Category Archives: Conference Standings

Post #78 – 11/11/22 – Polls & Scheds, Attendance, Problem Solving, Upcoming Events, ICYMI

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

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Click any of the links below to jump to that section. At the bottom of each section, click the ‘ (Back to Top) ‘ link to return to the top of the post.

Polls & WKND Sched

Attendance

Problem Solving

Sifters

ICYMI

Polls & WKND Sched

DCU/USCHO Division I Poll – November 7, 2022

Rnk	Team	Record	Last Poll
1	Minnesota (20)	9-0-1	1
2	Ohio State	10-1-1	2
3	Wisconsin	10-2-0	3
4	Colgate	11-1-0	6
5	Quinnipiac	10-1-0	4
6	Yale	4-0-0	8
7	Minnesota Duluth	7-5-0	5
8	Northeastern	10-1-1	7
9	Cornell	5-1-0	9
10	Providence	9-2-1	12
11	Clarkson	10-3-1	10
12	Penn State	8-5-1	11
13	Vermont	7-4-1	13
14	Connecticut	8-4-2	NR
15	Princeton	1-3-0	14

First place votes in parentheses ( )

Others receiving votes: St. Lawrence 14, Boston College 6, Mercyhurst 3, St. Cloud State 3, Harvard 1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine College Hockey Poll

(Week Nine Poll)

First-place votes in parentheses

RANK	SCHOOL	LAST WEEK’S RANKING	2022-23 RECORD	WEEKS IN TOP 15
1.	University of Minnesota, 282 (18)	1	9-1-1	9
2.	Ohio State University, 263 (1)	2	10-1-1	9
3.	University of Wisconsin, 233	3	10-2-0	9
4.	Quinnipiac University, 207	4	10-1-0	9
5.	Colgate University, 203	6	11-1-0	9
6.	Yale University, 191	8	4-0-0	9
7.	Northeastern University, 180	7	10-1-1	9
8.	University of Minnesota Duluth, 166	5	7-5-0	9
9.	Cornell University, 143	9	5-1-0	9
10.	Providence College, 100	12	9-2-1	4
11.	Clarkson University, 90	10	10-3-1	9
12.	Penn State University, 75	11	8-5-1	8
13.	University of Vermont, 68	14	7-4-1	9
14.	University of Connecticut, 30	NR	9-1-1	4
15.	Princeton University, 22	13	1-3-0	9

Others Receiving Votes: St. Lawrence University, 14; Boston College, 7; St. Cloud State University, 3; Mercyhurst University, 2; University of Maine, 1.

Notes: The ECAC leads with seven teams in the ranking, while the WCHA has four, the HEA has three and the CHA has one… Team records are listed as W-L-T.

About the Poll: The 26th annual USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association. The poll includes input from coaches and journalists representing each of the six NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences, as well as composite votes from officers of the AHCA and USA Hockey.

Division I WKND Schedule

Thursday November 10, 2022

St. Thomas vs. Lindenwood

St. Lawrence vs. Clarkson

Friday November 11, 2022

St. Thomas vs. Lindenwood (NC)

Boston College vs. Northeastern

Boston University vs. Vermont

Minnesota-Duluth vs. St. Cloud State

RIT vs. Union (NC)

Saint Anselm vs. Franklin Pierce

Stonehill vs. Sacred Heart

Merrimack vs. New Hampshire

Colgate vs. Harvard

Cornell vs. Dartmouth

Holy Cross vs. Maine

Syracuse vs. Princeton (NC)

Providence vs. Connecticut

Long Island vs. Saint Michael’s

Saturday November 12, 2022

Cornell vs. Harvard

Colgate vs. Dartmouth

Northeastern vs. Boston College

UNH vs. Merrimack

Holy Cross vs. Maine

Boston Univ. vs. Vermont

Connecticut vs. Providence

MN-Duluth vs. St. Cloud

Franklin Pierce vs. Saint Anselm

Stonehill vs. Sacred Heart

Long Island vs. Saint Michael’s

Clarkson vs. St. Lawrence (NC)

Syracuse vs. Princeton (NC)

RIT vs. Union (NC)

Sunday November 13, 2022

Brown vs. Penn State

Monday November 14, 2022

Brown vs. Penn State

Conference Standings as of 11/9/22

ECAC

RNK	Team	Points
1	Yale	12
2	Quinnipiac	12
3	Cornell	9
4	Harvard	7
5	Clarkson	6
6	St. Lawrence	6
7	Colgate	6
8	Brown	5
9	Dartmouth	4
10	Union	3.5
11	Princeton	3
12	Rensselaer	1.5

Hockey East

RNK	Team	Points
1	Northeastern	26
2	Providence	18
3	Vermont	18
4	Connecticut	15
5	Boston College	14
6	Maine	12
7	Merrimack	10
8	Boston University	8
9	New Hampshire	8
10	Holy Cross	3

NEWHA

RNK	Team	Points
1	Saint Anselm	18
2	Stonehill	16
3	Long Island	12
4	Sacred Heart	10
5	Franklin Pierce	6
6	Saint Michael’s	4
7	Post	4

CHA

RNK	Team	Points
1	Syracuse	12
2	Penn State	9
3	Mercyhurst	3
4	Lindenwood	0
4	RIT	0

*NCAA Tourney Auto-bid is retained until the end of 22-23. Robert Morris Univ. will re-join the CHA for the 23-24 season as its 6th member meeting the NCAA Tourney Auto-bid requirement.

WCHA

RNK	Team	Points
1	Ohio State	31
2	Minnesota	27
3	Wisconsin	21
4	St. Cloud State	16
5	Minnesota State	10
6	Minnesota-Duluth	9
7	Bemidji State	3
8	St. Thomas	0

DCU/USCHO Division III Poll November 7, 2022

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Middlebury	(19)	0-0-0	299	1
2	Gustavus	(1)	3-0-0	274	2
3	Plattsburgh		2-0-0	262	3
4	Elmira		3-0-0	235	4
5	Nazareth		2-0-0	206	6
6	UW-River Falls		1-1-0	170	7
7	Adrian		4-0-0	163	10
8	UW-Eau Claire		3-1-0	161	5
9	Norwich		2-0-0	151	11
10	Colby		0-0-0	140	8
11	Endicott		3-1-0	90	9
12	Amherst		0-0-0	77	12
13	Cortland		2-0-0	63	14
14	Augsburg		1-3-0	32	13
15	Aurora		3-1-0	22	15
15	Hamilton		0-0-0	22	NR

Others receiving votes: Williams 11, St. Norbert 7, Hamline 6, Utica 4, Lake Forest 3, UW-Superior 2

D-III WKND Schedule

Friday November 11, 2022

SUNY-Potsdam vs. Plattsburgh

Oswego St. vs. SUNY-Morrisville

Nazareth vs. Wilkes

New England College vs. Plymouth St.

William Smith vs. Elmira

Nichols vs. Suffolk

Salem St. vs. UMASS-Boston

Norwich vs. Castleton

SUNY-Cortland vs. Buffalo St.

Concordia-Wisconsin vs. Trine

Neumann vs.. Stevenson

Utica vs. Kings

Hilbert vs. SUNY-Canton

So. Maine vs. Johnson & Wales

Anna Maria vs. Alvernia

Manhattanville vs. Lebanon Valley

Curry vs. Univ. of New England

Salve Regina vs. Worcester St.

Aurora vs. Finlandia

Chatham vs. Arcadia

Lawrence vs. St. Norbert

Wis. Eau-Claire vs. Northland

Saint Benedict vs. Concordia-Morehead (MN)

Endicott vs. Western New England

Augsburg vs. St. Catherine

Bethel vs. St. Olaf

Hamiline vs. St. Mary’s

Wisconsin Stevens-Point vs. River Falls

Saturday November 12, 2022

Stevenson vs. Nuemann

Concordia vs. Trine

Plattsburgh vs. SUNY-Potsdam

Hilbert vs. SUNY-Canton

Anna Maria vs. Alvernia

Manhattanville vs. Lebanon Valley

St. Catherine vs. Augsburg

UW River-Falls vs. Northland

New England College vs. Castleton

SUNY-Morrisville vs. Oswego St.

St. Olaf vs. Bethel

Utica vs. King’s (PA)

University of New England vs. Curry

SUNY-Cortland vs. Buffalo St.

Saint Mary’s vs. Hamline

Southern Maine vs. UMASS-Boston

Nazareth vs. Wilkes

Chatham vs. Arcadia

Norwich vs. Plymouth

St. Norbert vs. Lawrence

Salem State vs. Johnson & Wales

Aurora vs. Finlandia

Elmira vs. William Smith

Western New England vs. Endicott

Suffolk vs.. Nichols

Marian vs. Adrian

Gustavus vs. St. Scholastica

Concordia-Morehead vs. Saint Benedict

Wisconsin Eau-Claire vs. Wisconsin Superior

Sunday November 13, 2022

Rivier (NH) vs. Assumption

Marian vs. Adrian

Worcester St. vs. Salve Regina

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Attendance

Below you will find comprehensive D-I attendance figures for all teams, found on USCHO. It is in order of average attendance per game. You can download these numbers below and sort how you want. Interesting to see. As of today there will have been 40 Friday games with a start time of 5pm or earlier, most around the the 2pm time frame.

How can you build an interest or a fan base when games start at 2, 3, 4, or 5pm on a Friday?

22-23-D-I-Attendance-Figures-as-of-11-8-22 Download

Some takeaways:

Maine has had the most home dates thus far with 10
Wisconsin leads the way with an ave per game attendance at 2,223 and a 97.8% capacity figure. Next is Minnesota at 40.9%
Only 2 teams have averages per game over 1,000 and only one team (Wisco) is averaging more than 2k per game
As for a breakdown…
- 1 team in the 2k’s
- 1 team in the 1K’s
- 1 team in the 800’s
- 1 team in the 700’s
- 2 teams in the 600’s
- 4 teams in the 500’s
- 6 teams in the 400’s
- 8 teams in the 300’s
- 8 teams in the 200’s
- 8 teams in the 100’s
- 2 teams below 100
  - Unfortunately – only 23.8% of D-I programs are drawing more than 500 fans per game.
Total attendance across D-I to date in the season is 94,590
Most Saturday games are play in the early to mid-afternoons. In fact, only 10 Saturday games to date out of 102 have had a start time of 6pm local time or later.

Women’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2022-2023

Rank	Team	Dates	Total Attendance	Average Attendance	Capacity	Cap. %
1	Wisconsin	6	13,338	2,223	2,273	97.8
2	Minnesota	6	8,349	1,392	3,400	40.9
3	Minnesota Duluth	4	3,495	874	6,756	12.9
4	Yale	2	1,586	793	3,486	22.7
5	Colgate	6	4,105	684	2,222	30.8
6	Princeton	2	1,237	618	2,100	29.5
7	Mercyhurst	6	3,551	592	1,300	45.5
8	Penn State	8	4,675	584	5,782	10.1
9	Clarkson	5	2,822	564	3,000	18.8
10	Ohio State	6	3,180	530	1,200	44.2
11	Boston University	6	2,947	491	3,684	13.3
11	New Hampshire	6	2,947	491	6,501	7.6
13	St. Lawrence	6	2,729	455	3,000	15.2
14	Quinnipiac	5	2,241	448	3,086	14.5
15	Harvard	4	1,770	442	3,095	14.3
16	Dartmouth	2	810	405	4,500	9
17	Connecticut	8	3,174	397	2,000	19.8
18	Northeastern	6	2,324	387	4,747	8.2
19	RIT	3	1,126	375	4,300	8.7
20	Vermont	6	2,207	368	4,007	9.2
21	St. Thomas	6	2,169	362	1,400	25.8
22	Cornell	4	1,412	353	4,267	8.3
23	Bemidji State	8	2,737	342	4,373	7.8
24	Boston College	6	1,883	314	7,884	4
25	Union	2	585	292	2,225	13.1
26	St. Cloud State	6	1,641	274	5,159	5.3
27	Minnesota State	6	1,491	248	4,832	5.1
28	Maine	10	2,273	227	5,124	4.4
28	St. Anselm	7	1,589	227	2,700	8.4
30	Brown	3	642	214	2,495	8.6
31	Syracuse	5	1,065	213	350	60.9
32	Sacred Heart	5	1,059	212	—	—
33	Holy Cross	7	1,384	198	1,400	14.1
34	St. Michael’s	2	359	180	600	29.9
35	LIU	3	529	176	—	—
36	Merrimack	7	1,221	174	2,549	6.8
37	Rensselaer	6	1,030	172	5,217	3.3
38	Lindenwood	2	323	162	—	—
39	Providence	8	1,290	161	3,030	5.3
40	Stonehill	8	1,135	142	1,000	14.2
41	Franklin Pierce	3	219	73	—	—
42	Post	4	264	66	—	—

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Problem Solving – More Officials

Officiating doesn’t have a numbers problem. It has a system problem and it is broken. The numbers have always been there – in fact they are right in front of our eyes. Hundreds of thousands of them. They’re called players. It’s who every person in charge of getting more officials into the game talks about… “hey, we want officials who have played the game”. Problem is, in the officiating world, the system of becoming one, winds up being one of choice rather than having the opportunity to begin with.

We have been told since mid-last year that officiating numbers across the US and Canada are dwindling and there are major problems. So much so, that a state like MN is contemplating a rule that forbids teams to schedule multiple games in a day. There’s just not enough officials to work the amount of games. Youth hockey has this problem and so too does NCAA men’s & women’s hockey. Leagues are losing numbers and quality people with experience.

So how do you increase the pool of officials without deteriorating the quality? Age old questions for sure.

You could pay officials more, right? But then, everyone would have to pay more.

The model of attracting new officials is old, outdated, and frankly, difficult. You offer learn-to-ref clinics, put up some posters in the local rink, take and pass a test, get certified, get scheduled to work games, etc. But in these post pandemic days – it’s hard. Who wants to get screamed at by some loose-cannon hockey parent for an hour + on a Saturday afternoon for $20-$40. No thanks. You ever try and ask someone to sign up for something? It’s hard, it takes work, follow up, phone calls, emails, texts, etc. and worst of all, you have no control over who signs up – totally out of your hands.

Now, I don’t know what the percentages would be, but I’d bet most hockey officials played the game at even a bare bones organized house league level. I mean they have to learn to skate somewhere right?

The model has always been – have people who are interested in officiating sign up. At the higher levels, it’s a bit more of a recruitment process. But basically, at the local levels, offer a certification program, charge a fee, take a test and bam – you’re an official. It’s a model based on filtering or bringing people in. It’s a choice for people to do or not.

Well, what if you flipped the model? Instead of filtering new officials in, what if you filtered officials out?

What if the system was… you’re a young child and you want to play organized hockey, awesome. Guess what, as part of a players trajectory from age level – to age level, you are going to be introduced to officiating at the appropriate age, (holy-smokes you’ll even learn the rules of the game–which when you’re starting out as a player is kind of important!). You’ll have a chance to become an official because it’s part of the program of becoming a registered player. It’s what you do.

On the elite side of things, imagine if every player, male and female who attended a player development program/camp for USA Hockey or Hockey Canada walked away with being certified to be an official? You have an elite pool of players at your finger tips who probably have the one skill necessary to be an elite official – skating.

A few things would happen… 1) You would grow the pool of officials exponentially from a younger age. And when the pool grows – the numbers of talented officials would grow too. 2) Instead of trying to rope new officials in – officials rope themselves in because they want to learn to play the game. 3) The culture around officiating would change drastically. If just about every registered player knew what officiating was like – AND ALSO KNEW THE RULES OF HOCKEY, the abuse would drop drastically. There’s no doubt coaches and players would respect one another more. 4) Financially, the coffers would grow. Sure there would be a cost to do something like this, but that can be off-set w/ increased participation registration fees. You always have thousands more players register to play than those who choose to sign up to get certified to become an official. 5) As players go through this type of program from a younger age – some will filter themselves out of officiating – while many, many more will stay in it because they’ve done it for so long, enjoy doing it, and perhaps may see a career path with it.

Outside the box idea for sure. But with all the issues, something drastic has to be done.

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Sifters

Upcoming Events… There usually aren’t a lot of in-season tournaments or special events during the course of the D-I or D-III season, but with Thanksgiving and the holidays approaching, there will be some. Here’s a partial list:

Las Vegas Showcase, Boston University, Penn State, Minnesota, Yale, Nov. 25-26
Nutmeg Classic, Bemidji, UCONN, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac, Nov. 25-26
Smashville Showcase, Cornell, Northeastern, Princeton,
Mayor’s Cup, Providence vs Brown, Nov. 26
East/West Showcase, St. Cloud, Minnesota, UNH, Merrimack, Jan. 6-7
Capital District Mayors Cup, Union & RPI, Jan. 28
The Beanpot, Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern, Feb 7 & 14

History Made… It is believed to be a first in D-I as two black female assistant coaches faced off vs. one another when Union College’s Olivia Soares faced Dartmouth College’s Nina Rogers last weekend. The story made NHL.com which you can read HERE.

New Poll… For those who don’t know about The Ice Garden, you should. It’s a SB Nation blow/website that covers the PHF and all things professional women’s hockey. They also do their own NCAA D-I Women’s Poll each week. You can catch that right HERE.

NLI Signings… The National Letter of Intent signing period was last week which allowed players a chance to sign their scholarship paperwork. Programs usually will announce recent signings after this period on their websites – so stay tuned!

ECAC News… Big news out of the ECAC this week as we learned the ECAC Women’s and Men’s playoffs will feature all 12 teams. While no specific playoff structure was announced for the women, it’s believed the they will follow the men’s side. Teams 1-4 will get a bye in the first round while teams 5-8 will host seeds 9-12 in a one game single elimination format. Winners would move on to play in a quarter-final best-of-three series hosted by seeds 1-4 the following weekend. Those winners would move on to the championship semi-finals and finals each. being one game. You can read the official story HERE. The change for the women takes effect in 2024 while the men’s side will see the new format this season.

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ICYMI… Post #77

We’re starting a new section to our blog called… In Case You Missed It or ICYMI. If you didn’t get the chance to read out last post, now you can. Will will begin putting out previous Pipeline posts at the bottom of our current one. Check it out below.

The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline…

Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’ !

Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey

Lots of New

There’s a whole lot of new coming into the 22-23 NCAA hockey season. New teams, new coaches, old players on new teams, new rules, new polls, and a new auto-bid to the NCAA tourney. You get the picture – Let’s dive in!

NEW TEAMS DROP THE PUCK

Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts just outside Boston becomes the NEWHA’s 7th member as they begin play as a first-year NCAA D-I program under first-year Head Coach Tara Watchorn. Thus far, the Skyhawks are 4-3-1 with 4 strait wins in NEWHA play sweeping Post and St. Mike’s after dropping their first two NCAA contests to UCONN 7-1 and 3-2. The Skyhawks have since tied and lost to Brown 2-2 and 3-1 last week.
At Division III, the Hilbert College Hawks out of Hamburg, NY south of Buffalo, get underway this year as an D-III Independent. Their first NCAA games are set for October 28 & 29 when the travel to face Alvernia and Lebanon Valley. The Milwaukee School of Engineering hit the re-set button on starting their program and will begin lay in ’23-’24. Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT has made its hire in Steve Novodor and will put a team on the ice next season in 23-24.

NEW COACHES

This was the most active year for coaching/support staff changes in recent memory. 71 changes in total have been made to date. There are a few D-III positions still to be announced, so we’ll eclipse the 70+ mark. That is a lot of turnover.

6 new head coaches get behind the bench this year for D-I programs and 2 more begin the program building process. You have new bench. bosses in Hockey East-Maine, NEWHA-Long Island Univ., Post Univ., and Stonehill College, CHA-Syracuse, WCHA-St. Cloud. 2 more Head Coaches are building programs virtually from the ground up in Robert Morris University (back in the CHA after being cut in 2021) and Assumption College who is making the transition from ACHA Club status to NCAA D-I and the 8th member of the NEWHA.

An astounding 13 new head coaches have been hired in D-III to start the 22-23 season, 10 of which are changes to existing programs.

OLD PLAYERS, NEW TEAMS

In Division I for the 21-22 season, we saw 85 graduate transfers on D-I rosters. Glancing at each schools’ rosters this season in 22-23, we find a total of 95 graduate transfers at the D-I level, an increase of 10 players. That’s right around a third of all players usually taken in a typical recruiting class. We’ll use 6 players as the average number of recruits a program takes per year.

This trend won’t go away until all players who were granted a 5th year due to COVID by the NCAA, exhaust their eligibility. Which, barring any unforeseen circumstances, should be in the Spring of 2025 and means the 25-26 season should have very few if any grad. transfers.

Year 1 = 20-21 (initial COVID year), Year 2 = 21-22, Year 3 = 22-23, Year 4 = 23-24, Year 5 = 24-25

NEW RULES

The 22-23 season begins a new 2-year cycle for the NCAA men’s & women’s ice hockey rules committee to introduce new rules and legislation into the game. New changes with significance this year:

Offsides: A player shall be considered onside if the skate is over the blue line when the puck enters the attacking zone, which is the rule used in the National Hockey League. Previously, the skate was required to be in contact with the blue line.
Video Review: Coaches Challenges – coaches may challenge a reviewable play. If the play is not reversed, a timeout will be charged for the unsuccessful challenge. Any subsequent unsuccessful challenges would result in a minor penalty for delay of game.
Overtime/Shootouts – will remain 3v3 with conference rules to determine if a shootout will be used after a 5-min 3v3 OT period is played.
Major Penalty Option… officials [have] an option of a major (five-minute) penalty without an ejection. An educational video will be developed to illustrate the differences between a major penalty by itself and a major penalty with an ejection.
High sticking in defensive zone: To be consistent with a hand pass infraction in the defensive zone, when the defensive team high sticks the puck in the defensive zone, the team will not be able to change its players.
Covering puck in crease: The committee added covering the puck in the crease by a skater as a reviewable play through a coach’s challenge.

BODY CONTACT

The NCAA Ice Hockey Women’s Rules Committee members as well as the body of coaches and school administrators, feel legal body contact has been penalized far too often. So in an attempt to have greater consistency across all NCAA divisions and conferences, the women’s rules committee requested language around the rules of body contact be clarified and a supplemental video produced and distributed.

The end result – 11 minutes and 18 seconds of video clips and voice-over clarifications and explanations of what legal and illegal body contact is as defined by the NCAA Ice Hockey Women’s Rules Committee. Here are the takeaways:

Legal body contact may consist of:
- Use of Angling
- Use of Size, Strength and Balance to play the puck
- Use of Body Position to control or gain possession of puck
- incidental collision may occur and should not be penalized
- There is no distinct hip, shoulder, arm or stick contact to physically force the opponent off the puck
Illegal Body Contact–Principles of the continued enforcement standard
- The use of the stick will be limited to only playing the puck
- The stick will not be allowed to in any way impede a players progress
- The use of a free hand/arm will not be allowed to grab or impede a player’s progress
- Players who use their physical skills and/or anticipation and have a positional advantage shall not lose that advantage as a result of illegal acts by the opponent
- Players will be held accountable for acts of an intimidating or dangerous nature

Through the first few weeks of the season, it’s been an adjustment for everyone – officials and players. But the early comments from most coaches seem to indicate they really like the direction. It does seem like less penalties are being called, judging from a quick scan of box scores as compared with memory from early last season. It will be interesting to see the number of body contact/illegal checking penalties called this season vs. last.

NEW NATIONAL POLLS

Good bye top 10, hello top 15. The two leading major media outlets that publicize national polls for D-I and D-III women’s hockey, USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine (just D-I), will now have a weekly Top 15 National Poll to accommodate the increase of teams selected to the NCAA Tournament – which is now at 11 teams. For years, national polls have always listed 10 teams. Below are the weekly polls as of this week.

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DCU/USCHO Division I Poll October 31, 2022

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Minnesota	(18)	7-0-1	298	2
2	Ohio State	(1)	8-1-1	278	1
3	Wisconsin		10-2-0	242	3
4	Quinnipiac	(1)	9-0-0	231	7
5	Minnesota Duluth		7-3-0	226	5
6	Colgate		10-1-0	211	4
7	Northeastern		8-1-1	182	6
8	Yale		2-0-0	145	9
9	Cornell		3-1-0	132	8
10	Clarkson		10-1-1	122	10
11	Penn State		7-4-1	95	12
12	Providence		7-2-1	92	13
13	Vermont		5-4-1	54	14
14	Princeton		0-2-0	44	10
15	Boston College		6-3-1	31	15

Others receiving votes: St. Lawrence 11, Harvard 3, Connecticut 2, Maine 1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll

November 1, 2022

RNK	Team	Points	(First Place Votes)	Last Poll	Record	Weeks in Poll
1	University of Minnesota	283	(17)	2	7-0-1	8
2	Ohio State University	264	(1)	1	8-1-1	8
3	University of Wisconsin	233		3	10-2-0	8
4	Quinnipiac University	221	(1)	7	9-0-0	8
5	University of Minnesota Duluth	204		6	7-3-0	8
6	Colgate University	187		4	10-1-0	8
7	Northeastern University	181		5	8-1-1	8
8	Yale University	152		8	2-0-0	8
9	Cornell University	129		9	3-1-0	8
10	Clarkson University	116		11	10-1-1	8
11	Penn State University	87		12	7-4-1	7
12	Providence College	73		13	7-2-1	8
13	Princeton University	55		10	0-2-0	8
14	University of Vermont	45		14	5-4-1	8
15	Boston College	28		15	6-3-1	6

Others receiving votes: St. Lawrence University 5, Harvard University 3, University of Connecticut 2, University of Maine 2.

DCU/USCHO Division III Poll October 31, 2022

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Middlebury	(20)	0-0-0	300	1
2	Gustavus		1-0-0	275	2
3	Plattsburgh		0-0-0	262	3
4	Elmira		1-0-0	234	4
5	UW-Eau Claire		2-0-0	215	6
6	Nazareth		0-0-0	183	7
7	UW-River Falls		0-1-0	180	5
8	Colby		0-0-0	141	8
9	Endicott		1-0-0	134	9
10	Adrian		2-0-0	113	12
11	Norwich		0-0-0	105	11
12	Amherst		0-0-0	87	10
13	Augsburg		1-1-0	45	NR
14	Cortland		0-0-0	35	13
15	Aurora		2-0-0	29	14

Others receiving votes: Hamilton 24, Utica 11, Hamline 10, Williams 7, Lake Forest 6, Oswego 3, St. Norbert 1

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Staffs Are Set

It’s been a long Summer and Fall tracking all of the coaching and support staff changes across D-I and D-III. In all, 71 staff changes have taken place to date. And we still have a few more on the D-III side to go before the season gets underway in the next 3 weeks. Why so many changes? Hard to put a finger on one ‘thing’. Professional playing opportunities are paying better and attracting younger female coaches who still want to play. But, that’s a minor trend. Lot’s of head coach turnover, which can mean assistant coach turnover as new head coaches look to bring in their own people. Are coaches throwing in the towel and leaving the profession at the NCAA level, yes to some degree. Based on our data, of the coaches who have been hired as a head or assistant at D-I or D-III, a little less than 40% have no NCAA coaching experience. The coaches who leave programs (let go or otherwise) aren’t necessarily being rehired by other programs, which is a much more common occurrence on the men’s side.

For a complete D-I and D-III list of coaching and professional staff changes to date, click HERE for our google sheet Coaching Changes Tracker.

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Recruiting Update

As October has come and gone, the 2023 D-I recruiting process is on the mind of many players, parents, and coaches alike, D-III as well. Those graduating high school in 2022 or 2023 has been engaged in the process since June 15 of the respective year they were allowed to begin communication. The graduate transfer player pool is usually the last to make their commitments given the timing of when transfers typically make commitments – late Feb/March. So while teams may have ‘space’ or scholarship money left, you can bet many programs are saving it for graduate transfer options.

The first wave of D-I commitments for the class of 2024 usually ends around this time of year. And let’s be honest, making a decision where to spend your college years is not that easy. It takes some time and many factors are involved. For players in grade 11 who have been engaged in the process since June 15 – we’re about the 4.5 month-mark right now. More players will make decisions in the coming weeks and months. Others still will wait to find the right school, hockey program and best fit for them.

On the evaluation side of things… there are still plenty of competitive opportunities between now and when the D-I Women’s Hockey Quiet Period begins, usually in the latter half of April. In December, the USA-Canada Cup in Kitchener always attracts competitive teams from across North America. January 8-15, the IIHF U18 World Championships will be held in Sweden. The Canada Winter Games, which is Canada’s version of the Winter Olympics held every 4 years takes place on Prince Edward Island Feb. 18 to March 5. The USA Hockey National Championships and MN Girls National Development Camp Tryout phase events usually round out the last major events. Bottom line, there are plenty of hockey for coaches to watch and evaluate players.

What’s really interesting to watch will be two things: 1) The changing dynamic of recruiting 5th year grad transfer players and 2) How the new standard of allowable body contact impacts recruiting decisions. Will size and physicality be more of a priority?

Some notables:

There are two more D-I teams coming online next fall – Robert Morris University (CHA) and Assumption College (NEWHA). Both are basically looking to build their rosters from the ground up. And grad transfers could be a big part of the recruiting equation for both schools. So there could be more grad transfers taken next year than in years passed.
If the past two seasons are any indication, more than a third of a typical recruiting class is likely to come from graduate transfers. 85 grad transfers were on rosters during 21-22. In 22-23 there are 95. Perhaps more in the next 2 years?
A typical recruiting class is around 6 players, that equates to 264 spots across D-I. (44 teams x 6 players). next season with RMU and Assumption, that number will increase by 2 full teams’ worth of players – let’s assume 24 players per team–add 48 more players and you’re around the 310 mark. 95 grad transfers would be 30% of the class. That leaves 215 spots to be split up between players graduating high school in ’23 and ’24. That’s at least 215 non-grad transfer players. Roughly 30 U18 national team players from various countries take up spots, and now you’re down to 185 spots left. MN as a state has over 100 varsity High School teams… needless to say, you have to be darn good to get an offer at the D-I level. The environment is as competitive as ever.
Player height/size is always something coaches consider when recruiting and it could become more of a factor in future recruiting decisions. Why? There is a coordinated effort from conference director of officials to standardize play across each conference with respect to body contact. Gone will be the days of the WCHA being ‘the most physical conference’.

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Until Next Time… Enjoy and Happy Reading!

-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.

NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.

Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.

Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.

Post #65 – 2/24/22 – Weekly Schedule, Top 10 Polls, The Pairwise, Conference Playoffs, Sifters

Posted on February 24, 2022 by Grant Kimball One comment

In This Post…

We take a look at the D-I schedule|
Weekly Top 10 National Polls – USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the NCAA’s ‘Power 10’|
Pairwise Rankings |
D-I Conference Playoffs|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey & beyond|

D-I Weekly Schedule

We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.

The regular season has ended for 4 out of the 5 D-I conferences. The NEWHA still has one more regular season weekend to complete. Hockey East kicked off the Conference Tournament season Wednesday with two games. Here’s the weekly schedule.

Make sure to scroll down

Monday Feb. 21, 2022

NEWHA, LIU 6 @ St. Michael’s 0

Tuesday Feb. 22, 2022

NEWHA, LIU 5 @ St. Michael’s 1

Wednesday Feb. 23, 2022

Hockey East, #9 Merrimack @ #8 UNH 7pm, Opening Round – Merrimack wins 4-1

Hockey East, #10 Holy Cross @ #7 Providence 7pm, Opening Round, Providence wins 3-1

Thursday Feb. 24, 2022

CHA Quarterfinal, #5 RIT vs. #4 Lindenwood 4pm, Hosted @ Syracuse

Friday Feb 25, 2022

NEWHA, Post @ LIU 3pm

NEWHA, Franklin Pierce @ Sacred Heart 4pm

NEWHA, Saint Michael’s @ St. Anselm, 7pm

Hockey East Quarterfinal, #5 Maine @ #4 Boston College, 1pm (NESN)

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 1, #5 Clarkson @ #4 Quinnipiac, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 1, #8 Princeton @ #1 Harvard, 6pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 1, #7 St.Lawrence @ #2 Yale, 6pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 1, #6 Cornell @ #3 Colgate, 6pm

CHA Semi-Final, RIT/Lindenwood vs. Syracuse, 12pm, Hosted @ Syracuse

CHA Semi-Final, #3 Mercyhurst vs. #2 Penn State, 4pm, Hosted @ Syracuse

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 1, #5 Minnesota State @ #4 MN-Duluth, 2pm CST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 1, #7 St. Cloud @ #2 Ohio St., 6pm EST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 1, #8 St. Thomas @ #1 Minnesota, 6pm CST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 1, #6 Bemidji St. @ #3 Wisconsin, 7pm CST

Saturday Feb. 26, 2022

NEWHA, Franklin Pierce @ Sacred Heart, 2:30pm

NEWHA, Saint Michael’s @ St. Anselm, 3pm

NEWHA, LIU @ Post, 7:45pm

Hockey East Quarterfinal, TBD vs #2 Vermont, 12pm

Hockey East Quarterfinal, #6 Boston Univ. @ #3 UCONN, 3pm

Hockey East Quarterfinal, #TBD @ #1 Northeastern, 7:30pm (NESN+)

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 2, #5 Clarkson @ #4 Quinnipiac, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 2, #8 Princeton @ #1 Harvard, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 2, #7 St.Lawrence @ #2 Yale, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 2, #6 Cornell @ #3 Colgate, 3pm

CHA Championship, TBD vs. TBD, 2pm, Hosted @ Syracuse

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #5 Minnesota State @ #4 MN-Duluth, 2pm CST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #7 St. Cloud @ #2 Ohio St., 3pm EST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #8 St. Thomas @ #1 Minnesota, 3pm CST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #6 Bemidji St. @ #3 Wisconsin, 4pm CST

Sunday Feb 27, 2022

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #5 Clarkson @ #4 Quinnipiac, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #8 Princeton @ #1 Harvard, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #7 St.Lawrence @ #2 Yale, 3pm

ECAC Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #6 Cornell @ #3 Colgate, 3pm

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #5 Minnesota State @ #4 MN-Duluth, 2pm CST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #7 St. Cloud @ #2 Ohio St., 3pm EST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #8 St. Thomas @ #1 Minnesota, 2pm CST

WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #6 Bemidji St. @ #3 Wisconsin, 2pm CST

Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.

Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.

Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.

Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.

D-I Top 10 Polls

What a regular season.

The women’s college hockey regular season did not disappoint. Weekend after weekend, college hockey fans were treated to great individual and team performances. The best part was the ever-changing rankings every week due to the amount of parity inside the top 10.

Let’s dive into the final Power 10 of the regular season.

1. Minnesota (26-7-1) | Prev: 1

The Golden Gophers finished the regular season with a sweep of St. Thomas, earning a pair of 7-1 wins. Minnesota was scorching hot in their final 15 games, going 13-2-0 with big wins over then-No. 7 Minnesota Duluth, then-No. 2 Ohio State and a sweep of then-No. 1 Wisconsin. Senior Taylor Heise posted five points on the weekend, bringing her season-total to 60 — good for first in the nation.

2. Ohio State (25-6-0) | Prev: 3

In the biggest series of the final weekend, Ohio State swept Wisconsin by scores of 5-1 and 2-1. Despite the close score in Game 2, Ohio State outshot Wisconsin, 45-23. Junior forward Kenzie Hauswirth entered the weekend with only one goal on the season. She potted three on the weekend, including the game-winner on Saturday. With the sweep, the Buckeyes proved they’re the second-best team in the nation heading into the WCHA postseason and the national tournament.

🚨🚨 Sending off the seniors with a HUGE win! 🥅🏒#GoBucks https://t.co/sV9dMYx1OU pic.twitter.com/umD8eyG4yg
— Ohio State Buckeyes 🌰 (@OhioStAthletics) February 19, 2022

3. Northeastern (27-4-2) | Prev: 5

The Huskies move up a bit in the final rankings of the regular season after earning a 2-1 win over UNH and then going 1-0-1 against UConn this past weekend. It’s fitting that graduate student goalie Aerin Frankel ended the season with a 32-save shutout in the 5-0 win. Frankel finishes the regular season with the best goals against average (1.07) and save percentage (.956) in the country. She’ll be must-watch in the national tournament.

4. Wisconsin (23-6-4) | Prev: 2

The Badgers had a tough weekend at Ohio State, dropping both games and getting outplayed. In Wisconsin’s defense, they were only able to skate three forward lines. The star of the weekend for Wisconsin was backup goalie Cami Kronish. On Saturday, in just her third start of the season, she stopped 43 of 45 Ohio State shots in the 2-1 loss. Starter Kennedy Blair missed the game with an upper-body injury.

5. Minnesota Duluth (22-9-1) | Prev: 4

The Bulldogs only move down a spot because I think the top four teams in college hockey are the four listed above. They faced St. Cloud State over the last week, going 2-0-1 against the Huskies. In the two wins, fifth-year Elizabeth Giguere and redshirt senior Naomi Rogge posted big weekends. Giguere had four assists, while Rogge registered two goals and a helper.

Also, how about senior McKenzie Hewett winning the game with nine seconds to play on Senior Day?

MCKENZIE HEWETT, GAME. pic.twitter.com/XAiHw0v8Wp
— UMD Women's Hockey (@UMDWHockey) February 19, 2022

6. Colgate (26-7-1) | Prev: 7

Colgate moves up a spot after three big wins last week. The first was a 3-2 victory over Cornell, then a 2-1 win over then-No. 10 Clarkson. The Raiders finished off the weekend by beating St. Lawrence, 9-1. In the win over ranked Clarkson, Colgate got goals from senior Rosy Demers and sophomore Kalty Kaltounkova. Freshman goalie Hannah Murphy turned aside 39 of the 40 shots she faced.

7. Harvard (21-7-1) | Prev: 8

The Crimson ended their regular season with a 4-1 win over RPI and a 3-0 victory over Union. They got goals from sophomores Shannon Hollands and Courtney Hyland, senior Becca Gilmore, and first-year Taze Thompson in Game 1 and junior Kristin Della Rovere, senior Emma Buckles and senior Dominique Petrie in Game 2. Gilmore has put on an especially great season, potting 43 points in 29 games, which is good for first on her team and tied for 14th in the nation.

8. Yale (22-6-1) | Prev: 6

The Bulldogs fell to Quinnipiac, 4-1, on Friday, but finished strong with a 3-0 win at Princeton on Saturday. Sophomore Elle Hartje finished off a strong second season, posting a goal and an assist over the two games. She’s been dynamite this year, leading her team in points with 44. That number ranks 13th in the nation. Her two-way skills, matched with her production, project her to be an even greater force in the coming years.

Hartje pads the lead with a great individual effort that nets her 14th of the year!!#ThisIsYale pic.twitter.com/XUqpGeNFTn
— Yale Women’s Hockey (@YaleWHockey) February 19, 2022

9. Quinnipiac (23-8-3) | Prev: 9

The Bobcats earned a 4-0 win over RPI last Tuesday and then a strong 4-1 victory over then-No. 6 Yale. They finished off this past weekend with a 1-0 loss to Brown on Saturday. In the win over the Bulldogs, Quinnipiac got goals from Renee Saltness, Kendall Cooper, Jess Schryver and Olivia Mobley. They also got a great game out of goalie Corinne Schroeder, who stopped 38 of 39 shots en route to the win. Schroeder’s save percentage of .946 is good for third in the nation, while her 1.43 GAA ranks sixth.

10. Clarkson (22-9-3) | Prev: 10

Clarkson ended its season with a 2-1 loss to Colgate and a 3-1 loss to Cornell. Despite ending on two-straight losses, Clarkson is the No. 10 team in the nation. The Golden Knights rank ninth in the country in both goals for (104) and goals against (59). They’ll face Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals this weekend.

Pairwise Rankings & NCAA Tourney

The Pairwise

In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.

Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.

Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.

Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids

There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.

There are 5 D-I conferences and 11 teams that make the tournament. 4 of those bids come from conference Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. Winners of the Hockey East, ECAC, College Hockey America, and WCHA post-season playoff championship receive the auto bids. You win, and you’re in. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.

The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.

Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Tuesday, Feb. 22 just past 8pm.

WCH-USCHO-PWR-Rankings-2-22-22 Download

Conference Standings & Post-Season Structure

Below are the final regular season standings for each conference minus the NEWHA which has one more regular weekend of play this Friday and Saturday. Each conference’s post-season playoffs structure is described as well.

Hockey East Post-Season Playoff Format

For the first time ever, the Hockey East Women’s Tournament will feature all 10 member programs in a single-elimination postseason tournament for the Bertagna trophy. Seeds seven and eight will host seeds 10 and nine, respectively, in the Opening Round on Wednesday, February 23 while the top six seeds receive a bye into the Quarterfinals. After a reseeding, the top two seeds will host the winners of the Opening Round while the three seed will host the six seed and the four seed will host the five seed. Semifinals will take place on Wednesday, March 2 and the Championship is set for Saturday, March 5 in prime time for just the second time ever.

QUARTERFINALS, Best 2 Out of 3 Series – Feb. 25, 26 and 27 if necessary

No. 8 Princeton at No. 1 Harvard

Friday: 6 p.m., Saturday: 3 p.m., Sunday: 3 p.m., if necessary

No. 7 St. Lawrence at No. 2 Yale

Friday: 6 p.m., Saturday: 3 p.m., Sunday: 3 p.m., if necessary

No. 6 Cornell at No. 3 Colgate

Friday: 6 p.m., Saturday: 3 p.m., Sunday: 3 p.m., if necessary

No. 5 Clarkson at No. 4 Quinnipiac

Friday: 3 p.m., Saturday: 3 p.m., Sunday: 3 p.m., if necessary

SEMIFINALS & Championship – March 4 & 5

Teams TBD, Highest remaining seed to host, single elimination

The Championship will open on Feb. 24 with a quarterfinal match-up between No. 4 seed Lindenwood and No. 5 seed RIT. Thursday’s winner will advance to meet No. 1 seed Syracuse in the first semifinal on Feb. 25. No. 2 Penn State will then face. No. 3 Mercyhurst in Friday’s second semifinal with Friday’s winners advancing to Saturday’s final at 2 p.m. ET.

The winner of the 2022 CHA Championship will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.

As the 2021-22 WCHA regular season champion and Julianne Bye Cup winner, MInnesota is the tournament’s top seed and is set to host No. 8 St. Thomas. No. 2 Ohio State hosts No. 7 St. Cloud State, No. 3 Wisconsin hosts No. 6 BEmidji State, while No. 4 MInnesota Duluth earned the final home ice advantage to host No. 5 MInnesota State.

The four winners of the best-of-three quarterfinals advances to the 2022 Final Faceoff, held March 5-6 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The winner of the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff receives the League’s automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.

Pairings, locations, and start times for the Friday-Sunday, Feb. 25-27 best-of-three WCHA Quarterfinals:

No. 8 St. Thomas at No. 1 Minnesota (Ridder Arena – Minneapolis, Minn.)
Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 6 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 4 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)

No. 7 St. Cloud State at No. 2 Ohio State (OSU Ice Rink – Columbus, Ohio)
Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 5 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. ET
Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET
Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET (if necessary)

No. 6 Bemidji State at No. 3 Wisconsin (LaBahn Arena – Madison, Wis.)
Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 7 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 3 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)

No. 5 Minnesota State at No. 4 Minnesota Duluth (AMSOIL Arena – Duluth, Minn.)
Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 2 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)

2022 WCHA FINAL FACEOFF

The premier conference tournament in women’s college hockey, the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff will be held March 5-6, 2022 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Annually featuring a collection of the nation’s highest-ranked programs and best players, the WCHA’s four remaining teams will compete for the league’s playoff championship and automatic berth to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

The league’s top event and best weekend of the year for college hockey fans, the two-day 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff weekend is a celebration of the sport’s past, present, and future.

Saturday, March 5, 2022
Semifinal Game 1 – No. 1 remaining seed vs. No. 4 remaining seed: 1 p.m. CT
Semifinal Game 2 – No. 2 remaining seed vs. No. 3 remaining seed: 4 p.m. CT

Sunday, March 6, 2022
WCHA Championship – 1 p.m. CT

Sifters…

Robert Morris Names Head Coach… Former Robert Morris University Women’s Hockey Associate Head Coach Logan Bittle has been hired to re-boot the RMU program as its new Head Coach. Bittle’s announcement came Feb. 4th. You can read more about RMU’s new bench boss here ——-> USCHO.com Story, RMU Women’s Hockey Homepage Story

U18 Worlds Back On… News of the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship broke at the Olympics last week in a tweet by the IIHF.

The IIHF leadership met the media in #Beijing2022, discussed the #Olympic #icehockey tournaments, development, #Milano2026 and announced updates on the events that will be postponed from January to summer.

Read more or watch the press conference: https://t.co/bmMqotaRRn
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) February 17, 2022

You can read more in the IIHF announcement HERE.

6+ Million Watched… Over 3.54 million viewers in the US and 2.7 million in Canada tuned in to watch the Women’s Olympic Gold Medal game between the US and Canada. It was the most watched hockey game, at any level, in the US since 2019. Given the game was aired live at 11:10pm EST, you can bet those numbers would be bigger had the game been played at an earlier hour. Beijing is 13-hours ahead of EST. Lots of tired eyes the next day, mine included.

US-Canada women’s gold medal hockey game on NBC averaged 3.54 million viewers. That’s more viewers than any NHL game this season. And second most watched hockey game in United States since 2019.
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) February 18, 2022

From CBC: 2.7 million watched the Canada vs USA gold medal game, making it Canada’s most-watched moment of Beijing 2022.
— Hailey Salvian (@hailey_salvian) February 22, 2022

Topic for another post… So, there is a market. A large one. How does the sport tap into a meaningful % of those 6 million who watched on a regular basis… and not just once every 4 years.

Busy Spring for Recruiting… D-I college coaches will have a packed Spring in terms of recruiting events to get to before the NCAA Women’s Hockey ‘Quiet Period’ begins on April 18. USA Hockey National Development Camp tryouts, U.S. District Play-Downs, U.S. National Championships, as well as various US and Canadian Academy ID camps, Canadian league and Provincial Championships are just a few of the events on the calendar college coaches will get to. Coaches have approximately 9 weeks left for off-campus evaluations of recruits in grade 10 before the June 15 call date commences.

A NCAA ‘Quiet Period’ is defined as where NCAA coaches may not conduct any in-person, off-campus evaluations or conduct off-campus face-to-face contact with recruits or their family members from April 18 until June 1. Recruits who are in grade 11 & above may take unofficial visits and have face-to-face contact with coaches as long as it takes place on their campus. There is also a NCAA ‘Dead Period from noon March 17 to noon the 21st., which is defined as a period of time when no on or off-campus evaluations or face-to-face contact may be had. In addition, no unofficial or official visits may take place.

Buckle Up!

Help Women’s College Hockey, Go Attend A Game… For years the National Championship tournament has not had what coaches would call ‘True Bracket Integrity… meaning #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7 and so on. College coaches want that. The NCAA was more concerned with saving money, not flying teams to certain sites, then organizing a proper championship experience for teams. That mindset is somewhat gone in 2022 with an expanded field to 11 teams. However, part of the criteria the NCAA uses to determine who plays at each regional site, is based on the potential for a playoff atmosphere. A playoff atmosphere to the NCAA means fans in the stands and to get butts in the seats, means there has to be a local interest in the teams competing… to the NCAA anyway.

Potentially you could have at least two of three teams at a regional site who are geographical close in proximity to one another, without bracket integrity intact. May be you have the #1, #4, and #5 teams, rather than a schedule that protects the top seed.

So here is how you can help… Go attend NCAA regional tournament games no matter your affiliation with teams there. If you’re a fan of women’s college hockey – pack the stands and sell venues out. Make it so the attendance issue isn’t one the NCAA can hang its hat on to create a schedule where they can save money.

Better attendance helps ensure future NCAA tournaments have true bracket integrity and a better national championship experience for our student-athletes–which should be what matters most.

MN State HS Tourney Underway… There aren’t a lot of states who do a better job of putting on a state tournament than Minnesota. Class ‘A’ got underway yesterday and Class ‘AA’ gets underway today. All games are played at the Excel Energy Center, home to the MN Wild. You can watch all games HERE for FREE.

@MG_Girls_Hockey

Tune in Thursday to watch the State Girls Hockey Class AA Quarterfinals! These games will be free to view thanks to the support of @TheUrgencyRoom
https://t.co/IdfNDVQVZ6 will also be covering the consol. and 3rd place games. https://t.co/CFNub6u5Fp…
— MGSH Girls Hockey (@MGgirlshockey) February 22, 2022

Until Next Time…

21-22 Streaming Info

-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all games live and for FREE.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.

NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.

Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’ HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com

Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.

Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.

Post #63 – 1/2/22 – Happy New Year, Weekly Schedule, Polls, Conf. Standings, Lots of Sifters

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Grant Kimball One comment

In This Post…

Happy New Year! |
We’ll take a look at the upcoming weekly D-I schedule|
See who’s ranked in the USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the ‘Power 10’ national polls|
Conference Standings after the first half|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey|

Happy New Year!

2021 was an exciting and fun year at Women’s College Hockey.org. Just as the stock market ended the year in the positive, the readership of ‘The Pipeline’ Blog grew quite a bit as well. We ended the year with close to 20,000 unique individual visitors from 54 countries! Yes, I too was shocked to learn that. I had no idea we had that kind of reach. Now in fairness, 90-something % of our visitors are from the US and Canada. But still – people in 52 other countries are paying attention, which is awesome to see.

Several of you have taken the time to stop me in a rink recently to say a quick ‘thanks-for-doing-what-you’re-doing’… It’s extremely gratifying for me when that happens. So, to the nearly 20,000 of you who took the time to read a Pipeline post or watch a video – THANK YOU – it is truly appreciated. Keep the positivity coming. Here’s is to a great 2022!

D-I Weekly Schedule

D-I Upcoming Games

January 1, 2022

Minnesota-Duluth vs. Harvard

Quinnipiac vs. Wisconsin

RIT vs. Long Island

Syracuse vs. Boston University

Penn State vs. St. Cloud State

January 2, 2022

BU/Syra. vs. St. Cloud State

PSU/St. Cloud vs. Boston University

PSU/St. Cloud vs. Syracuse

Maine vs. Vermont

New Hampshire vs. Dartmouth

Quinnipiac vs. Wisconsin

Providence vs. Holy Cross

January 3, 2022

Long Island vs. Princeton

Providence vs. Boston College

January 4, 2022

Sacred Heart vs. Yale

Castleton vs. Saint Michael’s

January 7, 2022

RIT vs. Sacred Heart

Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.

Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.

Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.

Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.

D-I Top 10 Polls

DCU/USCHO Division I Women’s Poll – December 13, 2021

Rnk	Team	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Wisconsin (14)	17-1-2	149	1
2	Ohio State	15-3-0	130	2
3	Northeastern	16-2-1	116	3
4	Quinnipiac (1)	15-1-2	108	5
5	Minnesota	14-5-1	96	4
6	Colgate	15-4-1	65	6
7	Yale	10-3-1	59	7
8	Minnesota Duluth	9-7-0	45	9
9	Clarkson	15-2-3	34	8
10	Harvard	9-3-0	19	10

Others receiving votes: Connecticut 3, Penn State 1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll

December 14, 2021

RANK	Team	Points	Last Poll	Record	Weeks in Poll
1	University of Wisconsin (19)	190	1	17-1-2	14
2	Ohio State University	163	2	15-3-0	14
3	Northeastern University	143	4	16-2-1	14
4	Quinnipiac University	133	5	15-1-2	11
5	University of Minnesota	125	3	14-5-1	14
6	Colgate University	80	6	15-4-1	14
7	University of Minnesota Duluth	71	7	9-7-0	14
8	Yale University	67	8	10-3-1	4
9	Clarkson University	45	9	15-2-3	7
10	Harvard University	21	10	9-3-0	6

Others receiving votes: UConn 4, Providence 2, Penn State 1.

We’ve made it to the holiday break in women’s DI college hockey, which allows us a great chance to look back at the first half.

This week’s Power 10 won’t just be focused on last weekend. Instead, I’m going to rank the best 10 teams from the first few months.

Was it easy? Not really. This fall had some amazing games and upsets, making the job of putting together a top 10 a tough one.

Nevertheless, let’s dive in.

1. Wisconsin (17-1-2)

Admittedly, this wasn’t a hard decision. The Badgers were the best team in the first half and it’s not really close.

For starters, they have the best offense in the country with 94 total goals. Even more impressive is that the top three point-getters in the country are all from Wisconsin — sophomore forwards Casey O’Brien (36) and Makenna Webster (35), as well as fifth-year forward Daryl Watts (34). This team just can’t stop scoring.

The Badgers are also great defensively. They’re tied for third in the nation in goals against, having only allowed 22. Senior goalie Kennedy Blair has been outstanding in net, sporting the fourth-best goals-against average in the country (1.17).

The quality wins so far for Wisconsin have come against Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State but really, Wisconsin is the team to beat in college hockey right now.

2. Northeastern (16-2-1)

The choice to put Northeastern over Ohio State was a tough one, but I went with the better defensive team at No. 2.

The Huskies are the best defensive team in the nation. They’ve given up the least amount of goals against (18) and here’s a whopper — they’ve done it in just 19 games. That’s less than a goal against per game. A lot of that success has come from senior goalie Aerin Frankel, who ranks second in the nation in both save percentage (.962) and GAA (0.94).

Offensively, senior forward Maureen Murphy leads the way with 24 points and senior defenseman Skylar Fontaine, one of the best defenders in college hockey, comes in with 22. Both have a large role on the nation’s fourth-best power play, which sits at a solid 28.5 percent.

The quality wins so far have come against Boston College and Princeton. Much of the rest of their schedule comes against Hockey East opponents.

3. Ohio State (15-3-0)

The Buckeyes are great at overpowering teams offensively, as is evident in their 91 total goals, which is good for second in the nation. It makes sense then that their power play is also second, coming in at 35.2 percent.

A lot of that offense comes from junior forward Jennifer Gardiner and senior defenseman Sophie Jaques who both lead the team in points with 30 each. They’re also both tied for sixth in the nation in that category. Sophomore forward Jenna Buglioni and senior forward Clair DeGeorge come in right behind them at 28 points each.

Ohio State ranks No. 3 at the end of the first half.

Another sign that Ohio State is going on all cylinders offensively is its league-best 66.6 percent Corsi For percentage.

The most notable wins for Ohio State came against Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth in the first half. Even though the Buckeyes were swept by the Badgers on Oct. 23 and 24, they’ll get a chance at revenge Feb. 18 and 19.

4. Quinnipiac (15-1-2)

The Bobcats are a very strong No. 4 right now. It’s no surprise they garnered a first-place vote in the Dec. 13 USCHO poll.

Why? Because Quinnipiac is actually the No. 1 team in women’s college hockey, according to USCHO’s PairWise rankings. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The Bobcats are well-rounded, sporting the second-fewest goals against (21) and the sixth-most goals for (61). Senior goalie Corinne Schroeder ranks first in both save percentage (.966) and GAA (0.80).

The Bobcats play in the tough ECAC, so quality wins came against Colgate, Princeton and Yale. If the Bobcats can keep winning with an ECAC-heavy schedule in the second half, their case for No. 1 in PairWise will be strengthened.

5. Minnesota (14-5-1)

The Golden Gophers ended their first half with some big wins over No. 1 Wisconsin and then-No. 9 Minnesota Duluth. Along with a sweep over Colgate on Oct. 22 and 23, those were Minnesota’s biggest wins of the first half.

The stats show Minnesota is a perfect No. 5. They’re No. 5 in PairWise, No. 4 in goals for (77) and they own the fifth-highest even-strength Corsi For percentage at 61.8 percent. This team has no issue putting shots on net either, ranking second with 773. Offensively, this is a very good team.

At the heart of that offensive attack is senior forward Taylor Heise who ranks fifth in the country in points with 31. Senior forward Abigail Boreen ranks second on the team with 23 and freshman forward Peyton Hemp comes in third with 21.

Minnesota will have its toughest stretch of the season in the second half when it takes on Wisconsin one weekend and then Ohio State the next.

6. Colgate (15-4-1)

Out of all the teams on this list, the Raiders did the coolest thing in the first half: They won a guitar.

Yes, back on Nov. 27 when they beat then-No. 3 Minnesota to win the Smashville Showcase, the trophy was a guitar. It was epic.

Colgate won a guitar at the Smashville Showcase.

Aside from the guitar, Colgate is another team with a high-powered offense. The Raiders carry the third-most goals in the country (86) and rank third in even-strength Corsi For at 64.4 percent. Junior forward Danielle Serdachny leads the offense with 30 points, which ranks sixth in college hockey. Junior forward Dara Greig comes in second with 25.

The quality wins for Colgate in the first half came against Minnesota and Harvard. Like I mentioned with Quinnipiac earlier, things won’t be easy for the Raiders in the second half due to all those ECAC games.

7. Yale (10-3-1)

It feels like we’re just going back and forth between really strong offensive teams and really good defensive teams. Here’s a great defensive team for you.

The Bulldogs rank third in goals against with only 22 given up in the first half. Senior goalie Gianna Meloni has gotten the majority of the reps in net, posting an impressive 1.43 GAA and .942 save percentage.

Still, Yale has an impressive offense upfront. Sophomore forward Elle Hartje leads the team with 24 points, while junior forward Claire Dalton ranks second with 22. Yale also has one of the best defenders in college hockey in junior Emma Seitz. She has 17 points on the season.

The quality wins have come against Colgate and Harvard. With an ECAC-packed schedule in the second half, there will be many more quality wins for this group.

8. Clarkson (15-2-3)

The Golden Knights are a solid team overall. They rank fifth in the country for goals for (65) and eighth in goals against (29).

Lots of the offense comes from one of the best forwards in college hockey — senior Caitrin Lonergan. Lonergan ranks fourth in the country in points with 32. Junior forward Gabrielle David slots in right behind her with 25.

One encouraging sign for Clarkson in the second half is that they went 6-1-1 in conference play in the first half. If that trend continues, the Golden Knights will be moving up this list.

9. Minnesota Duluth (9-7-0)

The Bulldogs had a lot of time off, as they didn’t play any games between Oct. 24 and Nov. 19. Still, they put together a solid first half.

They have 59 goals in 16 games, which, if you do the math, comes out to be roughly 74 goals over 20 games. That would have them fifth in the nation for lamplighters. Senior forward Gabbie Hughes has the highest points per game in the nation at 1.81 with 29 points in 16 games. Senior forward Elizabeth Giguere ranks sixth in points per game at 1.68 with 27 in 16.

Despite a tough first half schedule, the Bulldogs earned two big wins over Minnesota and one over Ohio State.

10. Harvard (9-3-0)

The Crimson only have 12 games under their belt through the first half, but that’s still enough to place them inside the top 10.

They’ve already scored quality wins over Cornell and Boston College. Senior forward Becca Gilmore has been a strong line-driver, leading Harvard in points with 15. Senior forward Dominique Petrie ranks second with 14 points and junior forward Anne Bloomer third with 12.

We’ll get a great look at Harvard when it takes on Minnesota Duluth to begin play in the second half of the season.

Division I Conference Standings: As of 12/31/21

Teams are listed top to bottom in order of points accumulated in conference play only. There is no national point system. The first W-L-T column is a teams’ conference record, 2nd W-L-T column is the overall record, and the 3rd and 4th W-L-T columns is the record at home and on the road for all games.

In our next post, we’ll display each conference’s post-season playoff structure.

CHA

Team	Conf – W-L-T	Pct	Pts	GF/GA	Overall W-L-T	Pct	GF-GA	Home W-L-T	Away W-L-T
Syracuse	5-3-0	0.625	10	25/16	6-9-4	0.421	46/50	4-5-1	2-4-3
Penn State	4-2-0	0.667	8	19/14	10-6-2	0.611	52/34	5-3-1	5-3-1
Mercyhurst	4-2-0	0.667	8	17/11	13-6-2	0.667	59-/2	8-1-1	5-5-1
Lindenwood	3-3-0	0.500	6	17/17	5-13-0	0.278	48/78	5-7-0	0-6-0
RIT	0-6-0	0.000	0	6/26	0-19-0	0.000	24/103	0-11-0	0-8-0

ECAC

Team	W-L-T-OW-OL	Pct	Pts	GF-GA	W-L-T	Pct	GF-GA	W-L-T	W-L-T
Quinnipiac	7-1-0-0-0	0.875	21	22-7	15-1-2	0.889	61-21	9-1-1	6-0-1
Harvard	6-3-0-1-2	0.704	19	32-19	9-4-0	0.692	48-30	5-2-0	4-2-0
Clarkson	6-1-1-1-0	0.771	18.5	23-10	15-2-3	0.825	65-29	6-1-2	9-1-1
Princeton	5-2-1-0-0	0.688	16.5	16-11	6-5-3	0.536	24-23	2-3-0	4-2-3
Yale	5-2-1-0-0	0.688	16.5	31-15	10-3-1	0.750	57-22	4-2-0	6-1-1
Colgate	5-2-1-2-0	0.604	14.5	28-20	15-4-1	0.775	86-39	6-4-1	9-0-0
St. Lawrence	3-3-2-0-0	0.500	12	16-15	7-8-5	0.475	43-40	3-4-2	4-4-3
Rensselaer	3-7-0-0-2	0.367	11	25-23	6-13-0	0.316	42-45	4-6-0	2-7-0
Cornell	3-4-1-0-0	0.438	10.5	15-24	4-7-1	0.375	24-34	2-3-1	2-4-0
Dartmouth	2-7-0-0-0	0.222	6	18-32	7-8-0	0.467	42-39	5-4-0	2-4-0
Brown	1-6-1-0-0	0.188	4.5	14-30	1-12-2	0.133	25-53	1-6-1	0-6-1
Union	1-9-0-0-0	0.100	3	9-43	4-16-1	0.214	31-81	1-11-1	3-5-0

Hockey East

Team	W-L-T-SO-OW-OL	Pct	Pts	GF-GA	W-L-T	Pct	GF-GA	W-L-T	W-L-T
Northeastern	11-2-1-1-0-0	0.833	35	44-14	16-2-1	0.868	61-18	7-0-1	9-2-0
Boston University	8-4-3-0-1-0	0.578	26	37-29	9-6-3	0.583	45-37	5-1-2	4-5-1
Connecticut	8-3-2-0-1-0	0.641	25	31-22	14-4-2	0.750	57-32	8-3-2	6-1-0
Boston College	8-5-0-0-3-0	0.538	21	32-30	10-8-0	0.556	41-43	4-1-0	6-7-0
Providence	5-4-2-1-0-1	0.576	19	23-19	8-5-5	0.583	34-28	6-2-2	2-3-3
Vermont	6-5-1-0-1-1	0.528	19	31-30	9-8-2	0.526	47-46	6-4-1	3-4-1
Maine	4-7-1-1-0-2	0.444	16	24-30	7-12-1	0.375	43-55	3-7-0	4-5-1
New Hampshire	4-8-1-1-0-1	0.385	15	30-39	6-11-2	0.368	46-52	4-6-1	2-5-1
Merrimack	4-10-1-1-1-2	0.333	15	33-42	5-14-1	0.275	37-63	3-9-0	2-5-1
Holy Cross	1-11-0-0-0-0	0.083	3	16-46	3-14-0	0.176	25-63	3-3-0	0-11-0

NEWHA

Team	W-L-T	Pct	Pts	GF-GA	W-L-T	Pct	GF-GA	W-L-T	W-L-T
LIU	10-0-0	1.000	20	47-13	11-7-0	0.611	58-43	9-3-0	2-4-0
Sacred Heart	5-2-1	0.688	11	31-10	9-7-1	0.559	57-39	5-3-1	4-4-0
Franklin Pierce	5-3-0	0.625	10	25-11	9-8-1	0.528	49-39	5-1-1	4-7-0
St. Anselm	3-4-1	0.438	7	15-16	6-10-1	0.382	29-51	5-1-0	1-9-1
Post	2-8-0	0.200	4	7-40	3-15-0	0.167	16-75	2-6-0	1-9-0
St. Michael’s	0-8-0	0.000	0	7-42	2-10-0	0.167	16-55	2-3-0	0-7-0

WCHA

Team	W-L-T-SO-OW-OL	Pct	Pts	GF-GA	W-L-T	Pct	GF-GA	W-L-T	W-L-T
Wisconsin	13-1-2-1-2-0	0.833	40	67-21	17-1-2	0.900	94-22	5-1-2	12-0-0
Ohio State	13-3-0-0-0-1	0.833	40	82-26	15-3-0	0.833	91-30	10-0-0	5-3-0
Minnesota	9-4-1-1-0-1	0.714	30	47-31	14-5-1	0.725	77-39	6-4-0	8-1-1
Minnesota Duluth	8-6-0-0-1-1	0.571	24	53-32	9-7-0	0.562	59-38	3-4-0	6-3-0
Minnesota State	5-10-1-1-0-1	0.375	18	30-54	9-10-1	0.475	55-65	6-4-0	3-6-1
Bemidji State	4-10-2-0-1-0	0.271	13	24-58	7-10-3	0.425	35-64	2-6-2	5-4-1
St. Cloud State	2-11-1-1-1-1	0.190	8	23-58	6-11-1	0.361	39-65	4-3-1	2-8-0
St. Thomas	2-11-1-0-0-0	0.167	7	14-60	4-13-1	0.250	23-70	2-8-0	2-5-1

Sifters… Lots of’em

NCAA Approves 11-Team National Tournament Field for 2022… In the NCAA’s final step on Dec. 15th the D-I Council voted to approve an 11-team field (up from 8) for the 2022 Women’s National Collegiate Championship. 11 teams represents exactly 26.8% of D-I schools that sponsor the sport, which is the same ratio used by the D-I men’s NCAA tournament. You can read the official announcement from the NCAA HERE.

The Takeaway… More teams participating improves the sport because more players gain that do-or-die national Tournament game experience. Returning players the following year can then use their NCAA experience to their teams’ benefit. This development will push the overall level of D-I play forward every year.

The tournament committee will go ‘by the numbers’ this year in selecting the 11 team field. So in theory, teams ranked 1 to 11 in the Pairwise rankings will get a bid to the tourney. Subjectivity has been taken out. Language has also been removed from the pre-championship manual which now brings in line the same priorities used in pairing the men’s tournament brackets. In plain English, pairings will be based on, “competitive equity, financial success and the likelihood of a playoff-type atmosphere at each first/second round site.” Every effort will be made to avoid inter-conference match-ups unless 4 or more teams from the same conference make the tournament.

Because of the parity that exists across D-I and with 6 At-Large berths coming in the 2022-2023 season, we’ll probably not see the same 11 teams year after year. We’ll see much more turnover of teams getting At-Large berths in years to come. There are plenty of teams outside the top 11 that could challenge for a NCAA berth.

Robert Morris Is Back… RMU President Chris Howard announced Friday December 17th the reinstatement of both the RMU Women’s and Men’s hockey programs effective for the 2023-2024 season. Both programs were shutdown in an abrupt cost-cutting move by the RMU administration back in May of 2021. A major groundswell of support both locally in the Pittsburgh area as well as nationally among the hockey circles to get the program back online ensued. Men’s Head Coach Derek Schooley added fundraising campaign manager to his job description and accumulated enough cash in hand and donation pledges to impress the RMU brass to bring the programs back to life.

The Takeaway… This is great and exciting news for all of college hockey. Now the hard part begins. RMU will need to hire a women’s head coach and staff of assistants while recruiting an entire team of players as well as building out a competitive schedule. Both RMU teams are without a conference. The women’s were part of the CHA and the men part of Atlantic Hockey. CHA conference officials have publicly stated they need to find a 6th team for the CHA regardless of RMU came back or not as they would be in jeopardy of losing their NCAA tourney auto-bid without a 6th team after the 2022-2023 season.

With a RMU coming back, this opens the door for a full roster of players to either continue their playing careers as a transfer, a 5th year grad school player, or begin their D-I college hockey career as a freshman recruited player. All told, more spots become available at the D-I level (Stonehill College will also begin play in 2022-2023 as well).

U18 Worlds Cancelled… The IIHF announced on December 24th all January IIHF events would be cancelled due to COVID. This marks the second time in as many years the U-18 World Championships would be cancelled. The announcement was made just as the Men’s World Junior Championships in Alberta, Canada were taking place in arenas with fans. Not only was the timing of the announcement poor with the Men’s WJC was about to get in full swing, but the fact there was no mention or intention of a possible postponement of the event. Voices from current and former Olympians, around the NCAA, NHLers, hockey media personalities, and right down to the U-18 players themselves – took to social media with their rightful frustration. IIHF president Luc Tardiff is taking major heat for how he’s managed the announcement.

To add insult to injury, just days later the IIHF cancelled the WJC’s because a number of teams had positive COVID cases and a number of forfeits occurred.

The Takeaway… The IIHF is in a bit of a pickle. The Men’s WJC’s and the Men’s World Championships held in May are the two big money makers for the IIHF. One has to think a future date for the Women’s U-18 Worlds would have to be on the table if a future date for the Men’s WJC. The optics without that consideration for the women would be, um… detrimental? However, nothing definitive from the IIHF has been announced or considered. USA Hockey reached out to the IIHF and asked if a later date for the women’s U18’s could be discussed. Even private groups in the US offered to host the event while paying for the ice.

Perhaps a gender equity review of the IIHF is due, just like the NCAA recently had?

NCAA COVID Update… The second-half NCAA schedule is underway and we’ve already seen one series cancelled between Merrimack and RPI for Jan 1 and 2. No official reason was given as to why. Could we assume COVID? Perhaps. Some schools have adjusted their academic calendars and delayed the the return of students to campus, while deciding to begin classes remotely, before allowing in-person classes to begin several weeks later. We are unaware of any hockey program that are on a ‘pause’ or has decided not to play games until COVID improves. That said, if Men’s hockey and D-I women’s and men’s basketball is any indication, women’s hockey is in for it’s fair share of postponements and game cancellations. If think it’s a question of how, not if, the remainder of the season will be impacted.

SAT/ACT Testing Update… Harvard recently announced on Dec 17th it is going test optional for the next 4 years. That means no SAT or ACT test scores will be required for admission. More schools will probably do the same but no official announcements have been made yet. It will be interesting what the NCAA does with the Eligibility Center’s academic requirements moving forward as well.

D-III Gets New Program… The Milwaukee School of Engineering recently announced it’s starting a D-III NCAA program. Former RIT and Adrian Head Coach Chad Davis has been named head coach. No word yet on when the program will begin or what conference it will affiliate with.

2022 Women’s World Championship Host Selected… The IIHF announced in early December that Denmark will host the 2022 Women’s Senior World Championships August 26th to September 4th. This marks the first time Worlds will be held after an Olympic Games in the same year. Denmark is a first-time Women’s Olympic hockey participant in the 2022 games set to begin in about 1 month from now.

WCHA Extends Commissioner Flowers… WCHA Women’s Commissioner Jen Flowers received a three-year contract extension through the 2024-2025 season. Flowers has been instrumental in transitioning the WCHA to a Women’s only conference while navigating COVID-19 for the 8-team conference. Flowers also added a first-of-its-kind streaming partnership with the Big Ten Network and Big Ten+ as the official streaming partner of the WCHA.

UND Case Dismissed For Now… Lawyers representing players for the now defunct University of North Dakota Women’s Hockey Team, have voluntarily dismissed their case last month, for now anyway. The ND Attorney General’s office moved to dismiss the case because none of the players have NCAA eligibility left – leaving their claims moot – and not able to receive any relief. The door is open for future litigation however.

MN Trucker Helps UVM Player Home… This is one of those stories that is classified as ‘only happens in Minnesota’. UVM Women’s Hockey player Ellice Murphy needed a bit of help getting home for the holidays after her flight got cancelled from Minneapolis to Thief-River Falls. Ellice’s quick thinking mom called her friend at Byfuglien Trucking to see if any driver’s were in the Minneapolis area and heading north, who was willing to let Ellice tag along. Sure enough there was. You can read the full story HERE. You have to love small towns!

USA Hockey Announces Olympic Roster… Between the 2nd and 3rd period intermission of last night’s Winter Classic, USA Hockey unveiled its 23-Player final Olympic Roster. 8 newcomers will combine with 15 returning players with previous Olympic experience as Team USA defends it’s Gold Medal from 2018. You can find the roster HERE. 5 players still have NCAA eligibility and 1st time Olympian Caroline Harvey, has yet to step foot on a college campus yet. Minnesota leads the way with 8 players connected to the Gophers program, Wisconsin has 5, BC 3, Northeastern 2, BU, Clarkson, Lindenwood, UMD, and Ohio State each with 1.

Until Next Time…

21-22 Streaming Info

-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.

-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.

NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.

Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.