As the University of Maine women’s hockey team is beginning offseason workouts, they are focusing their attention on building on what they established in the final few games of 2013.
After falling 2-1 to the University of New Hampshire in the final game of the regular season Feb. 24, the Black Bears traveled to play the then No.3 Boston College for a Hockey East Quarterfinal matchup on March 1.
Though slated as huge underdogs coming in, UMaine held a 1-0 lead for 50 minutes, before BC stormed back to capture a 2-1 overtime victory. Senior goaltender Brittany Ott recorded 72 saves to pace the Black Bears, eclipsing her previous school record of 69 stops.
Despite their 5-24-4 record entering the contest — which includes a 0-3 mark against BC — UMaine head coach Maria Lewis said her team felt confident facing the much higher touted Eagles. Even though she was proud of her team for battling until the very end, Lewis said there was extreme disappointment following the loss because of how close the final outcome was and how much her squad believed they could get it done when they started the game.
“I think that, until the game was over, we actually thought we were going to win it,” Lewis said. “I think everybody felt pretty confident that we were going to win it.
“BC was the opponent where we were hitting rock bottom against this year,” she added. “We had been improving so much since [the series against BC, Nov. 31 to Dec.1, when they were outscored 17-2 in two games] and then coming off the Skating Strides game where we did lose, but there were a lot of good things out of that game — going back there, there was a lot of excitement and a feeling that we might be able to pull it off.”
The Black Bears finished 2-17-3 against Hockey East opponents. If their performance against BC is any indication, the youth who comprised this season’s roster hold significant of potential for success in coming seasons.
UMaine will have a young team again in 2013-14, with six incoming freshmen and nine sophomores making up the core of the team. Lewis is losing four seniors: Ott, forward Brittany Dougherty, defender and captain Chloe Tinkler, and goaltender Kylie Smith.
Dougherty will leave UMaine as a member of the exclusive 100-point club, after her goal against UNH on Feb. 23. She finishes with 46 goals and 54 assists, an accomplishment that is made even more impressive by the fact that she only totaled 9 points during her freshman season.
Ott’s 5-16-3 record is a sizeable drop off from the previous season, but the senior netminder was named the Women’s Hockey East Association Defensive Player of the Week three separate times this year and kept the Black Bears in many games. Her school record of 72 saves in one game is not likely to be broken anytime soon.
“She gave us every single chance to win the game, and I couldn’t be more proud of her,” Lewis said of Ott’s quarterfinal performance against the Eagles.
Tinkler, who played in every single game during her four seasons with the Black Bears, finished with 5 goals and 28 assists after anchoring the UMaine blue line with two goals and eight assists this season.
Smith finishes 2013 with a 0-2 record in five appearances for UMaine. Although she received limited ice time in her career, Lewis called Smith “one of the most focused competitors,” adding that what she brought to the team will be sorely missed.
Lewis believes this season’s disappointing record should not take away from the legacy of this year’s graduating class.
“[They] changed the program,” she said. “They’re the ones that are a part of the best season this program has ever had, and you can’t take that away from them. They’re the ones that got this program out of the doldrums, the ones that turned things around where we do get respect from our opponents now. That’s pretty special if you ask me.”
It will be up to the remaining roster and the six incoming freshmen to fill those roles moving forward.
Redshirt freshman Meghann Treacy will be the favorite to takeover Ott’s duties in net, something Lewis says she is more than capable of doing.
“The one thing [Treacy] hasn’t had yet is the pressure game; the one where you have to make every save and be spectacular on top of it,” Lewis said. “We’ll see how she handles it. Hopefully Treacy can make that transition and feels more seasoned, more like a veteran than a young kid.”
Lewis says the door is wide open for anybody to step in and fill the spots left by Dougherty — the team’s leading scorer — and Tinkler — the team’s captain. Lewis doesn’t want to take away from previous recruiting classes, but she says she is optimistic about the incoming class, given their heightened level of experience coming into college.
“It all depends on how quickly the freshmen can adjust,” she said. “I think we need to take it one step at a time and not get ahead of ourselves and just work to improve throughout the year. We’ll start from there and see where it takes us.”
This year’s squad didn’t live up to the high expectations set by the success of last year’s team, but Lewis said a lot of lessons were learned this year, and the bright spots — like the Black Bears’ 4-3 comeback victory against Bemidji State on Nov. 9 –— will not be forgotten.
“Unfortunately, what I’m going to remember most are the struggles, but I think you have to go through that in order to grow,” she said. “You have to go through that in order to get better and learn.
“I think a positive is that they learned that they have to come together in order to find success,” she continued. “I think when they started to realize how important that was, we started to play so much better.”
The third-year head coach added that her team now knows it is capable of playing with anyone in the country when they perform up to their ability. The issue moving forward for a team filled with so many underclassmen will be finding that consistency night in and night out, something that plagued them throughout this season.
One thing is certain for this young Black Bear team: There is only room for improvement.
“I can’t wait to get a second crack at it,” Lewis said. “I would think that people are excited for next year — kind of a fresh start and a chance to put this year behind us and utilize all the lessons we learned, apply them and turn things around quickly and put a winning season together.”