2018-19 Vermont Catamounts

[TovarishchLisa]

Incoming freshman goalie Blanka Škodová won a silver medal at the Women's Inline Hockey World Championships. Congrats to her.

[TovarishchLisa]

Congrats to UVM commit Natalie Ferenc, who was named to the USA U18 team for their upcoming series against Canada. Ferenc is slated to join the Catamounts in 2019/20.

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Vermont gets a Minnesota high school hockey commitment for 2022/2023 (although her grad year is listed as 2021) from Anna Podein who is a defensemen for Benilde-St Margaret's.

Her bloodlines are strong as her dad (Shjon Podein) played at UMD for 3 years and 11 years in the NHL. He is also her coach at BSM.

[hockeymakesmebroke]

Curious as to how this works out grabbing two highly rated goalies and Scobee (.923 save percentage last season) having two years of eligibility left. Bringing in Blanka Škodová this year and Ferenc next year sets them up for some solid goaltending, but makes for some unhappy goalies for the next few years also. On top of that, they have McPherson from Cambridge slated to show up for the 2020 season. I get that you want competition amongst your goalies, this will be fierce!

Congrats to UVM commit Natalie Ferenc, who was named to the USA U18 team for their upcoming series against Canada. Ferenc is slated to join the Catamounts in 2019/20.

[Still Eeyore]

Curious as to how this works out grabbing two highly rated goalies and Scobee (.923 save percentage last season) having two years of eligibility left. Bringing in Blanka Škodová this year and Ferenc next year sets them up for some solid goaltending, but makes for some unhappy goalies for the next few years also. On top of that, they have McPherson from Cambridge slated to show up for the 2020 season. I get that you want competition amongst your goalies, this will be fierce!

Scobee is now a Gopher.

[hockeymakesmebroke]

My mistake. That takes a little guess work out of who starts this season, but the next two years will be a battle with quality Frosh goalies coming in both years.

[TovarishchLisa]

My mistake. That takes a little guess work out of who starts this season, but the next two years will be a battle with quality Frosh goalies coming in both years.

Melissa Black probably starts, at least to start. Hopefully she can get back in form.

As for the goalie logjam...Scobee leaving screwed with our timeline a bit. Black graduates after this year, which would be the slot Ferenc slots into...then Scobee would've graduated the year after, which was the slot McPherson slots into.

Only having 2 goalies on the roster is playing with fire in case of injuries, so we went out and recruited Škodová.

[TovarishchLisa]

Captains have been named. Gorecki and Kolowrat will wear the C. Flaherty, O'Leary, and Picard will wear the A.

[TovarishchLisa]

Future Catamount Natalie Ferenc stopped 28 of 32 in the US U18 team's 4-3 loss to Canada.

[TovarishchLisa]

Three Catamount alumnae were drafted in the CWHL Draft today.

Taylor Willard - Les Canadiennes de Montreal
Mackenzie MacNeil - Toronto Furies
Gina Repaci - Markham Thunder

[GreenCat]

Three Catamount alumnae were drafted in the CWHL Draft today.

Taylor Willard - Les Canadiennes de Montreal
Mackenzie MacNeil - Toronto Furies
Gina Repaci - Markham Thunder

That is awesome!

[TovarishchLisa]

Ève-Audrey Picard was invited to the Hockey Canada Fall Festival training camp, but will not be attending, according to Hockey Canada.

[TovarishchLisa]

Newcomers' numbers:

Sini Karjalainen - #2
Ellice Murphy - #10
Abby Cleary - #11
Lilly Holmes - #13
Theresa Schafzahl - #17
Corinne McCool - #18
Alex Gray - #22
Blanka Škodová - #31
Maude Poulin-Labelle - #76

[GreenCat]

No love in the coaches poll. Hopefully prove them wrong....

[TovarishchLisa]

No love in the coaches poll. Hopefully prove them wrong....

Yeah, I was surprised too, but I guess the coaches are apprehensive about the young D.

My question on that poll (and the USCHO preseason top 10) is, am I the only one who feels the voters are prisoners of UConn's moment?

[TovarishchLisa]

Three Catamount alumnae were drafted in the CWHL Draft today.

Taylor Willard - Les Canadiennes de Montreal
Mackenzie MacNeil - Toronto Furies
Gina Repaci - Markham Thunder

Furies announce that MacNeil made the roster. Her speed will be a weapon on the Olympic size rink. She'll be reunited with former UVM teammate Brittany Zuback.

[TovarishchLisa]

UVM has another commit for next year, Emma Katzman from the Chicago Young Americans as the Cats go to their Illinois well once again. Former Dartmouth commit.

[TovarishchLisa]

Gooood morning everyone, it is GAME DAY!

i don't care if it's exhibition it's hockey

[ARM]

i don't care if it's exhibition it's hockey

Yes, six months is a long time.

[TovarishchLisa]

Fun game today, and I liked a lot of what I saw. Really liked the look of the Cleary-Shanahan-Valkama second line. Defense did make some young player mistakes, but I think overall they were pretty good. Offense was pretty solid, which you have to be to beat an elite goalie like Deguire. Obviously chemistry still needs to be worked out, there were a few cases where that last pass was a bit sloppy, but that'll hopefully come with time.

Goaltending situation could be interesting to look at. Blanka didn't have to do a ton of work but kept McGill off the scoresheet, and Natzke was huge late. I know it's just exhibition, but that late-game performance earned her some starts IMO.

It is preseason though so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.