DE PERE – With their college hockey careers soon coming to an end at St. Norbert College (SNC), the Hogan sisters – Courtnie and Natalie – both said they are hoping to help lead the Green Knights to the NCAA Division III National Tournament.
SNC has a chance to gain the automatic bid into the national tournament this Saturday when it plays host to Adrian College.
Hot off its first-ever Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) regular-season title, the Green Knights (23-4-1 overall, 16-1-1 NCHA), ranked No. 11 in the latest USCHO.com Division III Poll, will host Adrian (ranked No. 7 nationally) in the NCHA Slaats Cup Finals at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at the Resch Olympic Pavillion at the Cornerstone Community Center.
SNC earned the right to host all Slaats Cup playoff games due to its regular-season title.
Adrian has ended the Green Knights’ season each of the past two years in the finals.
“Each year we’ve been here, the team has gotten better and better,” Courtnie said. “We’ve gotten closer and closer to winning the championship, but this is the first year we’ve seen major progress. To host (the NCHA Slaats Cup all the way through) has never been done before at St. Norbert. We’ve got a great group of girls who are very dedicated.”
Natalie said home-ice advantage is a big deal, especially with the distance teams need to travel.
“Hopefully, we can take care of business (in the finals) and get the automatic bid,” she said. “It’s just super nice to not have to travel and be able to sleep in our own bed.”
In a two-game series with Adrian in De Pere earlier this season, the teams split – with Adrian winning the first game in overtime and the Green Knights winning the next day in an overtime shootout.
The twin sisters, seniors from Hoffman Estates, Illinois, have been vital cogs in the Green Knights' success this season.
Courtnie leads the team with 32 points (19 goals, 13 assists), while Natalie is third with 30 points (15 goals, 15 assists).
“They are competitive with each other, but they also support each other so much,” SNC Women’s Hockey Coach A.J. Aitken said. “Their compete level is very high, and they also work extremely hard on their fitness. They make a lot of second-effort plays and have good offensive skills – they love to score goals and have that extra gear about them.”
Though they are identical twins and both talented hockey players, Aitken said they are also different – especially on the ice.
“You’ve got Courtnie up the middle playing center, so she is strong on the draws and really gets around the ice,” he said. “Natalie is a bit more about finesse – she likes to get behind the defense and challenge one-on-one quite a bit.”
Aitken, currently in his fifth season as head coach, said recruiting the girls “was a fun process.”
“Their dad played hockey at Lake Forest College, and their mom went to St. Norbert,” he said. “We were in the mix for recruiting them, but it was getting late in the process to commit. I held a couple of roster spots for them just in case, and they came through with coming to St. Norbert.”
Courtnie said coming to St. Nobert has been “amazing.”
“I really didn’t know what I was looking for when picking a college during the recruiting process,” she said. “My mom went here, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Natalie and I were recruited together to play here, which wasn’t super common in our search to play college hockey.”
Courtnie, who has already graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in natural science, said when the Green Knights played Lake Forest in the past, people always asked their dad what school he was rooting for.
“Of course, he always said ‘St. Norbert,’” she laughed.
Like her twin sister, Natalie, who will graduate in May with a secondary art education degree and will also get certified in physical education, said she has loved her time at St. Norbert.
“I went through the recruiting process a bit individually, but we both had SNC as a solid option,” she said. “It’s been the best decision we’ve ever made, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. At the time of recruiting, it was funny because we were picking between the two schools our parents attended. At the end of the day, they supported us fully in our decision to attend St. Norbert.”
With Hoffman Estates being only 45 minutes away from Lake Forest, both girls said De Pere was still close enough for their parents to frequently travel the three hours north for games.
“I think it was also good for us to get away a bit, too,” Courtnie said. “We wanted to get away for college but not be super far.”
In a Feb. 7 game against Lake Forest, Courtnie became the program's all-time leading point scorer with an assist to Natalie in the Green Knights’ 8-3 victory.
Natalie recorded a hat trick for SNC in the win.
In a March 1 Slaats Cup Semifinal victory over Lake Forest, Courtnie tallied a pair of goals, while Natalie recorded a goal and an assist.
In 107 career games, Courtnie has recorded 102 points (49 goals, 53 assists), while Natalie comes in with 100 points (43 goals, 57 assists) in 115 career games – fittingly, right before her sister.
Coming off its best season ever, Aitken said, “It’s kind of surprising we’ve never won an NCHA regular-season title before.”
“It was a big moment for us because we’ve lost back-to-back league championships to Adrian,” he said. “I don’t want to leave anything in the hands of the (national) committee and want to leave no doubt. We are striving for the automatic bid by winning the Slaats Cup.”
This year’s Division III Frozen Four will be played at Hunt Arena in River Falls on March 28 and 30.
With their dad playing at Lake Forest, the ladies said they got a young start with skating and playing hockey.
“I remember doing the ‘learn to skate’ things with my dad,” Courtnie said. “Even though we didn’t grow up in a super-dominated hockey area, we were always involved because of my dad’s playing days. He knew he wanted to get his kids involved in hockey, so one of my earliest memories was lacing up our own skates, being super small with no equipment on and learning how to stop. I think we were about four years old.”
Natalie said they have two ponds near their house in Illinois – “perfect for hockey.”
“I remember in the winter going out there, testing the ice and playing pond hockey together with our dad,” she said. “We still do that to this day. We also have a dog that goes out there with us.”
With their time at SNC coming to an end soon, the twins said they are unsure of their hockey future.
One thing they said, though, is their twin sister bond will never be broken.
“Our assistant coach (Ally Johnson) discussed playing hockey overseas because that’s what she did (in Sweden), but I’m not sure how realistic playing after St. Norbert is for me,” Courtnie said. “It’s an option and hard decision right now, but maybe I’ll feel differently after this season is over and I’m done playing hockey here. I’d still like to be involved with sports/hockey in some capacity after St. Norbert.”
Natalie said she feels similarly to Courtnie.
“I love hockey – hockey is my passion and life,” she said. “It’s been a dream come true, and I can’t imagine my life without hockey – being involved in some way with the game. Maybe that’s not playing hockey but definitely with coaching or being around the sport would be ideal.”
With being on the same club team growing up and now spending four years together at St. Norbert, the duo said it’s hard to think about their possible future apart from each other.
“I personally haven’t thought that far ahead – I’m living in the moment and focused on this season yet,” Natalie said. “I know Courtnie and I will always be close, even if there is eventually some distance between us. I think right after school, we both think going back home – at least for a little bit – is what we want to do and spend some time with family. Then we’ll figure things out from there.”
Courtnie said, “Basically, we’ve never been alone.”
“Even with our four years at St. Norbert, we’ve roomed together,” she said. “It’s going to be a bit weird when we do separate, but like Natalie said, we’ll always be together. We have that relationship where we can be apart for a while and then pick things right back up again. I’m not concerned about ever being alone.”
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