No. 10 Women's Hockey Opens Season at No. 5/6 Boston College

Saturday: #10 Dartmouth (0-0-0, 0-0-0) at #5/6 Boston College (3-1-1, 1-0-1)
Location: Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2 p.m.
Series Record: Dartmouth leads 25-3-2

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Game Notes

HANOVER, N.H. — The 10th-ranked Dartmouth women's hockey team is ready to get back on the ice when they take on the fifth-ranked Eagles of Boston College on Sunday at 2 p.m.

PRESEASON POLLS
The preseason ECAC polls came out in late September and the coaches picked the Big Green (91 points) to finish fourth in the conference.

Cornell (121 points) earned the top spot in the poll receiving all but one first place vote. Harvard was picked second with 105 points and Quinnipiac was selected third with 93 points and was the only other team to receive a first-place vote.

Clarkson, which advanced to the league quarterfinals a year ago, ranks fifth in the preseason poll with 82 points; north country partner St. Lawrence occupies the sixth slot with 70 points. Princeton and Rensselaer garner slots seventh and eighth, respectively, while Colgate was selected in the ninth position. Yale comes in as the 10th team in the poll. Brown, led by first-year head coach Amy Bourbeau, and Union are the 11th and 12th teams in the poll.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
In both national polls, Dartmouth is ranked 10th in the nation. In the USCHO.com poll, the Big Green received 15 points and had 16 points in the USA HOCKEY/ESPN The Magazine National Poll.

Wisconsin is the top team in both polls, a unanimous decision in the USCHO.com poll and had all but two first-place votes in the USA HOCKEY poll.

Cornell is the only other ECAC Hockey team in the national polls. In both polls, the Big Red are third.

OPENING ON THE ROAD
The Big Green last opened on the road in the 2009-10 season with a 3-0 loss at Cornell. Dartmouth is 12-7 when it opens on the road compared to a 13-2 record when its first game is at home. In season opening games, the Big Green are 25-9.

CAPTAINS' REPORT
Coach Hudak named his captains for the 2011-12 season and seniors Kelly Foley (South Boston, Mass.), Reagan Fischer (Irma, Alberta) and Jenna Hobeika (Alpine, N.J.) are the 65th, 66th and 67th captains for the Big Green women's hockey program. Foley has played in 83 career games, scored 32 goals, recorded 37 assists and 69 points. Fischer has played in 68 career games, scored 24 goals, tallied 30 assists and totaled 54 points. Hobeika has played in 71 career games, totaled 15 goals, had 23 assists and had 38 points.

FIVE NEWCOMERS
Dartmouth welcomed five new players to wear the Green and White this season. The class features one blueliner, four forwards and a goaltender. Two of the five recruits are from north of the border, while two are coming to Hanover from Minnesota and one from Connecticut.

The three forwards include Sam Zeiss (Stamford, Conn.), Abbie Lund (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Karlee Odland (Vauxhall, Alberta). Zeiss was named to the Division I New England Prep School Girls' Ice Hockey Association All-Star Team her junior year. Lund attended and played for The Blake School. In 2010, she earned all-conference and all-state honors. Odland played for the Medicine Hat Hounds of the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League before coming to Dartmouth.

The lone freshman defender is Morgan Illikainen (Grand Rapids, Minn.). Illikainen played for the Grand Rapids Greenway Lightning and the Minnesota Junior Whitecaps. She finished her career with more than 100 points, and had 16 goals and 19 assists in her senior year at Grand Rapids.

Freshman Katie Milligan (Kingston, Ontario) is the goaltender. Milligan played for the Ottawa Lady Senators Intermediate AA. Her team was the Kingston Athlete Secondary School Association (KASSA) hockey champion in 2010.

100-POINT HOLE
Dartmouth has a 100-point hole to fill in its front line this season. The Big Green lost the second-highest scorer from last year's squad. Amanda Trunzo '11 ended her career with 127 points, which tied for 16th on the all-time list. She is tied for eighth on the all-time goals scored list with 68. Trunzo was also tied for the third most power play goals in the program's history with 24.

NEED FOR THREE
The Big Green were the most successful last season when it registered three-or-more-goals. Over the course of the year, Dartmouth went 21-1 when it scored three or more goals, but was 1-11 when it scored two goals or fewer. The team was a perfect 16-0 when it scored four goals or more.

TWO-GOAL SCORERS
Another thing that was a sure-fire sign that Dartmouth was going to win last year was if they had a skater score at least two goals. The Big Green was a perfect 12-0 when they had a player score two or more goals in a game.

FIRST TIMES THE CHARM
Last season, Dartmouth used early leads to propel itself to victories. The Big Green were 17-3 when they scored first compared to 5-9 when their opponents netted the first goal.

NANJI IN THE RECORD BOOKS
Playing as a defenseman, junior Sasha Nanji (Markham, Ontario) is scoring goals at a rate few have done in Dartmouth history at her position. She had 14 goals last season, which was the fourth highest single-season total by a defenseman ever at Dartmouth. She also has 32 goals in her career from the back line, which is the eighth highest total in the history of the program for a defender.

COACHING ABROAD
Head Coach Mark Hudak continues to be a staple in USA Women's Hockey. The Big Green coach, coached the Red Team at the 2011 USA Hockey Women's National Festival at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn. The Festival served as the selection camp for the 2011 U.S. Women's Select Team that competed in the International Ice Hockey Federation Eight Nations Tournament in Vierumäki, Finland, Aug. 24-31 and the 2011 U.S Women's Under-18 Select Team that took on Canada in a three-game series Aug. 18-21 in Rockland, Ontario.

Hudak was named an assistant coach for the USA Women's Hockey team for the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Twelve Nations Invitational Tournament Series this past August.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Boston College enters the weekend with a 2-1-1 record and are ranked fifth and sixth in the national polls.

Last weekend, the Eagles kicked off their Hockey East slate with a 1-1 tie at New Hampshire, before returning to the Heights for a 5-0 victory over the Wildcats. Freshman forward Alex Carpenter netted the only goal in Friday night's draw, while sophomore forward Taylor Wasylk and junior defenseman Blake Bolden both tallied one goal and two assists in Saturday's win.

Junior goaltender Corinne Boyles got the nod in both matchups, totaling 41 saves over the weekend.

Carpenter leads the team in points with six on three goals and three assists. Junior Blake Bolden and Wasylk are second with four points. Bolden has two goals and two assists and Wasylk has one goal and three assists.

Boyles has started all four games for BC and has a .907 save percentage, a 2.45 goals against average and made 98 saves.

SERIES HISTORY
Boston College and Dartmouth will meet for the 31st time on Sunday. The Big Green lead the series, 25-3-2. The first meeting took place on January 21, 1980 at Boston College, with the Big Green earning a 3-2 victory. The Eagles won the next season with a 3-1 win in Hanover on December 3, 1980. Following the loss, Dartmouth won 14 straight contests and 22 of 23. In the last five contests the series has been even with each team earning two victories and one tie. Boston College won last year's game with a 4-2 victory on its home ice on November 24, 2010. Dartmouth is 9-1-1 all-time at Boston College

Schedules