Eight Hockey Easterners are among the initial 45 candidates for the 2010 Patty Kazmaier case. Realistically speaking, some are plainly more qualified for nomination than others, but they all have their reasons for being in the mix so far.
So here they are.
Cristin Allen, D, Connecticut: Allen’s point-based productivity is right up there with New Hampshire’s Courtney Birchard and, more critical to judging her day job, she owns an appreciable plus-13 rating. Going into this weekend, only five Hockey East skaters have a higher plus/minus, and only two (forwards Micaela Long and Kelly Paton of UNH) have charged up more assists.
And among all of the nation’s defenders, Allen is the lone to have at least 20 helpers to her credit this season.
Melissa Anderson, F, Boston University: Inevitably one of the Terriers’ bar-raisers, having been part of the program’s second recruiting class in 2006-07, Anderson has virtually grown according to plan. As a senior, she is already guaranteed a career year with 37 points and has appeared on 22 out of 31 possible scoresheets.
Anderson has shot with a gratifying balance of frequency and accuracy. She has charged up 111 shots on goal and connected at a .153 rate for 17 goals in her team’s first 31 outings. She is, eerily enough, tied with understudy Jill Cardella in terms of shooting percentage as well as face-off percentage, each of them having won 58.2 percent of their draws to date.
Additionally, Anderson is one of those few with a higher plus/minus (+14) than the aforementioned Allen.
Courtney Birchard, D, New Hampshire: Until a recent injury, the junior defender had been an invaluable two-way contributor in the clutch. Second only to BC’s Allie Thunstrom for the league lead in shots on goal (136), six of Birchard’s nine goals have come on the power play and four have gone down as the game clincher. Likewise, she has pitched in seven power play helpers and assisted on four game-winning goals.
Genevieve Lacasse, G, Providence: By the time there are about eight minutes remaining in Friday’s road bout with Vermont, Lacasse figures to be the first goalie in the nation to have played at least 2000 minutes this season. Among her conference cohabitants, only Alexandra Garcia of Connecticut has any reasonable shot of cracking the same plateau before spring cleaning.
And the thing is, Lacasse has both earned each of those minutes and made the most of them. As a testament to her stamina, her team has gone to overtime 11 times on the year, and she is 1-1-9 with a cumulative 25 saves and 50:55 minutes played in that scenario.
Her efforts have not been rewarded every night, but she has –just as she did in her top rookie/top goalie campaign last year- had a tendency to keep the Friars in the game even on those occasions when they can’t solve the other goalie.
Micaela Long, F, New Hampshire: If her classmate and new top line centerpiece Kelly Paton is the MVP, then Long is the MIP of the UNH program, if not the entire WHEA. After finishing her first three seasons in the 20-point range and never having scored more than 13 goals in one year, Long already has an 11-35-46 scoring transcript through 29 games this season. Those 35 helpers make her the nation’s most productive playmaker and one of only six NCAA skaters with at least a 1.5 point-per-game median.
And depending on how far the Wildcats go in the postseason, Long, at the rate she is producing, stands a reasonable chance of doubling her previous career high of 28 points.
Kelly Paton, F, New Hampshire: An uncanny array of Paton’s stats currently match those of her teammate and classmate Long, with whom she was recently linked on the first line. Both have charged up a league-leading 46 points, a plus-18 rating, five power play goals, and a mere five minor penalties.
Paton’s most enticing asset is her peerless consistency. She has notched at least one point in 25 out of 29 games thus far, including three two-point games, four three-point outings, and three four-point nights.
Florence Schelling, G, Northeastern: Where do you want to start? Schelling left for the Olympics with a league-leading .949 save percentage and 1.38 goals-against average, coupled with an 11-5-4 record and four shutouts. Even though she has not seen intercollegiate action since before the Beanpot, she is still No. 5 in the nation under the GAA heading and owns the country’s second-best save percentage behind Finnish Minnesota Gopher Noora Räty.
And unlike Räty, who has a horde of proven scorers in front of her, Schelling takes up a heftier slice of her team’s value pie. With her backing, the Huskies have allowed three or more goals a mere three times in 20 opportunities.
One of those rare Red Light Specials was claimed by New Hampshire in the Frozen Fenway game, for which the valiant Schelling barely made it back from the MLP Cup in Germany. On a similar note, there is every indication that Schelling –along with fellow Swiss Husky Julia Marty- plans to be back from Vancouver in time to tune up for Northeastern’s playoff run.
Allie Thunstrom, F, Boston College: An overshadowed sidekick to the Wonder Woman known as Kelli Stack in her previous three seasons, Thunstrom has tuned the opposing mesh 20 times this year for her biggest bushel since she was a frosh in 2006-07.
Those 20 goals account for exactly one-third of the Eagles’ collective output through 32 games. And that’s all been in the absence of her celestial classmate and in the presence of an altogether unripe supporting cast on the BC strike force.
Odds are the Eagles’ disappointing transcript will obliterate Thunstrom’s chances of going any farther on the Patty ballot just as her team’s season will likely go no farther than the conference quarterfinals. But she is owed some sort of recognition for her persistence and the data that has come out of it.
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