Season Preview: Dartmouth Looks to Return to Postseason
HANOVER, N.H. -- After surpassing all expectations last
season and reaching the NCAA Playoffs for the eighth time in the
program's history and the third time in the last four seasons, the
Dartmouth women's hockey team returns to the ice this weekend to
open the 2011-12 season.
The Big Green finished 22-12-0 overall, 15-7 in ECAC Hockey and
7-3 in the Ivy League in 2010-11. The team reached the ECAC Hockey
Tournament Championship Game and the first round of the NCAA
Playoffs before being knocked out by Cornell in both
tournaments.
Dartmouth will rely upon an experienced scoring unit with the
return of six of the top seven scorers from last season, including
the leading scorer, junior Camille Dumais (Beaconsfield, Quebec),
and the top scoring defenseman in junior Sasha Nanji (Markham,
Ontario).
Overall, the Big Green have 16 returning letterwinners, while
losing five from last season. Dartmouth will be without 100-point
scorer Amanda Trunzo '11, as well as Alyssa Boehm '11 and Larissa
Roche '11 from the front line. Last season's captain and
defenseman, Katie Horner '11, also left via graduation.
Dartmouth returns nine forwards from last season and brings in
three freshmen. Senior captains Kelly Foley (South Boston, Mass.),
Reagan Fischer (Irma, Alberta) and Jenna Hobeika (Alpine, N.J.)
will anchor the front line for the Big Green. Foley finished third
on the team in scoring with 17 goals and 15 assists for 32 points,
including nine power play goals. Foley was named first team All-Ivy
and All-New England last season as well as making second team
All-ECAC. Fischer, the ECAC's co-best defensive forward from
2010-11, returns after tallying nine goals and 19 assists for 28
points last year. Hobeika, the team's sixth leading scorer last
season, had 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points.
Dumais is also a returning forward. She led the team in goals with
18, assists with 20 and points with 38. Junior Sally Komarek
(Minneapolis, Minn.) tallied six goals and recorded 15 assists for
21 points. Senior Erica Dobos (Bethel Park, Pa.) returns after her
most productive season with five goals and six assists for 11
points.
The Big Green have three other returners to the front line in
senior Brittany Mills (Winchester, Mass.), junior Jessica Gagner
(London, Ontario) and sophomore Ali Winkel (Espanola, Ontario).
Mills has played in 36 career games, Gagner scored one goal last
season and Winkel tallied one goal and two assists in 32
games.
Dartmouth will have three freshmen forwards on this year's
squad in Sam Zeiss (Stamford, Conn.), Abbie Lund (Minneapolis,
Minn.) and Karlee Odland (Vauxhall, Alberta). Zeiss was named to
the Division I New England Prep School Girls' Ice Hockey
Association All-Star Team her junior year, and was the team's
leading scorer in points and goals in her sophomore season. Lund
attended and played for The Blake School. In 2010, she earned
all-conference and all-state honors, and was the most valuable
forward and the captain during the 2010-11 season. Odland played
for the Medicine Hat Hounds of the Alberta Major Midget Female
Hockey League before coming to Dartmouth. In 2010, she was the
team's leading scorer and the league's most valuable player.
Nanji and junior Lisa Berreman (Eagan, Minn.) headline the defense
for the Big Green that returns five players. Nanji was one of the
top scoring defensemen in the nation, tallying 14 goals and 16
assists for the Big Green. Berreman scored the first goal of her
career last season and recorded six assists.
The other three returners on the blueline for Dartmouth are junior
Margaux Sharp (Carleton Place, Ontario), senior Moira Scanlon
(Chicago, Ill.) and sophomore Lauren Kelly (Milton, Ont.). Sharp
had 13 assists in 2010-11 and one goal, Kelly contributed one goal
and six assists and Scanlon totaled three goals and two assists.
The lone freshman defender is Morgan Illikainen (Grand Rapids,
Minn.). Illikainen played for the Grand Rapids Greenway Lightning
and the Minnesota Junior Whitecaps. She finished her career with
more than 100 points, and had 16 goals and 19 assists in her senior
year at Grand Rapids.
In net, sophomore Lindsay Holdcroft (Pittsburgh, Pa.) played and
started in 27 games last season. She had four shutouts, a 2.34
goals against average, a .902 save percentage and 578 saves. The
save total was the second-highest total in the program's history
for a freshman goaltender. Holdcroft will be backed up by junior
Whitney Woodcox (Oshawa, Ontario) and freshman Katie Milligan
(Kingston, Ontario). Woodcox played in eight games last season with
a 2.17 goals against average and an .892 save percentage. Milligan
played for the Ottawa Lady Senators Intermediate AA. Her team was
the Kingston Athlete Secondary School Association (KASSA) hockey
champion in 2010
Dartmouth hosts McGill for an exhibition on Friday, Oct. 21,
before opening the season at Boston College on Sunday, Oct. 23, at
2 p.m.
Dartmouth head coach Mark Hudak returns for his ninth
season. He has recorded 162 victories in his career, which is
second on Dartmouth's all-time coaches' wins list. Hudak took a
couple of minutes from his busy schedule to talk about his team and
the new season.
1. Last season the team finished 22-12-0 and made it to the ECAC
Championship game and the NCAA playoffs. What can this year's team
take from having that experience last year?
A couple of things, first it's not how you start but how you
finish. At the same time, we have to take it one game at a time.
The other part of it is that last year, just like this year, on
paper we aren't as strong as some of the other teams out there. But
if we are willing to work together, have good leadership and are
able to compete just a little bit harder, than we can overcome the
edge the other team has in talent.
2. What do you think are the team's biggest strengths?
We have really good depth at all positions, and we are getting to
a point where experience is becoming a strength for us. The last
couple of years we have been a pretty young team, but this year a
majority of the team is in the junior and senior classes.
3. Dartmouth was picked fourth in the ECAC preseason poll and is
currently ranked 10th in both national polls. How do you think this
team is going to react knowing that outside expectations are higher
this season than maybe they were last year?
We have talked a little bit about it, but have not focused on it.
Regardless, whether we are picked at the top or the bottom it is
something we talk about with the team. Again to get back to the
first point, we tell the team it's not about where you start but
where you finish. The players don't let the ranking or where they
were picked in the preseason polls determine how they are going to
finish the season. They want to finish better than fourth in the
ECAC and better than 10th in the polls, but they know that it is
going to take hard work and getting better every day.
4. For the second year in a row, the team graduated a career
100-point scorer, this time in Amanda Trunzo. How is the team going
to overcome that loss of scoring?
Trunzo is a big loss for us and especially in the point category.
But it's one of those things we have talked about and something we
had on the back of our preseason t-shirts, "That Much Better".
Really what it means is that we aren't going to have one person
replace what Trunzo put on the scoreboard, but we need 21 people to
contribute just a little bit more to make up for that loss. It has
much more to do with everyone chipping in a little bit more so we
can be that much better.
5. There are five freshmen joining the team this year. What do you
think they can contribute to the team?
My expectations for the freshmen are pretty much the same every
year; work hard, try to learn and don't worry about making mistakes
but if they do make mistakes, make big ones, because then we know
you're trying. We are certainly looking to each one of them to
contribute to that position that they play on the team. I certainly
think that they can and am very happy with our freshman class. We
have players in there that will contribute over time. It would be
great if they could do that year one, but it's not what they are
going to do right now, but how are they going to grow.
6. Finally, you guys open the season at fifth-ranked Boston
College. What are you expecting out of the game and how difficult
is it playing a strong team that will have already played five
games?
It is going to be hard playing a team that already has played that
many games. Boston College has a lot of talent on its team. It is a
team that is very dynamic, and if you make mistakes against them
they are going to exploit those. We know we are going to make
mistakes and we have to overcome that with hard work and with
energy. At the same time, it is great to play a team that is this
good early on in the season, because you are going to learn a lot
about yourselves and what you need to do to improve. Hopefully, we
do play a good game against them, and then we know we can compete
with the top teams in the country. We don't have anything to lose,
and there is a lot to gain. And we are going to go out there and
try and win the game.
