and have made a similar habit of going near-perfect in the final phases of the regular season. So if anybody wants to try their luck at the Hockey East playoff championship somewhere other than the Whittemore Center, it is incumbent on the Friars to expose another scale of vulnerability on the Wildcats this weekend. Afterwards, it will be up to five other teams on the agenda to keep imposing tiny wounds while the Cats are still not walking fully upright.

 

But in terms of their own cause, the Friars, already with the ultimate token of confidence and a fine addition to that confidence in the form of long-awaited national recognition, need to make sure they use their newfound conviction wisely. If they abuse it, like they have in the past, they might lose it.

 

Just the same, though, anything they garner this weekend in the point column will do nothing but help them. They just need to be ready to combat an indubitably vengeful, emotionally reinforced opponent.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

On Women's Hockey: Dogged Genevieve Lacasse Having Better Days As PC Starts Winning

As Genevieve Lacasse goes, so go the Friars. Or perhaps that’s vice versa. Or it may just vary on an unpredictable basis.

This much is certain: in terms of pure achievement, the Scarborough Save-ior is personifying PC's promising U-turn that has herself and her team on a 3-0-1 start to the New Year and a carry-over 4-0-2 run dating back to the advent of December.

 

Too often in Part I of this season, Lacasse –who easily leads all Hockey Easterners with 606 saves on the year- was in a position rather akin to a loyal wife/mother who does not receive the recognition and rewards she would naturally expect from her constant labor. Such is quite often the anti-glamorous job description of goalkeeping.

 

After a chill, 19-save shutout on opening night, her fortunes soured to overall mediocrity. While the Friars’ offense was sometimes sufficient, but certainly not always, Lacasse took a prolonged fall below the .500 mark with the team record. That situation might have been a little better if, say, just one or more of those nine overtime games had ended with a PC goal instead of that fourth buzzer which is always more merciful for the two masked-and-padded ladies in question than it is for any skaters who are trying to make the opposing goalie flinch at great cost.

 

And more goose-eggs? Forget it. Lacasse did confine the opposition to two full-net goals or less in 13 of her first 19 starts, but even that was good enough for merely five wins.

 

Then again, for all of the mounting unrest and all of the tweaks head coach Bob Deraney made to his lineup during that turbulent period, one thing the skipper let alone was his goalie, whom he removed in favor of backup Christina England merely once for the final five minutes of the Mayor’s Cup mayhem Oct. 25. Immediately after that game, Lacasse was leaned on for the duration of a rigorous stretch that saw Providence confronting a nationally-ranked opponent in eight out of 10 ventures, culminating with the revolutionary 4-1 road overthrow of New Hampshire.

 

And when the December deceleration was greeted with ambivalence –seeing as the Friars had implicitly compressed the open wound- Lacasse was rewarded as Hockey East’s pick for the short month’s top goaltender.

 

Since the break, she has consumed 244 minutes and 40 seconds worth of crease time, surrendered a mere seven goals, repelled 117 opposing shots, notched back-to-back Sunday shutouts, and, as of yesterday evening, garnered two consecutive Defensive Player of the Week laurels from the league.

 

Perhaps most importantly, she has received 15 goals worth of offensive support in these last four games. And while the Friars have repeatedly unloaded about the same loads of ammo as the opposition each night, they are simply tucking home a few more biscuits.

 

Even last weekend, the egregiously shorthanded Cornell Big Red upheld enough breath to take 25 registered stabs on Saturday and 29 on Sunday while allotting 27 to Providence each day. Cornell was, quite expectably, at its mightiest to start Sunday’s contest, when they wasted little time trying to recompense their 6-3 loss the day prior and ultimately charged up 21 attempts, 14 of them on net.

 

But to Lacasse’s credit as well as her praetorian guards’, those shots rarely came in immediate succession. Only twice did she have to play two consecutive pucks and another eight times, she simply summoned a whistle. The rest of the time, her teammates shoveled the remnants well away from her property. It all went a long way towards planting an early 1-0 lead and eventually augmenting that lead in the second.

 

Specific to Lacasse, though, one can already begin to size up a developmental distinction when examining this January compared to last. As a freshman, Lacasse returned from her respite with a recurring fit of numbness. For seven games, PC went on an agonizing loss-win-loss-win-loss-win-loss pattern, during which Lacasse was even more starkly bipolar. Although she posted two shutouts in that stretch, she was also forked out early from two other games, sat out for the full length of another, and twice surrendered at least four goals, something she had never done in her first three months on the Divine Campus.

 

Ultimately, she recovered and that proved to be the lone noticeable speedbump on her trek to the ITECH Goaltending Championship and Bauer Rookie of the Year award. Odds are she will not repeat the former title this year even if she can. Northeastern’s Florence Schelling would have to crash like Hoover’s economy, as would New Hampshire’s Kayley Herman for that to be realistic.

 

But look at the more vital implications. Over her first six appearances back from break last year, Lacasse produced a musty 3.14 goals-against average and an even jerkier .885 save percentage.

 

Conversely, in her most recent six engagements, sandwiching a lengthy holiday, she has averaged 1.62 goals-allowed and a .943 save percentage.

 

Not to mention, she and the team have an active unbeaten streak of 4-0-2, a foundation for the very type of consistency both parties have long been pining for.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press