Junior Kat Sweet defended her teammate’s decision.

“One of the reasons they snubbed her this year...is that she chose Harvard over the Canadian team last season last season, which just shows how committed she is to our team,” Sweet says. “I think her dream might be to play on the Canadian team, but she’d never throw the Harvard team under the bus to do that.”

And at the time, Corriero didn’t foresee her decision would become a sticking point with her homeland in the future.

“I guess the thing with Team Canada is that they want you to be their number one priority, and place their events and functions above all other commitments,” she said. “I guess I’m just not in a position to want to do that.”

Two Roads Diverged

This year, that choice will be all the tougher for ECAC players to make, as Team Canada’s training camp schedule conflictd directly with the ECAC Tournament, held on March 13-14 and 20-21. In fact, it will prevent Apps, Piper, Kingsbury and Ouellette from participating in the Frozen Four, which takes place March 26 and 28 if their teams advance that far. Hockey Canada is holding the position that players will have to choose between playing for their school and playing for the Canadian national team.

“I would hope that they could give the kids some flexibility [with the situation,]” St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan said prior to Hockey Canada’s statement.

St. Lawrence goalie Rachel Barrie made the same decision Corriero did in turning away the U-22 Team in favor of staying with the Saints during her senior year.

“It’s obviously very inconvenient that they would set up the camp the way they did so that players would have to make a decision,” Corriero says. “But because it’s the national team, it’s a tough decision for anyone to have to make. I know personally that I would probably choose Harvard over the national team. But different players have different goals.”

Apps, who is an Olympian, made the decision long ago.

“I said from the very beginning that if I was asked, I would go,” Apps says. “I do think that it’s one of the NCAA’s biggest conflicts, and it’s unfortunate for the two of the biggest women’s hockey’s sporting events to have difficulties.

“But I was notified early on at the beginning of the season about a potential conflict with my college team and the Frozen Four, so it wasn’t a surprise,” she added. “It’s just unfortunate, scheduling-wise, that they couldn’t come to some sort of agreement.”

The Puck Doesn’t Stop Here

With Corriero in full action for the No. 2 Crimson and a few of Harvard’s biggest rivals currently on track to miss key players during critical postseason appearances, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise after all.

But that doesn’t appease Corriero.