Women's History Wednesday, The American Pioneer.

Whitten wearing the Red, White and Blue. (TeePee Communications)

The American Pioneer

Many “hockey” people have heard the name Manon Rheaume. The Canadian Rheaume was the first woman to play in exhibition games in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning. However at the same time, there was an American pioneer for women playing Men’s hockey. Today this pioneer has continued to give back to the game, now as a Head Coach in the most competitive women’s college hockey league on the east coast. Erin Whitten, now Erin Hamlen, broke barriers for women, proved to be one of the best women goalies of her time, and has become a great coach after her playing days ended.

In the 1980’s, Erin Whitten was a female goaltender playing with the local youth boy’s hockey teams in Glens Falls, New York. As a Junior in high school, she told the school that she wanted to play for the hockey team. The boys on her team had no problem with it, they had grown up playing with her. However it was fans from other teams who caught wind of a female goalie and gave Erin a hard time throwing things onto the ice, whether it was coins, necklaces, or even tampons. Erin would be a backup goalie her Junior year for the Glens Falls Indians, but would take on the starting role as a senior. That Senior year, Whitten led the Indians to the New York State Division 2 State Semifinals that year, as the first female to play in the New York State Hockey Tournament. In her two years playing for Glens Falls, Erin was 21-9 with a 2.0 Goals Against Average and was selected as a Capital District High School Hockey League All-Star Honorable Mention.

Leading the Wildcats

In 1989, Whitten graduated from Glens Falls and went to college at the University of New Hampshire to play on the Women’s Hockey team which competed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Erin was a 4 year starter in net for the Wildcats and her notoriety as a great Goalie was beginning to spread. She shut out Dartmouth College in her college debut and led the Wildcats to the ECAC title in her first 2 seasons (1990, 1991). The following year, in 1992, the Wildcats finished second in the ECAC and Whitten was awarded the ECAC Goaltender of the Year Award.

Whitten (Front Row, far right) as a Freshman with the 1990 ECAC Champions (Democrat -Ellsmore)

1992 was also the year she began her reign in the net for Team USA at the IIHF Women’s World Championships. The US swept through the pool play with 3 wins. In the Semifinals, the Americans beat Sweden 6-4. Unfortunately the US would fall to the powerful Canadian team 8-0 in the final.

Heading back to UNH for her senior season, Whitten was now a national name. Erin had another solid year leading the Wildcats to the ECAC runner-up for the second straight season and was selected to her 4th straight ECAC First Team. She finished her career with a 54-14-4 record and a .910 Save Percentage. When she was done at UNH, she held the UNH records for saves in a game (46), saves in a season (511) and saves in a career (1,556).

As Whitten graduated, the next question was where would she play hockey? In Canada, there was the Central Ontario Women’s Hockey League that had recently formed and included some of her Team USA teammates including Kelly Dyer, Sue Merz, and Jeanine Sobek. However there was no Professional women’s hockey league in the United States for players to stay close to home to play, so players played and trained for the US National Team or moved on to coaching. However, Whitten decided to head home to Glens Falls.

A Woman in a Man’s World

In Erin’s hometown was the American Hockey League’s Adirondack Red Wings. Whitten worked out with the Red Wings during the 1993-1994 training camp to try to earn a spot with the team. That fall Whitten became the first American woman to participate in a men’s professional hockey game as she took her spot in the crease in the second period against the Cornwall Aces (Nordiques affiliate). She stopped 10 of 12 shots she faced, including one from Niklas Andersson (went on to play for the NY Islanders). “What I remember most about the game is the fans. I remember the cheering on that save. I remember thinking, this is really cool! I had never played in front of that many people and felt like that before.” Whitten said.

Whitten’s 1994 Hockey card

Although Whitten didn’t make the Adirondack Red Wings, she was offered a contract with the East Coast Hockey League’s (ECHL) Toledo Storm. Whitten became the first woman to play in the ECHL and on October 30th, the first woman to earn a win any men’s professional hockey league with a 6-5 win over the Dayton Bombers. Whitten would win 2 games with the Storm in her 4 appearances. During the same season Whitten would move to the Dallas Freeze of the Central Hockey League where again she was the first woman to play in the CHL and would go 1-1 in 4 appearances stopping 50 of 59 shots she faced.

In the Spring of 1994, Whitten rejoined Team USA again for the IIHF Women’s World Championships, this time in Lake Placid, NY. Whitten split time with Kelly Dyer in net as the Americans fell again to the Canadians 6-3 in the finals. During the tournament, Erin stopped 45 of 52 shots on goal. Whitten was honored with the Directorate Award for the Best Goalie in the Tournament and was also named the 1994 USA Hockey Women’s Player of the Year.

That Fall, she headed back into the Men’s game seeing 1 game for the Utica Blizzard, the first for a woman in the Colonial Hockey League (later renamed the United Hockey League) unfortunately giving up 2 goals and taking the loss. The next year she bounced between the Muskegon Fury and the Flint Generals, but when 2-1 in 8 appearances.

Whitten playing in the 1997 IIHF Women’s World Championships (Getty Images)

US Hockey Takes the Main Stage

The 1997 Women’s World Championships Gold Medal game was a game for the ages. It was closest the Americans had gotten to topping the Canadians at that point in the 90’s and some would argue that singular game was what launched Women’s Hockey onto the main stage and set up the debut of the sport in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. During the tournament, Whitten was in goal for 5 of the 6 games with a .908 Save Percentage and a 1.41 GAA. The Gold Medal game pitted the US vs. Canada once again. The game went into overtime and remained scoreless for almost 13 minutes until Cassie Campbell passed the puck to Hayley Wickenheiser who put a backhand shot on net, Whitten made the save but couldn’t control the rebound and Nancy Drolet rushed the net and punched the rebound in the net for her third goal of the game.

Whitten after the game said “The team gave everything it had. A couple of bad bounces can turn a game around. But we don’t have anyone to blame, we can’t even blame ourselves. We played a strong game, you can’t take that away from us.”

Later that year, in December exhibition games prior to the Olympics, Whitten had been in net against the Canadians, but was pulled in a 5-4 loss. Whitten took full responsibility after the game “That was crushing (being pulled), but it was a good move by Coach. I wasn’t playing my best game. To turn things around, sometimes you have to make a change.” Unfortunately as time drew near to select the final roster for the 1998 Nagano Olympics, Whitten was the third goalie behind Sarah Tueting and Sara DeCosta and was cut just 2 months before the Olympics began. The US would go on in to win the Gold Medal at the Olympics with DeCosta and Tueting splitting time in net, leaving many to wonder if Whitten could have been just as effective.

After the disappointment of not making the ’98 team, Whitten was determined to train and stay in shape for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Unfortunately, Whitten’s best chance would’ve been a 1994 Olympics, but the sport wasn’t introduced to the Olympics until 1998. At 30 years old in 2002, it was a tall order for Whitten to stay at the top of her game in comparison to college goalies who have been playing a 30 game schedule every year.

In 1999, Erin rejoined the US National team for the IIHF World Championships. In 3 games played she had a .944 Save Percentage with 2 shutouts, but unfortunately Whitten and the Americans lost in the Gold Medal game, once again, to Canada 3-1. Whitten followed up the World Championships playing on the 1999-2000 US Women’s Select team, playing in the 3 Nations Cup, where one final time Whitten and the US would fall short to Team Canada.

Coach Hamlen guiding practice at Merrimack College – Photo Credit: Greg Brownell

Moving to Coaching

Whitten’s next move was to begin her coaching career at her Alma Mater. On July 17, 2000 Erin joined the UNH staff to become the Assistant Coach to Karen Kay. In her first two years with Whitten on board in the ECAC, the Wildcats improved from 17-17 to 19-12-5. The following year Brian McCloskey took over as the Head Coach for the Wildcats and Whitten stayed onboard as UNH joined Hockey East.

The move to Hockey East in 2002-2003 was the perfect move for UNH, finishing 2nd in the league and improving their record to 27-7-2. The next 6 years the Wildcats dominated Hockey East, finishing 1st in the league during the regular season every year, winning 33 games in 2006 and 2008, winning 4 Hockey East tournaments and making a Frozen Four in 2005-2006.

The following year, Whitten was promoted to Associate Head Coach. During 2006-2007 year, Whitten also was the Assistant Coach for the USA Select Team during the 4 Nations Cup tournament and the IIHF Women’s World Championship. In 2007-08, as an assistant coach to the USA Hockey U-18 Select Team, she led the United States to its first U-18 gold medal.

After her time at UNH, Whitten got her first shot at the Head Coach position. With each of her three Head Coaching stops, one common idea has emerged; start a team from scratch and make it great. When I asked if she liked this idea of taking something new and making it great she told me “It was a huge opportunity to do something that really not many people have done before and I’m kind of an aggressive, jump right in type of person.”

In 2010, the Canadian Women's Hockey League crossed over the US border and created its first American based team in the Boston Blades. Whitten left UNH and became the first Head Coach of the Blades. The following year she moved into an advisory role with the Blades for the 2011-12 season. The Blades team went on to win 2 of the next 3 Clarkson Cups, losing 1-0 in overtime of the other Final.

Coach Hamlen in her first year as a college Head Coach at UNE – (photo credit: Seacoastonline.com)

In 2012-2013, Whitten took another brand new Head Coach position at Division III University of New England. Whitten again molded the team to her liking, making them a competitive team in the New England Hockey Conference. She left the program at the end of the season and UNE continued to improve each year to a 15-8-2 record in 2015-2016.

Witten’s current project is back in Hockey East, as the Head Coach of the Merrimack College Warriors. The brand new women’s hockey program at Merrimack was a few years in the making. Whitten was hired prior to the 2014-2015 season in order to prepare and recruit for the inaugural 2015-2016 season. Whitten brought on board Kacey Bellamy (UNH ’09) and Brett Hill (Saint Michael’s ’04) to be Assistant Coaches. The trio spent a full year recruiting the team that would become the first Women’s Hockey team for Merrimack.

The Warriors this year finished in last place in Hockey East with a 5-26-3 record, but with a team of 20 Freshmen, the future looks bright for the Warriors. The team notched their first win in school history with a 2-1 win over Whitten’s Alma Mater UNH.

Whitten told me that the win meant a lot her, “The UNH game … really sticks out the most, one of the main reasons, I obviously attended UNH, and my assistant coach (Bellamy) graduated from UNH and I coached there for 10 years. It was our first hockey east game, it was homecoming weekend, it was a TV game, it was just kind of a culmination all at once. It was obviously very sweet being against my alma mater.”

Erin Whitten is a coach that accepts the challenge of a new program. Whitten enjoys the idea of molding it to her vision, setting the culture and the traditions for years to follow. Erin Whitten is a coach that knows what it takes to be at the top of your game as a player and knows how to deal with defeat and disappointment.

In the 1990’s there wasn’t another American woman goalie that rivaled Erin Whitten. Whitten broke down barriers in professional hockey, Shannon Szabados is currently playing men’s hockey in the Southern Professional Hockey League because Erin Whitten opened the door. Whitten laid the brick on the path for the US National hockey team to be the team it is today. Whitten is a trailblazer for all women to play at the highest level of their ability, whether that is in the women’s game or the men’s game.

Follow Kyle Wescott on twitter @MHSWescott