Women's hockey All-New England selections announced
April 3, 2008
Media Contact: Lindsay Daly, Northeastern SID, (617) 373-3643

The New England Hockey Writers Div. I Women's All-Star team has been announced and will be presented at the New England Hockey Writers annual banquet on Wednesday, April 16 at the Prince Restaurant in Saugus, Mass.

The top individual awards went to Boston University head coach Brian Durocher, who earned Coach of the Year honors, and Harvard's Sarah Vaillancourt who was named Player of the Year. Durocher steered the Terriers to their first-ever Hockey East tournament appearance in just their third year in the conference. Vaillancourt, this year's Patty Kazmaier winner, posted a scoring line of 26-36-62 as the Crimson advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four.

The all-star team starts at the goaltender position with Harvard's Christina Kessler and Boston University's Allyse Wilcox. Kessler posted a 30-2-0 record for the Crimson this season with a .952 save percentage and a 1.06 goals against average. Wilcox backboned the Terriers with a record of 12-12-2 and a 1.96 goals allowed average and .925 save percentage.

National team members Kacey Bellamy of New Hampshire and Caitlin Cahow of Harvard are joined by UNH's Martine Garland and Kathleen Smith of Providence College at defense. All four defensemen had at least 20 points to lead their teams to the postseason.

Joining Vaillancourt at forward is Hockey East Player of the Year Dominique Thibault of Connecticut, who led the league in scoring through the regular season with 48 points as Connecticut earned a program-record 22 wins. Also selected were Sam Faber (25-24-49) and Jenn Wakefield (27-19-46), both from UNH, Dartmouth's Jenna Cunningham (17-20-37) and Connecticut's Jaclyn Hawkins (14-27-41).

The New England Hockey Writers banquet is college hockey's social event of the year. It will be held Wednesday, April 16 beginning at 6 p.m., at the Prince Restaurant on Route 1 in Saugus, Mass. Reservations must be made by April 14 with Northeastern Athletic Ticket Manager John Gruppo at 617-373-7409.