Sunday, September 26, 2010

Hockey East Preseason Feature: The Battle of Commonwealth Avenue

Continental Clash on Comm. Ave
All-American Eagles to counter heavily Canadianized Terriers in star-studded rivalry

By Al Daniel

The rebuilt United States women’s hockey program is but six months removed from yet another Olympic shortcoming. Translation: another 42 anguishing months still need to pass by before many of the Five Ring newbies from Vancouver will likely return for a chance to rinse out the residual vinegar at the Sochi Games.

For the time being, slightly lower profile alternative outlets to positive energy are a must, albeit tough to come by on a continuous basis. But U.S. players Molly Schaus and Kelli Stack, the celestial goalie and forward flocking back to the Eagles Nest at Boston College for a delayed senior year, may have the most radiant available source. Olympic rivals Marie-Philip Poulin and Catherine Ward –gold medals and all- have enrolled at college rival Boston University this autumn.

Such an arrangement guarantees that two experienced American competitors –indubitably throbbing deep down after nine straight defeats at the hands of Canada last winter- will face two of their recent tormentors on NCAA ice at least four times in 2010-11. That’s counting three Hockey East games plus the first round of the Beanpot. And, naturally, the door is very much open to more international face-offs in the next Four Nations Cup and/or World Championships.

It doesn’t hurt the veteran Eagles, incentive-wise, to recall that the young phenom Poulin inserted both goals in Canada’s 2-0 triumph last Feb. 25 and will vie to wreak more regular havoc of a similar nature on the collegiate ranks.

“I’m definitely going to make it a priority on my end to make sure I can do what I can to, maybe not shut her down, but make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Stack said.

She went on to pledge, “Right from the start we’re going to show them what Hockey East and BC is all about because they’re brand new to the conference so they’re not going to know what to really expect.”

Quite the fighting words from the two-time Hockey East Player of the Year. A sign clear as the reflection of newly painted dasherboard ads on a smooth sheet of ice that the BC-BU rivalry is indeed bracing for an upsurge.

“It’s going to continue to be a fantastic rivalry,” said BU head coach Brian Durocher, who in his playing days partook in the 1978 men’s NCAA title with the Terriers at none other than the Eagles’ expense.

“(BC head coach Katie King) does a great job with her staff. That’s a fantastic institution.

“It’s hard to be a good team if you don’t have good competition around you and Boston College is just one of a handful in this league.

“But as far as the rivalry goes, it will be exciting. A couple of those players know each other. They’ve played against each other. It’s going to be game-on when we drop the puck with those two teams. It will obviously be an exciting continuation of the Battle of Comm. Ave.”

From the stands, the implications of two Olympians apiece shuffling from the top international programs to the two neighboring college programs are simple enough. As the youngest member of a peerlessly seasoned Team Canada, Poulin surely caught the eyes of some novice observers via NBC TV cameras when she buoyed the gold medal victory.

The Dog Pound breed of Hub hockey fans will now have a chance to –at least until 2014- reverse their outlook on Poulin and Ward from villain to hero. Even if Ward is only around for one year as a graduate student, Poulin, if she delivers according to the hype, can be BU’s basis for building on last year’s Hockey East playoff victory.

Conversely, with their own longtime catalysts back from a bittersweet finish in Vancouver, American Eagles’ rooters can not only incite Schaus and Stack to a triumphant senior season, but also order a side dish in the form of a Poulin punching bag.

“One of the things that we always look to do is to get more fans in our building,” said King, herself a former three-time U.S. Olympian. “And with BU and BC, you go to men’s games and the building is packed, the students are all there, and they’re fighting back and forth with each other in the stands, and I think it would be great to get some of that in our game where the rivalry does step up to that effect.

“With the international part of it growing, maybe the fan base will grow as well. But I think on the ice you’re getting the same thing from the girls that you get from the guys. They’re intense and ready to go. The rivalry is there (already) but hopefully it’ll get a few more people.”

On the Terriers’ end in particular, the school-country metaphor does have its limits. After all, while all of King’s 24 pupils are nieces of Uncle Sam, and while Durocher has 11 Canadians on his roster, BU also has its share of players with experience in the U.S. national program: Kasey Boucher, Caroline Campbell, Jill Cardella, Holly Lorms, Kerrin Sperry.

Still, with the marquee Olympic names, Durocher acknowledges that the storyline carrying over from Vancouver should make the matchup a greater magnet for publicity.

“Without a doubt, those are going to be fun games,” he offered. “It will hopefully help the game of hockey grow because more people might want to see a BU-BC game or a BU-Northeastern game or a BU-Harvard game, like they do (in the men’s game) because it becomes kind of a city thing.” (Side note: not to be totally left out of the trend, Northeastern happens to have two seasoned Swiss Olympians in defender Julia Marty and otherworldly goalie Florence Schelling.)

“I hope it helps grow the game and gets a few more people excited to come to our games,” Durocher added. “And like (future) NHLers in the men’s game, we’ve got Olympians and national team players in our program, which wasn’t the case five years ago.”

As recently as August, there was a grand testament to Durocher’s observation. Poulin exercised her far-from-finished eligibility to represent the Eh Team in its annual U22 summer series with Team USA. She was joined in that dressing room by rising BU juniors Jenelle Kohanchuk and Tara Watchorn along with Jenn Wakefield –who last winter announced her transfer out of New Hampshire amidst a near-miss in her crack at the Olympic team.

Over the three games, Wakefield and Poulin topped the charts with respective scoring logs of 3-3-6 and 3-2-5. Their six goals combined to constitute 37.5 percent of Team Canada’s 16. Their helpers, along with one Kohanchuk scraped out, accounted for 25 percent of the team total. Together, the three new college teammates contributed 30 percent of their national team’s points.

Meanwhile, King’s incoming class includes three recent U18 Americans –Melissa Bizarri, Meghan Mangene, and Taylor Wasylk- whom she coached herself in the 2010 World Junior Championship. And along with Wasylk, BC returnees Blake Bolden, Corinne Boyles, and Ashley Motherwell have opposed the likes of Poulin, Watchorn, and BU rookie defender Kaleigh Fratkin in previous U18 events.

With those kinds of backgrounds, King noted, “I think they know what to expect a little bit. I think it makes for a very intense and very exciting matchup. It’s definitely going to be a unique experience for the kids.”

The mutual contempt various individuals have honed for one another in Can-Am clashes as well as previous BC-BU battles will be welcomed with bottomless accommodation when they scrap for six Hockey East points. And the schools are guaranteed another valuable face-off come February, when the Eagles host the Terriers at Conte Forum for Part II of the Beanpot semifinals.

Some promoters may hope that clash serves as a prelude to another hardware-based meeting in March. Previously, BC has met and dumped BU out of a tight Hockey East semifinal game in 2009 when the Terriers were still getting past their last growing pains. Last spring, with the absence of Schaus and Stack contributing to an Eagles’ off-year, the Terriers countered in a 3-1 quarterfinal knockout.

For the 2010-11 campaign, starting but not ending with the Olympic additives, the balance of power seems ripe enough for a first-time Green Line clash for the WHEA crown. On each side of the face-off circle, there is still a sense of urgency to stabilize and advance one’s status to “perennial powerhouse.”

On paper, the two foundations are formidable enough. And that along with such mutual, yet selfish, interests could only spike the passion were the Terriers and Eagles to cross paths on one end of Commonwealth Avenue or the other come March 6.

“BU made it to the national tournament last year for the first time,” observed Schaus. “And Boston College ourselves, we’ve made it two out of the last four years. I think both programs are starting to build and become national contenders, so I think we’re taking the right steps.

“And this year, both teams have brought in some highly talented freshman and built some great teams. So I think, going forward, we’re going to see that rivalry really take off.”

Only once since BU’s return to varsity status in 2005 have the local rivals met in any kind of championship game. That was the 2007 Beanpot final, when a volcanic freshman class bolstered by Schaus and Stack helped BC obliterate the unripe Terriers, 6-1.

Nothing like another title tilt in 2011 to measure how far everything’s progressed, right?

Of course, the two parties will need to forcefully make that happen. For the moment, Newtonian analysis has only confirmed the mass, not the acceleration.

“That’s too far down the road for me right now,” said Durocher. “I think on paper, we both have good teams, but we also have to take care of UNH, we’ve got to take care of the Providence program, UConn and Northeastern have done fantastic jobs. So for me, that’s too far ahead.”

King offered similar unassuming remarks. “I would just love to be in the Hockey East final and to be able to compete for a championship,” she said.

Still, she admitted, “If it’s (against) BU, maybe the rivalry will pick up even more. And that would be great for women’s hockey.”

Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent for Beyond the Dashers

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