Productive co-captain is face of struggling Wildcats’ optimism
By Al Daniel
Last weekend, moments after their losing streak stretched to seven games, several New Hampshire Wildcats were surprisingly jocular as they funneled out of their dressing room and back to the bus.
That is the type of observation that, if made by wired humorist Lewis Black, would likely be followed by the statement, “I will repeat that,” underlining the condition’s absurdity. The artistes formerly known as the Granite State Goddesses are a startling sub-.500 (8-9-0) at the halfway mark of their season. More strikingly, they are dead last in Hockey East after nine league games at 2-7-0.
So why aren’t they so fazed –or at least not overtly? Part, if not all of it owes to the flexible understanding of the circumstances bequeathed to the young guard by the veterans. Co-captain Courtney Birchard, whose talent and career output juts well above any of her fellow upperclassmen at UNH, stands out just as much for her patience.
Birchard was accepted to head coach Brian McCloskey’s capstone class in the very middle of its largely unchallenged Hockey East hegemony. She enrolled in the fall of 2007 vying to help defend back-to-back pennants and pitched in as the Wildcats took home another pair, charging up a cumulative 39-2-4 record against conference cohabitants.
Since then, though, the post-dynasty hangover that comes with an immense loss of seasoning and power has sent a vast and brisk hurricane over Lake Whittemore. In the last season-and-a-half, the Cats have seen their Hockey East home record, once a pristine 69-0-9 since the league’s 2002 inception, sullied by a 3-7-1 run dating back to last December.
And after an 8-2-0 overall start to this season, UNH has lost seven consecutive conference matches, automatically amounting to the most they have dropped in a single season with still 12 Hockey East games yet to come.
But on the other hand, there are still 12 Hockey East games yet to come, and all on the other side of what should be a merciful holiday respite. Under Birchard’s co-leadership with Raylen Dziengelewsi, that is now the expressed focus in Durham.
“I think it’s obviously frustrating at times,” she said. “But you need to realize that we do have a much younger team than we did when I came in as a freshman. So I think now we’re working on building their confidence so we can concentrate on winning on the ice.”
Beyond her on-ice resume, complete with 30 goals and 46 helpers in 103 college games, nomination for the 2010 Patty Kazmaier Award, and a satisfying smattering of international play, Birchard is fit to inspire her team when hardship strikes. Adjustments, adversity, persistence, and resiliency are all fundamental facets to her backstory.
A lifelong forward leading up to her arrival in Durham, she converted to defense at the start of the 2008-09 season. From the blue line, she has produced 22 goals and 33 assists, including 14 power play strikes and nine game-clinchers.
“One of my biggest roles to take on (as a sophomore) was to learn how to play that position well and thoroughly, and I think I’m doing that now,” she said.
Birchard’s rookie year, spent primarily as a pivot at the nominal bottom six of an enriched UNH roster was confined to 28 appearances by two separate injuries. Although, she ultimately returned in time for the regular season finale and charged up a 2-3-5 transcript in five games en route to a Frozen Four appearance for the Wildcats.
And last season, a back fracture sustained in a Feb. 7 game at Connecticut –moments after she had inserted the eventual game-winning goal, no less- terminated her season and doubtlessly factored into the Wildcats’ playoff collapse. When Boston University cut off his program’s four-year Hockey East championship dynasty in a 4-0 semifinal triumph, McCloskey likened Birchard’s absence to the hypothetical loss of then-top gun and league MVP Kelly Paton.
“We’re not deep enough to handle that and, on top of it, to not catch any bounces,” McCloskey said at the time.
Although Birchard recovered and replenished over the summer as expected, the vinegary notion of bygone depth has only strengthened for the Wildcats this season. Paton and Micaela Long have long since graduated, taking their combined 102 points from the 2009-10 campaign with them. And former classmate and Canadian countrywoman Jenn Wakefield has transferred to BU, where she has 13 goals and 24 points in 13 appearances.
That has left a healed Birchard, who currently has twice as many career points (76) as any one of her active teammates, along with sophomore forward Kristina Lavoie (29 rookie points) to start fostering a new strike force. So far, only freshman Arielle O’Neill has decisively broken through with a team-leading seven goals and 11 points. As a whole, UNH has mustered a mere 17 goals and only five conversions on 60 power play opportunities.
But Birchard –whose implicit positivity and team-focus is such that she took an evasive C-cut around the subject of her personal injury history- insists that her mates have also been lacking in luck.
“I just don’t think we’re getting the bounces right now,” she said. “Every team gets bounces, and we just haven’t had any, but it’s going to come.”
The Wildcats will round out their 2010 and interleague slates this weekend with a set of home dates versus Harvard and Dartmouth. Then it’s a longer shift for the calendar Zamboni before they tackle the remaining 12 contests on their WHEA schedule, beginning Jan. 9 versus Northeastern.
“I definitely think it will be good to take a step back, take a breather, and come back with a fresh start,” said Birchard.
Ironically, though, she will not be available for that bout with the Huskies, which promises to be an emotional tilt in light of the way Northeastern erupted for four third-period goals to lash the Cats, 4-0, Dec. 1 at the Whittemore Center. Birchard, who savored a victory with Team Canada at the Four Nations Cup in November, will join her country’s U22 team for the MLP Cup in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, where she will be as late as Jan. 8.
It may be another opportunity for the UNH youth movement to sharpen its untrained claws. But certainly, it is a chance for one of the program’s few contemporary phenoms to advance her global aspirations.
“I definitely hope to (land a permanent spot on the national team),” Birchard said. “It’s going to be a lot of work, but that’s my ultimate dream.”
Hard work? That hardly seems like anything new for her.
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
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