skip navigation

Olympian Carpenter Heads Back to School

09/11/2014, 3:45pm MDT
By Justin A. Rice - Special to USAHockey.com

After taking leave from Boston College last year to train with the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team in the run up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Alex Carpenter was still acclimating to campus life when classes started last week.

“It’s pretty different,” she said during a telephone interview on Friday afternoon. “People are joking that I should go back to orientation because it’s been a while since I’ve been here. All my [Boston College] teammates are great though. My senior class and my old classmates are great at helping me out to get back in the swing of things here.”

After a sensational sophomore season in which she finished seventh in the nation with 70 points and was a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, the daughter of former NHL player Bobby Carpenter took a redshirt year last year because she officially withdrew from school.

This fall she is reenrolled as a junior and getting readjusted to the academic grind of college life.

“They are not bad, I’m in four [classes],” she said. “I’m just trying to get back into it and up to five [classes]. It’s difficult because this time of year last year I was sitting around in my apartment doing nothing.”

But it’s not as bad as it might sound.

“I’m a psychology major and I’m very interested in it,” she said. “It’s very cool to be back in those kinds of classes.”

From a hockey standpoint, returning to Chestnut Hill isn’t so bad either. Last season the 27-7-3 Eagles finished the year ranked fifth in the USCHO.com poll after losing to eventual NCAA Champion Clarkson 3-1 in the NCAA quarterfinals. Carpenter said their goals are set even higher this year.

“We had eight girls out in at the U-22 National Festival. I think we have a lot of skill and talent. We just want to put that all together to be the best team we can be.”

In fact, BC had more players at last month’s National Festival in Lake Placid, N.Y., than any other college team. The University of Minnesota had the second-most players at the festival with four athletes in the field of 69 skaters.

“It was definitely cool to reconnect with my teammates from Boston College because I hadn’t played with them in over a year,” Carpenter said of the Festival.

After the Festival, Carpenter helped Team USA beat Canada in three straight games, recording a goal and an assist in the U22 series in Calgary. She also tallied a pair of shootout goals to cinch the win over Canada in the final game. But the victories didn’t help dull the sting from the dramatic loss to Canada in the gold medal game in Sochi.

“It helped, but it will never make it completely better,” she said. “It was a great start for Team USA. We got off on the right foot there. [But losing to Canada] is not something we brush off. I think if we win in 2018, I think it will [still] bother every one of us.”

Carpenter said she took a few weeks off after the Olympic Games and then 10 or 11 players from the Olympic team vacationed together in Mexico. She also took a family trip to Aruba this summer. Otherwise, she spent the bulk of her summer in strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle’s Woburn, Mass., gym along with Shelly Picard, Monique Lamoureux, Hillary Knight and Meghan Duggan.

“We’ve been living there pretty much four days a week,” she said of Boyle’s gym.

But even though Carpenter is settling back in at Boston College, she can’t get too comfortable. She will soon leave again, this time for the 2014 U.S. Women’s National Team Evaluation Camp, which will take place from Sept. 12-15 at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.

“We are really excited for this camp,” she said. “It will be great to have a lot of the Olympic team back together on the ice. I haven’t played with them since February. I think it will be a good test for us to see where Team USA stands with the rest of the world.”

Juggling classes, college hockey, and her Team USA duties will be a good test for Carpenter this year too, but it’s not a balancing act that she’s too worried about.

“We’ve done it before,” she said. “Obviously freshman and sophomore year I was part of the U18 team and I had to do it before. It’s not anything new. Obviously last year was more stressful hockey training-wise, but that’s not to say this year won’t be stressful. It’s just a different caliber when you are training for the Olympics rather than a winter camp or training camp.

“[School] definitely does take your mind off the game for a little bit. My roommate [Annie Pankowski] and I would find things to do [last year]. We did a pretty good job keeping ourselves busy and would get away from the rink every now and then.”

Recent News

Michigan Womens's Ice Hockey Team - by Nolan Bona
  • The Game Lives On

  • 03/13/2024, 10:15am MDT , By Clara Boudette
  • The University of Michigan Women’s Ice Hockey Team Embraces Domestic & Global Opportunities American College Hockey Association Provides
  • Read More
The Lady Duck "We Play Her Way" program smiles for a photograph on the ice.
Group Picture of the adaptive hockey on-ice event. They are wearing Victory Green Dallas Stars jerseys and black and orange jerseys as they pose for a picture on the ice.
A young boy, in a black Bauer helmet and a navy USA Hockey/NHL jersey sits on the ice and smiles during Try Hockey For Free Day
The Grow Colorado Goalies clinic takes a group photo, with coaches and young goaltenders on the ice.
The Irish Youth Hockey League hosting a Try Hockey For Free Event. Young girls on the ice pose for a photograph after the event.
The Over-80 USA Hockey Team, comprised of players from eight different states (New Hampshire, Minnesota, Alaska, Massachusetts, Colorado, Illinois, Florida and California), came together in the Fall of 2023 to compete in the Canada 150 Cup tournament in B
|

Most Popular Articles

Klee Named U.S. Women's Nat'l Team Head Coach for 2016 IIHF WWC

02/16/2016, 5:00pm MST
By USAHockey.com

Brett Strot and Chris Tamer Named Assistant Coaches

U.S. Women’s National Under-18 Team Captures World Championship

01/12/2008, 1:30pm MST
By U18 Women's World Champs

CALGARY, Alta. – The U.S. Women's National Under-18 Team captured the first-ever gold medal awarded at the inaugural 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's U18 Championship with a 5-2 victory over Canada here tonight at the Father David Bauer Arena. Alyssa Grogan (Eagan, Minn.) made 26 saves in the win, while five different players scored for the undefeated Team USA (5-0-0-0).

"I feel thoroughly satisfied with how these young athletes came to play tonight and they went out and won a world championship," said Katey Stone, head coach for Team USA and also the head women's ice hockey coach at Harvard University. "We went out, attacked and brought it home. It's a great day for USA Hockey."

Team USA came out strong in the first period, holding a 13-9 shots advantage and gaining a 2-0 advantage. Meagan Mangene (Manorville, N.Y.) opened the scoring at 12:12 when Brooke Ammerman (River Vale, N.J.) sent her a feed from behind the net and she roofed it from the bottom of the slot. Ammerman then tallied her sixth goal of the tournament at 18:48, as she grabbed Brianna Decker's (Dousman, Wis.) rebound at the right post and used her backhand to take it to the open left side of the net for a 2-0 U.S. lead heading into the second frame.

In the middle stanza, the Americans scored twice more to go up 4-0 before Canada used a power play to get on the board. U.S. goal No. 3 came at 2:29 of the period. CaptainSarah Erickson (LaPorte, Minn.) took a shot from the right faceoff circle that rebounded out to the left side, where Kendall Coyne (Palos Heights, Ill.) put it low past Canadian netminder Delayne Brian. Decker was next to light the lamp for the United States, as she skated the puck into Canada's zone from center ice and got a shot off with a Canadian player in tow. The shot hit the crossbar and landed in the net at 8:14 for a four-goal U.S. advantage.

The lone Canadian goal of the second period came at 18:17, while the Americans were down a man and had just killed off over a minute of a 5-on-3 Canadian advantage. Lauriane Rougeau took a shot from the left point that went off Carolyne Prevost's stick and into the U.S. net past Grogan.

Canada cut its deficit to 4-2 early in the final frame when Jessica Jones' wrister from the left faceoff circle slipped low inside the far post at 2:20. Amanda Kessel (Madison, Wis.) secured the gold-medal victory for Team USA with 7:46 to go in the game, as she skated in front of the goalmouth and beat Brian low for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Brooke Ammerman was named the U.S. Player of the Game ...Team USA went 1-for-6 on the power play, while Canada was 1-for-5 with the man advantage ... Alyssa Grogan won the Directorate Award as the tournament's top goaltender ... Kendall Coyne, Anne Schleper (St. Cloud, Minn.) and Sarah Erickson were named Team USA's best players of the tournament ... Amanda Kessel (4-7--10) led the U.S. team in scoring ... Joining Katey Stone on the coaching staff as assistant coaches were Erin Whitten Hamlen, associate women’s ice hockey coach at the University of New Hampshire, andBob Deraney, head women’s ice hockey coach at Providence College.

GAME SUMMARY

Scoring By Period

USA 2 2 1 -- 5

CAN 0 1 1 -- 2

First Period - Scoring: 1, USA, Mangene (Ammerman), 12:12; 2, USA, Ammerman (Decker), 18:48. Penalties: USA, Bolden (high-sticking), 1:08; CAN, Rougeau (interference), 1:20; CAN, Watt (delay of game), 18:48.

Second Period - Scoring: 3, USA, Coyne (Erickson), 2:29; 4, USA, Decker (unassisted), 8:14; 5, CAN, Prevost (Rougeau), 18:17 (pp). Penalties: USA, Sherry (interference), 4:07; USA, Wild (holding), 8:42; CAN, Poulin (cross-checking), 13:22; USA, Bolden (interference), 16:12; USA, Grogan (tripping), 17:18.

Third Period - Scoring: 6, CAN, Jones (Prevost), 2:20; 7, USA, Kessel (unassisted), 12:14 (pp). Penalties: CAN, Team (too many players on the ice), 5:26; CAN, Poulin (hooking), 10:25; CAN, Watt (tripping), 18:15.

Shots by Period 1 2 3 Total
USA   13 8 6 27
CAN   9 13 6 28
           
Goaltenders (SH/SV)   1 2 3 Total
USA, Grogan, 60:00   9-9 13-12 6-5 28-26
CAN, Brian, 60:00   13-11 8-6 6-5 27-22

Power Play:USA 1-6; CAN 1-5

Penalties: USA 5-10; CAN 6-12
Officials: Referee-Joy Tottman (GBR); Linesmen-Marina Konstantinova (RUS), Alice Stanley (GBR)

Tag(s): Home