Mar 13, 2008
Golden Girl
With six titles in four years, the Rams’ Annie Amrhein
has had the winning touch for NCHS girls’ hockey
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Annie Amrhein and her New Canaan Ram teammates had spent three hours battling the Guilford Indians through three regulation periods and four overtimes when the Rams’ senior co-captain suddenly found herself in the spotlight.
A shot from the boards by freshman Jana Persky headed in the directon of the net and Amrhein raced to the puck, directed it into the goal for a 4-3, five OT win and became the center of a mass celebration as the Rams converged on their captain.
Head Coach Rich Bulan said he’ll never forget what he saw next.
“I don’t know how these girls went through four overtimes and into a fifth and scored a goal like that — what a pile up!” Bulan said. “I get to the pile and there’s a red-faced Annie Amrhein being crushed, just crushed, with just a big smile on her face. I looked at her and said ‘Are you Okay?’ She just smiled and said ‘Yeah!’”
That victory, which came in the State semifinals last Wednesday night at Yale’s Ingalls Rink, was followed by a 3-0 shutout of the Greenwich Cardinals in the final at the same arena Saturday morning. It marked the third consecutive State championship for the Rams, who have won that title each year since the tournament began, and was a fitting finale for Amrhein’s high school career.
The lone senior to have played four years of varsity ice hockey, Amrhein has been with New Canaan through all of its championships, collecting six titles along the way: Three in the FCIAC and three in the States. She’s been part of a perfect season — the Rams were 24-0 during her junior season — and has helped New Canaan go an astounding 84-8-3 during her career.
“It’s amazing to know I was a part of that and helped achieve all of that,” Amrhein said. “I couldn’t have asked for better high school years. That just makes me really proud of the team and everybody who’s been in the hockey program.”
“In the four years when we’ve had this success, she’s been the constant and she’s played everywhere,” Bulan said. “We had her playing center one year, she came up and played wing, she played defense, she kills penalties, she scores — she does everything.
“Maggie Westfal was the most important player who’s come through this program, getting everything set and sending us off on the path we’re on. But I look at Annie as a big part of everything we’ve done. I just don’t know how other people don’t recognize that. If you watch her day-in and day-out, she’s so important with what she does.”
Bulan has watched Amrhein grow from a quiet freshman into a senior leader this season, providing the guidance the team desperately needed. The Rams had numerous holes to fill with the graduations of Nikki Bongaerts, Danielle DiCeglie, Katrina Nietsch and Mary Henson, and the departures of Xandra and Eliza Hompe and Clare Ashforth.
New Canaan had a 46-game winning streak broken early in the year and missed out on its fourth straight FCIAC title with a difficult 3-2 overtime loss to St. Joseph on March 1. But even before that first loss, many opponents predicted it would be a “down” year for New Canaan.
That didn’t sit well with the Rams, especially people like senior captains Amrhein, Amanda Albertson and Kasey Newton and junior co-captain Katie Durkin, all of whom had been in the winner’s circle before.
“We continually heard those remarks from all over the state,” Amrhein said. “That just fired us up even more. Last year, having the Hompes was great and I can’t take anything away from them because they’re both great hockey players. But this year, it seemed like (people thought) they were our whole team and that no one else had done anything. We were all just really ready to show off our stuff. We are still a good team and one that can contend with the best competitors. We showed that by the end of the season. We were able to come out of FCIACs and still put as much effort as we could into the States and we won.”
Amrhein, who has also played three years of varsity soccer at NCHS, does so many things well on the ice, but she’s also been overlooked at times. This year, she was named to the All-FCIAC Second Team, inexplicably falling just one vote short of the First Team. She’s never led the Rams in scoring, but is just the fifth member of the school’s 100-point club, with 45 goals and 60 assists for 105 points, following Emily Grannon, Westfal, Emily Talbot and Xandra Hompe over the century mark.
Amrhein has been at her best in big games, with two goals and two assists in four FCIAC finals and two goals and an assist in three State finals. Those numbers wouldn’t indicate that she’s had butterflies while in the spotlight, but Amrhein admitted when she first joined the team for the 2004-2005 season, she was a bit nervous.
“After coming out of soccer I was really excited for ice hockey because I was going to be able to play with my sister and it seemed like it was going to be a lot of fun,” Amrhein said. “(But) I was intimidated by the older girls because you had girls like Maggie Westfal and Megan Ashforth there. I was a little nervous being out there but Bulan always made it a good environment.”
“It’s about working hard and having fun. That’s what I’ve always liked — one of the main focuses is about having fun. It wasn’t just focusing on winning and FCIACs and States, but it was about having a good time. I liked that whole feeling of being with the team and being able to feel comfortable like that as a freshman was really nice.”
Playing side-by-side with her sister, Katie, for two years was also a unique experience for Annie, who had briefly played with her sibling while with the Darien Icebreakers. Annie was in the seventh grade at the time and Katie, two years older, was a source of support.
“When we played on the Darien Icebreakers the first time, I got a penalty and I started crying,” Annie laughed. “It was slashing but it wasn’t anything bad and she was the first one to come over to me and said ‘don’t worry about it. Just shake it off, it’s not that big of a deal.’ It was nice having her love and having her always be there. She was someone I could count on especially when I was nervous coming in as a freshman. My sister always had my back.”
The sisters even played together on a line with Durkin when Katie was a senior captain in 2005-2006. Both of the Amrheins scored a goal in New Canaan’s 3-1 win over Ridgefield in the FCIAC final and the Rams went on to beat Ridgefield again 4-1 in the first State final.
Last season, Annie Amrhein played on a line with the Hompe sisters, and was a key part in a game which is destined to become legendary in NCHS sports history.
Trailing Ridgefield 3-2 with less than a minute to go in the FCIAC final, and with their perfect season in jeopardy, the Rams found a way to win. Amrhein made a pass from the boards to Nietsch, who had her shot blocked, but the puck came out to Eliza Hompe who scored to tie the game with 7.9 seconds remaining. Xandra Hompe then scored on the first shift of overtime as New Canaan claimed another title.
“It’s just about wanting to win,” Amrhein said of the dramatic games. “When you get to those points when it’s like a 2-2 game in overtime, I always feel that after working that hard, I wouldn’t want to lose. I wouldn’t want to look back and know I worked so hard and then we lost in the last 30 seconds. You don’t ever want to look back and regret anything. You always need to get out there and work hard and put all your effort into it.
“It’s also the best way to win. It makes the win that much sweeter because you totally put out all your effort and you were able to succeed.”
This season, Amrhein became a captain and took to the role perfectly.
“She’s kind of a quiet person, but when we named her captain this year, she really stood up and had a lot of great stuff to say,” Bulan said. “She was mom. When she stood up in that locker room, the room would get quiet, everybody listened and took notice. She had a calming affect.”
And that showed on the ice as the Rams overcame their losses and kept moving forward. Even the loss to St. Joe’s in the FCIAC final didn’t slow New Canaan for long as it came back two days later and beat Hall/Conard 6-0 in the State quarterfinals.
“The most emotional I had ever seen her was after that St. Joe’s game,” Bulan said. “She’s a strong kid, but it was such an emotional game and she was so disappointed. Then Monday, she shows up and says ‘We’re not done, coach is right, we can’t quit, we’re going to move on and play.’ When Annie’s talking, I knew we were going to be okay.”
Amrhein is still in the middle of determining her future, choosing a college and waiting for responses. Athletics should be a part of it, with soccer, ice hockey and maybe even basketball in the picture at some level.
Either way, she’ll have four years of championship memories to look back on. Even when the end was in sight in the third period Saturday morning, there was little sadness for Amrhein.
“It’s much sweeter than bitter, but you know this is your last game — your last 15 minutes of playing hockey,” Amrhein said. “To be up 2-0 made it really good and that was the position we wanted to be in. It was sad, but it was so great to be able to win that, so it overtook any feeling of sadness. Being there together with that team was great. I loved being a captain for this team and I definitely went out on a happy note.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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