Few Penalties, Larger Rink Size Mark NCAAs

MINNEAPOLIS--Hockey players are supposed to walk on water. It's frozen, they wear skates--it makes it easier.

It is just hockey for kids on Saturday mornings, but it was always different for junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill.

The instant she pulled a Harvard jersey over her shoulders there was no player who could touch her, no goalie who could stop her, no game in which she couldn't score.

She had recorded a point in each of her 80 games during her Harvard career, breaking the record of 78 set by Michigan State's Tom Ross.

The streak came to an end a week ago Sunday in the consolation finals of the national championship against Dartmouth. The record book will no longer have to be rewritten after every game. It's over at 80.

In an emotional weekend for Botterill, it ended ironically.

On Friday, her team's hopes for a national championship were dashed with a 6-3 loss to Minnesota-Duluth. On Saturday, she was honored as the most outstanding player in the nation with the 2001 Patty Kazmaier Award. The next day, Harvard gained vengeance over arch-rival Dartmouth, but the streak was over.

When asked about her conflicting feelings immediately following the game, she responded with just three words..

"Pretty emotional weekend," said Botterill, choking back the tears as Stone took over to break the awkward silence.

Ice Ice Baby

Size matters. Bigger is better. Where have you heard those words before?

Apparently Minnesota-Duluth Coach Shannon Miller doesn't agree. An extra 3,850 sqaure feet is too much in her opinion for women's hockey.

That's the difference in area between the 20,000 sq.ft. Olympic-sized ice in Minneapolis and her 16,150 sq.ft. rink in Duluth.

Most schools in the nation play on the smaller NHL-sized rinks, including Harvard, Duluth, Dartmouth and St.Lawrence.

The inaugural women's NCAA Frozen Four was played on the larger Olympic-sized ice at Mariucci Arena, however, forcing teams to change their styles of play late in the season with a national championship on the line.

In the opinion of Miller and other coaches, it hurt the quality of the game on the ice.

"It slows the game down too much," Miller said. "Women's hockey at the college level needs to be played on a smaller surface to showcase the great game we have."

The Olympic ice is wider and longer with demensions of 200-by-100. Non-Olympic rinks vary in size but, like Duluth's, most are about 190-by-85.

With the rink 10 feet longer, it takes that much extra time for play to move from one end of the ice to another, but adding 15 feet across makes an even bigger difference. It opens up the ice and puts everything into slow motion.

A cross-ice pass takes longer. A breakout doesn't form as quickly. Two players rushing to a puck in the corner seem to take a while to get there.

It changes everything, and it may have helped certain teams more than others.

Following Harvard's semifinal match, Stone commented on the team's defensive play, pointing out that the bigger sheet of ice made coverage inside the blueline harder.

On the Bulldog's fourth goal, four Crimson defenders were caught in the corners when Duluth's Sanna Peura emerged with the puck, stepped out and fired a cross ice pass to sophomore Hanne Sikio.

The goal put the Bulldogs ahead 4-1 and proved to be the game-winner.

Both teams struggled to adjust to the larger ice surface, but adaptation proved the key to survival and advancement in the tournment. A third period adjustment by Miller made the difference; Charlie Darwin would have been proud.

"We spread our offense out more, which creates open spaces," Miller said. "We created those open spaces, moved the puck and passed a lot."

The change worked. Duluth broke a 1-1 third period tie and exploded with five goals in the final frame.

Duluth's international contingent was a major factor in the team's third period outburst.

Four Duluth players skate for the Finnish National Team and two play for Team Sweden. These players grew up playing on the larger ice surface and are accustomed to playing the game at the international level in Olympic-sized rinks.

"International players like big ice," Miller said. "It's a change for North Americans and when you step onto the big ice at the end of the season it takes away from your game."

It might also have taken away a national championship from either Dartmouth or Harvard.

Power Outage

It wasn't California, but the power outages were reminiscent of the Golden State.

In Friday's semifinal between Duluth and Harvard, the referee swallowed his whistle and didn't let out a sound.

Erik Schmakel called only three penalties all night, two against Harvard and one on Duluth.

The Crimson converted on its only powerplay opportunity just 10 seconds into the man-advantage when senior forward Tammy Shewchuk deflected a point shot from senior defenseman Tara Dunn to knot the game, 1-1.

Duluth, who owns the second best powerplay in the nation at 29.6 percent with 50 goals in 169 opportunites, went 1-for-2 against Harvard.

Given more chances with the man-advantage, however, the Crimson's powerplay could have proved to be even more potent.

Harvard's powerplay was running at 24.6 percent heading into Sunday, and Duluth possess the third worst penalty kill in the country behind only Yale and Maine.

Schmakel's blind-eye policy was fair to both teams, but it would have made for a more interesting game with a couple more odd-man situations.

It would have allowed some of the nation's top goal scoreres to showcase their talkents even more. It might have also changed the final score.

Winds of Change

They were written in stone. God was even rumored to have inscribed them for Moses next to the Ten Commandments.

Then they changed.

After sticking with essentially the same lineup all season, Stone decided to switch up the line combinations half-way through the semifinal game against Duluth. She made similar changes mid-game against Dartmouth on Sunday.

It was a good move.

Moving sophomore winger Kalen Ingram down to the second line was just the change of scenery she needed.

Ingram scored the game-winner against Dartmouth at 16:11 of the second soon after Stone made the line change.

With senior winger Kiirsten Suurkask moving to the top line and sophomore winger Tracy Catlin taking over centering duties on the third line, the comination of Ingram, co-captain Angie Francisco and freshman Lauren McAuliffe struck gold.

Bursting down the right wing, McAuliffe fired a perfect cross-ice pass to a streaking Ingram who redirected the puck past Dartmouth senior Meghan Cahill to put the Crimson ahead 3-2.

"We gave Kiirsten a chance to play with Tammy and Jen to get herself going a little," Stone said. "We changed up our second line for a little bit stronger positional play in the defensive zone."

It paid offensive dividends, too.

For McAuliffe it was only her ninth point of the season, but with graduation and the Olympics hitting the team hard, she will return next season as the team's third leading scorer amongst forwards.

The McAuliffe-Ingram connection may be a pleasant glimpse into the future.