On Women's Hockey: A-Captain On Her A-Game For Friars

Burlington, Vt.- Thrice in their two-game series this weekend, the Vermont Catamounts pulled even on the scoreboard with the Friars. Yet none of those knots –two of which were drawn in Friday’s affair, then one more yesterday afternoon- would survive, and the chief culprit behind that was PC junior forward Jean O’Neill.

 

In Friday’s 4-2 triumph at the Gutterson Fieldhouse, O’Neill had planted 2-1 and 3-2 advantages within two-and-a-half minutes of the Vermont equalizers. Her heroics yesterday took a tad longer and were a little less direct, but after point patroller Christie Jensen absorbed O’Neill’s shipment and drilled in a power play conversion with 12:31 to spare in the third period, the Friars never looked back.

 

None other than O’Neill, who had also assisted on linemate Jess Cohen’s icebreaker at 11:11 of yesterday’s opening frame, tossed in a cathartic empty netter to finalize a 5-2 win, seal herself a vocal 3-2-5 weekend scoring log, and help wrap up the regular season title for her team.

 

Like the throne of the playoff bracket, O’Neill’s claim to the Friars’ assistant captaincy didn’t really need any verification when, with exactly 100 ticks to spare, Catamount goalie Kristen Olychuk vacated her crease so the six-pack attack could scramble in hopes of deleting a 4-2 deficit. But she threw in the gravy goal anyway, just in case, with 1:12 remaining on the clock.

 

But why not? O’Neill might as well have been the one to sprinkle a can’t-hurt helping of Hershey’s on this sundae. She not only anchored the scoring pace that kept PC in good stock of breathing room throughout the weekend, but also personified the weekend’s milestone theme.

 

Friday night was O’Neill’s 100th career game. And when she pulled the Friars ahead, 2-1, in the second period of that game, she both notched her 50th collegiate point and 25th of this season, thus equating everything she had aggregated as a freshman and sophomore.

 

And now, with all the ice chips settled on the regular season, her totals read a solid 13-16-29 through 34 games played. And under the watch of head coach Bob Deraney, one who is often apt to preach the concept of “peaking at the right time,” O’Neill finished her February with four goals and six points in three games.

 

Dating back to Jan. 3, when the Friars commenced an active 10-3-1 hot streak, O’Neill has appeared on all but three scoresheets and charged up a cumulative 10 goals and 19 points. That alone is more than what she compiled in 36 games (10 goals, seven assists) as a promising rookie. And it is more than enough to throw irremovable ice chips on her spotty sophomore campaign that was devoted mostly to rebuilding her identity in wake of a preseason injury.

 

It’s also enough to excuse the two penalties she took over the weekend, which is striking considering she had logged merely four minor infractions in her first 32 games before the Friars made their excursion up here.

 

It’s even enough to cloud the fact that, this weekend aside, O’Neill has not quite been a first-place finisher in any aspect of the game.

 

Uncannily, just as she is one platform step below Colleen Martin in the leadership rankings, O’Neill is No. 2 in most every vital category on the PC stats sheet. She continues to trail only Ashley Cottrell in overall scoring (31 points to 29, 14 goals to 13, and 17 helpers to 16). Her plus-8 rating is second-best among all skating Friars behind Arianna Rigano (plus-9).

 

O’Neill has her team’s second heaviest shot collection with 97 SOG and the second-best accuracy with a 13.4 connectivity rate. Only linemate and classmate Alyse Ruff has pelted the opposing goalie more often with 99 registered stabs and only the top gun Cottrell has demonstrated better archery with an 18.4 shooting percentage. And only Ruff and Nicole Anderson can claim to have scored more power play goals (6) than O’Neill (5).

 

But there is at least one column to which she can claim the crown. Her second go-ahead goal on Friday eventually morphed into her team-leading third game-winning strike. And then as of yesterday, with the assist on Jensen’s winner, she has now had a hand in six of the Friars’ last 10 deciders.

 

So while she may not be in the mix for the league’s Player of the Year laurel, and is not even guaranteed MVP honors amongst her peers, O’Neill will most likely take her second Hockey East Player of the Week laurel tomorrow. She will do so for a leading clutch performance in what so far has been the most consequential weekend of the Friars’ season.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

On Women's Hockey: PC's Lacasse Won't Yield Any Breaks

Burlington, Vt.- Amidst last night’s crucial bout at the Gutterson Fieldhouse, a source close to the Providence College women’s hockey team gave this author a better-than-nothing peek into the ultrasensitive injury report.

 

The revelation was rather mind-boggling. Apparently, glue girl goaltender Genevieve Lacasse had sustained a not-so-negligible upper body injury in Thursday’s practice session shortly before the team was slated to bus off to Burlington.

 

Yet she still suited up and assumed her position for her 33rd start in as many opportunities this season, ultimately becoming the first goalie in the nation to log at least 2,000 minutes played on the year and backing a 4-2 PC triumph with a 20-save performance.

 

All of this happens to be on the heels of her Wednesday nomination, opposite 44 other initial candidates, for the 2010 Patty Kazmaier Award. Odds are Lacasse will have the same type of difficulty going much farther on the Patty ballot than she has had making headway in the Canadian U22 program. The individual competition is just too overwhelming.

 

Conversely, and thankfully if you are a Friartownie, nothing has overwhelmed Lacasse when it comes to engaging Hockey East and bolstering her team’s cause. Even with her reported, unspecified ailment, she could not exactly convince the pride-hungry Catamounts to let her ease in to last night’s contest.

 

Rather, Vermont doled out all of the game’s first seven attempted shots, four of which the Scarborough Save-ior would have to play herself. Two of those were back-to-back power play bids by Emily Walsh and Melanie Greene in the fifth minute.

 

Lacasse’s skating mates did grant her a brief break after Arianna Rigano’s release from the sin bin at 6:27, muzzling the Catamounts’ strike force for a good five-plus minutes of clock time. But in that same block of time, the Vermont defense was equally thorny.

 

PC didn’t so much as attempt a stab at Vermont keeper Kristen Olychuck until there was 11:38 gone in the opening frame. Although that shot happened to be the icebreaker goal, courtesy of Nicole Anderson, and it was converted on a swift counterattack issued moments after Lacasse had repelled a stab by Celeste Doucet.

 

The start of the second period was not exactly like the first. It was more along the lines of Lacasse moving up to Level II on an in-person video game. Vermont lasted a full nine minutes after the initial face-off without letting the Friars pester Olychuck while thrusting out nine unanswered attempts. Although, Lacasse only had to deal with three of those while the other six were blocked or guided wide.

 

The Catamounts’ third power play, awarded at 9:45 of the middle frame on an interference infraction by Jessie Vella, was a different matter. In a matter of 77 seconds, Lacasse worked up a flash flood’s worth of sweat, kicking out six power play shots and summoning two whistles. But she eventually cracked and let Erin Wente insert an equalizer at the 11:02 mark.

 

The Friars, however, promptly perked up afterward. At the time of Wente’s goal, Vermont owned the shooting gallery, 17-5. But for the remainder of the period, the Friars usurped control under that heading, 6-1, and renewed their lead via Jean O’Neill at 13:25.

 

Compared to all of the developments of the preceding 26 hours or so, the final 19 minutes of last night’s tangle were an easy drive for Lacasse. The Catamounts drew another knot on another power play strike at 0:32 via Chelsea Furlani, only to see O’Neill renew the Friars’ lead yet again at 1:01.

 

After that, the total shots would be 8-4 and the goal count 1-0, both in favor of Providence, Alyse Ruff slugging home an insurance strike with 2:51 to spare. Meanwhile, Lacasse went through one stretch spanning over seven minutes and two additional blocks lasting five minutes wherein Vermont had no tests to offer.

 

And when the clock rolled up to the 10:04 mark of the closing frame, Lacasse had just played exactly 2000 minutes on the year. By night’s end she had consumed 2009:56 for an even 99 percent of the Friars’ crease time.

 

Of all the other Division I stoppers across the map, only six stand any realistic potential to join Lacasse in this year’s 2,000-minute club: Laura Dahm of Clarkson, Alexandra Garcia of Connecticut, Hillary Pattenden of Mercyhurst, Jennifer Harss of Minnesota-Duluth, Victoria Vigilanti of Quinnipiac, and Lucy Schoedel of Syracuse. Some of those are a little more likely than others, but all are technically “maybes” until they cross that boundary.

 

Certainly, Lacasse’s peerless mileage is partially owed to the 11 times Providence has played a fourth period this season. In overtime alone, she has logged a 1-1-9 record coupled with 50:55 minutes and 25 saves on 26 shots faced.

 

That nearly constitutes an extra game played on top of the 33 she has already started and the 32 she has finished, some with more dignity than others.

 

Last night, however, saw nothing in the way of OT drama. The fits of tension came first, then the collectively composed reactions, and then a satisfied stride to the finish, and back into sole possession of first place in the conference.

 

But like usual, it was another testament to the Save-ior’s stamina. So even if this doesn’t get Lacasse all the way to the Kazmaier crown or earn her a repeat of the league’s ITECH goaltending championship, it certainly makes her a prime candidate for the team MVP title.

 

And especially in wake of the health issue, it should also make one wonder why there is no Bill Masterton Trophy at this level.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

Women's Hockey Feature: PC Olympian Karen Thatcher Stimulated By Surroundings

Karen Thatcher is anything but a cheat, as is indicated by the three Hockey East sportsmanship awards she reeled in from 2004 to 2006.

 

So maybe not so unexpectedly, when asked about the irony of starting her post-collegiate endeavors so soon after the 2006 Olympics, right on the outskirts of the Games’ next host city of Vancouver, and ultimately landing a passport to that tournament with Team USA, the PC women’s hockey alumna refrained from forging any stretched anecdotes.

 

Yes, she was right there playing with the British Columbia Breakers. She even went so far as to transplant her possessions from her lifelong New England home to nearby Blaine, Wash., which she continues to cite as her hometown.

 

And yes, after a few more developmental journeys to southern Ontario and the Twin Cities, she happens to be competing in her adopted home region again this weekend in the ultimate international event.

 

But Thatcher insists that, at first anyway, she was fixated on the present after she snagged her degree at The Dunk and transitioned from college hockey to the Western Women’s League.

 

“To tell you the truth, when I made the decision to go play for the Breakers, I wasn’t thinking about the Olympics at all,” she said recently. “I was just looking for a nice place to play, a nice place to train, and just trying to find the best situation for me.”

 

Thatcher admitted that her gig with the Breakers was designed to be brief (she says she had an eye on medical school). And it was, lasting all of 26 games wherein she charged up 19 goals and 17 assists.

 

But once she was summoned to don the Star-Spangled Sweater for the 2006 Four Nations Cup, “all plans” for an early life after hockey “were negated.”

 

Whilst joining the Americans in most every event possible since then, Thatcher briefly sought thicker ice in suburban Toronto with the Vaughn Flames of the National Women’s League for the 2007-08 season. She then devoted a portion of last year to the Minnesota Whitecaps before plowing through every phase of the Team USA Qwest Tour en route to the Olympics, which will commence today with a 3:00 EST face-off versus China.

 

Regardless, it all traces to and from the Lower Mainland, which is one simple customs commute away from Thatcher’s Washington town.

 

“I love the Vancouver area,” Thatcher said. “It presented me with a really great opportunity in a really great area.

 

“It’s just very fortunate for me that the Olympics are being played there because, over the last few years, to see the buildup and to the see the new construction and to see the excitement in that area with the Olympics right around the corner has really helped my work ethic, my passion, and my drive to make the final cut, and now try to bring home a gold medal.”

 

Star-struck as a senior
When she was still at PC, where she aggregated 132 points in 100 games over three years after transferring from Brown in the summer of 2003, Thatcher was one of those who swung and missed a little less noticeably at a passport to Torino.

 

Friartownies will remember 2006 more vividly as the year they were left to accept the fact that, for the first time in its three Olympic dances, the paramount stage of women’s hockey would not include any PC products. Six veterans had already hung up their blades, 2004 graduate and international newbie Kelli Halcisak came only within tasting distance of a roster spot, and the revered Cammi Granato was controversially cut.

 

But two months before the Torino tourney, those who would constitute Team USA had a friendly with a conglomeration of Hockey East All-Stars at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center. Thatcher, who accompanied college teammates Jana Bugden and Sonny Watrous and head coach Bob Deraney to that game, was awarded the WHEA captaincy and took three of her team’s 12 registered shots in a not-too-shabby 5-2 loss.

 

For her, it was a turning point that renewed her appetite for international glamour. As such, it would also mark a hidden U-turn towards ultimately replenishing PC’s presence in the Olympics.

 

“That was a unique experience for me that definitely bolstered my dreams of becoming an Olympian,” Thatcher recalls. “I had missed the Olympic tryouts that previous summer due to elbow surgery and had almost abandoned my childhood dream.

“Playing in that game, seeing the jerseys emblazoned with “USA,” and the thrill of competing at that caliber rekindled the dream and pushed me to continue to pursue my hockey career.”

 

But if directly confronting the Olympians and subsequently living in the shade of the Games’ next host city were two blows of reinforcement, then Thatcher’s ignition was sparked even earlier by the “Carpe Diem” atmosphere she felt when walking in the depths of Schneider Arena.

 

Thatcher, who will vie to become the eighth former Friar to drape a medal over her USA jersey and the first such player to have been recruited in the Deraney Era, was quick to cite the program’s “Tradition of Excellence” slogan.

 

That, and her ex-teammate Sarah Youlen’s proclamation, which is now immortalized on the dressing room walls: “Those who came before us have done excellently. Our goal is to surpass them all.”

 

“This is a quote that I have taken with me in everything I’ve done,” Thatcher said. “I feel it articulates the notion of tradition and respect that I value very highly.”

 

Of the seven gold medalists from the icebreaking Nagano tournament in 1998, she remarked, “I would not have had the opportunities in my sport without these remarkable women and their road-paving attitudes.

 

“Every time I pulled on a jersey with the Friars’ logo on the front, I did my best to make them proud. It is because of their work that I was able to wear that jersey.

 

“As Sarah's quote implies, they paved the way for us. It is our job to continue their legacy by further developing the women's game at Providence and beyond. And it’s for that reason that I am proud to represent Providence at the 2010 Olympics.”

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press