BOSTON — When the Seattle Torrent played the Boston Fleet on Jan. 7 at Agganis Arena, it was Seattle assistant captain Alex Carpenter’s first time playing at the Boston University rink.
She is no stranger to Agganis Arena or the BU campus, though.
When Carpenter was playing on Boston College’s ice hockey team between 2011-2016, she played in neighboring Walter Brown Arena, and her brother, Bobo, played for the Terriers from 2015-2019.
“My brother and I crossed over two years in college, so I would go watch all of his games and be up in the stands,” Carpenter said. “So pretty neat to be in a place where my brother played.”
Just days before Carpenter took the ice at Agganis Arena, she was named to the 2026 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team, set to compete in Milano Cortina alongside three Seattle teammates – Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka and Cayla Barnes – and 15 other PWHL players.
Carpenter is the only person from Massachusetts among the 23 players on the roster.
Born in the Commonwealth, Carpenter, and her family lived in New York and New Jersey as her dad played and coached for the New Jersey Devils. The Carpenters settled back down in North Reading when Alex was 13 years old.
“My dad was kind of at the end of his coaching career and wanted us to grow up in Massachusetts, where all of our family is,” she said.
Carpenter played youth hockey for teams like the East Coast Wizards, based in Bedford, and the Valley Junior Warriors in Haverhill.
“Those were definitely some formative years of my hockey career,” she said. “I’ve lived (in Massachusetts) for a long time, and then a lot of my youngest memories of playing hockey are in Massachusetts.”
For high school, Carpenter played at Governor’s Academy, where she had 239 goals and 427 points in 100 games. She then committed to Boston College, where she won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2015 as a junior.
“Playing at Boston College was special, playing at Conte Forum,” Carpenter said. “Just so many memories there.”
Carpenter will be playing in her third Olympic Games in Milano Cortina. She earned silver medals in both the 2014 and 2022 Olympics.
Despite Carpenter’s previous experience in the Olympic games, this will be the first time that women’s ice hockey players come from the PWHL, which is in its third season.
Not only is the consistency of playing a benefit to players headed into the Olympics, Carpenter said, but the familiarity of competing with players across the PWHL will be significant for Team USA’s quest for its first gold medal since 2018.
“Just having that consistency of the season and those resources are really important. Having this league right now, and everybody will be at their absolute best, I think just playing year-round and in really good shape,” Carpenter said.
“Playing with familiar players, like I get to play with Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka and Cayla Barnes, so having that familiarity with players is really important.”
Carpenter played overseas in China and Russia, so the year-round consistency is not new to her, but it’s “definitely fairly different for a lot of people,” she said.
Carpenter played overseas for four years after one year with the Boston Pride of the defunct Premier Hockey Federation following her college career before returning and playing in the PWHPA for a year ahead of the PWHL’s inaugural season.
Alongside her three Torrent teammates, Carpenter will suit up with players across the PWHL who she’s competing against throughout the season, but play with during the Rivalry Series that the USA and Canada compete in.
“We’re lucky that we get to play with each other in the Rivalry Series in November and December,” Carpenter said. “So definitely keeping that consistency with them, but definitely, really neat. You go from rivals one minute to playing on the same team and going for the same goal the next.”
The U.S. outscored Canada 24-7 across the four-game series, and Carpenter says to win gold, they will need to “just continue with what we’re doing with our program.”
“I think we have a great team of veterans and young players coming in, and they mesh really well. I think we’ll just take it day by day.”
Carpenter and Team USA get started at the Olympics on Feb. 5 in the preliminary round against Czech. With the U.S. and Czechia, Finland, Switzerland and Canada join them in Group A. The U.S. and Canada will first face off on Feb. 10.