WOMEN'S HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
The Vermont Catamounts host the UOttawa Gee-Gees for an exhibition contest on Saturday (Sept. 28) at Gutterson Fieldhouse. Puck drop for the first match-up in series history is slated for 4 p.m.
RELATED LINKS
Watch | Live Stats | Prospectus (.pdf)
SCOUTING THE GEE-GEES
UOttawa enters its fourth exhibition game of the season with a 2-1-0 preseason record. The Gee-Gees have victories over Carleton (4-1) and Laurentian (4-2) with their lone loss against Nipissing (5-2).
Fifth-year forward Melodie Bouchard led the Gee-Gees with 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 19 games last season. Sara Lachance tallied five goals to tie for the team lead with now-graduate Roxanna Rioux. Second-year goaltender Jennifer Walker saw action in six games last year with a 4.94 GAA and .861 SV%. UOttawa's assistant coach, Chelsea Grills, was a member of the Vermont coaching staff in the 2012-13 season and also helped head coach
Jim Plumer win a national championship at Amherst College.
HOCKEY EAST PRESEASON POLL
Vermont received 25 votes in the 2019-20 Preseason Coaches' Poll, placing ninth in the conference rankings. With nine first-place votes and 81 points overall, two-time defending conference champions Northeastern was predicted to win Hockey East. Next up was Boston University, which received the remaining first-place vote and had 71 overall. To round out the top three was Boston College with 65 points. Providence (56), New Hampshire (42), UConn (41), Merrimack (30), and Maine (29) locked up spots four through eight. Holy Cross (9) was 10th in the poll.
NESN TV DEAL
Hockey East Association announced a multi-year broadcast agreement with NESN that will feature 50 men's games and 15 women's games on NESN and NESNplus in the 2019-20 season. The Catamount women will play three televised games this season. The first televised contest will be at Northeastern on Dec. 30 at 4 p.m. Vermont's Jan. 31 game at Boston University will be televised on NESNplus at 7 p.m. UVM's final televised game of the regular season will be on Feb. 16 at 12 p.m. against Holy Cross.
CATAMOUNT RETURNERS
The Catamounts return 18 members of the 2018-19 season. Senior captains
Ève-Audrey Picard and
Ali O'Leary lead the forward group along with assistant captains
Allie Granato and
Kristina Shanahan.
Abby Cleary,
Olivia Kilberg,
Val Caldwell,
Alyssa Holmes,
Theresa Schafzahl,
Corinne McCool,
Lilly Holmes, and
Alex Gray are all returning forwards for Vermont.
Sini Karjalainen led the UVM defense in points last season with 12 and was closely followed by
Maude Poulin-Labelle (11 points).
Anna Erickson and
Ellice Murphy round out the returning blueliners.
Blanka Škodová and
Sierra Natzke return in goal for the Catamounts.
NEW FACES
Seven Catamounts headline the 2019-20 rookie class.
Hailey Burns,
Lily Humphrey, and
Tynka Pátková are the rookie forwards for Vermont.
Sara Levesque,
Emma Katzman, and
Cam Morrissey make up the rookie defensive core.
Orchard Lake, Michigan native
Natalie Ferenc is the lone goaltender in the class.
INTERNATIONAL CATS
The Vermont Catamounts women's hockey team calls five different countries home. Fourteen Americans and seven Canadians make up a large chunk of the roster. Sophomore goaltender
Blanka Škodová and rookie forward
Tynka Pátková are both Czech Republic natives and represented their home country together in the 2015 IIHF U18 World Championships.
Sini Karjalainen hails from the Scandinavian country of Finland. Sophomore forward
Theresa Schafzahl is the first Austrian to ever suit up for the Vermont Catamounts.
2018-19 REVIEW
UVM skated to a 10-20-6 (8-15-4 HEAW) record last season to nab eighth place in the regular season standings.
Ève-Audrey Picard paced the Cats with eight goals and 13 assists for 21 points in 26 games played. Vermont had a nation-leading 88.4% penalty kill to mark the first time that the program has led the country in a major statistic. The Catamounts went 3-0-2 in their final five games of the regular season to climb into the final playoff spot. UVM then fell to top-seeded Northeastern in the Hockey East Quarterfinals.
The Windjammer and Upper Deck Pub is the presenting sponsor of the 2019-20 women's hockey season
