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Want to see Sonia Corriveau smile?
Just ask “Boom-Boom” about the French Connection and the smile on her face says more than any sentence she can think of.
With that new line, a few new faces and a new season ahead, life for the junior forward and the rest of the University of Maine women’s ice hockey team appears to have a bright outlook as they start their season with a two game set against Robert Morris University Saturday.
“For the past few years that I have been here, there has always been something new,” said Corriveau, who was moved from the left side to the right. “With coach changing the system we run, we always have something to learn.”
Although the team lost their top two scoring threats, Tristan Desmet and Andrea Steranko, Coach Perron has compiled some new line combinations that should see the Black Bears improve on an offense that scored 78 goals last season. One player the Black Bears did retain was Cheryl White, who notched 22 points in 34 games a year ago.
One of those new combinations has already been dubbed the “French Connection.” The line consists of Corriveau, Brigitte LaFlamme and freshman Patricia Gagnon. All three played together for the Limoilou Titans while growing up in Quebec, and when combined with defenseman Julie Poulin, who also played for the Titans and Karine Senecal, give the Black Bears an all French- Canadian lineup.
However, the one drawback to the line is that it will not be on display until January 1, due to some eligibility issues concerning Gagnon.
“When we recruited Gagnon one of the things we wanted to bring into our program was consistency and life,” Perron said. “Having her in our lineup is really going to help us since the three of them played together and won a national championship.”
Even with the drawback, the Black Bears have added something else to their game: speed. According to Corriveau, she felt that the speed of the team has improved from last season and with the Black Bears having six freshmen on their roster, it should make the transition to Division I hockey a little bit easier.
Besides the six freshmen who could possibly see ice time, the Black Bears will also see transfers Kim Meagher and Pam Patterson contribute to the lineup. Last season Patterson played at Ohio State, where she received the award for the team’s highest grade-point average. Meagher, a Hampden native, transferred from Boston College, where she played 33 games while having four assists.
After getting off to one of the best starts in school history, the Black Bears’ winning trend took a major hit when it came to conference play. Although they stayed in the conference hunt for most of the season, a stretch against Hockey East champions Providence and New Hampshire saw their playoff chances dwindle.
This year, the Black Bears were picked to finish in a tie for fourth in the Hockey East preseason coaches’ poll. UMaine was tied with conference runners-up Connecticut who lost half of their team. A preview of what to expect between UConn and UMaine can be seen on Oct. 22, when the Black Bears face the Huskies in their first conference home game.
“We are going to be as competitive as last year and we have to improve our power play which was not good last year,” Perron said. “Overall, being picked fourth is fine for us. We can be better than that but we know the league is getting stronger and as for our expectations, it’s to win Hockey East then NCAA.”
