UNH coach Brian McCloskey said a mouthful the other day when he uttered these six little words.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s college hockey, 2009.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
What McCloskey was opining on was the 8-3 waxing applied last week by his team (ranked No. 8 at the time) to then-No. 7 Dartmouth.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dartmouth, which had whacked Providence which in turn had whacked New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
So no one should have been surprised when the Wildcats hammered their cross-state rivals. Such is the state of women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pucks these days.<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re eight short weeks away from the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Frozen Four and yet there is not one team that sits in the foyer like an 800-pound gorilla. Every team (well, maybe a dozen) still has a prayer and a wing. Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak puts the number of legitimate hopefuls even higher than that.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are probably 15 or 16 teams,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hudak said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that if one of those teams are on and the other team is off, you can see a huge difference. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just more parity. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something our teams, and our athletes aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used to.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ah, yes, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153P\u00e2\u20ac\u009d word.<\/p>\n
That one was on Katey Stone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lips prior to the season, when her Harvard Crimson was considered the gold standard in the ECAC, if not everywhere east of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think this year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more than any in recent history, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more parity than ever. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimately where one ends up at the end that makes the most difference.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
True enough, even if in Harvard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, that journey takes them through some stickier straits — an empty-handed trip to the North Country for instance — than what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been used to.<\/p>\n
Even the Wild West — where Wisconsin, Minnesota, and UMD engage in a bizarre sort of three-handed gun fight — is no sure parking spot for the Frozen Four crown the way it always has been.<\/p>\n
This weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two-game set between No. 1 Minnesota and No. 3 UMD could be a preview of the National Championship game. <\/p>\n
Then again, maybe not.<\/p>\n
There truly are no tap ins, now, when it comes to the national picture. Fans of the sport, no doubt, appreciate that. The players do, too.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not over until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said UNH franchise defenseman Kacey Bellamy, a veteran of high stakes NCAA and USA Hockey wars. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And this year, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious. Because in any game, anyone can win at anytime.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awesome.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
McCloskey, by the way, unveiled a new wrinkle for the Dartmouth game, the latest gambit to get the most out of what has been an undermanned lineup all season long.<\/p>\n
He placed Courtney Birchard, hitherto exclusively a forward, back on defense, to giving him three pairs for what has been a five-man rotation. The move paid off handsomely, as Birchard racked up a goal and an assist, while checking in at a plus-two.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was an ace in the hole,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said McCloskey, who said that the idea had been in the works for several weeks. “I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure she can be as dominant as she was (against Dartmouth). But she was tough to control.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Birchard was a willing guinea pig.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of my strengths is my size and my speed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it brought out strengths in myself that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I had.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNH coach Brian McCloskey said a mouthful the other day when he uttered these six little words. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s college hockey, 2009.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d What McCloskey was opining on was the 8-3 waxing applied last week by his team (ranked No. 8 at the time) to then-No. 7 Dartmouth. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dartmouth, which had whacked Providence which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n