1- The Mercyhurst Lakers hosted conference rival Robert Morris this past weekend, earning a split and bringing both teams' records to 3-5-0. Both teams take solace in at least getting a win, but a sweep for either team would have been huge. There has not been a sweep in this rivalry since October 2016, when RMU beat Mercyhurst twice. The teams meet again at the end of February. Shots were fairly even in game two, 23-21 in favor of RMU, but the score was 5-1 bad guys. Friday's score was 4-2 Lakers. Friday Hurst highlights are below, RMU’s Saturday highlights are here.
Check out the recap from yesterday’s game! Beautiful goals from @emilyypinto19 @alexa_vasko7 @SamFieseler @sarahhine7 Game 2 today at 3pm at the MIC #LAKERPRIDE pic.twitter.com/N0G9Mp1QUH— Mercyhurst W. Hockey (@HurstWHockey) October 20, 2018
Next up, the Lakers host Penn State, who are coming off of a split with Providence this weekend.
2- Separate from the college scene, USA Hockey released their women's hockey roster for the Four Nations Tournament taking place in Saskatoon, on November 6-10. The roster can be found here. As far as I am aware USA Hockey has not announced their coaching staff for this tournament. None of the 2018 Olympic coaching staff was a part of the national team evaluation camp that occurred last month. The Four Nations Tournament is less than three weeks away, so surely a coaching announcement is coming soon. The US drew some criticism for having no women on the Olympic coaching staff; hopefully an all male staff is not the case for the Four Nations. Canada's Four Nations coaching staff includes Head Coach Perry Pearn, with assistants Doug Derraugh, and Caroline Ouellette.
3- Two notable USA Olympians not on the Four Nations team include Meghan Duggan, and goaltender Nicole Hensley. 31 year old Duggan quashed the requirement question when interviewed by Fox Sports Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Badgers game on Friday night. She is not playing professionally or with Team USA right now, but said in regards to playing professionally and with the Olympic team in the future: "Yeah certainly, that's the plan. Once you get that itch, it's hard to walk away." So, it appears she is taking some time off. Duggan was a third/fourth liner in her third Olympics, and earned two assists in that tournament. A three time NCAA champion, a Patty Kazmaier winner, Clarkson Cup Champion, and Olympic gold medal winning Team USA captain, Duggan is one of the most accomplished women's hockey players all time.
4- 24 year old Nicole Hensley is younger than Duggan so no retirement questions surfaced in her case, but her absence is noteworthy. It could be Hensley was a Robb Stauber goalie, and with Stauber seemingly out, so too are his preferred players, at least for this tournament. Hensley's most high profile international game was the 2017 World Championship gold medal game that USA won, in overtime. It could also be she's not one of the best three USA goalies right now, or that USA Hockey simply wants to get fresh looks. The other goalie I thought we might see on the senior team at some point is recent BC grad, Katie Burt, who holds the record for most wins all time in NCAA history, recently beating Noora Raty's mark.
The USA goalies on the Four Nations team include: Emma Polusny (St. Cloud State University), Alex Rigsby (Calgary Inferno), Maddie Rooney (University of Minnesota Duluth).
5- As you can see with the goalies above, the Four Nations tournament will impact college rosters. In the case of Mercyhurst they do not have any Canadians or Americans in the tournament, although it is possible Tanskanen and Nuutinen will play for Finland.
The weekend of the tournament, Mercyhurst hosts Cornell. Cornell's Micah Zandee-Hart, Jaime Bourbonnais and head coach Doug Derraugh will all be representing Canada. The medal games are played on the tenth so that trio will miss the first game of the series, and I would be surprised if they make it back for the second game of the series, although it's possible. With multiple teams and series affected by the tournament, at the college level it's a weekend ripe for upsets. Cornell is a top ten ranked team, and was picked to win the ECAC this year. Regardless of who dresses for the games, it's a huge opportunity for Mercyhurst.
6- A couple weeks ago, I went to my first Beauts game, their home opener versus the Connecticut Whale. I went with my husband, four year old, and two year old. My parents and brother from Ontario met us there, too. HarborCenter is great, as advertised. My favorite features were the size (seats on both sides, cozy but not cavernous) and the glass panels they have that show the decals of whatever is going on there that weekend. The hockey was as expected, good, but a blowout. Attendance was also as expected, good, but not a sellout.
I'd seen very few of these women play live, and the highlight was watching Dani Cameranesi distribute the puck. Seeing a little girl in a Pfalzer Team USA jersey and seeing the incredible pre game hype video kind of got my emotions a bit; I'd never seen anything like it. Other than that, it was a typical hockey game, the atmosphere kind of reminded me of going to hockey games in my youth to see our local junior B and men's senior teams.
What made the day special was being with my family. My daughter was afraid of the loud music, and my son was afraid of Sabre Tooth the mascot, but both relaxed as the day wore on. My favorite parts were watching my four year old dance to the music at intermission, playing bubble hockey with her and seeing her warm up to Sabre Tooth. I loved seeing my son make friends with two little boys who sat in front of us. My son thought they were so cool, kept cuddling up to them, but they genuinely didn't mind. My husband, not a hockey guy, got in the spirit and bought our four year old a Beauts shirt, and both kids mini sticks. In the case of my two year old, it's his first hockey stick, and it's perfect for him.
Now, my daughter is already a hockey fan. Before her first birthday, she watched the Olympics, saw the Lakers in the Frozen Four, watched me play summer hockey, and went to Erie for her first college game. She identifies as a hockey player even though we mostly just play in the driveway, so far. Women's hockey players doing their thing is completely normal for her, so she didn't bat an eye at attending a Beauts game.
My two year old though, he is a little boy who sleeps on football themed bed sheets, with Cleveland Browns stuff animals and baseball, basketball, and football decals on his walls. He loves sports but relatively speaking, the hockey exposure has been lacking. A few weeks ago when the Browns finally won on a Sunday, my husband added a football to our son's crib, just for one night.
But since the Beauts game, when I rock my son at night and he sleepily and nonsensically goes through his various phrases, I'm hearing about the "hockey stick" almost as much as I hear about "football game." It probably is just a phase but just in case, after I put him in his crib, I occasionally put his Beauts mini hockey stick in there too. After all, hockey is for everyone.
7- Playing bubble hockey! Our first NWHL game was a success. I'm not sure I'll have another chance to watch a game this year, but in a perfect world I'd take my daughter to the neutral site game in Pittsburgh in early December I think, and take myself to the Beauts Whitecaps game at HarborCenter on December 30th.
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