page_title: Rhode Island Rams women's ice hockey
section_title: A dynasty without a title (2004–2008)
hierarchical_section_title: Rhode Island Rams women's ice hockey / History / A dynasty without a title (2004–2008)
caption_attribution_description: English: Former URI hockey player Jen Wallace
context_page_description: The Rhode Island Rams women's ice hockey team represents the University of Rhode Island in Women's Division 1 of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. Since the team's 1999 inauguration, the Rams have been one of the most successful programs in intercollegiate women's ice hockey, winning nine regular season and nine playoff titles in the 15-year existence of the Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League, both ECWHL records. The Rams have also qualified for 12 of the 18 ACHA National Tournaments held for women's teams, a number that trails only Massachusetts, Michigan and Michigan State. Highlighting Rhode Island's 12 ACHA tournament bids are eight semifinal appearances, including five in a row from 2004 through 2008. The team's present coach, Ashley Pagliarini, was a standout defenseman at URI from 2004 through 2009 and is just the second head coach in team history, taking over for program founder Beth McCann for the 2014–15 season.
context_section_description: The spectacular 2003–04 season was hardly a one-off affair as URI recharged with another great incoming class, headlined by Pagliarini and goaltender Kelly Jourdain, while retaining most of its core. A steady flow of other program legends like Kate Garcia (2005–09), Jolene Rambone (2006–10), Justine Ducie (2007–11) and Meghan Birnie (2008-12) arriving in subsequent seasons ensured that the Rams remained in constant contention. Helsinki, Finland native Johanna Leskinen (2008–12) was also part of that progression, and would go on to become the program's all-time leading scorer with 116 goals and 188 points in 112 games. Appropriately, given the caliber of players wearing Keaney blue, the Rams won every single regular season and playoff title for the first five years of the ECWHL's existence and cemented their status as the northeast's dominant team by taking the top spot in the East or Northeast Region (as applicable) in 24 of the 27 regional rankings issued between 2003–04 and 2009–10, after which the regional poll was discontinued.
  Rhody's success translated on a national scale as well, as McCann collected a pair of ACHA coach of the year awards in 2004–05 and 2007–08. Both came during a stretch that saw her team qualify for the ACHA semifinals in five consecutive seasons, from the runner-up finish of 2003–04 through 2007–08, when defending national champion Robert Morris (IL) took out the Rams in the final four round. The latter result was part of a disheartening trend: while Rhode Island was great, it just couldn't manage to scale two of the other dominant programs of the time. Lindenwood, which beat URI in the 2007 semifinals, won the 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 national titles while RMU, which knocked URI out of nationals in 2005, 2006 and 2008 were the champs in 2005 and 2007 (the Lions and Eagles, in fact, went head to head in the title game to end four straight seasons, from 2006 through 2009). The Rams' run in the 2006 tournament was among the team's closest calls since the 2004 title game, as Chelsea Skorupski and Emily Tuohey put Rhode Island up 2–0 on RMU in the semis before a natural hat trick from 2006–07 Zoë M. Harris Award winner Savannah Varner flipped the result to 3–2 for the Eagles.
  In 2007–08, URI had another of the program's best seasons, as the Rams tore through their ACHA regular season schedule unbeaten at 19–0–2 (part of a 19–5–3 overall regular season mark that also included six contests against NCAA teams). Included in that run, most impressively, was a 4–1 win against Lindenwood at Boss Arena on November 16, 2007, behind two points from Emily Gasper and goals by Ducie and Pagliarini. Three months later, Ducie would strike again - in triple overtime against UMass - to give Rhody a fifth consecutive ECWHL tournament title on February 24, 2008. Rhode Island subsequently plowed through Michigan, Northern Michigan and Minnesota to open nationals in Bensenville, Illinois, before seeing its ACHA unbeaten streak end at 28 games with a 3–1 loss to host school Robert Morris (IL) in the semifinals.
  Carrying a tag like "The Best Team to Never Win a National Title" with finishes in second place (once), fourth place (once) and third place (three times) over a five-year span is certainly a mixed bag, but Rhode Island could at least take solace in its eastern dominance. The team went 51–1–3 within the ECWHL from 2003–08, with a season sweep of a nationals-qualifying Penn State team by 9–1 and 8–1 scores in 2006–07 standing as one glaring example of the separation between the Rams and most of the rest of the league during the middle part of the 21st century's first decade.
caption: Three-time ACHA All-American Jen Wallace
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