Boston College women’s hockey procures Honeybaked flavor

(Photo courtesy of BC Athletics)

Collecting quotes from Megan Keller and Tori Sullivan can be akin to watching actors rotate a shared role in a stage production. Either that, or performers in successive adaptations of the same story, with only negligible dialogue discrepancies and mutual justice to each other’s character portrayals.

They two freshmen are living the same essential tale as Detroit Honeybaked-turned-Boston College women’s hockey prodigies, and recount the joint journey through analogous articulation.

“After my first time visiting BC, I was 14 years old,” Keller, the defender from Farmington Hills, Mich., told Along the Boards via e-mail. “I remember right when I got home telling my parents, ‘This is the place I want to go.’”

“I first visited BC when I was 14 years old,” Sullivan, the forward from West Bloomfield, Mich., wrote in her own e-mail to ATB. “After the visit, I remember saying to myself that this is, without a doubt, the place where I want to be.”

It did not hurt their decision to have a pair of former Honeybaked allies preceding them as Eagles recruits. Forwards Andie Anastos and Haley McLean, now sophomores at Chestnut Hill, shared action with Keller and Sullivan for the southeast Michigan travel program in multiple age groups.

“Coming into BC, I felt like I already knew the team through Andie and Haley,” said Keller. “And the team in general is one of the nicest groups I have ever met. That alone made it easy to adjust.

“We are together every day, and you’d think it would be easy to get sick of each other, but it’s not. I love being around our team and the whole BC community. It is truly something special to be a part of."

The facility of the transition has doubtlessly helped all four players coalesce into a near-perfect composition of 23 players. The Eagles enter Thanksgiving weekend the decisive top-ranked team in the country, brandishing a 14-0-1 overall record and seamless 9-0-0 transcript in Hockey East play. Results-wise, it is the uncontested best start in the modern BC women’s program’s 21 seasons of operation.

Each of the second-time allies, though appreciative of one another’s company, have punctuated their team-wide compatibility in every environment. Although Anastos and McLean are second-year roommates in their dorm, and Keller and Sullivan share common campus digs as well, they graciously accept assigned arrangements on road trips.

And whether they are grooming their game at Conte Forum, entertaining their own boosters or invading another barn, they have meshed with previously unfamiliar linemates and defensive partners. Anastos, Sullivan and McLean have generally spread the depth on BC’s second, third and fourth forward units, respectively. Keller is making steady strides as a depth defender, likely to reach the top tier in due time.

All, however, have established an indispensable niche, and reaffirm their common roots through a common drive.

“They’re all really hard workers,” Eagles head coach Katie King Crowley told ATB in a phone chat this week. “They come in ready to go every day, and they like to have fun. All four of them are great hockey players, and have developed their own style, but they all contribute. We’re fortunate to have them.”

Stacked with incentive

With the successive enrollment of Anastos and McLean, then Keller and Sullivan, the all-time Honeybaked-BC pipeline has quickly quintupled. Until last fall, the institutions’ connections were strictly confined to a certain 2011 Eagles graduate by the name of Kelli Stack.

Stack, a two-time silver medalist with the U.S. Olympic team, helped the Honeybaked 19-and-under team to an appearance in the 2006 USA Hockey national tournament. Afterwards, she wasted little time lending a face to the alumnae of her last travel program, let alone relevance to the women’s wing of the Kelley Rink at Conte Forum.

Stack bookended a five-year stretch with a piloting role in BC’s first two Women’s Frozen Four appearances (2007 and 2011). She thrice garnered the Hockey East player of the year award, only falling short as a sophomore.

After a year’s leave for a 2010 Olympic excursion, she finished rewriting the program record book with career totals of 98 goals, 111 assists and 209 points, and led the Eagles to their still-only WHEA postseason pennant.

No wonder Crowley and company took another look at southeast Michigan when reloading in the wake of Stack’s graduation, right?

“Obviously, we’re trying to find the best fits for our program,” Crowley said. “I feel like those kids — coming through that program after Stack really fit that mold —they got on our radar, and we wanted to continue to watch them play.”

No later than the end of May 2013, Crowley and longtime top assistant Courtney Kennedy had seen enough to extend offers to some of Stack’s successors.

For Anastos and McLean, the faith was mutual. They formally signed on to join what was then a three-time reigning national semifinalist a full two years after Stack snagged her degree.

“Being recruited by BC was a rather short process for me,” Anastos, Keller’s fellow Farmington Hills resident, recalled. “I just remember going on a visit to the school and being like, ‘Yes I want to go here. This is the place for me.’ I just really liked the coaches, and obviously knew they had a strong program, with great players like Stack that have gone through the program.”

With Keller and Sullivan, the pattern reran itself in the latest recruiting cycle. “While it’s safe to say I was pretty set on going to BC, knowing that Kelli Stack came here before me and had success only ensured my decision,” said Keller.

Granted, the locally bred Alex Carpenter has filled the unofficial void as BC’s resident prolific, otherworldly, Olympic-seasoned talent. But Stack’s successors in the pipeline from suburban Detroit to the outskirts of Boston have squandered no time upholding the program’s celestial status as asked.

Anastos, in particular, made instant ripples when the radar opened to her in 2013-14. While Carpenter spent the season on Team USA’s trek to Sochi, Anastos led the Eagles with 21 assists and placed second on the team with 14 goals and 35 assists. She would join current junior teammate Haley Skarupa (2013) and Stack (2007) as the latest BC player to claim the WHEA’s top rookie laurel.

“Andie obviously had a great year last year,” Crowley said. “She really came on when we needed some help. She certainly came on strong for us, and has continued to do that this year. I think a lot of kids really enjoy playing with her, really want to be on her line, because she’ll set people up.”

Of Anastos’ classmate and campus roommate, the skipper offered, “Haley is feisty, and I think that’s something she continues from her Honeybaked days. She has really done a good job for us this year. She’s a kid who will shoot from anywhere, puts pressure on the other team with our forecheck and with the way she can skate.”

Crowley was courteously cautious when she underscored the common threads between the two rookies and Stack. Keller and Sullivan have ample time to burgeon, but each bring enticing skill sets and backgrounds bearing shades of the decorated Honeybaked pioneer.

Both saw action on U.S. 18-and-under national team last season, claiming silver at the World Championships. Entering this weekend, Sullivan is second among Hockey East freshmen with eight goals and 13 points.

“Tori has a little bit of a different style than we have,” Crowley said. “She sees the ice really well, and is kind of similar to a stack in that she slows down the game a bit when she has the puck and makes a really nice play.”

She added, “Keller has obviously been able to play with the national team a bit, and is a good, solid defender. She’s a big, strong kid who sees the ice really well.”

Twice in a lifetime?

While Stack spent her senior year leading BC to its most ornate season so far, the four future Eagles back in Michigan were fast-tracking to their top pre-collegiate memory together.

Anastos’ hat trick spelled the difference in Honeybaked’s 3-0 victory over the Chicago Mission in the 2011 16-and-under USA Hockey national championship game. It was the first title of its kind in any age group for the program.

Anastos and McLean also teamed up on a Michigan District title run at the 14-and-under level in 2009 and in the 19-and-under group in 2012. Sullivan went to additional national dances in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

But none of the four won another title before graduating the elite youth ranks. The passage of time and the change of scenery have more than honed their hunger to stir a sequel on NCAA ice.

“Winning the national championship back on 16-U was definitely the highlight of my hockey career,” said McLean, “especially because I was able to share the moment with Andie, Meg and Tor, who I have always been very close with.

“Knowing we have a shot at it again is awesome especially because it is something — I think — every college athlete dreams of. Winning a championship with your best friends is something special that we would remember for a lifetime.”

McLean’s word choice in that last sentence would have one believe she has yet to savor national glory with Anastos, Keller or Sullivan. Perhaps that is proof of the fresh-sheet mentality she and the other three are harboring.

They have already played a role in bringing home one elite program’s first national crown. Now all four are fastidiously bent on remaking their own triumphant narrative with new costumes, a new setting, a new supporting cast and new challenges.

They will have a maximum of three chances to deliver their dream as a group at Chestnut Hill. Not that they are showing any unnecessary patience. Even now, in the young months of their working reunion, they are forming an infectious, impactful nucleus for the rest of the roster.

“The four of them are together all the time,” said Crowley. “They were friends before they were teammates, and they’ve been through a lot of different things together.

“I think it only helps your team. They’re a great group that everybody wants to be around, so it’s something that as a coach, you know those four kids are good leaders — even though they’re young — and they’re good people as well as good hockey players.”

“We try to recruit good people and good players, and to get that combination, we’ve been very fortunate with these kids.”

 

This article originally appeared on Along the Boards

Clarkson’s Shannon MacAulay leading champs through challenges

The reality of offseason overhaul reached a cracking point by the final buzzer Oct. 18 at Cheel Arena. The Clarkson University women’s hockey team had just endured a two-game sweep via the visiting Boston University, dropping to 3-3-0 on the year.

Up to that point, the menace’s insistent knocking had gone unanswered, and was even muffled at times. The defending national champions had claimed a respectable split with local rival St. Lawrence and blanked Providence for a full 120 minutes.

In turn, they were kicking ice chips over the fact that they had lost four of their top five scorers, one key defender, minute-munching goaltender Erica Howe and one of their co-coaches. Ditto their season-long limit of 16 skaters, even with perfect health up and down the depth chart.

But through their first encounter with a fellow 2014 NCAA tournament participant, they brooked a little more damage to the door. Reality raided, impelling junior captain Shannon MacAulay to evoke her beyond-her-years intangibles for the first time.

“After BU, it was just a bit of a wakeup call for us and a learning curve,” MacAulay told Along the Boards via e-mail. “We knew we had to be better, and it wasn’t going to be easy.

“We definitely have come together more as a team since that weekend, and have had more energy all around. We worked hard to get better in practice, and have since realized how good we can be if we are all bringing that work ethic.”

The scoreboard does not object. The Golden Knights have since redressed their room by reeling off five consecutive victories. They have run up a 25-3 scoring differential in that span, never allowing more than one goal in a single venture.

The turnaround began six nights after the 5-2 falter before BU. None other than MacAulay broke the ice 21 seconds into regulation, added two assists as part of a four-goal first period, then completed her playmaker hat trick to finalize a 9-0 drubbing of Syracuse.

She proceeded to charge up another three-assist outing, a three-goal performance, a goal-assist variety pack and a power-play equalizer in a come-from-behind, 2-1 triumph over Yale.

With 14 points, MacAulay has had a hand in 56 percent of the scoring in Clarkson’s last five games. Her cumulative 9-9-18 scoring log through 11 games overall ties her for second in the nation with Minnesota’s Hannah Brandt.

“It was definitely with the help of my teammates,” she insisted. “Like I said, I think our team has come together quite a bit, and because of that, it has allowed me to be successful.

“For me now, it’s just a matter of focusing on continuing to play this way and keeping my game simple.”

Exactly the exemplary representation the Knights were keen on tapping into as far back as last March.

Advanced preparation

Clarkson crumbled a geographic barrier at the 2014 Frozen Four, becoming the first program other than Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth or Wisconsin to win a national title in the sport’s 14-history under NCAA auspices.

Based on the 2013-14 Golden Knights’ makeup, there was all but a now-or-never feel to the run.

Four prolific producers in Jamie Lee Rattray, Brittany Styner, Carly Mercer and Vanessa Gagnon all took their last hurrah with the 5-4 title victory over the two-time champion Gophers. So, too, did a solid depth striker in Shelby Nisbet, along with Howe in net and Vanessa Plante on defense.

On top of that, co-coach Shannon Desrosiers stepped down for maternity leave after six seasons of split duties with husband Matt.

Too much forethought was a nonexistent notion in the search to replenish that leadership. In the afterglow of the championship, six months before reconvening, Matt Desrosiers queried his returnees on captaincy candidates for 2014-15.

“Shannon’s name repeatedly came up in conversations with her teammates as someone the players felt would be a strong leader and captain,” he recalled in a message to ATB.

The Knights would return four seniors and four juniors this autumn, including a world-class two-way talent in Erin Ambrose. But with the dense smattering of seniors the year prior, none had donned a letter of leadership in their collegiate careers.

Translation: Anything was possible, and MacAulay accepted that.

“I knew, coming into this year, that I had a good chance at taking on a leadership role,” she said. “I had prepared myself for that.

“It was still obviously a pleasant surprise getting the “C,” and I am honored to have received this as a junior.”

That honor came with an obligation to accelerate her output and foster an infectious attack habit. Of the two juniors and one senior on Clarkson’s offensive corps, MacAulay was the career production leader with 40 points in 77 games at the start of this season.

With only three full forward lines, a viable title defense will inevitably require every returnee’s maturity to translate to Gagnon-, Mercer- and Styner-esque numbers.

Roughly one-third of the way through the 34-game regular season, MacAulay is already two points away from swelling her career total by 50 percent. Her two linemates since the start of the current five-game winning streak, sophomores Genevieve Bannon and Cayley Mercer, have matching 7-9-16 transcripts for second on the team.

Other than senior Christine Lambert, the rest of the offense has yet to break double digits under the 2014-15 point heading. But Lambert, who had centered MacAulay’s line until after the BU series, has a precedent for leading by example on her new unit.

The Knights have replenished their success by spreading their seasoning, which starts at the top of the line chart.

“(MacAulay) has the respect of the players and coaching staff, as she brings a good effort every day and sets a good example for everyone to follow,” said Desrosiers. “She has shown the ability to communicate well with both her teammates and the coaching staff, which is a very important quality to have as a captain.

“Her teammates respect her and look to her for help and guidance, which is exactly what you want from your captain.”

Embracing the target

Unlike Desrosiers, MacAulay tends to speak to her leadership qualities through a plural narration. When she is not imparting inspiration or mediating advice, she serves as a prototypical voice box for Clarkson’s collective cause.

Sporting the “defending champions” label compounds the trial of maxing out the talent on a permanently short bench. But MacAulay wants to oversee an operation that sports the collective confidence of surplus skaters and the thirst of a program bereft of banners.

“We are a team that makes it tough for other teams to play against,” she said. “We need to make sure we’re playing this way no matter who it is we play in our league. Every game will be a battle, and to stay on top in our league, you have to come out ready to give a good battle.”

For every Knight eyeing MacAulay’s example, there promises to be a formidable adversary eyeing the same statement the Terriers issued in the mid-October nonconference set.

No fewer than four other ECAC programs have a contender’s composition. Not unlike the three-time Hockey East champions, they want to usurp the task of keeping the NCAA trophy on their side of the Great Lakes.

Come March 8, there will only be eight openings for that privilege across the nation.

If everything lives up to preseason logic, Cornell, Harvard, Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence will all vie for the ECAC title and/or an at-large national tournament bid. They will combine to confront Clarkson seven more times on the remaining league schedule.

“Facing some top teams like Harvard will be huge games for us,” MacAulay allowed. “We will need to want those two points more than they do.”

The Crimson, this year’s preseason coaches’ favorite, will bookend rest of the slate by visiting Potsdam this Friday and hosting the regular-season finale Feb. 21.

In the former game, they will try to hatch the “L” column goose-egg in the Knights’ 3-0-0 ECAC record. By the latter meeting, the difference between dependence on the automatic bid that comes with the conference crown and an at-large cushion could be at stake.

But in one more testament to MacAulay’s captaincy credentials, she zeroed back in on Clarkson’s control panel.

“Overall, we have handled the first month very well, considering we had quite a bit of work to do in the preseason to prepare,” she said. “We’re in a pretty decent spot right now in the standings, and we’re hoping we can just get better every weekend.”

This article originally appeared on Along the Boards

Healthy Hunter Fejes on a resurgent path with Colorado College

Brandon Parker, a would-be power-play point patroller for Alabama-Huntsville, could only recover the errant pass for two seconds. He had hungry company on his tail as he tried to pilot a routine regroup by pivoting back from the red line in neutral territory.

Hunter Fejes, one of the front corners of Colorado College’s penalty-killing box, closed in on Parker along the center-ice wall to dislodge the puck. From there, he raised an upper hand that neither Parker nor another impromptu backchecker could reach.

Fejes finished the singlehanded turnover by swooping to the Chargers porch from the left lane and depositing a backhanded icebreaker. Though it was only the 8:59 mark of his team’s second engagement of the season, the feat impelled him to employ his best Alexander Ovechkin impression.

There was no shortage of carbonated catharsis fueling Fejes’ leap at the glass along the lower boards of the attacking zone. For the junior forward and Arizona (nee Phoenix) Coyotes prospect, that Oct. 11 goal was his first since the 2013 WCHA Final Five.

That’s right. His eighth goal and 14th (and final) point in a promising rookie season had come on March 21 of the previous calendar year. The interim had packed two Memorial Days, two Independence Days, two Coyotes development camps, two Labor Days, a conference change for the Tigers in 2013 and a coaching change for the program in 2014.

“That was a big relief,” Fejes confessed to Along the Boards in a phone interview this week. “I don’t think I could have been any more excited. You could probably tell by the celebration I had there.

“Everyone enjoys doing that, so to get one after not scoring one for such a long time was great.”

Fejes has since polished a power-play conversion as the Tigers’ only tally in a 3-1 loss to mighty North Dakota on Oct. 17. He nearly had another goal that night, though UND’s celestial stopper Zane McIntyre had an answer.

He most recently assisted on both strikes in a 6-2 road loss to New Hampshire eight nights later. With that, he has taken six games to quadruple his junior output from his sophomore struggles, which yielded one solitary assist in 26 outings.

“It’s really satisfying,” he said. “You can never be complacent with where you’re at. Last year, obviously, I struggled offensively, so I made sure to come into this year with a clear mindset, help this team, turn this bus around.”

“My linemates,” he added. “I can’t do it without them. They’re giving me everything I need.”

What he needed at the dawn of 2014-15, though, was a fresh sheet and a clear head. Whatever he would do with that would advance his drive to breathe easier and skate more smoothly, both figuratively and literally.

“The best possible thing I did”

A foundation for regular top-six action was in place for Fejes on the heels of his 14-point freshman campaign. On the heels of a barely sub-.500 campaign, the Tigers were graduating four prolific seniors from their strike force — most notably Rylan Schwartz, he of 100 career assists.

As the program’s fourth-most productive returning forward, Fejes figured to assume no small share of the rebuilding lift. In alignment with logic, he was certain he would be up to that task.

Instead, he found himself slogging through an unforeseen, individual rebuilding project after taking a one-two slash from illness and injury.

“I came into the season very healthy, thought I was in good shape,” he recalled. “And then in the early part of the season, I ended up getting bronchitis, and that kind of set me back. I wasn’t able to compete the way I could compete.”

So much so that he brooked a 20-game pointless skid that spanned the season opener through Jan. 17. He returned to the lower half of the depth chart whilst failing to land more than two shots on goal in any of his first nine ventures.

Fejes finally splashed his drought in the point column Jan. 24 amidst an uplifting 4-1 win over NCHC rival Miami. His homeward-bound feed to Charlie Taft spotted the Tigers a 3-0 advantage at 15:45 of the first period, emboldening their path to the end of a 10-game winless streak.

But it would not be long before belated hope began to recede, at least for 2013-14.

Unable to ignore the agonizing aftermath of what he recounted as a “slew foot” incident that thrust him awkwardly into the boards, he made one appearance in a span of nine games due to a high-ankle sprain.

“I kind of just ended up trying to fight through things, but that was a hard one to fight through,” he said. “I lost all the strength on my ankle. I felt like I was re-tweaking it when I tried to fight through it. People have always told me that it’s better to break your ankle than to get a high ankle sprain.

“There was finally a point there when I said to myself, ‘This isn’t getting any better, I’m not helping the team the way I should.’”

Forcing his appetite for action aside, he approached then-head coach Scott Owens to deliver the same declaration. He boldly confessed his belief that it would serve the Tigers better for him to withdraw for a while.

“Obviously, it was tough for me to do that, because I consider myself a competitor and always want to be out there,” he said. “But at that point, it was the best possible thing I did.”

Upon scrapping his first comeback attempt after briefly skating in a Feb. 14 bout with Western Michigan, Fejes sat out another five games until the March 8 regular-season finale. He joined the third line that night, then spent two of three NCHC quarterfinal bouts accepting grunt work assignments on the fourth troika.

Scratched from the lineup altogether for the rubber match, in which North Dakota ended CC’s abysmal 7-24-6 ride, Fejes had mixed feelings about the ensuing seven-month wait for another shot.

“I believe it was very hard for me to go off into the offseason like that, especially after the season I had,” he said. “You wish you could have more success. But it was probably the best scenario that happened because I was able to recover, make sure to get healthy, reflect on why things didn’t go why I wanted them to and just focus my mindset on next year.

“Confidence was a huge thing. It’s the biggest thing to hockey, and maintaining that is the hardest thing. So I believe it was for the best.”

Intangible reformation

The temptation to tag Fejes with the “new-and-improved” label is tough to turn away from

He is roughly a full year removed from the respiratory residue and more than a half-year beyond the swelling over his skate. He is seeing those long-awaited top-six minutes, and using them to charge up a team-leading 29 shots at the opposing cage.

Fejes does not deny he has upgraded some aspects of his game, but he prefers to point to unseen forces. Contemplation and mental rehearsal, he holds, keyed his brewing bounce-back season this autumn.

“I believe I have the skill set and all that stuff,” he said. “But I think the biggest part was the battle side of it. I focus on my effort and attitude.

“I figured if I could improve in those areas, then I would be good.”

More than his triumphant return to his freshman form, the two added years of adversity-induced appreciation make Fejes an indispensable cog for Colorado in the inaugural year of the Mike Haviland era. Whereas the wounded Fejes, by his own admission, was best out of the equation, the recovered version is bringing exemplary commitment to a still-struggling program.

Since finishing their sweep of the Chargers with the help of Fejes’ liberating shortie, the Tigers have lost four straight. As October gives way to November, a rare weekend free of game action comes at a welcome point after three consecutive opposing runaways of four- or five-goal margins.

With his proven capabilities at even strength and on both sides of the special teams’ spectrum, Fejes figures to join the nucleus in CC’s search for stability. Moreover, the Tigers will likely lean on him as a learned upperclassman who knows how to weather on- and off-ice hardship.

“If things aren’t going the way we want, if I’m not getting as many shifts as I want, I can’t let any of that creep into my mind,” he said. “Once I do that, it’s going to be detrimental.

“Like I said, I’m just focusing on what I can control, just making sure I compete and work hard every single day.”

This article originally appeared on Along the Boards

Madison Litchfield filling big pads for Vermont women’s hockey

Madison Litchfield is one of the most loyal longtime supporters of the Vermont women’s hockey program. It is therefore fitting that she may have the best seat in the Gutterson Fieldhouse for the Catamounts’ best years to come.

That is, they will be their best years if, among other variables, she has her say. The Burlington-area resident of one-and-a-half decades has taken the torch from the record-setting Roxanne Douville as the team’s new No. 1 netminder.

In a Thursday phone interview with Along the Boards, Litchfield recounted the crux of her upbringing in nearby Williston, Vt., where she had moved with her family at the age of five.

It was then and there that a then-fledgling women’s program at the state university cemented her passion for pucks.

“I was pretty set that I wanted to play hockey,” she said. “It was going to be my sport.”

Litchfield was frequenting the Fieldhouse when the Catamounts, who began varsity competition in 1995, upgraded from Division III to Division I for the 2001-02 season. She was around when the ECAC patches in the upper left corners of their jerseys gave way to Hockey East emblems in 2005.

Litchfield latched on to her adopted hometown club to such a degree that she willingly weathered a perpetual chain of needle-lean years. Even while rounding out her preparatory honing with the Junior Women’s League’s Boston Shamrocks, she would sneak glimpses of away games at Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern.

Home or road, she carried no qualms about backing head coach Tim Bothwell’s struggling students, who never mustered more than five victories in any of his six seasons at the helm.

“Leading up to when I came here, I watched the team struggle a bit here and there,” she allowed.

But when the time came for her own college commitment in the winter of 2013, the prospect of a hometown discount was looking less like a cheap investment in the way of winning. Vermont had parted with Bothwell in favor of Jim Plumer, who as part of his first round of recruitment tabbed the local product as one of the dynamic Douville’s apprentices.

“I remember sitting down with him and knowing that he had the power to turn this program around,” Litchfield recalled. “I wanted to be a part of that turnaround. I knew they weren’t doing great at the time, but…”

As his first impression, Plumer doubled the Catamounts’ win count from 2011-12 in both Hockey East and national action. That is, he improved them from three wins in the league and four overall to six and eight in those categories.

The fact that the WHEA expanded its playoff bracket to include all eight tenants, effective in 2013, made Vermont’s first postseason less than flattering. Even so, there was a foundation waiting when Litchfield submitted her letter of intent and entered already familiar territory in her new capacity.

Substantial support

A goaltender’s mask serves as an appropriate punctuation on the trite, yet apt Jekyll-Hyde parallel surrounding the sport’s participants. Its application to the head is a harbinger of the team’s most isolated and most dissected component’s immersion into fearsome focus.

Litchfield still undertakes that transformation on behalf of the Catamounts, Douville does not. But both mugs still grace the Gutterson Fieldhouse, the latter as the program’s new volunteer goaltending instructor.

“It’s awesome to still have Rox here,” Litchfield said. “I know exactly how she plays and she still has so much to teach. It’s great to have her verbalizing those lessons.”

Yes, verbalizing, as opposed to venting with a Voorhees- and vacuum-like temperament, the way Douville did amidst a season-long scramble for crease time in 2013-14.

“Last year, it was always that competitive atmosphere during our practices. We were trying to beat each other out in a friendly competition,” Litchfield said as the first half of the contrast. “Today, she’ll say ‘I noticed this, let’s work on that.’”

Though the Catamounts are a mere six games into the current campaign, and raring to face Union in their annual “Pack the Gut” event Friday, that work is yielding instant gratification.

At 3-2-1 on the year, Litchfield boasts a .928 save percentage and 1.99 goals-against average. She has limited the opponent to no more than two goals in five of those six outings.

Contrast that with her rookie stat line: 4-4-1 with a 3.50 GAA and .870 save percentage within 10 full or partial appearances.

“Last year, I remember going into some games unexpectedly,” she said. “This year, I knew Rox was gone, all of the pressure was going to be on my shoulders and that all eyes are going to be on me.

“But our team has been unbelievable in front of me, supporting me, clearing away rebounds. They have been phenomenal, making it easy for me.”

Therein sits the missing ingredient from when Vermont last infused a new celestial starter.

Unfinished rise

Douville’s arrival in 2010, when Litchfield was a sophomore in high school, marked the first rumbling of a revolution. The freshman phenom out of Beloueil, Que., kept the Catamounts in games at a rate that defied logic.

Discounting empty netters, she confined the opposition to zero, one or two goals 16 times in 22 appearances. Her reward was a sparkling .931 save percentage and 1.91 goals-against average, two bars no one else has reached in the program’s Division I era.

If the lack of a proper stable of skating mates was not self-evident in her 5-11-6 record, it was in her all-around statistical nosedive over the next two years. Her GAA swelled to the three range and save percentage dipped to .901 and .903 for 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively.

But after Litchfield enrolled last season, while Plumer was seeking a sophomore surge behind the bench, Douville concocted a timely fireworks finale. She matched her freshman stoppage rate of .931 and coupled it with an even two goals against per night.

By the final weekend of February, Litchfield had an ultimate rinkside seat to her predecessor’s crowning culmination at the campus barn.

As part of UVM’s first winning season since its 2001 promotion (18-14-4 overall, 13-7-1 in league play), Douville backstopped a 3-2, triple-overtime victory over visiting Maine in the 2014 Hockey East quarterfinals.

The BC Eagles, perennial conference semifinalists and NCAA tournament entrants, ended the milestone thrill ride the following week with a 3-1 win. But Douville had already set another high mark with 14 victories, the most in a single season by any UVM stopper.

Her protégé could not have requested a more inspiring and educational buildup in advance of this year’s inevitably elevated workload.

“I think the best part of last year was that I got to watch how Rox played, how she handled every situation,” said Litchfield. “It was really fun to get my feet wet last year.”

“(Coming into) this year,” she added, “I felt more comfortable knowing how people were going to play and the pace they were going to play at.”

The netminder’s newfound know-how is the Catamounts’ key to propping up what Douville started. Similar growth in other positions will be pivotal in their drive for more passports to the WHEA semifinals in Hyannis, Mass., let alone a bigger splash if they get there.

“Coach (Plumer) always says that the hardest part is still ahead of us,” Litchfield said. “Our goal this year is to just make it farther.

“There’s no question we will have to battle through that quarterfinal to get back to Cape Cod. We just have to keep pushing ourselves.”

This article originally appeared on Along the Boards

Freshman goaltender Taylor Crosby seeks to uphold Northeastern tradition

Some call Marie-Philip Poulin the Sidney Crosby of women’s hockey. But the rising Boston University senior and two-time Olympic gold-medal goal-getter may soon be staring down someone with authentic ties to the Pittsburgh Penguins captain.

The Hart Trophy winner’s younger sister, Taylor Crosby, will be pursuing crease time for the Hub’s other Division I dog pack at Northeastern University this autumn. If she has her way, she will join the program’s pantheon of celestial stoppers and set herself apart among Canada’s next wave of netminders.

While an absence of bloodline references remains remiss, the younger Crosby is shaping impressively separate scrolls. Enrolling at NU is the next hallmark on that front, although she is the first to pause on predictions beyond that.

“I never know if these will be the last four years that I play,” she told Along the Boards this week.

Unmistakably unassuming, Crosby enters the NCAA and Hockey East landscape at a time that allows her to hit the ice sprinting against top-shelf competition. It starts in September, when she faces biscuits from U.S. Olympian Kendall Coyne in practice and works with incumbent senior stopper Chloe Desjardins.

For the record, since spending 2011-12 as Swiss phenom Florence Schelling’s understudy, Desjardins has seen action in 67 of NU’s last 71 games.

If Crosby earns extramural engagement without delay, she could confront the Poulin-led Terrier strike force. There is also the potential to confront a Boston College squad, complete with returning centerpiece and Sochi veteran Alex Carpenter.

Outside of Hockey East, there may be a second-round Beanpot bout with Harvard, featuring U.S. Olympians Lyndsey Fry and Michelle Picard.

“I think that’s the most exciting part,” said Crosby, who to date has only tested herself against established world-class competition in informal settings.

“I’m just out to improve,” she added, “and hopefully take advantage of being on a team with Kendall.”

That and return a favor to an institution that wooed her with its historic grounds and a program that strengthened its magnetic pull with its celestial goaltending graduates. In this century alone, the centenarian Matthews Arena has let the likes of Chanda Gunn and Schelling scrape its blue paint.

Gunn, a 2004 graduate, was a three-time nominee for the Patty Kazmaier Award and later donned the Star-Spangled Sweater in Torino. Those 2006 Olympic Games marked the first of three tournaments for Schelling, who in between bolstered the start of current NU head coach Dave Flint’s tenure.

Crosby confessed that those predecessors drizzled another layer of appeal when the Huskies recruited her. But that aspect was an empty-net conversion after the campus’ amiable atmosphere won her over.

“I was all over the map,” she said of her college search. “I was just looking for a place that felt like home. No other school gave me that feeling. There was no other school that had the same effect on me.

“Not only the school, it’s a great school, the coaching staff is awesome. When you walk into a rink and can picture yourself playing there — you have to be in that position. It’s indescribable.”

Conversely, her appetite for fulfillment speaks for itself and carries over from her travel career. She joined 14 of her peers at last summer’s Hockey Canada goaltending camp and college will be key to breaking the surface of her country’s uber-quantitative, uber-qualitative pool.

With her skill set and background, Crosby could pen a Schelling 2.0 log as an NU freshman. Schelling arrived in 2008 and prompted a near 50-50 split of the crease time with reigning team MVP Leah Sulyma.

If Crosby matches that first impression, she will owe it to her nothing-to-lose mentality on the coming campaign, after Desjardins graduates and after she graduates. That mentality emboldens her compatibility with a program still searching for modern glory.

Since Flint and Schelling’s second season in 2009-10, the Huskies have been a perennial threat for the Hockey East pennant and NCAA tournament qualification. But they have variously fallen ice chips shy of an at-large national bid and lost the conference championship game in 2011 and 2013.

Crosby can relate. She spent the last four seasons at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, winners of five 19-and-under and three 16-and-under national championships in the last decade. Yet through two years apiece at each level, she missed out on a ring.

“I’m still trying to develop myself and achieve new things,” she said. “At Shattuck, I never was fortunate enough to win a national championship. I came close. So I know that coming to an organization that’s doing the same thing makes me more motivated to play a part.”

This article originally appeared on Along the Boards