They’re going in looking for a three-peat.
They also know that they have a target on their back.
The Sault College Cougars women’s hockey team is set to compete this weekend in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II national championship tournament in St. Louis.
Sault College coach Brianne Shunock says that success in the tournament will come from using the fact that other teams are targeting them to their own advantage.
“We have to block out all the noise,” Sault College coach Brianne Shunock said. “(We have to) forget about every other team and their strengths and just know what we’re capable of going when sticking to our own game.”
“If we do what we’re supposed to do and what we do well, we shouldn’t have to worry about other teams,” Shunock said.
Sault College went 19-2-0-1 in Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association play this season while grabbing top spot in the standings.
The team was paced offensively by veteran Emma Lee, who led the team in points with 42 and finished in a tie for the lead in goals with Materia Land. Both finished the season with 20 tallies.
Goaltenders Farrah Farstad and Cassidy Dobson each put up solid numbers as well.
To go along with a record of 11-1-0-0, Farstad posted a goals against average of 0.75 and a save percentage of 0.957 while Dobson went 8-1-0-1 with a GAA of 0.90 and a 0.949 save percentage.
In addition to their conference schedule, Sault College added a number of non-conference games to their schedule, which included games against ACHA DI schools (Niagara University and University of Michigan-Dearborn).
“One thing we focused on this year was getting high calibre games where we could fit it in our schedule,” Shunock said. “We played two Division I teams. We played additional non-conference games as well as our conference games just to make sure that we’re focusing on getting in these important games that will set us up for success when it comes to nationals.”
“Typically, you don’t see many teams that aren’t in your conference until you go to nationals and it’s a little more difficult when you’re doing a scouting report to understand the teams you might play if you don’t know the calibre of hockey,” Shunock added. “If we’ve played a team, they’re really strong, and they came fourth in their conference, then we know that the teams ahead of them are going to be even stronger.”
With non-conference games factored in, Shunock said her team showed her an ability to “rise to the occasion.”
“We knew going into those games that they were going to be tougher than the competition that we had,” Shunock said.
Shunock added that the team also “plays to the level of our competition.”
“Our biggest thing has been recognizing that we need to play for 60 minutes,” Shunock said. “Teams previous records don’t mean anything, especially when we’re going into the national tournament. Every team is there because they’ve won a certain amount of games to get them there. They’re competitive.”
Scheduled to open the tournament Friday afternoon against Boston College, Sault College will look to avoid rust being a factor in their opener.
The team last saw game action on Feb. 23 when they capped off their regional tournament with a win over Central Michigan University.
“It’s just making sure that we’re trying to stay mentally and physically in a hockey space and mentality,” Shunock said of how they treated the time away from game action.
Sault College’s round robin schedule will see the team take on Boston College on Friday before facing the University of St. Thomas on Saturday and Boston University on Sunday.
Boston College went 12-3-1-0 in regular season play while playing in the Independent Women’s Collegiate Hockey League, finishing second in the conference. Boston University was third in the IWCHL with a record of 11-3-0-1.
An independent program, St. Thomas posted a 12-3-0-1 record this season.
The top teams is each pool through round robin will advance to semifinal play on Monday with the national championship game set for Tuesday afternoon.