Even in China, Carpenter able to be home

It’s no surprise hockey has taken Alex Carpenter all across the globe. One of the best players in the world, she’s had a presence in every possible women’s hockey realm.

But it’s a bit of a surprise she’s ended up in China.

“Never been anywhere over in Asia. Traveled a lot between the U.S. and Canada, but nothing compared to this,” she said recently. “I think our staff does a good job of getting us to where we need to be early enough to get acclimated to the time change. Doing it a lot, you get more used to it each time.”

The North Reading native is playing in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League this season with the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays, the Chinese team in the league. The team plays half its season in China, where they’ll play series against the five other CWHL teams (Worcester, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Markham) who travel to Asia.

The Rays themselves will go overseas for extended periods against the North American teams, like their recent three-game stretch in Worcester, a sweep against the Blades.

For Carpenter, it was a sort of homecoming.

“It’s been fun. There’s been a lot of family and friends here the past few days,” she said. “It’s good to be back in a familiar place. I’ve been over there for quite a bit, so it’s exciting.”

Carpenter, a star at Boston College, played her rookie professional season with the NWHL’s Boston Pride before making the switch to the CWHL. She’s fourth in the league this season with 29 points, including two against the Blades on Wednesday night in Worcester.

The Rays are in third place in the league, seven points behind Montreal. Much of the roster is made up of Chinese national players training for the next Winter Olympics. The rest are players like Carpenter, working as ambassadors to grow the game overseas.

“It’s been really cool. It’s a lot of travel, but it’s a great group that we have so they make it fun,” Carpenter said. “The coaching staff makes it good. It’s something I never thought I would do so it’s pretty special.”

Blades in rut

The Blades fell to 0-19 with their 4-0 loss to the Rays on Wednesday night. They haven’t won a game since January 6, 2018, when they played in Boston against Toronto.

Worcester hosts Markham for two games at the start of February.

Pride near top

The Boston Pride find themselves in a battle for first place tonight as they host the Minnesota Whitecaps. The Pride dropped a 5-0 decision in Buffalo last weekend in one of their shakiest performances of the season.

It was the first game all season in which goaltender Katie Burt was pulled and Brittany Ott saw time, and it was Emily Field‘s first game missed in her NWHL career.

Boston swept Minnesota to hand the Whitecaps their first two losses in their NWHL tenure earlier this season and have held onto first place since. Both teams are 7-3 through their first 10 games.