Burt ready to help Eagles soar again

The college hockey season is still months away, but that doesn?t mean Boston College goaltender Katie Burt of Lynn is taking time off.
Burt, who was a Hockey East second-team All-Star and made the Hockey East All-Rookie team in her freshman year at BC, has been home in Lynn for much of the summer, training hard for her upcoming season.
Playing for one of the best women?s hockey programs in the country, which also happens to be nearby, has its advantages, especially when it comes to training during the summer. Burt is following BC?s training program, with workouts four times a week that put the goalie through rigorous exercises as she prepares for the physical tests – including bench presses, squats, vertical jumps and running tests – that all players must pass at the start of the season.
The first half of her summer was dedicated to getting back into playing shape after the spring layoff, but now it?s time to kick the program into high gear, preparing for the Eagles? first game in early October. Burt is pleased at the improvement in her conditioning marks from last season and from the beginning of the summer.
?It?s really helpful to see those numbers keep improving,” said Burt of the motivation to keep training hard.
Another motivation for Burt is the desire to get back to the postseason and continue the success the Eagles have had. BC lost the Hockey East final to BU, 4-1, last season, and lost to Harvard in the NCAA semifinals.?I?m definitely looking forward to trying to repeat what we did (last year) in the regular season,” she said. “I think we need to improve our postseason performance and we can build off of the things that went wrong last year. We tapered off at the end, so we really need to stay consistent I think we?re ready to come flying out of the gate.”
It hasn?t been all hockey for Burt this summer, though. She was once one of Lynn?s best youth baseball players before turning her focus to softball and ultimately hockey. She has been working at Fenway Park about three times a month as a ball girl for Red Sox games.
?I love it,” she said. “It?s awesome getting to interact with the fans and to enjoy the game from a great seat.”
Burt started as a sixth-grader on the Bulldogs, a varsity co-op hockey team of girls from Lynn, Saugus and Winthrop, before transferring to Buckingham Browne & Nichols, where she accelerated her studies to graduate a year early. She is majoring in economics at BC.
While she?s looking forward to a new season, it may be difficult to top last season. Her freshman season was impressive, to say the least. Burt?s 10 shutouts tied the BC single-season record, and tied her for third nationally. She posted a remarkable 30-2-2 record, leading the nation in wins and setting a new BC single season record. She accumulated many accolades: Hockey East goaltending champion; a 1.11 goals-against average, the best in the country; went undefeated in the first 25 games of her collegiate career, going 24-0-1 to start her career; and several weekly and monthly Hockey East honors, including rookie of the week (Oct. 27, Feb. 9, Feb. 23), defensive player of the week (Dec. 15, Jan. 19), rookie of the month (December) and goaltender of the month (December, January). She was also named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team member and earned a place on the ACC Academic Honor Roll.In addition to her accomplishments with BC, she was the backbone toTeam USA?s 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women?s World Championship in January. She made 16 saves in the gold-medal game ? an overtime win against 2014 champion Canada. The US went 5-0 in the tournament, including two wins against Canada. Burt went 3-0 with a 1.06 goals against average and .923 save percentage.
Though BC?s first game isn?t until October, practice starts for the Eagles almost as soon as they get back on campus. It will be a much different experience for Burt this season without going through the jitters and uncertainty that acc