A Danvers resident, Alison Butler played softball and hockey at St. Mary’s High School in Lynn before focusing on hockey in college. A high-scoring center, she’s wrapping up her Saint Anselm days in style and had a career-high five assists in a 12-1 win over St. Michael’s to close in on the 100-point mark for her career (45 goals, 52 assists for 97 points). She and her classmates are looking to cap off their careers with a championship in the New England Hockey Conference Open tournament. Last year, the Hawks lost to rival Holy Cross in the title game, 4-3 in overtime.
Q. How did you first get into hockey?
A. I started skating when I was 3 and playing hockey when I was 4 or 5. I remember when I was real young, I stopped playing. I just didn’t want to go. But my little brother, (Christopher, now a freshman baseball player at Bentley University), kept going and halfway through the year, I went back. My dad [Paul] played his whole life and played at Danvers High and my brother played and there was a bond between us and the common ground of hockey. We always enjoyed it and still have fun with it.
Q. How would you assess your game?
A. I’m smaller [5 foot 3 inches] and I tend to be more of a playmaker, especially this year I’ve done a lot more assisting than scoring. My coach tells me to stop thinking that way and that I can score goals. I do try to shoot more and I have gotten better at that the last few years and I am thinking more like a goal scorer. I think I see the ice real well for the most part. I’m not the fastest skater, but I’m up there.
Q. Do you think much about the fact that your collegiate playing career is nearing an end?
A. I’m closing in on it and it’s definitely been in the back of my mind. It’s been in the back of my mind the whole season and now that we’re almost there, I’m definitely thinking about it more. It’s getting kind of scary now that it’s getting so close. At the beginning of the year we had a whole season left and it’s gone by real fast.
Q. How do you like playing center vs. the other forward positions?
A. I like it a lot better than the other positions. You have a lot more space to work with.
Q. How are you on faceoffs?
A. It depends on the day. Some days I do really well on them. Others, not so much. Some days it seems like I win most of them, other days it’s about 50-50.
Q. What’s the key to doing well on faceoffs?
A. I work on getting low on faceoffs and beating the other player to the puck. I usually end up tying them up a lot so they don’t get the puck. I don’t always win it right back. You want to have your hands and reaction time be quicker than the player opposite you. We’ve put more of an emphasis on faceoffs this year and having wings come in and getting the puck. We’ve worked on offensive and defensive faceoffs and coverage of faceoffs in practice.
Q. Without giving too much away, what’s your go-to move on a breakaway?
A. I’m actually terrible at breakaways. I think I panic on them. I’ve got a couple I use. One I fake a forehand shot and go backhand. I don’t really like breakaways that much. I’ve been kind of scared of them and I don’t like them from high school. I didn’t score on them then, and I had a bunch. We did have some shootouts in high school in playoffs and I scored on a couple of those.
Q. What is your best athletics memory from high school?
A. Senior year I scored the game-winner with about two-and-a-half minutes left when we won the Division 1 state championship at [TD] Garden. That was definitely the highlight of high school. We beat Arlington Catholic in the finals and we had lost to them junior year in the finals so we got a little revenge.
Q. What do you plan to do with your degree in natural science?
A. It’s biology, basically, and I want to go to physical therapy school and become a physical therapist. I’ll apply to grad school after I graduate. I’ve always liked medical stuff. I’ve been to physical therapy for my shoulder and knee and I’ve seen that and really grown to like it.
Allen Lessels
For full interview, go to bostonglobe.com/north
