A new season begins on Saturday after one that saw the Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team just missing out on its first NCAA appearance and also saw the end of the career of the program’s greatest player. Yes, it is time for the Bobcats to turn the page and begin their next chapter without Kelly Babstock. But they are not at a great loss without her. Returning players include senior co-captain Erica Uden Johannson, who took last season off to partake in the Winter Olympics in Sochi as apart of Team Sweden, senior Shiann Darkangelo, who was invited to skate with the USA U-22 team over the summer, and senior goaltender Chelsea Laden, whom Bobcats head coach Rick Seeley spoke highly of.
“(Laden) stepped out from the shadows of (former Bobcat netminder Victoria) Vigilanti, and had a great year,” Seeley said.
Another notable returning player is junior forward Nicole Kosta, who red-shirted last season due to injury. She has 72 career point and still has two years left of eligibility.
The Bobcats bring in six new players, all freshmen, after graduating six seniors last season. Rachel Myette replaces Ashley Winslow on the goaltending side of the roster, while Alicia Berry and Shannon Cherpak are two new blue-liners despite only one defenseman, Shelby Wignall, graduating. The remaining three freshman, all forwards, are Tori DeAngelis, Raquel Pennoyer, and Taylar Cianfarano, who replace the graduated forwards Amanda Colin, Elena Orlando, Olivia Brackett, and Kelly Babstock. Cianfarano comes in as the most highly touted, playing for two USA development teams.
The Bobcats finished last year with a record of 22-6-9; their season ending in Potsdam, New York, with a loss in the ECAC Semi-final game to the eventual national champions, the Clarkson Golden Knights. Seeley touched on a few key points of last season that need improvement this season.
“Our power-play basically didn’t exist last year. We had two power-play goals in about 50 attempts against the top four teams in the conference,” Seeley said. “We learned last year that if we don’t come ready for a game we’ll end up not motivated to get the next goal, and we’ll end up with nine ties and that’ll eventually hurt us.”
With all of the ties for the Bobcats last season, their fate of a deep post season run relied on the Hockey East championship game between Boston College and Boston University, which Boston University won. Boston College still got into the NCAA Tournament with the loss, taking what would have been Quinnipiac’s at-large bid.
The Bobcats start their 2014-15 season with an exhibition game against the Chinese National team on Saturday at the High Point Solutions Arena. Team China has held its training camp in Hamden since Aug. 29. They did not qualify for the Sochi Olympics this past winter.
Quinnipiac was ranked fourth in the ECAC Coaches’ pre-season poll earlier this week.
“We don’t put much emphasis on rankings,” Seeley said. “The good thing is that most of the time they underrate us. We know we have to go out and perform and earn that reputation but we feel we’re in the right spot and we’re going to try and improve on that.”
After the exhibition game, the Bobcats have an intrasquad scrimmage on Sept. 27 before starting the regular season against Uconn on Oct. 3 in Hamden.
