By Paul Perillo

It had been more than a decade since former hockey star Laura Schuler, BPH'94, last felt her competitive spark ignite at Matthews Arena. But Northeastern was never completely out of her thoughts. So last September, when she had a chance to return to the old rink, she jumped. And took over as the new head coach of the women's hockey team.

"I wanted to go back to Northeastern, so I could help get it back

to the school it was when I was there," Schuler said in October, just days after her first coaching victory, a 3-0 shutout over Quinnipiac. "I'm absolutely ecstatic about being back."

But the job won't be easy. Schuler replaces Joy Woog, who resigned in late May. Woog's four years at the helm resulted in a mostly mediocre 65-53-14 record. They were also fraught with turmoil. Former players Michelle Lorion and Pam Pachal alleged Woog abused and harassed players. The disharmony in the team's locker room led to the defections of several athletes.

By contrast, back in Schuler's playing days—1989 to 1993—the Huskies were flying high, going 74-24-5. At the time, NU was considered one of the three best collegiate women's hockey programs in the country.

Today's team doesn't have the depth those squads featured. Even with senior All-American goaltender Chanda Gunn onboard last season, Northeastern managed just a 13-13-8 mark. Gunn is gone now, as are three top defenders (Rebecca Peters, Rachel Bertram, and Ashly Waggoner) and a leading scorer (Cyndy Kenyon). To make matters worse, Peters, Bertram, Waggoner, and Kenyon chose to transfer out.

Although Schuler must rebuild with mostly inexperienced players, goalie Marisa Hourihan, who red-shirted last season while waiting for Gunn to complete her eligibility, is providing a significant ray of hope.

"Marisa is a number-one goalie, no question about it," Schuler says. "There were plenty of schools she could have stepped in and played for right away, but Chanda was here and Marisa understood her opportunities would be limited. That's one of the great things about NU's being a five-year school—if you have the ability to wait, you can do things like that."

Schuler remains confident about the road ahead, and with good reason. Her successes have extended well beyond her Huntington Avenue playing days. After scoring 64 goals at Northeastern, the fifth-highest total in school history, she spent eleven years on the Canadian National Team, which picked up a silver medal in the first-ever Olympic women's hockey tournament, in Nagano, Japan.

Even as her playing career was continuing, Schuler says, coaching was always on her mind.

"I used to watch [former Northeastern] Coach [Don] MacLeod. I remember how much I was interested in what he did," she says. Once she graduated, she worked at various camps and clinics, running practices and dry-land training courses.

Three years ago, Schuler took on the unenviable task of guiding women's hockey at UMass­Boston, which was then a club team. After the Beacons made it to varsity status last season, Schuler shocked the New England Division III hockey world by presiding over a 13-12-1 campaign. She led her team to the championship game and was named Eastern College Athletic Conference East Coach of the Year.

"I couldn't possibly say enough good things about my experiences at UMass­ Boston," Schuler declares. "Those girls were not only playing—all of them had jobs to worry about, and many had two jobs. They still competed at such a high level."

Now she must find a way to restore the same edge to Northeastern women's hockey. In the Hockey East preseason poll, NU was picked to finish last. By the December break, the Huskies had compiled a 2-14-1 record. Schuler is realistic, though, and understands success won't come overnight, especially after having had such a short time to prepare.

"I feel like I've been going full speed ever since September," she explained in October. "I haven't been able to get my assistant coaches because of visa problems, so I've been doing everything on my own so far, including coaching, video work, and recruiting. But I absolutely believe in this school and the co-op program. That's the reason I originally came here as a student."

And what's it like to come back? "[Athletic director] Dave O'Brien has been so supportive," Schuler says. "I feel like I can walk into his office anytime, and he'll give me his personal attention, which, in women's sports, you don't always get. He makes me feel like I belong here."

Scott Birnstill (photo by Rob Klein)

At Nineteen, He’s Got the Power (Play)

In an era of highly specialized athletic training, designed to hone a youngster's chances of competing at a high level, Steve Birnstill is something of a throwback.

That's not to say the sophomore didn't have loads of hockey experience under his belt when he came to Northeastern. He did. But Birnstill arrived on campus when he was just seventeen, two or even three years younger than other incoming freshmen around Hockey East.

Birnstill's position—defense—is no place for youthful inexperience, especially in a league filled with NHL draft picks waiting to exploit a wide-eyed rookie. But he more than held his own last year, lacing up his skates thirty-two times for coach Bruce Crowder, tallying one goal and six assists.

Early action this season indicates the Commack, New York, native is more than ready to build upon those numbers and maximize his overall contributions.

"He plays with a lot of maturity for his age," Crowder says. "Steve is very creative offensively. He doesn't have the ability right now to play like a Jim Fahey, but he has potential to be in that kind of mold."

Before college, Birnstill played in the Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL) as a member of the New York Apple Core. He was selected first team EJHL All-Star and made the 2002 EJHL Top Prospects Tournament team.

"Steve is pretty outgoing off the ice, but he is very serious about his hockey," Crowder says. "He's still such a young kid at nineteen, and sometimes that inexperience shows. But he also shows flashes of the things he's capable of doing. It's just a matter of doing it on a more consistent basis."

Crowder would like to see Birnstill emerge to run the Huskies' power play. The team struggled badly last year and got off to a sluggish start this season. On October 23, however, came signs of better things to come, with a spirited 4-3 overtime victory at fifteenth-ranked Colgate. To get the win, the Huskies potted two power-play goals.

"With the added emphasis on enforcing the rules, special teams will be even more important for us than normal," Crowder says. "We have to make more tape-to-tape passes like we did at Colgate. We scored a couple of nice power-play goals, where we moved the puck real well. That's an area Steve can help us with. We're spending a lot of time on it."

During the season's first two months, Birnstill neatly racked up a pair of goals and four assists, looking more and more comfortable with each game.

Northeastern had opened the year in fine fashion with a 4-2 upset win over top-ranked Michigan. Despite losses in the next three games, Crowder remained optimistic and was rewarded on Homecoming weekend by a well-earned tie against third-ranked North Dakota at Matthews Arena. By the time the December break rolled around, the Huskies had amassed a 6-8-2 mark.

The ambitious early-season schedule was no accident, says Crowder. He believes it's the only way to prepare a team for the rigors of league play in the rough-and-tumble Hockey East.

"It's going to make us better, and that's the bottom line," he says. "We have a group of freshmen we're pretty excited about, and we have some sophomores like Steve who we're hoping can step it up to the next level.

"But they're not going to be able to make that jump unless they're tested against the best teams."