Women's Hockey Log: First-Year Friars Jumping At Second Chances

The PC women’s radiant rookie corps –provider of 43.9% of the team’s goals, 38.9% of the assists, 82.2% of the saves, and 87.5% of the wins over the regular season- frightfully lost some of its immunity to inexperience in the climax of its first collegiate campaign.

 

For the last three-plus weeks of game action, acetylene stick carriers Laura Veharanta and Ashley

Cottrell have been stuck in the 20-point range after they were originally on pace for facile point-per-game finishes or better. Defender Jennifer Friedman rapidly receded to her stay-at-home focus after a head-turning six points over seven games in January. Blue line associate Christie Jensen is still kicking ice chips over the memories of a head injury that barred her from playing in six games to start February.

 

And goaltender Genevieve Lacasse has, on the whole, propped up her consistent reliability, though she has had her stats slighted a little in three losses over her last five decisions.

 

Yet head coach Bob Deraney has let the speed bumps slide on two key terms: the adjustment to a recent first-time skate in the icy canyon that is New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center and a protracted period of virtual postseason hockey.

 

Deraney had dressed all eight of his active rookies –seven true freshmen plus junior transfer Arianna Rigano- for PC’s lone regular season visit to the Wildcats on Feb. 14. He made special note of that in the somewhat distant aftermath of an eventual 4-1 slip –one where, to their respective credits, Kate Bacon (five shots) potted the lone goal and Veharanta pitched in another four of the team’s 17 shots on net.

 

But, he added, the Friars have an enticing chance to pay another visit to Lake Whittemore before the curtains drop on the 2008-09 season. And, maybe then, the notorious depths of that rink won’t be quite so arduous to the newbies.

 

To create that opening, though, PC will have to cultivate something out of the voluntary playoff mindset Deraney has instituted for at least the last 10 regular season games.

 

“That’s been happening all along,” he reiterated. “We’ve been talking about playing playoff games for at least a month now.”

 

And in hindsight, for the frosh and their elders alike, there is a cornucopia of nonfatal growing pains to consider. Through their first 10 out of Hockey East games, the Friars were 7-2-1, a thought-provoking pace for some 31 or 32 points, at least 14 of those cultivated via victory.

 

Instead, they sank into the dense lottery ball-like derby, going an iffy 5-6-0 in the stretch drive. And they sequentially bid agonizing adieu to the prospect of hosting next week’s semifinal and championship rounds, ditto the second-place bye and the extra week of uninterrupted practice that comes with it.

 

“When you look back at the standings, we ended up with 25 points,” said Deraney. “We lost to Northeastern twice (1-0 on Oct. 18, 3-2 on Feb. 7) and we lost to Vermont (5-2 on January 18). Give us those six points and we get the bye. So we’d been talking about whether we were going to make these games easier for us or harder for us.”

 

They might have hit at their hardest in the finale weekend versus Boston College, who last Friday really just needed to deal a flick of the fingertip to dash PC’s by now brittle hope for the bye.

 

But the following day at BC’s Conte Forum, Lacasse put forth a 22-save performance worthy of third star of the game accolades –her first appearance on the three-star leaderboard in four appearances and her 14th overall out of 22 chances this season.

 

Veharanta, still acclimating to some late line chart tweaks, discharged a jutting five shots on goal, Friedman two. Veharanta’s new associate winger, Bacon, notched a plus-1 rating.

 

And following a 65-minute, 1-1 draw, Cottrell came through in the shootout, salvaging the Friars’ right to host tomorrow’s preliminary round bout with Connecticut (1 p.m. face-off).

 

Timely, influential perk-ups like that were not lost on Deraney.

 

“They were actually playoff games,” he said. “They had implications, so I think we’re already prepared for that.”

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

Women's Hockey Log: Friars Eye Resurgence On Offense

Their record 1-5-1 since the calendar Zamboni’s last lap, and resorting to overtime or a shootout to polish off both of their latest conference victories, the Friars are not inclined to deny the difference their lately arid offense might have made in their playoff assignment.

They will round out their February slate on Saturday with a spontaneously scheduled do-or-die, Seed 4 versus Seed 5, home tilt with Connecticut, against whom they sneezed out an unfavorable 2-1 OT decision on the first of the month. Since that afternoon, they have not mustered any more than two regulation goals per game. They have been restricted to merely one in each of their last three.

 

Laura Veharanta, still the top gun of the program with a 15-14-29 scoring transcript, has kept that same data ever since she planted an initial 1-0 lead during that visit to Freitas Ice Forum. Former linemate and top playmaker Ashley Cottrell has upped a 5-14-19 reading to 5-16-21 in the last four weeks. Senior A-captain Katy Beach is dry on the month as a whole, leaving her stuck on 8-8-16 totals.

 

Most everyone else has at least sprinkled valuable, tangible output, though not enough to retain the once-worthwhile visions of bringing the Hockey East championship to Schneider Arena. Some nights, they have fallen prey to the opposing defense’s equivalent resolve, amounting to shallow shot totals. Other times, they have launched boundless salvos at rubber-proof brick walls in the crease.

 

“I honestly think it’s just been great goaltending,” said head coach Bob Deraney. “I think we’re making shots and we’re doing all the things that you’re supposed to do. It just happens that you’re snakebitten.”

 

When PC’s promise for a regal finish in the standings was at its peak some three weeks ago, they lobbed an even 100 cumulative shots at Northeastern’s tricky tumbler Florence Schelling, though it would only be good for five strikes and two of four possible points in the home-and-home series.

 

From there, they pressed on to back-to-back confrontations with the two eventual first-round byes, New Hampshire and Boston College, both of whom laid out effective puck graters and confined the Friars to no more than 22 shots over their next three games –a trinity of losses by a combined 12-4 upshot.

 

Granted, Providence virtually matched their adversaries’ exceptional defensive grip each night. But their own strike force simply didn’t bat home more of those decisive, fleeting scoring rushes.

 

“It definitely needs to be addressed and hopefully we’ll pick it up,” said Cottrell, whose last regulation lamp-lighter was the icebreaker in a 5-1 drubbing of UConn at the end of January, coincidentally the last offensive bonfire PC has spoken of. “We just have to go out there, play our game systematically, and be mentally strong.”

 

There was a rather timely hint of that yearned-for resurgence last Saturday at BC’s Conte Forum, at which point it was already do-or-die as far as home ice for this weekend’s preliminary round was concerned. The fresh-willed, fastidious Friars threw a baker’s dozen worth of biscuits at Molly Schaus, though the celestial stopper made like herself in swallowing everything to lug a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

 

The Eagles subsequently trimmed PC’s shooting frequency to 10 second period stabs to merely seven in the third. But, to their credit, the Friars only let Genevieve Lacasse deal with 13 more Boston bids after she had faced 10 in the opening frame. And Erin Normore’s connection in the middle frame effectively turned the tables.

 

By day’s end, Lacasse had overthrown Schaus for first place in intra-league save percentage and her praetorian guards –reeling off Cottrell’s shootout clincher- are stirring a new brew of hunger and hope in their practice ice this week.

 

“It’s definitely something that we need to focus on,” said Normore, who has four points in five career postseason games. “In our last couple of games, we have gotten our shots and chances. We just can’t put the puck home. But hopefully these (timely bounces tend to) come in do-or-die games and we can put those shots home and get the wins under our belt.”

 

Providence has held up thus far on relatively short sustenance, all leaderboard lesions aside. But the mutually do-or-die scenario at hand might call for a reprise of the three-goal outburst that effectively settled the home swing with UConn.

 

“I have to believe that we’re storing them up to something,” said Deraney. “I’ve always believed that it always evens out. So the fact that we haven’t been scoring means we’re soon going to break through somewhere, somehow. And since we’re still playing and in the playoffs, there’s no better time to break out than this Saturday.”

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

Women's Hockey Log: PC, UConn Each Have Lessons To Build On

If the Friars –ahead of the contesting Connecticut Huskies- can lash out no fewer than one extra token of resolve in Saturday’s playoff opener, the ominous, electro-databased 180-spin on 2008 shall halt right here.

 

The 2007-08 Huskies were prompt to initially dilute the Battle of Southern New England’s pungency, winning the first two meetings at Freitas Ice Forum by a cumulative 8-0 score.

 

But, less than 24 hours removed from an embittering 3-0 crash-and-burn, the Friars resiliently retorted with a 5-3 triumph at Schneider Arena. Little did they know, though, that they would pay a spontaneous visit back to Storrs in another 27 days to lock twigs with the Huskies once more.

 

But with a pair of power play strikes courtesy Mari Pehkonen –the first a 5-on-3 conversion in only the sixth minute- PC sledgehammered the formerly binding UConn ice en route to a 5-1 final.

 

Plenty of evidence there to verify head coach Bob Deraney’s smudgy CD record of “The past doesn’t matter.” And, by all counts, he’d be happy to labor under the same old notion for this weekend’s matinee engagement at Schneider Arena.

 

The 2008-09 Friars hosted the first two installments of the regular season series and, subsisting on a few timely, productive sugar rushes to the opposing cage, wrested away two wins by an aggregate final of 7-1.

 

But, less than 24 hours removed from a 5-1 falter on January 31, the resolute Huskies merely reran their persistent 60-minute grind at Freitas the next day, ultimately nailing a come-from-behind 2-1 victory in overtime.

 

And if not for a sweeping schooling at the hands of regal New Hampshire this past weekend, that rally on February 1 may have paid extraordinary long term dividends to UConn. One more point in their bushel, and they would have been hosting the forthcoming semifinal qualifier.

 

Instead, they’ll settle for the prospect of dishing out eye-for-eye justice in the form of a party-spoiler at PC’s first home hockey playoff game since the men’s program hosted Boston University in 2003.

 

If they so please, they’ll have a buffet of red meat to bolster their incentive. Beyond last year’s letdown, handfuls of the Huskies may recall when their bid for a playoff passport was mathematically zapped in the climax of the regular season in 2007.

 

The culprits: the Friars, who had swept a home-and-home by 4-1 and 6-3 decisions that weekend.

 

And then, head coach Heather Linstad, for one, will recall the 2005 conference championship, a 3-1 upshot to round out PC’s four-year dynasty. That, and the 2003 semis –a 7-0 Providence cookout.

 

“They’re going to be just as hungry as (Boston College) was last Friday –we ended their season last year too,” said Deraney. “I expect them to give us their best effort as they always do.

 

“The past doesn’t matter. It’s who shows up on Saturday at 1:00, and who wants it more than the other, who’s willing to focus to the end and make the plays necessary to emerge victorious.”

 

Psychologically replenished through last Saturday’s 2-1 shootout overhaul of the Eagles –which simultaneously salvaged their home ice viability- the Friars can enter this do-or-die engagement all the more learned. The day prior, a vengeful BC team wasted no time ambushing a still-fraught PC squad and stamping a 5-1 decision. As an immediate consequence, the sorely craved first-round bye was out of the question for Deraney and Co., which also dropped to 1-5 in a calendar month that had begun with the aforementioned OT falter at Freitas.

 

Until the technical tie at Conte Forum (it is officially scored a 1-1 upshot), the Friars had spilled four consecutive games by an unfavorable 15-6 scoring aggregate. Hardly the set of fresh facts they wanted sifting in their dressing room as they tune up for the second season.

 

“I didn’t realize how poor we were in February until I went back and looked at it, because you wouldn’t think we played that way,” Deraney mused. “But I think it was very important for us to gain some confidence back. Confidence is such a big thing in every sport at every level.

 

“But when you talk about confidence…it wasn’t mysterious. That’s how we’re capable of playing. We just have to bring that type of effort every night.”

 

Quick Feeds: Deraney on his unadulterated neutrality over Sunday’s UNH win over the Huskies that in effect granted the Friars home ice this coming weekend: “No matter where we go, it comes down to how well we’re playing. That’s all we ever focus on. It’s an opportunity to get better every time. And when it’s out of your hands, it’s out of your control. So wherever they told us to go, we were going to go there and bring our best effort.”…Team captain Brittany Simpson had a Jumbotron spot at last night’s men’s basketball game, delivering a pre-taped promo of the upcoming game during a TV timeout midway through the second half.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press