{"id":22290,"date":"2010-10-05T08:16:30","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T12:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=22290"},"modified":"2010-10-13T08:24:53","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T12:24:53","slug":"women%e2%80%99s-ice-hockey-looks-to-surprise-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/10\/women%e2%80%99s-ice-hockey-looks-to-surprise-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Ice Hockey Looks to Surprise Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Huskies coach Heather Linstad is not bothered that the women\u2019s ice hockey team seems to be flying under the radar of most of the competition. Last year, the Huskies were picked fifth in the Hockey East pre-season poll, only to rise to the Top 10 in the national rankings, spending 11 weeks in the national poll and ultimately finishing at No. 9, with a record of 21-9-7. This year, the team was a pre-season sixth place team in Hockey East.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Junior<\/a>
Junior goaltender Alexandra Garcia helped hold last season's opponents to a Hockey East conference low g.a.a. of 1.49. Photo by Tom Maguire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe interesting part is so many polls and predictions are based on name recognition,\u201d says Linstad, who last year became one of only three Division I women\u2019s ice hockey coaches to reach 300 or more wins. \u201cWe\u2019ve had so many good years, but we\u2019ve never been higher than fourth in the poll. Yet every year we\u2019re in the hunt. I\u2019ve always based it on seeing what we can do in October.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Huskies began their season on Oct. 2. Their early schedule match-ups include games against pre-season No. 1 ranked Minnesota Duluth, No. 7 Clarkson, No. 8 Boston College, and highly regarded New Hampshire, St. Lawrence, and Syracuse; they also will play No. 4 Boston University later in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a loaded schedule, starting off with New Hampshire, and going out to Duluth to play against the defending national champions,\u201d Linstad says. \u201cI am looking for a strong team effort, with us improving every game. Then when the spring comes around, we\u2019re ready for post-season. We were very successful last year. The start of our season really helped us to figure things out. We stayed on a roll. Our goal as a program is that once you\u2019ve been nationally ranked, you\u2019ve got to stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the graduation of top-scorer Michelle Binning, the Huskies will look to their experienced forwards to increase their goal production.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Junior<\/a>
Junior Monique Weber is one of the best forwards out there, according to her coach. Provided by Division of Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201c(Junior) Monique Weber is one of the best forwards out there, certainly in the league, maybe in the country. She\u2019s big and strong,\u201d Linstad says. \u201cOur returning players will put numbers on the board. Jennifer Chaisson and Brittany Murphy (seniors), and Kelly Horan (a sophomore) had very productive seasons last year, and I foresee them continuing to produce offensively. All four will lead by example and help the new freshmen adjust quickly to Husky Hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new offensive help will come from Jenny Saxon, Stephanie Raithby, Alexandra Vakos, Taylor Gross, Jocelyn Slattery, and Jenna Welch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve added size and finesse to our line-up, each of them adds offensive depth,\u201d Linstad says. \u201cSome are crafty, with good hands, while others will provide speed and strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Huskies\u2019 offense builds off the team\u2019s strong defense, however. The Huskies blue line nucleus of captain Jody Sydor, Rebecca Hewett, Sami Evelyn, Maude Blain, and Casey Knajdek, along with newcomer Kiana Nauheim, will create quick transition to offense. The returning defenders, along with junior goaltender Alexandra Garcia, held last season\u2019s opponents to a Hockey East conference low g.a.a of 1.49. Adding to the goaltending depth chart are sophomore Claire Francis and freshman Nicole Paniccia.<\/p>\n

Linstad says last year the Huskies were most successful working the puck around the opponent\u2019s net in the offensive zone. This year, she would like to be a better transition team, moving more quickly from defense to offense in the neutral zone in order to produce more rushes toward the net and finish off with a score.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Brittany<\/a>
Brittany Murphy leads by example on offense. Provided by Division of Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the highlights of the season will be the Feb. 13 game against Providence, an outdoor doubleheader with the men\u2019s ice hockey team at Rentschler Field in East Hartford that is part of the “Whalers Hockey Fest,” a 10-day series of outdoor games between professional, college, prep school, and high school teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember playing outdoors and coaching outdoors at a high school,\u201d Linstad says. \u201cIt\u2019s a different stride. You really have to dig into the ice. We\u2019re hoping to get at least one practice in before it. Even if they make it hard, if it rains the night before, it\u2019s going to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having built the UConn women\u2019s ice hockey program from its inception as a Division I program, Linstad says that reflecting on her 302 career wins reminds her of the rewards of coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cWins are based on the type of student-athlete you bring in and how they respond and do what you ask them to do. It\u2019s really about the student-athletes,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice accomplishment, but my goal is to win the national championship. If I can get that one special win, it would mean more than the 300 wins. But 300 did make me reflect upon all of the wonderful years I have had coaching, and about the great student-athletes I have had the privilege of working with.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the women\u2019s ice hockey schedule, go to the Athletics website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Husky Women’s Ice Hockey team hopes to earn a place in the national top 10 again this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-22290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 01:02:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22830,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22290\/revisions\/22830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22290"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=22290"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}