Everybody's Got a Hungry Heart

The road to the ECAC title still follows I-93, but the path to the crown travels a little further north this year. Keep straight until the I-89 interchange and then just follow the signs for Hanover. Dartmouth, and not Harvard, is this year’s team to beat.

The Big Green enters the season ranked atop the ECAC Preseason Coaches Poll, capturing five of 10 first-place votes and 77 points, five more in the balloting than the second-place Crimson, which received three first-place votes and 72 points. Not far behind, St. Lawrence comes into the season predicted to finish third, with two first-place votes and 68 points.

And those three don’t figure to be separated by much in the season’s opening weeks. Harvard and Dartmouth meet for the first time on Jan. 11, while the Crimson and the Saints don’t face off until Feb. 20.

But Harvard had better not get too focused on those games just yet. There are quite a few names on the schedule that might put an end to the Crimson’s NCAA aspirations even sooner.

“The thing I always draw attention to is that we play, in my opinion, the most competitive schedule in the country, if not one of the top two competitive schedules in the country,” says Harvard coach Katey Stone. “So you’re going to find out pretty quickly how good you are.”

Dartmouth

Although the challenge of facing down Dartmouth is one that any Crimson team would relish, this year’s Harvard squad won’t even have to dig that deep to find its motivation.

Though the Crimson handled the Big Green in both regular season matchups last season, Dartmouth emerged on top in the third and most important game—the ECAC Championship.

For the fourth consecutive year in the ECAC tournament, the puck bounced the Big Green’s way, as No. 1 Harvard was embarrassed 7-2, bringing the Crimson’s 27-match unbeaten steak to an end in a most ignominious prelude to the Frozen Four.

“Dartmouth is obviously always a huge, huge opponent,” says co-captain Lauren McAuliffe. [There’s a] huge rivalry there.”

Though Dartmouth will see a new face behind the helm, the change will be in appearance only, as the Big Green will continue using a rough style of play to beat down opponents.

Gone is legendary Dartmouth coach Judy Oberting who retired at the end of last season. Filling her shoes is Mark Hudak, an assistant whose military career at West Point predisposes him to the same brand of physical play Oberting utilized.

“They’re going to be good,” Stone says. “Their coach is good.”

But the talent from which he will mold his team is not of the quality Oberting upended the Crimson with late last season.

Gone are Correne Bredin, a defenseman with the Canadian national team, and Amy Ferguson, whose goaltending marks clutter the Dartmouth record books.

If the Big Green is weak anywhere, it is at the back, with a less-experienced netminder and a defense that isn’t quite as strong as last year’s.

That isn’t to say those players aren’t capable, though. Stephanie Cochran, who assumes regular duties between the pipes this year, held Harvard to just two goals in the ECAC finals and the defense returns as a mostly intact unit, now one year older and wiser.

Up front, Dartmouth is anchored by a pair of Canadian Olympians—Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps.

Flanking the Big Green’s offense, the duo wrought havoc on opposing goalkeepers last year as freshmen, combining for 67 points despite not playing a full slate of games.

Dartmouth also has a strong contingent outside its national team members that will prove difficult to handle regardless of the Canadians’ presence.

Tri-captain and forward Sarah Clark, the team’s third-leading goal scorer last season, will provide leadership at the front. Five of the Big Green’s top seven point scorers return to the ice this season.

Katie Weatherston’s 47 points last season tied her for second on the school’s all-time points list for freshmen. With one year under her belt, Weatherston will be even more dangerous.

The X factor is junior tri-captain Megan Walton, who was severely limited in her play last year due to injury. She returns to action at full strength this season and hopes to reproduce a campaign more similar to her freshman year in which she scored 32 points, assisting on 22 scores.

St. Lawrence

Unlike the Big Green, St. Lawrence’s strength lies at the back, where senior goaltender Rachel Barrie anchors the Saints’ defense.

Barrie, a member of the Canadian National Under-22 team, was tapped for the second time last year as the ECAC’s top goaltender, thanks in large part to her three shutouts on the season.

With a 2.07 goals against average and a .925 save percentage for her college career, sneaking the puck past Barrie is no easy task.

Directly in front of her, captain Lindsay Charlebois and Laurie Ross return as St. Lawrence’s most effective defensive pairing, fresh off a +24 plus-minus rating a season ago.

On the attack, forward Gina Kingsbury, a member of the Canadian national team, leads the Saints down the ice, one-seasoned removed from tying for third on the team in scoring in spite of her absences for national team play.

“She is an amazingly skilled player,” McAuliffe says.

In conference play, Kingsbury shone, leading the squad with 22 points in seven fewer games while tallying a pair of game-winners.

Freshman Chelsea Grills should make an immediate impact in her freshman year on the front line.

Named to the Canadian national under-22 squad in August, Grills is a talented scorer whose potency will, at least initially, be limited only by commitments to her other squad.

“St. Lawrence has been a good opponent since I’ve been here,” McAuliffe says. “It’s always a good game with them.”

Providence

Ranked No. 5 nationally, Providence will provide the earliest test on the young season for the Crimson, with the first matchup coming on Nov. 11.

“We’ve always had trouble with Providence,” says co-captain Angela Ruggiero. “They like to get you in the corner, push you around and get in your head.”

Like Dartmouth, the Friars are guaranteed to bang bodies and will attempt to beat Harvard by turning a game of skill into a dogfight more favorable for Providence.

“I think Providence’s all-around game of maybe not having the most talent but grinding it out with big bodies and physical play is going to win them a lot of games,” Stone says.

And this Friars’ squad is familiar with that style of play. Providence returns all but four of its players from a 24-win season last year and has depth to spare at each position.

At the top, Rush Zimmerman and Darlene Stephenson spearhead last year’s eighth-highest scoring team in the nation.

Zimmerman came into her own on the front line last season, exploding for 40 points—20 goals, 20 assists. She also thrives under pressure—10 of her goals came on the power play and four were game-winners.

Stephenson rippled the net a team second-best 18 times, including three while down a man, a team high.

The defense is anchored by Kelly Halcisak, the team’s strongest player. Halcisak turned in a tremendous offensive effort from the blueline last season, scoring a personal best 45 points—14 goals, 31 assists—en route to being tabbed as a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier trophy, awarded to the nation’s top player, and named second-team All-American.

Halcisak protects sophomore Jana Bugden, who tends the net for Providence.

Bugden set a record for Friar freshmen with more games and minutes logged at the back than any other player in school history. With a 1.69 goals against average, .925 percent save percentage and 20 wins under her belt, she cements the back of n already a solid defense.

UNH

No. 8 New Hampshire enters the season with a very different personnel, having graduated 11 of the 23 members of last year’s team.

At no position will the effects be more crippling than goaltender.

Neither of the Wildcats’ goalies from the 2002-2003 season returns this year, including 2003 first-team All-American Jen Huggon.

Maghan Grahn, a sophomore transfer from Minnesota-Duluth who last played for the 2001-2002 national champions, will skate between the pipes for UNH. With five games experience, she has a slight edge over the pair of incoming freshmen, but the situation will take time to sort itself out.

New Hampshire lost five on the front line as well, but the players retained will more than hold their own.

Junior Stephanie Jones, one of a handful of players invited to a development program for the Canadian national under-22 squad, has made her presence felt in the collegiate arena since she burst onto the scene as a freshman.

In addition to her physical play, Jones has led the Wildcats in scoring during both of her previous seasons on the ice, notching eight game-winners last year. But like the rest of her team, she lacks big-game experience and the confidence that comes with it.

“UNH is a team, I think, with talent that needs to win the big games to gain the confidence to know that they belong, because I think they will,” Stone says. “They’ve made some good steps in the last year.”

Among those positive strides, the Wildcats have brought in two freshmen, forward Nicole Hekle and defenseman Martine Garland, who joins Jones at the Canadian development program. The rookies will have an immediate impact filling the void left by the many off-season departures.

Garland is one of three new additions that will look to shore up the vulnerable back.

Captain Kristen Thomas and senior Allison Edgar lead the defensive corps, creating a one-two punch among the best the Crimson will see this season.

In addition to packing a potent defensive wallop, each can turn the puck back up ice and distribute with ease. The two tied for the team assist lead at the end of the last season with 23.

Minnesota-Duluth

It was the game of the season, and, probably, the greatest game in the history of women’s collegiate hockey. Number one versus number two battling to a thrilling 4-3 finish in double overtime.

Despite a win over the Bulldogs earlier in the season, Harvard finished second in the battle of the year.

Think they’ll be looking for a measure of redemption when the two teams play on back-to-back days, December 12-13?

No matter the outcome, neither the teams nor the stakes will be the same.

“I think it’s going to be some time before we see again that kind of collective talent on the ice, like it was in Duluth last year, for any of these teams,” Stone says. “The playing, the players, the ability out there was tremendous—the best that women’s hockey has seen.”

Like the Crimson, No. 4 Duluth has lost several of its stars from last year, but still maintains a potent squad capable of picking off any team in the country.

“Duluth is still good,” Stone says. “They’re dangerous. They lost a ton of kids like we did, but they still have good goaltending and tremendous forwards.”

Despite the departures, the Bulldogs are still loaded with international Olympians—an American, a Canadian, Finn and Swede—as well as three skaters playing for national under-22 squads.

American senior forward Jenny Potter and Canadian junior forward Caroline Ouellette form the crux of Duluth’s dangerous offensive attack.

Potter, like Ruggiero, is a two-time Olympian, and has taken additional time off due to the birth of her first child. She is a one-woman scoring machine who owns records at her former school, the University of Minnesota, in goals, assists and points in a single season.

Ouellette has proven herself equally potent on offense, leading Team Canada in scoring in the qualifying stages for the 2002 Winter Games.

Senior Satu Kipeli, a defenseman from Team Finland, provides the physical stopping power that propels the back line. A solid two-way player, she placed second among defensemen on the team in scoring last season.

“Potter, Lillette and all their international players—I can’t even keep track of them!” Ruggiero says. “They’re a big, strong, imposing team, too. They’re a physical team, the same as Dartmouth. With Dartmouth and Duluth we know we’re going to get a physical game.”

“I actually enjoy going to Duluth,” McAuliffe says. “I don’t mind taking that trip at all. The crowd we had last year was amazing.”

And chances are, the result will be equally amazing this time around.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.