Both the men’s and women’s club hockey teams travel, practice, and compete nearly as much as varsity teams and with far less resources. The players endure double headers nearly every weekend, long bus rides, and intense practice schedules while still pursuing their academic endeavors. Leaders from both hockey teams, Tim Crane and Jill Johannes both chose the word resilient when asked to describe their team in one word. Both teams’ resilience will help them as the regular season wraps up and the post season begins.
In the last ten games, the men’s hockey team has gone 6-4 and is riding a four game win streak. The Rams have six games left in the regular season and aim to stay hot heading into the playoffs. Led by the winningest coach in URI history, Joe Augustine, the Rams are preparing for the post season push.
Senior Defencemen Tim Crane explained how the team is difficult to beat when they play within coach Augustine’s structure. “When we play our system well, we’re a really tough team to beat,” explained Crane. He also mentioned something the team can improve on, not getting too comfortable with leads. Tim pointed towards the NYU game on January 24 where the Rams went up 3-0 in the first period and only won the game by one goal.
Crane, a Sports Media and Communications major also explained the typical schedule for a men’s hockey player. “It’s Monday through Thursday, Games Friday, Saturday, off day Sunday. This is our schedule from basically the first week of September through March,” Tim explained. Before winter break, the team flew to Chicago for the ACHA Chicago Classic. “Chicago’s the only flight. We bus everywhere else.” said Crane. A typical bus ride for the team is around five hours and can be as long as ten.
Another unique part of the club hockey season is the month long winter break that comes right in the middle of the season. That’s a long time to not skate or practice during the season. Tim said players on the team “try to get to rinks back home and try to skate as much as possible over break, just to stay fresh for the second half.” The Rams went 1-3 in their first four games after break.
With just six games and the playoffs left in the season, Tim detailed what’s next for him after hockey and college. He plans on going to the University of Massachusetts to obtain his MBA and Masters in sports management. “I also run all the social media and stuff for our team too. So I want to try to leverage that and do a marketing career in sports.” Crane said.
Men’s Hockey upcoming schedule:
2/6 vs Drexel 4 p.m.
2/7 vs Drexel 1:30 p.m.
2/13 at William Patterson University 8 p.m.
2/14 at William Patterson University 6:15 p.m.
2/20 vs Navy 7 p.m.
2/21 vs Navy 4 p.m.
As for the women’s team, the last month has been quite chaotic. The team planned a trip to Arizona from January 22-25 to play Grand Canyon University and The University of Arizona. By the time the team was ready to fly back Sunday night, Rhode Island was already buried in snow. The team didn’t get another flight to Rhode Island until Wednesday night and arrived Thursday morning.
The team coached by Nikki Friesen, was stuck in Arizona for three more days than expected. This was originally problematic because the team didn’t budget for three extra nights of hotel rooms and food. Thanks to club sports and the fundraising done by the team, women’s hockey was able to collect enough money for the extra days.
Senior, and President of the team Jill Johannes, explained how help from family and friends didn’t stop there. “We got back at around 2 a.m. on Thursday. And we had some of our family and friends clean our cars out for us after the snowstorm. So thankfully, in the freezing temperatures, we were able to just get back to the rink, get in our cars and drive home.” Said Johannes.
The team spent their extra time in Arizona soaking in the sun and writing thank you letters to everyone that helped them throughout this process. “We wrote a bunch of thank you cards during our second day. We wrote them to the hotel staff, the people who drove us around to the airport into different restaurants. We wrote them to everyone who donated, and all our family and friends who helped us with the snow and everything.” Jill explained.
With the detour inconveniently happening during the first week of classes, players had to scramble to email their professors and update them on the situation. ”Everyone emailed their professors. A lot of them were very understanding and all of us really want to keep up with our work and make sure we’re doing everything that we have to do in our classes.” Johannes noted
The Women’s team is 3-4 since coming back from winter break and is 5-13 on the season. This past weekend against UMass, the team was playing for more than a win. Saturday’s game on January 31st also served as mental health awareness day for the Rams. “We find a night during our games and we tape our sticks with green and just kind of put their names out there, support them, and bring awareness to mental health.” Jill explained. The team’s yearly tradition consists of pairing up and promoting non-profits that support mental health. The Rams battled hard on mental health night, but ultimately lost to UMass after allowing two third period goals.
Jill, along with her fellow seniors on the team have now taped their sticks green one last time. The women’s team has four regular season games left before the playoffs start.
Women’s Hockey Upcoming Schedule:
2/6 vs Michigan State 7 p.m.
2/7 vs Michigan State 4:30 p.m.
2/21 at UMass 1:50 p.m.
2/22 vs UMass 3:30 p.m.
By John Almy
Class of 2026
Journalism Major