Olivia King, who was a regular on defense for the Old Town-Orono High school boys hockey team before moving on to play for the Taft School girls program in Connecticut, is one of six University of Maine women’s ice hockey players who have entered the NCAA Division 1 transfer portal.
King is a senior who will have one year of eligibility remaining.
She had played in 94 career games for the Black Bears and had tallied a goal and six assists. She played in 17 games this past season and had an assist.
“I love Liv,” said UMaine head coach Molly Engstrom. “She’s a great kid.”
Engstrom said King was hampered this season by a grueling academic schedule that limited her practice time.
Also departing are senior goalies Jorden Mattison and Anna LaRose, sophomore defenseman Cora Webber and freshmen Ashley Kokavec and Bria Holm.
Kokavec is a defenseman and Holm is a forward.
Engstrom said she isn’t concerned by the departures, pointing out that they all had their reasons for leaving including seeking more playing time and finding a school that offered a graduate school curriculum UMaine didn’t offer.
“It was their choice,” said Engstrom.
Engstrom wasn’t appointed until late in the summer of 2022 so she is still in the process of bringing in her own players.
“It’s a matter of finding the right pieces. We are recruiting players we want to stay all four years,” she said.
Holm and Kokavec were the only players among the six that she recruited.
Mattisen shared the goaltending duties with freshman Julia Bachetti this season and had a 7-7-1 record, a 1.86 goals-against average and a .929 goals-against average.
She appeared in 45 games during her career and posted a 20-22-1 record, a 2.19 GAA and a .923 save percentage.
LaRose played in four games this season and had a 1-1-1 record, a 2.61 GAA and a .897 save percentage. She played in 17 games over her career and had a 4-5-3 record, 3.41 GAA and a .892 save percentage.
Webber appeared in three games this season and had an assist. She had a goal in 24 games her freshman season.
Kokavec was the team’s second-leading scorer among defensemen with five goals and six assists in 32 games and Holm had a goal in eight games.
UMaine went 15-18-2 overall this past season, 11-14-2 in Hockey East, and was eliminated in the first round of the league playoffs by Merrimack 2-1 in overtime.
Engstrom said she has an incoming goalie in 5-foot-9 Californian Madisyn Ryan and she intends to bring in another one.
Incoming forward Frederikke Foss is currently playing for Denmark in the IIHF World Women’s championships in Utica, N.Y.
Stephanie Jacob is a forward from Winnipeg, Manitoba and should join Foss in helping the Black Bears overcome the departures of graduate students and leading scorers Ida Kuoppala (21 goals, 19 assists) and Ann-Frederique Guay (19 & 9).
Kuoppala concluded her career with 67 goals and 59 assists in 156 games and her 126 career points are just three shy of Tereza Vanisova’s school record of 129.
Brenna Curl is a point-producing defenseman from North Dakota whose older sister, Britta, is currently playing for the United States in the the World Championships after captaining the University of Wisconsin to a runner up finish behind Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State beat the Badgers 1-0 in the title game.
Britta Curl, a two-year captain, had 22 goals and 40 assists in 41 games this season.
“I’m really excited about our incoming class,” said Engstrom. “It has a lot of potential. I’m looking to supplement it by adding some size out of the portal.”
Even though her Black Bears had the same overall record as they did in her first season and was one-game worse in the league record (11-14-2, 12-13-2 in 2022-23), she pointed out that they lost 12 one-goal games (including three two-goal losses with an empty net goal) had leads in the third period of seven of them.
It was a more competitive team than the 2022-23 team.
“We are closing the gap. Now we have to figure out how to take that next step,” said Engstrom, the former U.S. Olympic team star defenseman. “We still have a lot of work to do but we should be good.”
