The 2024-25 campaign is going to look much different than in the past for the Boston University women’s hockey program. The team is freshly stocked with eight newcomers, but the more significant difference comes in the form of upgraded facilities.
Walter Brown Arena will receive much-needed renovations: a new locker room, team lounge, and coaches’ offices, as well as a new video board.
Head coach Tara Watchorn, who played four seasons for the Terriers and graduated from the university in 2012, knows firsthand — as both a player and coach — how much these improvements mean for the program she is now in charge of.
“It really does [mean a lot]. We treat [the players] like pros,” Watchorn said. “They deserve to have the spaces that create that conducive environment.”
She added, “It’s what the program deserves.”
But as the saying goes, all good things take time. The upgrades to the 53-year-old arena will be unveiled in January 2025. So for the fall semester, the team will play its home games in Agganis Arena, the home of the men’s hockey program.
They will play eight games in the 6,300-seat arena for the remainder of the calendar year. BU opened their season in their temporary home on Tuesday against Merrimack College, a 7-1 victory. Their final game at Agganis for the season is scheduled for Nov. 27 against Princeton University. Five of the eight games serve as the openers of doubleheaders with the men’s team.
In its 19-year history, Agganis Arena has only hosted 11 women’s games. Luckily for the team, they boast a 7-2-2 record in the limited sample size, with the most recent outing resulting in a 3-3 tie against the University of New Hampshire on Feb. 16, 2019.
Tuesday’s home opener was every player on the team’s first time playing a game at Agganis. Though the team does not want to make it a huge deal, it is an adjustment, so the team will make it a point to skate at least once on Agganis’ ice before each game to acclimate themselves, according to Watchorn.
“It’s a little bit of a bigger rink…and just the acoustics,” she said. “Walter Brown is loud, it’s the low ceiling, it’s echoey, and when you get in there, you could have the same amount of fans we normally get for games, and it’s going to feel different.”
The players and coaches have been leaning into what the head coach called “a fun logistics year.” According to Watchorn, the excitement of January’s unveiling has helped her players work through all of the nuances the season has thrown at her team.
When asked about her team’s temporary home, she joked, “There’s a lot worse places we could be playing while our rink’s getting done. It’ll be really cool.”
The announcement of the renovations to Walter Brown Arena last December was only a part of what was a historic season for the women’s game as a whole. 2024 was the first year that the women’s Beanpot took place at TD Garden. On the other hand, the men’s Beanpot has been hosted by the home of the Boston Bruins and Celtics since 1954.
It was an overwhelming success. The official attendance for Northeastern University’s 2-1 overtime victory over the Terriers was 10,633.
Separate from the college game, in its inaugural season, the Profession Women’s Hockey League drew an average of nearly 5,500 fans per game across the six-team league and set a record for the most spectators at a women’s hockey game when 21,105 fans flocked to the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, to watch PWHL Montreal and Toronto square off.
The women’s game is finally taking its rightful place alongside the men as the headliner. Playing at Agganis Arena while their home gets upgraded is not just a taste of what everyday should feel like; it is what everyday is going to feel like, starting in January.
And in the meantime, captain Tamara Giaquinto hopes playing at Agganis will continue to elevate the prowess of the women’s game.
“Hopefully we can bring some fans in there and [continue to] promote the game,” she said.
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