Canada Gives Corriero the Cold Shoulder

For all the red on the Canadian flag, it sure could have used a bit more crimson.

While her fellow Canadians will be training up north for the Women’s World Hockey Championship, junior forward and Thornhill, Ontario native Nicole Corriero will remain right here in Cambridge where she likes it.

Hockey Canada released the roster for the women’s national team on Tuesday, announcing the 20 skaters and two alternates who will represent the country at the tournament held in Dartmouth and Halifax, Nova Scotia from March 30 to April 6.

Just four players, all forwards, currently playing for American colleges were invited to join the squad—Minnesota Duluth’s Caroline Ouellette, St. Lawrence’s Gina Kingsbury and Dartmouth’s Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps.

Harvard alum Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03, also a forward, will be the sole Harvard representative on the team.

Noticeably missing from the list was Corriero, a forward herself and the nation’s leading goal scorer (1.22 goals pers game) and third-highest point scorer (2.13 points per game).

In the latter statistic, she sits only behind UMD’s one-two punch of Ouellette and forward Jenny Potter, a member of the American national team.

Corriero is also one of ten finalists for the prestigious Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award—a distinction presented every year to the most outstanding player in women’s U.S college hockey.

In spite of all this, however, Corriero was not even offered a spot on Team Canada’s selection camp roster in January—something that is hard to explain based on the numbers.

Old-Fashioned Snubbery

The Canadian national press calls the decision a “testimony to Canada’s depth,” but Corriero offers a different perspective on the situation.

“I think that they’re looking at a lot of different things,” she says. “Initially, I was pretty disappointed, but last year when I was invited to join [the Under-22 team] I didn’t go, and that may have had a bit of an effect on their decision. Maybe they thought that I wasn’t planning on going even if I was going to be invited.”

Last February, Corriero declined the U-22 squad’s invitation to play in Germany after making the team and subsequently getting cut in August.

“After thinking long and hard about it, we had some pretty big games coming up, especially against Dartmouth and Mercyhurst,” she said of her decision. “And the second semester was just starting, so I didn’t think that leaving my team for 10 days when we had a stretch of important games would be the best decision for me, especially if I would have to go all the way out to Europe.

“I wasn’t going to play very much anyway—it wouldn’t be good for my game, my team or my confidence, so I turned down the opportunity.”

Junior Kat Sweet defended her teammate’s decision.

“One of the reasons they snubbed her this year...is that she chose Harvard over the Canadian team last season last season, which just shows how committed she is to our team,” Sweet says. “I think her dream might be to play on the Canadian team, but she’d never throw the Harvard team under the bus to do that.”

And at the time, Corriero didn’t foresee her decision would become a sticking point with her homeland in the future.

“I guess the thing with Team Canada is that they want you to be their number one priority, and place their events and functions above all other commitments,” she said. “I guess I’m just not in a position to want to do that.”

Two Roads Diverged

This year, that choice will be all the tougher for ECAC players to make, as Team Canada’s training camp schedule conflictd directly with the ECAC Tournament, held on March 13-14 and 20-21. In fact, it will prevent Apps, Piper, Kingsbury and Ouellette from participating in the Frozen Four, which takes place March 26 and 28 if their teams advance that far. Hockey Canada is holding the position that players will have to choose between playing for their school and playing for the Canadian national team.

“I would hope that they could give the kids some flexibility [with the situation,]” St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan said prior to Hockey Canada’s statement.

St. Lawrence goalie Rachel Barrie made the same decision Corriero did in turning away the U-22 Team in favor of staying with the Saints during her senior year.

“It’s obviously very inconvenient that they would set up the camp the way they did so that players would have to make a decision,” Corriero says. “But because it’s the national team, it’s a tough decision for anyone to have to make. I know personally that I would probably choose Harvard over the national team. But different players have different goals.”

Apps, who is an Olympian, made the decision long ago.

“I said from the very beginning that if I was asked, I would go,” Apps says. “I do think that it’s one of the NCAA’s biggest conflicts, and it’s unfortunate for the two of the biggest women’s hockey’s sporting events to have difficulties.

“But I was notified early on at the beginning of the season about a potential conflict with my college team and the Frozen Four, so it wasn’t a surprise,” she added. “It’s just unfortunate, scheduling-wise, that they couldn’t come to some sort of agreement.”

The Puck Doesn’t Stop Here

With Corriero in full action for the No. 2 Crimson and a few of Harvard’s biggest rivals currently on track to miss key players during critical postseason appearances, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise after all.

But that doesn’t appease Corriero.

“We want to play every team when they’re at their best, with full strength,” she says. “We want to beat them with their best players, so there are no doubts left and no excuses.”

And is Canada’s decision going to become bulletin-board material?

“It’s frustrating, but it gives me a sense of motivation. I’ve been wanting to try to prove them wrong all year, after being cut in August and not getting selected this past round,” Corriero says.

Vying with Ouellette and Potter for the nation’s scoring title and playing at a level worthy of her Kazmaier Award nomination isn’t exactly falling short of that goal.

“All I can do now is focus on my game,” Corriero adds. “I just have to play the best hockey I can possibly play, and make myself as inviting a candidate as possible. But if they don’t select me, hey.”

Fortunately for Harvard, Corriero has her priorities in order.

And if the national team’s decision leads to Crimson success in the Frozen Four, opponents have only to blame Canada.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.