ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s ice hockey team will have 16 freshmen and sophomores on its roster when it opens the season at the University of New Hampshire at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Even though they are Hockey East rivals, this will be considered a non-conference contest.
Third-year head coach Molly Engstrom will have nine newcomers and will have to replace her top three point-getters including Ida Kuoppala, who was chosen to the All-Hockey East first team and was the only Black Bear earning a spot on the league’s first, second and third teams.
Kuoppala had 21 goals and 18 assists for 39 points. Ann-Frederique Guay had 19-9-28 and Rahel Enzler produced 6-20-26.
The Black Bears went 15-18-2 for the second straight season and their 11-14-2 conference record landed them in eighth place in the 10-team league. They lost to ninth-seed Merrimack 2-1 in overtime in their Hockey East first-round playoff game.
After Kuoppala, Guay and Enzler, 11 of the next 12 top scorers return including second-year captain Elise Morphy and senior forward Mira Seregely, who tied for fourth in scoring.
Morphy and Seregely are optimistic about the campaign.
“I’m really excited. All the new girls are really (good),” said graduate student defenseman Morphy, a native of Regina, Saskatchewan who had two goals and 12 assists for a career-high 14 points.
“They have fit in really well,” said Morphy. “We trained together up here over the summer and we got to know each other better. Everyone really meshed well. That’s going to help a lot.”
Seregely, the Hungarian National Team forward who had 6-18-14 a year ago, said the newcomers will bring a lot to the team.
“The freshmen have a ton of skill and the transfers have a ton of experience.” she said.
Morphy and Seregely said they expect the team to be able to put the puck in the net.
“I’m not worried about it. I can see a lot of the new girls stepping up into that (scoring) role and we also have a lot of returners who can also step up (and score),” said Morphy.
Seregely expects the newcomers to produce goals and added that the returning players are a year older and are ready to take on more responsibility.
The other four returnees who reached double digits in points were sophomores Lily Fetch (3-8-11) and Sam Morrison (4-6-10), senior Alyssa Wruble (5-5-10) and junior Ava Stevenson (2-9-11). They are all forwards along with sophomore Raegen Wurm (5-1-6).
Morrison was the Hockey East Rookie of the Month for February when she registered seven points in eight games including a pair of game-winning goals.
Seregely was the team’s leading scorer two years ago (11-12-23) and Wruble (12-9-21) was tied for third.
Sophomores Mikayla Boarder (4-5-9) and Haley Ryan (6-2-8) received valuable experience and had good first seasons and should be improved this season. Boarder played in 32 games and Ryan played in all 35 contests.
Lila Shea is a sophomore who appeared in nine games.
Bemidji State transfer Adriana van de Leest (3-4-7) and Ohio State transfer Jamie Grinder (1-6-7), who are now seniors, had a positive impact in their first seasons at UMaine and will be expected to help anchor the blue line corps with Morphy, sophomore Sophia Johnson (0–5) and senior Courtney Colarullo (0-2-2).
Van de Leest is an alternate captain along with Wruble and junior forward Dani Brunette, a transfer who played in 44 games for Minnesota-Duluth.
The defense corps will be fortified by three newcomers: sophomore St. Cloud State transfer Jaidyn Britt and freshmen Brenna Curl and Kendall Sundby.
Sundby is a three-time winner of the Molly Engstrom Award which goes to the state of Wisconsin’s best defenseman. Engstrom was chosen the Best Defenseman at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
“I feel really good about our defense corps. It’s pretty tight-knit,” said Morphy.
Brunette is one of four new forwards along with freshmen Gracie Hanson, Frederikke Foss and Stephanie Jacob.
Foss played for the Dutch National Team in the World Championships last April.
St. Cloud University transfer Julia Bachetti played in 17 games between the pipes for the Black Bears last season and was 7-10-1 with a 2.90 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage.
Freshmen Kiia Lahtinen, who has played in Finland’s top league since 2020, and three-time USA Girls National Camp selectee Madisyn Ryan will battle Bachetti for goaltending time.
“Julia had a really good first season with us and I’m confident in her ability to play and to lead our new goalies,” said Morphy.
The team was picked to finish eighth in Hockey East in the preseason coaches poll but Morphy said the team has pretty high expectations.
“We want to do something no Maine team has ever done before,” said Morphy.
UMaine has never won a Hockey East regular season title; reached a Hockey East championship game or qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
UMaine has finished in the top four in the Hockey East regular season standings just once since the 2011-12 season and that occurred in 2017-18 when the Black Bears finished third.
Engstrom, the runner-up for Hockey East Coach of the Year two years ago, will be assisted by Kirsti Hussey and new coaching staff addition McKenna Wesloh.
