For three straight years from the 2017-18 season through 2019-20 season, the Vermont women’s hockey team could not surpass 10 total wins.
There was optimism about the 2020-21 season, but an abbreviated 10-game schedule didn’t allow for much opportunity to showcase improvement.
Hoping to finally turn the program’s fortunes around, 2021-22 season had its challenges. The team’s depth was going to be tested due to the lingering effects of COVID, Olympic qualifiers and the Olympics.
While the first half of the season had its bumps in the road, the Catamounts not only survived the challenges but also were better off for it in the second half of the season, ultimately earning a program-record 22 wins and hosting their first-ever Hockey East tournament semifinal game.
“There was kind of a sense of frustration that we hadn’t gotten to see the previous season through,” head coach Jim Plumer (Norwood, Mass.) said. “We had the core of the team back. We had only graduated three kids. There were two seniors who were able to make it work to come back for a fifth year. We had expectations.”
In a unique circumstance, the Olympic qualifiers were pushed back because of COVID and ended up being in the same year as the Olympics. This affected several key players on the team at Vermont.
Forwards Natalie Mlynkova and Tyna Patkova made the Czech Republic Olympic Team, defenseman Sini Karjalainen made the Finland Olympic Team, while forward Theresa Schafzahl played for Austria in the qualifiers.
Graduate student Corinne McCool (West Roxbury, Mass.) said knowing they were going to be missing players ahead of time pushed the team closer together because they knew they were going to have to rely on everyone at some point.
“Our team had become so much closer and stuck together in ways that I don't think the culture at UVM has ever been that close,” she said. “We definitely took that experience, and we were all there for each other. I would just say it was like that next-man-up mentality of everyone was on the same page. Everyone knew what their role was. When they needed to step up, they stepped up, and that's kind of how we rolled.”
The Catamounts were streaky to start the season. They went 4-2-1 in the first seven games of the year only to follow that stretch with a four-game losing streak from Oct. 30 through Nov. 13, including a pair of overtime losses to the University of Connecticut and Dartmouth and a weekend sweep at the hands of Northeastern.
The team picked up momentum from there, however, going unbeaten in seven of its next nine games, but it was a weekend rematch with UConn that seemed to be the turning point in the season. After losing handily, 5-1, in the Friday night game, Vermont returned the favor the following night with a 6-2 victory.
That sparked a nine-game winning streak and an unbeaten stretch in 12 of 13 games going into the Hockey East tournament.
The big game, however, that convinced McCool and the rest of the team that something special was truly transpiring was a 2-1 victory over Northeastern on Jan. 28. The victory ended a 13-game winning streak for the top-ranked Huskies. It was the first time Vermont had beaten a top three team since a 3-2 victory over Clarkson on Nov. 10, 2017.
“We had a fire under us after that because we knew our potential at that point,” McCool said. “I think we all did. It was just a matter of going out and performing and executing. Northeastern is a team we've played a lot, and we know them very well. We obviously have a lot of respect for them. They're a really good team. … It’s still amazing to this day how that game went. I would just say we played the best we could against a team like that, and it worked in our favor.”
Plumer said the victory over Northeastern, done without its three Olympic players, proved to his players they could handle anything.
“When you figure out a way to get through something you think is really tough and you wouldn’t otherwise get through it, and you get through it, you’re like, ‘Oh, we can do anything,’” he said. “I think there was an increased level of trust and buy-in that comes from, ‘Look what we just accomplished with that challenge.’ You can’t manufacture confidence. You can’t buy it at the store. The best way to get it is to do the best you can to prepare.”
In that Northeastern game, Bella Parento (Montpelier, Vt.) scored the game-winning goal in the third period, her second game-winning goal of the season. The first goal of the game came from Kristina Shanahan and was assisted by Schafzahl, the Austrian native.
Austria placed second in qualifying for the Olympics, leaving the nation out of the tournament. If Austria had been able to get past Denmark in the standings, Plumer said the end of Vermont’s season might have looked a lot different.
Schafzahl scored a team-high 25 goals and added 21 assists for a program single-season record of 46 points. The end-of-season awards rolled in for her as well. She was the first Catamount to be named to the Patty Kazmaier top-10 list, the first Catamount (along with Maude Poulin-Labelle) to be named CCM/AHCA All-American (selected first team), was named Division 1 Women’s MVP by New England Hockey Writers Association, and was the first player from Vermont selected as Hockey East Player of the Year.
“She just stepped up in a way we’ve never seen anybody do,” said Plumer, who was named Hockey East Coach of the Year. “She’s always been a good player. She works really hard at improving. Some of it is from our player development, but that doesn’t happen without a kid that’s willing to be incredibly self-motivated.
“One of the things that happened with Theresa was she was injured after our second weekend of the season, and she missed the next two weekends,” Plumer added. “She watched our team play those two weekends, and then she was leaving to go to qualifiers for Austria. In that absence, especially when she had to sit on the sidelines and watch her team play, I think she saw the game and saw her team in a different light and was able to use that to motivate herself to know how she could help us.”
Aside from Northeastern, UConn was the other thorn in Vermont’s side. The Catamounts went 1-3 against the Huskies, including a loss in the Hockey East semifinals that eventually ended their season.
UConn scored within two minutes to open the game and never looked back, scoring once more in the second and third periods before Vermont could get on the board.
The team was disappointed, but McCool said it would help fuel Vermont heading into the 2022-23 season.
“It was a bummer, that game, because UConn played a really, really good game against us,” McCool said. “Their systems are good, they grind, they work hard, and that's how they win, and that's how they beat us. I’m not going to lie, it was tough to accept that loss, but I think we had a lot of good stuff to look back on and a lot of stuff to look forward to. I think we're all going to take that loss with us this season, for sure, and I think UConn is going to be a team when we play them in the regular season that we’re really going to fight for that game back.”
Vermont will get its first crack at UConn early, playing a home weekend series against the Huskies on Oct. 14-15.
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McCool, Schafzahl and Karjalainen are three of the six graduate students who return, as do Patkova, Mlynkova, Parento and All-Rookie Team selection Reagan Miller. McCool said the expectations for this season are the highest they’ve ever been, and they are locked in on getting positive results from the first weekend.
Both McCool and Plumer said they are excited for the new season, one they hope is a continuation of an improved Vermont women’s ice hockey program.
“I really like this team,” Plumer said. “We have a bunch of great human beings that also happen to be great hockey players. Having coached some championship teams before, I know how much fun it is to play when everybody is enjoying their experience. It becomes contagious motivation, and I think that makes us excited for the season. The culture of our program is the best place it’s ever been, and that makes it awesome to come to the rink every day.”
