BC Women’s Hockey: 2021-2022 Roster Breakdown

Can you believe it’s hockey season??

The puck drops for Boston College Women’s Hockey tomorrow at 7pm, and it feels a bit like the season has snuck up on us. That probably has something to do with the women’s hockey schedule traditionally dropping pretty late, but this year’s schedule dropping just FORTY-EIGHT HOURS before the first game has to be a new record.

Alright, COOL, we’ve got games. Let’s break down the roster.

THE OFFENSE

Departures:
Maegan Beres (Graduation): 1-1—2 in 19 games
Savannah Norcross (Transfer, Minnesota): 12-9—21 in 20 games

New Arrivals:
Michaela Boyle (Transfer) — Robert Morris (2nd semester)
Jenna Carpenter (Freshman) — Detroit HoneyBaked
Abby Newhook (Freshman) — Bay State Breakers
Katie Pyne (Freshman) — Bay State Breakers
Carson Zanella (Freshman) — Bay State Breakers

Losing Savannah Norcross to transfer is going to sting in the near term, but the big addition of Michaela Boyle in the 2nd half of the season will be at worst an even trade — so that’ll be a great add for the Eagles in the stretch run.

The big story this year, though, is the integration of one of Coach Crowley’s best recruiting classes in a while. Newhook and Pyne should be major contributors right away, and depending on their transition to the college game could really take the program back to being true national contenders over the next few seasons. Expect Carpenter (no relation to, you know, the other Carpenter) to make an impact as well. Zanella will add some depth giving the Eagles a whopping 15 forwards on the roster — so those who want ice time will really have to earn it this season.

In all, offense should be looking up from last season. The Eagles were 7th in scoring nationally last year, so we should expect BC to have more of a lethal attack than they’ve had in a few campaigns.

THE DEFENSE

Departures:
Cayla Barnes (Olympics): 4-6—10 in 19 games
Hadley Hartmetz (Transfer, Ohio State): 1-13—14 in 19 games

New Arrivals:
Keri Clougherty (Freshman) — Boston Jr. Eagles
Kiley Erickson (Freshman) — Bay State Breakers

Barnes is the big loss this year, but she’ll be back next season after centralizing with Team USA for the 2022 Olympics. Losing Hadley Hartmetz late in the offseason was unexpected, though, and is going to be pretty tough to overcome. She has played on the national team some, and made up a lot of BC’s blue line minutes during her time on the Heights.

That’s going to leave the Eagles with a pretty inexperienced blue line. The two freshmen will be expected to contribute right away, at least out of necessity. BC will have 7 defenders on the roster, which is better than we’re used to having but still leaves very little room to withstand any injuries. The outlook on the D has to be slightly down from last season (in which they were 12th nationally in goals allowed), so the Eagles probably need to lean on their goaltending a bit this year.

THE GOALIES

Departures:
None

New Arrivals:
None

BC returns its three-headed-monster in net this season with three seniors — Abbey Levy, Maddy McArthur, and Kelly Pickreign — who will all be battling for top billing. Levy really put a vice grip on the “1a” role in the second half of the season and ended up 4th in the country nationally in save percentage. You would expect her to start the year at the top of the trio, but McArthur and Pickreign will get their opportunities to take over.

Goaltending will be crucial to the Eagles’ successes this year with the development of the young defense, but fortunately BC knows what they’ve got in net. The team will go as far as the goalies take them.