Elle Hartje grew up wanting to go to Harvard University.
Her father, Tod — a four-year Crimson standout and 1989 national champ — was her coach until she turned 14. Her mother, Nicole, was captain of the Harvard women’s tennis team. Her brother, Jackson, eventually would play hockey at Harvard as well.
It was her recruiting visit to Yale, however, that had the most influence on her college path.
Hartje said there was so much to love about her visit: the rink setup with the lounge, gym and athletic training center. She also was fond of the players from the team she met. The biggest factor, however, was how she saw an immediate opportunity to make an impact.
“I wanted to come somewhere where I could make a big impact on the ice and be able to like change the course of a program,” she said. “I think that me, as well as some of the other girls who ended up coming here, have been doing a good job with that. I saw potential in what the program could be and, obviously, it wasn't meeting that potential, but I was excited to sort of be a leader and be at the front of changing it, so that was another hockey point that was a big deal to me.”
Mark Bolding was not the head coach who originally recruited Hartje; Joakim Flygh was the head coach, hired in 2010, before resigning in February 2019. Bolding was hired after 12 years in Division 3 with Norwich, winning 266 games over his career and earning four American Hockey Coaches Association National Coach of the Year awards.
He was familiar with Hartje prior to taking the job and was excited to work with her upon his hiring.
“We knew right away we would be really reliant on her for a lot of heavy lifting and good minutes,” Bolding said. “To see it in action, how confident she was managing the puck, she’s just a tremendous player, so even as a young player, we knew right away this kid was going to be special, and for whoever didn’t recruit her, shame on them.”
In her first game at Yale, against Long Island University, Hartje had a hat trick in the team’s 9-2 victory. She accumulated 11 goals and 25 points, fourth best on the team, as a freshman and led the team with a plus-23 rating. Yale went 17-15, setting program records for wins in a season and conference wins in a season (13).
Competition and family always have fueled Hartje. As a kid, she played hockey just like her dad and tennis like her mom (she was a four-time All-State selection in tennis in high school). She also was a four-time All-State selection in soccer. One of four children, Hartje said all of her siblings played sports, and she remembered always being on the go and competing with them, even if it sometimes resulted in an argument.
When it was announced that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yale would not have a 2020-21 season, Hartje sought out an experience that mixed competition and family.
Hartje lived in Slovakia, where her grandparents on her mom’s side emigrated from during World War II. Her grandparents speak fluent Slovak, so they and her mom connected her with different people involved in the club hockey scene, and she spent the year playing for SKP Bratislava.
Bolding said he was excited when Hartje came to him with her idea.
“It’s so hard to lose time when you’re an athlete,” he said. “… We thought it’d be great (for her to) work at a different pace, bigger ice sheet, work on her level with older, stronger women who are just differently developed than college-age players, so I think it was a great opportunity for her to go and play her game but also learn a lot.”
Similar to her freshman season at Yale, Hartje scored 11 goals and added 14 assists during 16 regular-season games. She also played in two playoff games and scored two goals.
Hartje noted that one big difference in the style of play was that it wasn’t as physical, so she was really able to work on her skills, such as getting to the net and looking to shoot rather than pass, something she and Bolding talked about after her freshman season.
The biggest area of growth, however, was her ability to self-reflect on her performances without the aid of others.
“The language aspect, that was definitely the biggest barrier for me. The coaches, their English was pretty broken,” she said, “so there was a lot of self-coaching that went on. I would say, for me that year, where I definitely had to reflect on my play and kind of decide how I wanted to get better that year, and I think that was big for my development in the sense of I couldn’t rely on having my dad there to watch every game or when he puts on ESPN+, or having my coaches to fall back on and be like, ‘What was this?’ I really had to work through things all by myself, which helped a lot.”
Hartje was excited to return to Yale to show all she learned and how she grew as both a player and person. Bolding said the improvements both physically and mentally were very clear.
“She was just relentless in her willingness to be the kid that has the puck on her stick,” he said. “I just think her confidence was another level, and good for her. I mean, not many players can take that step forward.”
Hartje scored 16 goals and added a program single-season record of 35 assists last season. Her 51 points were the second-most in Yale history and the highest total in 38 years. She led ECAC Hockey in points per game (1.42) and had the 10th-best average in the nation. She earned All-ECAC first-team honors and was a finalist for ECAC Forward of the Year.
Hartje’s individual success also helped propel the team to its most successful season ever. The team went 26-9-1, earned a trip to the ECAC championship game for the first time, and beat conference rival Colgate to earn a trip to the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four, where it lost a close game to Ohio State.
“We knew we could do it, but it was shocking to the outside world,” Hartje said. “The vibes at the rink were so good, and everyone is feeling good about supporting people on and off the ice, and, obviously, I can’t have the success I did if our team didn’t have the success that we did. There were so many characters on our team that were huge impact players. We kind of just fed off of each other.”
Hartje said the success of the 2021-22 season will be hard to duplicate, and that’s partially because, as Bolding said, they won’t “catch anybody by surprise.”
Yale swept each of its first two weekends to begin the season 4-0, with victories at Harvard and Dartmouth to start the season then wins against No. 4 Quinnipiac and No. 14 Princeton.
Through 10 games, Hartje is tied for the team-lead in points with 12 and ranks No. 1 on the team in assists with 10. Tied with her in points is first-year forward Jordan Ray. Anna Bargman (Boxford, Mass.), a sophomore, has six goals and 11 points. Of the first 12 goals the team scored, only one was scored by a player older than a sophomore (Charlotte Welch scored one goal against Quinnipiac). Between the pipes, sophomore Pia Dukaric ranks inside the top 10 in both goals against average (1.58) and save percentage (.942).
Hartje is happy to see so many teammates getting off to strong starts and is optimistic about what that means for the program she and her teammates have worked so hard to take to new heights.
“I think that speaks to where this program is going,” Hartje said. “I think that just shows that we’re even more of a force to be reckoned with this year. Obviously, the success of last year is going to be hard to repeat, and it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but so far, from top to bottom, our girls have been putting in that work. I’m excited to see how we improve off of last year.”
