Lauren Johnston came into this season as one of the Lady Icers' most seasoned players -- and one of the team's newest. It was an interesting juxtaposition. Johnston, a junior from West Chester, was in the University of Vermont women's hockey program last year but she was not listed on the team's varsity roster. That didn't mean she was spared from the Catamounts' intense workouts lasting three to four hours per day, including off-ice work.

She stepped into a Lady Icers' locker room that featured two of the better offensive players in the ACHA, junior wingers Katie King and Alex McVicker. It was a situation that could have been volatile.

Instead Johnston has proven to be the perfect linemate to King and McVicker, scoring six goals and dishing out five assists in Penn State's first eight league games. She admitted her initial decision to go to Vermont might have been rash.

"When I looked for schools [coming out of high school] I definitely wanted to just get out of Pennsylvania," Johnston said. "I was extremely stupid for not looking at Penn State."

"I changed my major then I heard about this team. I thought it'd be different, in a good way."

The move has paid dividends.

The Lady Icers have won nine of their first 12 games entering this weekend's series at Massachusetts. Johnston's presence at center means players can't key on just the wings.

"She just fits in really well on that first line," Lady Icers coach Chris Whittemore sad. "Just her knowledge of the game -- she has a tenacity for playing. She's 100 percent all the time. I think Katie and Alex needed someone like that. She's on the forecheck like crazy. She's the first one back on defense, usually."

Johnston said the level of commitment required to play for the Lady Icers, a club-level team that has just two on-ice practices each week, was surprising. Johnston said she spends up to two hours each day working out.

"I thought it was going to be a lot more recreational but it isn't," Johnston said. "We're doing something almost every day. We're doing dry-land [workouts], lifting two times a week."

Initially a communications major, Johnston said she started to look at different schools after deciding to concentrate in international politics. Vermont doesn't offer international politics as a major. Johnston admitted there was some trepidation walking into the Lady Icers' locker room at first.

"It was a little difficult just to walk in when people have been playing together," she said. "After a while, through the practices and games, I feel like we're coming together well."

Johnston's linemates credited the newcomer with melding into an existing unit.

"Lauren's a good player," King sad. "She's fast. She's fit right in."

"She just helps us keep up the intensity and the pace of the game so we can go out and dominate," McVicker said.

Johnston said she clicked with her new teammates right away.

"We bonded off the ice as well as on the ice," Johnston said. "We practice hard. Everyone goes 100 percent."

Keeping that sense of team unity going is the biggest challenge facing the club, Johnston said.

"Working as a team, winning as a team, losing as a team — that's the most important thing on our agenda," Johnston said.

Judging by early results that seems to be working out fine.