Injury made Framingham's Ashlyn Ham appreciate Clarkson hockey's Frozen Four run more

The wind whips through Ashlyn Ham's shoulder-length blonde hair as she glides across the ice. She feels it cold against her cheeks.

"To me, it feels very freeing. That's why I love hockey so much," said the Clarkson sophomore from Framingham. "It takes me apart from all of the problems that I'm facing. It brings me a lot of joy to be fast."

Her speed took Ham from Framingham's town teams to the vaunted Assabet Valley club program in Concord.

"I wanted more for myself," Ham said. "That's what really started my hockey career."

It took her west to the Berkshire School, which has produced Olympians Kendall Coyne-Schofield, Kacey Bellamy, Jill Saulnier and Toni Matzka. Ham played four years at the Berkshire School and with the East Coast Wizards club program.

"It was remarkable that her speed really translated no matter what sport she was playing," Berkshire coach Lisa Marshall said. "How she played one sport was how she played all of them: go, go go."

Ham used her speed to score, but Marshall helped her see it could do even more. The Bears taught her to shift gears and allow plays to develop rather than slamming the gas pedal down every time. She became a ferocious and consistent back checker and a fixture battling for pucks in the corner.

"She was a coach that really believed in me and trusted me. It gave me all the confidence I had to keep going and want to pursue a career for myself," Ham said. "Her telling me I was good enough to go on and play for something bigger, that's what really got me going. It was super competitive in my age class. All the people I knew went on to play college hockey. That pushed me."

Clicking with Clarkson

Division 1 teams began circling early, but recent rule changers prevented them from contacting her initially. Ham didn't hear from many schools at first but started talking to Clarkson her senior year. The Golden Knights invited her to their Pottsdam, New York, campus in October.

Clarkson is an ECAC program that has won three national championships in its 20-year history and produced three Patty Kazmaier award winners, given to the best player in the country. It has produced Olympians and All-Americans.

Though she was closer to Ottawa than most of the United States, Ham felt at home and committed that visit.

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Clarkson coach Matt Desrosiers preached the team's culture. That stood out to Ham. She wanted to be around women she could trust and get along with, especially in a new city.

"He told me they were playing for something bigger than themselves, and they wanted to go far," Ham said. "That's exactly what I wanted to do."

She impacted the Golden Knights quickly as a freshman last season. Ham skated in 26 of 32 games and scored a goal against Bemidji State. Clarkson reached the ECAC championship game, where it fell to Colgate, and played Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Injury setback

As one of eight returning forwards among 13 players back, Ham was poised for a breakout sophomore season. Then she injured her back deadlifting in May. She played through the pain throughout the summer but found out the injury was "pretty serious" near the beginning of the season.

"It was really hard news to take in," Ham said. "Hockey is something I use to get away from everything else."

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So she stayed close. Even if she wasn't skating, Ham went to the rink for practices to do her own work outs or receive treatment. Clarkson hosts a plethora of team meetings, and the Golden Knights spend a ton of time together when they're not playing.

"Getting myself involved in all of that really helped me out with staying positive," Ham said.

The fastest girl on the ice slowed down.

"It made me appreciate how much more I need to appreciate the game and how healthy I was and how healthy I can be. At times, people take it for granted. I did take it for granted a little bit," Ham said. "Now that I'm on the other side and watching my team on the ice, it made me appreciate the sport."

The injury didn't require surgery. She received two rounds of injections consisting of four shots into her L4-L5 and L5-S1 vertebrae, the two lowest vertebrae of the lumbar spine and the transition region between the lumbar spine and sacral spine in the lower back, respectively. They support the upper body and allow trunk rotation.

Ham worked with Clarkson trainer Ashley Geraci for treatment including, heat, stimulation, ice, cupping and stretching. They limited her exercises in the gym to make sure she didn't exacerbate the damage.

Return to the ice

By January, she stepped back on the ice for a 15-minute skate on her own.

"I never thought I'd be as excited or as emotional getting back onto the ice. I remember calling my dad after my first practice, and I was tearing up in my eyes because of how excited I was to be out there," Ham said. "I was ecstatic to be skating again."

That 15-minute session grew into limited drills and eventually full practices three to four times per week. By the time Ham was fully cleared to return, the season was halfway over. She opted to redshirt and preserve a full season of eligibility rather than lose a portion of her career despite the fact that Clarkson was one of the top five teams in the country at the time.

"I didn't want to give up half a year of hockey," Ham said. "I love the sport so much that I want to make sure I have all the years I can have for it."

The Golden Knights have won 33 games this season. They lost to Colgate in the ECAC championship game but took down Minnesota in quadruple overtime to earn a trip to their sixth Frozen Four. Ham watched it from the stands with the other Golden Knights not in the lineup.

"My heart was racing the whole time. We're very in it as much as anyone else out there," she said. "I lost my voice that weekend just by cheering so much. We knew that we were going to pull it off in the end. We weren't too scared."

Dominique Petrie's winner after 125 minutes, 44 seconds sent Clarkson to the Frozen Four in Durham, New Hampshire.

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"Not being able to play in the Frozen Four, it's heartbreaking," she said.

Ham was a full participant in practice, back on the ice in New England. Her family drove up from Framingham for the weekend.

"It's very comfortable to me. Playing at a school seven hours away from home, it was uncomfortable at first," she said. "You get used to it, but being back near home, I feel very comfortable."

Ohio State defeated Clarkson 4-1 in the national semifinals Friday en route to winning its second national title in the past three years after taking out Wisconsin 1-0 on Sunday.

She'll be go, go, go next season trying to get to Minneapolis for the 2025 Frozen Four. It just may not be with Clarkson. Ham entered the transfer portal March 18.

"I know I'll be able to come back from this (injury)," Ham said. "There's gonna be so much more waiting for me once I can."

Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Framingham's Ashlyn Ham appreciates hockey more after year off the ice