Women’s Hockey: 2013-14 – Blazing a New Path
The team’s season ended with a loss at Northeastern in the Hockey East’s first round, with 1:01 left in the third period, 2-1. The game took place in Matthews Arena, the oldest indoor ice hockey arena still being used for hockey and the oldest multi-purpose athletic building still in use in the world.
The season started without the decorated mother of UConn women’s hockey, Heather Linstad. Quickly reaching elite levels as a program, this past season is a culmination of the crash that resulted from her behavior as an elite head coach. She spent 13 years as UConn’s head coach and was also the head coach of the Under-18 US national team during her tenure here. The athletic department was and is aiming as high as possible in women’s hockey but probable negligence and arrogance backfired for Linstad, her tenure ending with reports of a rape victim being kicked off the team.
The administration replaced Linstad with Ohio State women’s hockey assistant Chris MacKenzie, his first year as a women’s head coach. The Ohio State Buckeyes had finished fourth in the WCHA in the previous season with a 19-15-3 record, the second most wins in program history, reaching as high as #6 in the USCHO poll, the highest ever for Ohio State women’s hockey. Prior to joining Ohio State, he was the head coach at his alma mater, Niagra, for two seasons, leading the Purple Eagles to second place finishes in the CHA for both seasons. His record there was 23-31-10. Before going into women’s hockey, he coached men’s hockey at UMass-Lowell for 8 seasons and was quite a player at Niagra.
As a player and member of the class of 2000 at Niagara, MacKenzie was named the team captain for all four seasons upon the program’s inception in 1996. As a senior, he helped the Purple Eagles to a CHA regular season and tournament championship as well as an appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals.
As a freshman, MacKenzie was honored by then-head coach Blaise MacDonald and then-assistant coach Dave Burkholder as the program’s first captain. He currently holds several records at Niagara, including most goals, assists and points in a career and season by a defenseman. MacKenzie received Player of the Year honor in 1998 and was a CHA All-Star 2000.
The season started out flat for the few first games and by the fourth game, the Huskies were able to pull out a 3-2 overtime victory against Colagte at home. That win helped stablize the team until the weekend right before Thanksgiving against Boston College. The team went into the weekend of November 23rd with a 4-7-1 record. Both games were lost and the team went into a tailspin. That was the beginning of an 8-game losing streak.
The team got to taste victory once again at Vermont on January 11th, winning 2-0. Between that win and the last win of the season, at New Hamspshire on February 9, 3-1, the Huskies went 5-5, including stunning #7 BC at home. Signs were showing the the team managed to regroup itself. But after the last win of the season, the team’s performance completely tapered off, losing their last four, including 2 at home against lowly Maine, giving the Black Bears 2 of their 5 Hockey East wins.
The disparity in the Hockey East between the top 4 and bottom four is sizeable. The disparity in women’s hockey is comparable to women’s basketball. Fourth place Vermont has +11 conference goal differential, +6 non-conference goal differential, while fifth place UConn has a -27 conference goal differential, and a -46 non-conference goal differntial. However, UConn was -14 in it’s last four regular season games, making them -13 for the first 17 conference games.
Compared to the Big Ten schools in the WCHA, such as Wisconsin and Minnesota, and top ECAC schools, such as Clarkson, Harvard, Cornell and even Quinnipiac, the top of the Hockey East is rather weak. Boston College may be the only exception but Boston University has 5 non-conference losses, more than all the WCHA and ECAC schools mentioned. The ECAC just might be the premiere conference this season, from top to bottom. The ECAC ended the season with 4 ranked teams in the top 10 and the WCHA had 3, with Minnesota and Wisconsin at the #1 and #2 spots, respectively. The Hockey East ended the season with 1 ranked team, Boston College at #4. Boston University and Northeastern were receiving votes to round out the top 12.
For us, the season ended with a record of 9-24-2, 6-14-1 in the Hockey East.
We certainly cannot blame facilities. We’ve been ranked in the top 10 before under the last regime. They simply failed to sustain success. But there’s sparks in this season for the new regime. Goalie Elaine Chuli has been named a Hockey East honorable mention All-Star. A light may have been lit to find a new path.
by 
