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