PC Women's Hockey 2009-10 Season In Review

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.

 

Or maybe if they had a few more minutes with which to delete the initial 3-0 deficit that ultimately morphed into a 3-2 loss.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 Slap Shot with rigid determination substituting the Hanson Brothers as the X-factor in a rather stirring turnaround.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.)

 

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.

 

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.

 

“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.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

That question would be: why did it have to end when it did? And why did it have to end the way it did?

 

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.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

“That’s the difference. That’s why this one hurts –probably more than any of the others.”

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

On Women's Hockey: PC's Season-Ending Loss Mirrors The Season Itself

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

“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.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

Ultimately, though, it all traced back to that trifecta of gaffes in the opening frame.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

But because they didn’t, their 2009-10 campaign has abruptly wilted, ultimately reminding them what can happen when fate is tempted too much.

 

“This group deserved a better fate,” Deraney concluded. “But you get what you deserve. UConn deserved to win.”

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

On Women's Hockey: Deraney's Award Puts Crowning Touch On Playoff Hype

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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).

 

“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.

 

“All year long, we’ve been focusing on one thing and that’s to play a perfect game.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

“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.”

 

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.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press