Bowdoin freshman forward Meghan Britt skates past two UMass Boston defenders. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

BRUNSWICK — The Bowdoin women’s hockey team is off to its best start in program history, winning all 10 of its games.

What is so different about this year’s team compared to the ones from the last three seasons?

“I don’t know. No one knows,” said senior forward Gia Massari

Massari does have a few theories. She said the Polar Bears are skating with confidence and staying together.

“I think we’ve always been a strong group, but something about this time,” Massari said Saturday after a comeback win over UMass-Boston. “I think all of our grades, everyone from top to bottom, old and young, everyone just is contributing and keeping the locker room a positive vibe. We’re all friends. We all love each other. And I just think being able to pick each other up when we’re down is important in being able to win games.”

The Polar Bears haven’t been down much — they’ve trailed in just two games. The team sank Suffolk 5-3 and UMass-Boston 4-2 last weekend.

Through Sunday, Bowdoin is tied for the New England Small College Athletic Conference lead in scoring margin (+3.0 goals/game) and power play conversion (34.5%). Bowdoin also leads the conference in shot percentage (11.7%) and shutout wins (five).

Bowdoin coach Marissa O’Neil said she didn’t expect such an explosive start to the season, but that she also isn’t surprised.

“We’ve always known the potential we have in the locker room, and I think that it’s just a matter of having that belief, it’s more so than confidence,” said O’Neil, who is in her 14th season. “I think that we were able to see that in practice from the start. Just like how winning continues to breed success. I think having that first sweep against Wesleyan really was the jump-off point that we needed and haven’t had.”

The Bowdoin women’s hockey team celebrates a cross-ice open net goal from Jane McCarter (21) in the final minute of Saturday’s 4-2 win over UMass Boston. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

A faster pace of play and heightened level of competition during practice has also fueled success, O’Neil said. Massari, who recorded a goal and three assists over the weekend, attributes that to players not wanting to skate extra laps after losing a mini-game.

O’Neil also noticed a strong bond between the 20 returning players and six newcomers, which she says has put the freshmen class ahead of the curve.

“They’re able to come in here and be able to showcase what they have, but also be able to kind of follow the lead of a lot of our upperclassmen, who kind of took them under their wing,” O’Neil said. “That’s allowed them to play freely, and that’s a huge thing that we don’t always see in the first semester. It usually takes a couple months and some more games. But these guys, I mean, you could see it from when they arrived on campus. Their class is really tight knit. The upperclassmen, they had so much feedback in such a positive way, that it was like, you know, we felt that something was brewing.”

Three players are tied for the team lead in goals with five, including freshmen forwards Meghan Britt and Ava Provenzo. Sophomore forward Luna Lu also has five goals and is tied with Massari with a team-high seven assists.

The Bowdoin women’s hockey team celebrates a game-tying goal at the beginning of the third period. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

Each of the three goaltenders has recorded at least one shutout. Senior Sally Solotaroff-Webber (three games) and sophomore Sarah Peterson (five games) both have a goals against average less than one and are tied with a .961 save percentage.

“One thing that we do a really good job of, and we were talking about this, is we have a lot of fun,” Peterson said. “I think, also, that translates into then we trust each other to go play, on and off the ice.”

The connection has propelled the No. 11 Polar Bears to their first national ranking in the weekly USCHO.com poll since the 2014-15 season.

O’Neil says the staying the course, maintaining an expectation of winning and putting together a full 60 minutes of play will push Bowdoin far as the NESCAC schedule begins this weekend.

“We know we have a target on our back, and we want to keep the start we have,” Massari said. “I think it’s also motivating us to play as strong and hard as we are, because we want to stay that way.”

The Polar Bears round out their non-conference slate on Tuesday by taking on Endicott (9-4) in their last home game for a month.