Some hockey players select their college with a purpose, secure in the knowledge that they’ll contend for a national title each winter.

Brittane Michaud’s thought process while signing on the dotted line at Norwich University four years ago was much simpler than that.

“I just wanted to keep playing,” Michaud said. “My first year was Norwich’s first year as a varsity program.”

The odds of eventually skating around a rival’s rink with her teammates, NCAA Division III championship trophy held aloft, were longer than the trip from Michaud’s home in Lewiston to the campus in Northfield, Vt.

Michaud exceeded her expectations of getting an education and helping put a program on the national map, and then some.

Norwich notched its first national championship last weekend, skating past top-ranked Rochester Institute of Technology, 5-2, on RIT’s home ice. Michaud assisted an insurance goal by classmate Sophie Leclerc in the third period.

“It’s amazing,” Michaud said. “It was a team we played at the very beginning of the year. We had a lot of freshmen. It was more of an adjustment period for them to the level of college hockey. We lost to them by a goal, so to play them at the end of the season was a good way to wrap it up.”

RIT knocked off Norwich, 3-1, in that season-opener Oct. 29. But the Cadets’ improvement from start to finish mirrored the maturing process of their four-year run.

After back-to-back losses in early December, Norwich stunned 2010 Division III champion Amherst, 5-2, to trigger a 17-game unbeaten streak.

“We lost to them in the final last year,” Michaud said. “That was a turning point, to beat the national champions and the team that had beaten us.”

Norwich breezed to a 17-0-1 mark in ECAC Women’s East. Despite a 4-2 loss to Manhattanville in the conference championship, the Cadets were rewarded for their sterling regular season with a bye into the national semifinals.

There, the Cadets survived a third-period rally to edge Gustavus Adolphus, 5-4, and reach the title game for the second straight year.

Big-time stuff for a program that was 12-10-2 after making the transition from club team to varsity status Michaud’s freshman year.

Michaud, a 5-foot-7 forward, appeared in only three games that season. She was one of six Class of 2011 recruits to finish what they started.

“We’ve had the same core group,” Michaud said. “We didn’t play as many top-ranked teams that first year as we do now. I feel one of our biggest accomplishments is how far we brought the program in just four years.”

Norwich went 19-9-1 in 2009, tripped up by Elmira in the NCAA quarterfinals. Michaud enjoyed a breakout year with eight goals.

Michaud picked up the scoring pace as a junior, particularly in the games that counted most. She was fourth on the team with 10 goals — including two game-winners — and sixth with 16 total points. She logged the fewest penalty minutes on the team (two).

Half of Michaud’s goals came in the ECAC East tournament. She was named MVP.

Amherst overpowered Norwich in the final, 7-2. That experience paid off this season against RIT, a team that had lost only one previous game this year but had never experienced the pressure of the championship game.

Helping to build a program from the ground up was nothing new to Michaud. She played four years at St. Dominic Regional High School, the last two as team captain, while girls’ hockey was a club activity not sanctioned by the Maine Principals’ Association.

St. Dom’s won the 2005 state championship at the club level. The Saints’ coaches, Julie and Dick Robert, also attended Norwich.

“I guess it was kind of a tradition,” Michaud said. “Hockey has always been a passion of mine. Growing up in Maine, it was a big-time sport in the area. And Norwich was where I wanted to go to school.”

Michaud, who scored seven goals and distributed 11 assists this season, was part of a three-pronged Maine attack for the Cadets.

Melissa Rundlett of Saco, a Kents Hill School product, and Cheverus grad Mollie Fitzpatrick of Portland are juniors on the team.

“Melissa and I played together on the Maine Selects, which is an all-state program. I’ve played with her since we were 10 and 11,“ Michaud said. “Molly, I played against in high school. Cheverus was one of our big rivals. I knew them before we got here.”

Lost in the euphoria of the championship was a reality that didn’t set in for Michaud until early this week: Hockey, at least the most competitive form of it, is now a thing of the past.

Whatever winds up next on her agenda, Michaud hopes it is close to home.

“It’s started to hit me the last couple of days. When afternoon comes, I’m trying to find things to keep me busy because I don’t have practice or gym requirements,” she said. “Next for me is moving on, trying to find a job. Who knows? There are a lot of options.”

Hey, if someone is looking to hire a person who’s good at starting things from scratch, Michaud seems like a safe bet.

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