Category Archives: IIHF World Championships

Post #124 – 8/18/23 – Friday’s Sifters

Little lobs of news and info from around the world of women’s college hockey and beyond

The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline

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

Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey


Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…

  • Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap


Friday’s Sifters

It’s been a busy week with lots of activity. Here is what’s happening in today’s Sifters edition.

-Lots of last minute coaching and staff hires to announce.

-USA Hockey and Hockey Canada are battling it out in their Under-18 and Collegiate Team 3-game series in Lake Placid.

-The IIHF Women’s Division 1A World Championships are set to begin (finally) in China

-The NCAA Women’s and Men’s rules committee makes a tweak to video review

-Leadership changes coming for the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA)

Let’ get to it!

Staff news to announce at… Amherst, Augsburg, Franklin Pierce, Keene State, King’s College, Merrimack, Middlebury, MN-Duluth, UNH, Penn St. x 2, RPI, St. Cloud, Syracuse, and Vermont

August is usually a busy month for hiring announcements due to university budgets opening up for the new academic year. There seems to be about a 50/50 split between hiring announcements vs. open positions needed to be filled.

Here’s what I have this week… In the NCAA and on the Professional side

Amherst College and Head Coach Jeff Mathews has announced the hiring of Kaylain Kelly as an Assistant Coach. Kelly is a graduate and former captain of Worcester State.

Augsburg College and Head Coach Michelle McAteer has announced that former Wisconsin-Stevens Point Nicole Neuberger will be the new Graduate Fellow Assistant Coach.

Franklin Pierce has announced it is hiring for a Graduate Assistant Coach position.

Keene State College, a new D-III program starting in 24-25, is hiring its inaugural Head Coach to build the program.

Merrimack College has announced 2 new Assistant Coach hirings – Danielle Blanchard, former UMASS-Boston Head Coach and Yale/Plattsburgh Assistant. And Stephanie Wood, former Director of Hockey and Head Coach at Austin Prep high school and managing director at the Islanders Hockey Club.

Middlebury College and Head Coach Bill Mandigo announced the hiring of Emily McNamara as its new Assistant Coach. McNamara spent the last 11 seasons as the Head Coach at Hamilton College. She now returns to her alma matter for a 2nd tour of duty with Mandigo as an Assistant Coach.

With McNamara’s departure, Hamilton now needs a Head Coach.

King’s College has announced it is seeking applications for its 2 Graduate Assistant Coaches.

Minnesota-Duluth and Head Coach Maura Crowell has announced the hiring of Mark Breiter as its Director of Operations. Breiter spent the last season with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues as the Equipment Assistant Manager. Prior to his stint in St. Louis, from 2017-2022 he was the Equipment Manager for the MSU-Mankato Women’s Hockey Program.

The University of New Hampshire is seeking applications for Director of Women’s Hockey Operations.

Penn State and Head Coach Jeff Kampersal has promoted volunteer goaltending coach Ben Halford to the position of Assistant Coach and has named former RIT, Dartmouth, and Boston University operations manager Olivia Fox as Director of Hockey Operations.

RPI has announced it is seeking applications for a full-time Assistant Coach.

St. Cloud State University and Head Coach Brian Idalski has announced the hiring of ’06 Husky alum Billy Hengen as its new Assistant Coach. Hengen comes to St. Cloud after winning a MN Class AA State Title with Gentry Academy last season.

Vermont and Head Coach Jim Plumer announced the promotion of Alex Gettens to Associate Head Coach and the addition of Assistant Coach Victoria Blake. Blake comes to UVM after a 4-year assistant stint at Sacred Heart.

The Kitchener Rangers of the OHL have hired former Syracuse Defender Lindsay Eastwood as their Manager of Communications and Team Services.

The Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL have hired former Minnesota Gopher and US Gold Medalist Amanda Kessel as the inaugural participant in the new Penguins’ Executive Management Program. The program provides a one-year opportunity to work alongside executives within the Penguins partnership, marketing, communication and broadcast departments, as well as hockey operations.

Both groups will play the 3rd and final game tomorrow, Saturday in Lake Placid. The Under18’s play at 3pm with the Collegiate Select/Development group at 6pm.

Older Players A Factor?

  • Team Canada U-18s have a decidedly older group as compared to Team USA. Canada has only five 2007 born players while the US has 10 players born 2007 or earlier… eight 2007’s and two 2008’s.
  • All but 3 members of Team Canada’s U18 Team played last season at the oldest amateur age group allowed in each players’ respective province.
  • Of 24-rostered players, Team USA’s Select 18 team has 13 players that played at the USA Hockey Under 16 age group last season .
  • Canada’s Development Team has 8 players who have yet to play a NCAA game.
  • The USA Hockey Collegiate Select Team has 3 Graduate players, 12 Seniors, 0 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, and 1 incoming freshman.
  • In terms of accumulated NCAA points from last season… Team USA’s Collegiate Group is led by Yale Senior Elle Hartje with 52 total points, the D corps had 34 G’s, 121 A’s for 155 PTS. The Forward group had 176 G’s, 229 A’s for 405 PTS.
  • Canada’s Development Team is led by Clarkson Senior Forward Anne Cherkowski with 52 total points.

Shenzhen, China will play host the next weeks IIHF Women’s Division I Group A World Championships.

Austria, China, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Slovakia are participating countries. The tournament kicks off with Netherlands taking on Norway at 1pm local time.

Some countries will have live streams available. You can find the names of services HERE on the tournament home of the IIHF website.

There will certainly be NCAA players both past and current in this event. Once rosters are made public I’ll have a breakdown.

Last week, sighting ‘significant confusion’, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a recommendation from the Women’s and Men’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee where: “Having too many players on the ice when a goal is scored on the ensuing play has been removed from the list of plays that can be reviewed by video in NCAA men’s and women’s hockey for the 2023-24 season”.

“Despite attempted education during the 2022-23 season, rules committee members think the rule is better managed by the on-ice officials and should not be part of the instant-replay criteria,” reads the NCAA announcement.

The American Hockey Coaches Association is the official Ice Hockey coaches association recognized by the NCAA of women’s and men’s programs participating in divisions I and III.

Starting with the upcoming 2023-2024 season, The AHCA will add 2 new Vice President positions to its leadership structure of Officers. One VP of Women’s Issues and one VP for Men’s Issues.

These two positions will help serve as conduits between the women’s and men’s coaching body of Division I / III and key stakeholders within the NCAA, member conferences, conference commissioners, and various sport specific NCAA committees. In addition, these people will help streamline communication and participation in important initiatives for both sides of the game.

Joe Bertagna enters his final year as AHCA Executive Director, a position he has held for more than 30 years. Joe will step down and take on a media relations role in for the start of the 2024-2025 season.

The process to find a successor for the Executive Director position has begun.

Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is wch-pic-logo-header-circle-3-12-21.jpg

-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. Paid 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 #115 – 7/23/23 – The Pipeline Weekly Review

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) – All Posts From The Past Week… Never Miss A Post!

The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline

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

Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey


Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…

  • Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap


The Pipeline Weekly Review

Miss a post from The Pipeline this week?

Get caught up with what’s going on in the world of women’s college hockey with The Pipeline Weekly Review every Sunday.

I’ll recap my posts from the past week so you never have to miss out. Just click any of the links below and stay informed.


Monday – Post #112 – Sifters + A Little Extra

Little lobs of news and info from around the world of women’s college hockey and beyond

  • Coaching news at Merrimack, Minnesota, St. Mike’s, Curry, Elmira, and Plymouth State
  • USA Hockey & Hockey Canada News
  • Extras ➡️ Recruiting Events, New Coaches Pool, World Champ. Div. 1A, Robert Morris, Assumption, ECAC News, Mercyhurst in Sweden

Wednesday – Post #113

Is there a ‘best’ type of youth hockey program?

  • A look into the player pool of USA Hockey’s U18 Select Camp.

Friday – Post #114

Little lobs of news and info from around the world of women’s college hockey and beyond

  • Coaching news at Vermont, Sacred Heart, Union, New England College
  • Conference schedules coming out
  • Extras ➡️ Hockey East hires a supervisor of officials, College Hockey season is WEEKS away, 2023 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Women’s Face-Off Classic, Hockey Canada U18 News, IIHF Girls Hockey WKND, Take The Ice Documentary

Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,

-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. Paid 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 #112 – 7/17/23 – Monday’s Sifters + A Little Extra:

Little lobs of news and info from around the world of women’s college hockey and beyond

The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline

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

Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey


Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…

  • Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap


A Lot Going On

There is a lot to get to. Coaching hires, USA Hockey & Hockey Canada news, as well as a little extra – so we’re going to dive right in.

Let’s get to it.

Coaching Hires

Merrimack… Has named former UMASS-Boston Head Coach Danielle Blanchard as one of its Assistant Coaches.

Minnesota… Brad Frost has rounded out his staff. Back to the college ranks as one of coach’s Frost’s Assistant Coaches is Mitch Baker. The former assistant coach at Union College has been the U-19 team Head Coach at Shattuck St. Mary’s for the past 2 seasons. Also joining Frost’s staff is Greg “Boom” May who will serve as an Associate Head Coach. May was the men’s Head Coach at D-III Augsburg College for 2 seasons. Jessica Scott has had the ‘interim’ tag removed and is now a Full-Time Assistant Coach.

St. Michael’s College… Has named Kevin Salinas it’s first ever full-time assistant coach. Salinas comes to St. Mike’s after working with the Lawrence Viking’s women’s program during their first two years of existence in the NCHA. You can read more on his hiring HERE.

Curry College… Head Coach Kelly Rider announced the hiring of new Assistant Coach Rebecca Taylor. Click HERE to read more on Taylor’s appointment.

Elmira College… Has hired former SUNY-Potsdam Head Coach Greg Haney. Greg was a former D-I Assistant Coach at Lindenwood before taking over the Potsdam program. You can read more on Haney’s hiring HERE.

Plymouth State University… Has opened a national search for a new Head Coach after Mollie Fitzpatrick stepped down to pursue other endeavors.

USA Hockey & Hockey Canada News

There is lots to report from USA Hockey and Hockey Canada.

On the USA Hockey Front…

  • The USA Hockey U-15 National Development Camp ended last week in Oxford, Ohio with 215 players taking part. You can see the list of camp participants and player stats HERE.
  • The USA Hockey U-18 Select Camp get’s underway today with each team getting in a 1-hour practice and game. A group of 32-players will be named at the end of camp to move on to the August National Festival help in Lake Placid, NY.
  • Full-Time Scouting Position… USA Hockey is seeking applicants for its Women’s National Team Head Scout. You can find the job description and posting HERE. Current Providence Head Coach Matt Kelly last held this position leading up to the 2018 Gold Medal which Team USA won.

While north of the border, Hockey Canada…

  • Katherine Henderson, former Head of Canada Curling, has been hired as Hockey Canada’s new President and CEO. You can read more on her hiring HERE.
  • Hockey Canada announced earlier this weekend its player pool of attendee’s and camp schedule for the National Under-18 and National Development Teams. You can find the U-18 Camp schedule HERE and Camp Roster HERE. The National Team Roster of players can be found HERE. Unlike the US, it appears Hockey Canada has already selected its Development Team Roster.
  • As I suspected, Hockey Canada’s Under-18 and National Development Team Camp will be held in Ontario. St. Catherines, Ontario at Canada Games Park.
  • Also taking part in Hockey Canada’s U-18 Camp will be a group from Finland. This has been something Hockey Canada has done before.

Sifter Extras

Recruiting Events Coming Up

The last 2 weeks of July will be a busy one for college coaches. Here are some of the remaining July events coaches will be out at:

  • USA U-18 Select Camp, July 16-22 (schedule + Live Stream Link… must pay
  • NAE July College Exposure Showcase, July 17-19
  • Beantown WKND #1 – College Super Series, July 21-23 (schedule)
  • NAE July Development & Showcase, July 24-26
  • East Coast Wizard Summer Showcase, July 27-30, (schedule)
  • Beantown WKND #2, U19 & 2007/2008, July 28-30
  • MN Os Prospects Weekend, July 28-30

Additional Coaches Pool?

  • With the closure of the PHF, could there be a new pool of ex-pro players ready to jump on some of these 4th coaching positions at the D-I level?
  • Speaking of 4th coaches… we’re beginning to see some of them are on the road recruiting.

IIHF Division 1-A World Championships Scheduled to begin Aug. 20

  • The IIHF Div. 1-A World Championships are set to kick off August 20th in Shenzhen, China. You can find schedules HERE.

Robert Morris Announces 23-24 Roster…

  • Robert Morris University Head Coach Logan Bittle has announced the Colonials’ roster last week for the 23-24 season. As you may recall, RMU shut both its women’s and men’s hockey programs down citing budget constraints in the Spring of 2021. Ultimately, the programs have been reinstated and Bittle has been hard at work rebooting the program. 9 incoming freshmen, 9 transfers, and 6 current members of the program from when it was shut down makeup the 24-player roster – which you can get right HERE.

Assumption University Greyhounds Announce Inaugural Schedule…

  • Looks like the Greyhounds have their 23-24 schedule posted. Beyond conference games in the NEWHA, they have non-conference games vs. RIT x 2, Dartmouth, Holy Cross x 2 (The Battle of Worcester… I just made that up. I’ll give them license to use if they want though), and RPI.

ECAC Tweaks Conference Playoff Format + Announces Conference Schedule…

  • ECAC Hockey released its 132-game conference slate of games July 11 including a new women’s playoff format to mirror what the men used last season. The first ECAC contest takes place October 13th when Harvard travels to play Dartmouth.
  • The ECAC playoffs will now include all 12 teams up from 8. Seeds 1-4 get a first round bye while seeds 5-8 host seeds 9-12 in one-game playoff the weekend of Feb 23-24. Winners of the first round will travel to play seeds 1-4 in a best two-out-of-three quarter-final series March 1-2 with quarter-final round winners moving on to the ECAC Championship Weekend March 8-9 hosted by the highest remaining seed. You can read the full release HERE.

Summer College Hockey Fix…

  • According to the Mercyhurst Lakers Twitter account and the schedule banner at the top of their website homepage, the Lakers’ European Summer Tour games will be steamed. Games are scheduled for July 25, 26, 28, and 29. All times listed are 6pm… we’re just not sure if that is Swedish time or EST. I’ll find a link and confirm game times if possible.

Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is wch-pic-logo-header-circle-3-12-21.jpg

-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. Paid 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 5th 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 #87 – 5/31/23 – Sifters

Little lobs of news and info from around the world of Women’s College Hockey & beyond


The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline

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

Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey


Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…

  • Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap


Sifters

US to Host 2024 World Championships… The next 2 World Championship host sites were recently announced. In 2024 they will be held in Utica, NY and in 2025, in Czechia. You can read more on the Utica announcement HERE.

IIHF Hall Calls Ouellette… Former Minnesota Duluth Bulldog Caroline Ouellette was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame last week. She is one of the most decorated women’s hockey players ever. Ouellette now spends her time as the Associate Head Coach for the Usport Concordia University Stingers program in Montreal.

IIHF 2023 Congress Video… As it does every year at the men’s World Championships, the IIHF Congress takes place to recap they year, talk new initiatives, and vote on matters of importance like rule changes, World Championship locations and bid processes. You can view the entire 7 hour (!) congress HERE if you like.

Of note, here are some interesting numbers from the recent Women’s World Championships held in Brampton, Ontario back in April.

  • 85 credentialed media members from 8 countries covered the event
  • 77,306 tickets were sold
  • Total Attendance: 59,402 (wondering if that means a lot of no-shows with 77K+ tix sold??)
  • Canada’s games had an ave. attendance of 4,073 (capacity of 5,000)
  • Over $248,000 in 50/50 revenue generated with six 50/50 draws
  • All games broadcast on TSN
  • 15.7 % of Canada’s population watched some of the tournament… or 6.23 million viewers
  • Gold Medal Game had a 1.1 million average minute audience with a peak of 2,830,000 on TSN

Unfortunately I don’t have any US figures to share at this time.

IIHF Women’s World Jrs. being discussed… As has been discussed amongst NCAA coaching circles for years as wishful thinking, the time may be coming for a Women’s World Junior Championship type event. Currently, the IIHF does not offer a category championship between the U18 and top senior championship. And a World Jr. event would fill that void. As Ian Kennedy, writer on women’s hockey for The Hockey News uncovers, it’s probably not far off from becoming reality. See his interview with the IIHF HERE.

Harvey is 2023 Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year… USA Hockey announced that Wisconsin Freshman Defender and 2022 US Olympian, Caroline Harvey is the 2023 Bob Allen Women’s Hockey Player of the Year recipient. You can read the announcement HERE.

JWHL Expands… The Rothesay Netherwood School, New Brunswick will be joining the Junior Women’s Hockey League for the 23-24 season, You can read about the announcement below:

New Jr. League in Sask… Looks Saskatchewan is following in Ontario’s footstep by offering a U-22 Junior league to begin play next season. Which makes sense given the effect of COVID. You can watch the news clip here.

Friendship Ireland Series is back… Hockey is going overseas again. Providence is set to face-off vs. Princeton for a two-game series Jan. 6 & 7. You can read the official announcement HERE.

Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,

-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. Paid 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 #76 – 8/30/22 – Do The Math Part-2, Media Help, IIHF Worlds, Sifters, In Case You Missed It


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

The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline

Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey


Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…

  • Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap


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

Do The Math – Part 2

Media Help On The Way

IIHF Worlds

Sifters

In Case You Missed It


Do The Math – Part 2

In our last post we talked about families being able to hep themselves by doing a bit of work on the financial end of things as their daughters’ college/recruiting process begins. That help is in the form of doing self guided family financial evaluation. Doing so will allow families to come up with estimated college expenses and… THE ALL IMPORTANT ‘out-of-pocket dollar amount’ that can be used to pay for these various college and hockey related expenses.

In today’s post, we give families an explanation of how to evaluate this process and the tools – a Google Doc set of financial worksheets to do the math, estimate what expenses they need to account for to come up with that out-of-pocket dollar amount so you can evaluate every opportunity that comes along know what your financial situation is.

You won’t get exact amounts of each expense or amounts related to institutional financial aid. These will be different for everybody based on your own financial situation and the schools / hockey programs you deal with.

So click HERE and we’ll take you to our ‘Paying For College’ portion of our website. You can also find out Family Financial Aid Worksheets HERE to download and work through yourself.

(Back To Top)

Media Help On The Way

For a lot of reasons, D3 women’s college hockey (heck, women’s hockey in general) doesn’t get much national media attention. Middlebury’s perfect season last year not withstanding, there just aren’t a lot of journalists or members of the media who cover the sport. But, times are changing. And it’s about time.

Last month it was announced that Chris Sugar, the senior MBA and Political Science major at Oswego State University who is the owner/editor and the man behind D3 Hockey News, will be THE ONLY contributing writer for USCHO.com exclusively covering D3 women’s hockey beginning this season.

Chris certainly has a passion for covering D3 hockey. His twitter account @D3HockeyNews has over 6,100 followers and in March of 2022, he started a podcast where he interviews players and coaches and members of the media.

I recently spoke to Chris about his new gig with USCHO.com and he is excited to get to work. Congrats Chris. We look forward to seeing your work!

In addition to Chris’ post with USCHO, another media announcement in the world of women’s hockey caught our eye last week. Stephanie Wood will become the new voice of the New England Hockey Journal’s ‘RinkWise’ Podcast. Stephanie is currently the Head Girls Coach at Austin Prep and Women’s Director at the Islanders Hockey Club in Massachusetts. Her first episode is now live and you can read more about her podcast appointment HERE.

Congrats Stephanie… would love to have you on The Women’s College Hockey Podcast sometime soon!

In media, it’s about eyeballs. How many views, how many followers, how many paid subscriptions? How many people are consuming a particular type of content. The more people consume, the more media coverage there will be… because there will be the dollars coming in to pay people to do the media work that is SO needed in our sport. In this sense, it’s not such a bad idea to be a follower!

We hope to announce more girls/women’s college hockey media coverage in the future.

(Back To Top)

IIHF Worlds Is Underway

The 2022 IIHF World Championships began last week. This marks the first time a World Championship was held in the same year after the Olympics. They are being held in Denmark. The Gold Medal game is scheduled for this Sunday Sept. 4 at 1:30 EST.

Lots of connections to NCAA college programs in this event and not just for Team USA or Canada either. Current rostered NCAA players include Sweden with 7, Swiss with 5 players, as well as 1 Canadian uSport player. Czechia with 5, Germany with 5, Finland with 4, Hungary 2, Denmark 2. The US with 9 and Canada has 3.

You can catch up on all the action with the IIHF Video Hub for recaps of each game. Hats off to what I am pretty sure is a Canadian broadcast crew in Denmark providing the production quality.

And speaking of media coverage… thanks to the NHL Network and TSN in Canada for broadcasting all of the US and Canada’s games. You get get a the full tournament schedule HERE.

(Back To Top)

Sifters

D1 Season about to begin… We are literally days away from some programs hitting the ice for the first time in 2022-2023. NCAA D-1 rules allow coaches on the ice to practice with their teams a certain number of hours per week prior to the D1 official start date. I know, sounds odd right… allowed to practice before your official start date? It’s true. This years’ official start date for all programs outside of the Ivy League will be September 17. This is when programs can use their ‘regular season’ allotted weekly time limit of athletic activity – 20-hours per week. The first official practice date for Ivy league institutions will be Sept. 23, a full week earlier than normal. NCAA games will begin on Sept. 17 with several exhibition games and the following weekend Sept. 23-24-25, game count for real.

Busy Recruiting Month Ahead… The Dawg Daze Of Summer Showcase hosted by the National Girls Hockey League and the 2023 CPC National Preview Showcase hosted by the Collegiate Prospect Combine got underway last weekend kicking off a busy stretch of recruiting for college coaches. In addition, Manitoba hosted its top 40 U16 & U18 summer development camps in Winnipeg. September alone has something going on pretty much every single weekend. To see where college coaches may be recruiting, click HERE for our 2022-2023 Recruiting Event Calendar. We’ll be provide events for October soon. If you don’t see an event not listed, please send us an email to add it.

New Coaching Hires… It has been the busiest off-season in terms of coaching hires & departures across D-1 and D-3 ever. Here’s a list of new Head Coaches behind the bench at D1 and D3 this year. We’ll preview new assistant coach hires in our next post. The Head Coach turnover rate for D1 coaches was 14.6 %. For D3 it was 15.5%. I’m not sure why I started doing this, but ever since I became a college coach in 2001-2002, I have tracked D1 head coaching changes and there has never been fewer than 3 head coaching changes ever season since ’01-’02.

D-I Head Coaches

  • Kelly Nash, Long Island University, NEWHA
  • Gretchen Silverman, Post University, NEWHA
  • Tara Watchorn, Stonehill College, NEWHA–New Program 22-23
  • Molly Engstrom, University of Maine, Hockey East
  • Britni Smith, Syracuse University, College Hockey America
  • Brian Idalski, St. Cloud State Univ, WCHA

New D-I Head Coach hires who will compete in the 23-24 season

  • Jack Sweeney, Assumption College, NEWHA
  • Logan Bittle, Robert Morris University, College Hockey America

D-III Head Coaches

  • Maddy Santore, Johnson & Wales, NEHC
  • Zach Perkins, Anna Maria College, Independent
  • Mollie Fitzpatrick, Plymouth State University, NEHC
  • Dave LaBaff, Wilkes University, MAC
  • Kalie Grant, SUNY-Canton, NEWHL
  • Kevin Dessart, Lawrence University, WIAC
  • Rachel Grampp, Buffalo State Univ., NEWHL
  • Finlandia University, Mike Kurug, NCHA
  • Elmira College, UCHC
  • Lindsay Macy, St. Benedict College, MIAC
  • Cole Klubek, Hilbert College, TBD

New D-III Head Coaches who were hired to start new programs (or new teams starting up)

  • Heath Issacson, Mass College of Liberal Arts, 23-24
  • TBD, Albertus Magnus College, 23-24
  • TBD, Hood College, 23-24

Transformation Committee To Meet… Tomorrow August 31 the NCAA Transformation Committee will meet to discuss adoption of a revised package of transfer rules and changes to the ‘Infractions’ process. In an announcement made August 17, there were some concerns over purposed changes. You can read more on the proposed changes HERE.

Canada Stays With Ryan… Hockey Canada announced this week that it has signed Troy Ryan to continue as its Women’s National Team Head Coach over the next 4-year Olympic cycle. Canada will try to win its 6th Olympic gold medal in 2026 with the winter games being help in Italy. You can read more about Ryan’s announcement HERE.

Be sure to scroll down after the Ryan article as there is an interesting story about the Living Sisu Hockey League out of Montreal.

SAT & ACT National Test Dates, Etc… As the amateur hockey season across the globe begins, so too does ‘ACT and SAT Test Taking Season’. Invariably, these tests are mostly offered on Saturdays. And when does everyone play hockey – on the weekends, so conflicts can arise. But they don’t have too. Some coaches over the years have had issues with their players missing a game/practice to take a test.

Coaches… do the right thing and let your players take a test – when the player wants to.

And we would also suggest if you have not registered for a specific test yet – do it now! Here are links to the National Testing Dates in the USA for the SAT and ACT exams — SAT HERE and ACT HERE (scroll toward the bottom of the page). For international students – click the link for the test you want info on: SAT – Int’lACT – Int’l (left side of page).

It looks like there is a digital version of the SAT being offered for International students in 2023.

Find Your ‘Why’… Although this twitter thread is about a men’s hockey player who made it to the NHL, a lot of what he preaches is true for any player wanting to play at the most competitive level. Some GREAT stuff, just click HERE.

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In Case You Missed It… Post #75

We’re starting a new section to our blog called… In Case You Missed It. If you didn’t get the chance to read out last have no fear. Will will begin putting out previous Pipeline posts at the bottom of our current one. Check it out below.


In Case You Missed It… Post #75

NCAA Update

U-18 USA & Canada Selection Camps

Do The Math

Sifters


NCAA Update

On August 3rd the NCAA Division I Board of Directors acted on recommendations made by the Transformation Committee. Some items made it through are were put into action immediately, like more benefits to support athletes. One item did not. The package of recommendations on Transfers was sent back and not voted on.

The NCAA’s D-I Board of Directors took action earlier last week on recommendations made by the Transformation Committee. Schools are now be allowed – immediately – to offer enhanced benefits for student-athletes. The D-I Board of Directors took no action on the TC’s proposed new set of transfer rules.

Institutions are now able to provide enhanced benefits to better their support athletes in a variety of areas such as personal well being & safety, insurance products for major injury and loss of value, and funding participation in elite-level training, tryouts, and competition. It used to be schools were very limited in what they spend $ on to support their athletes in these areas. Starting August 3, schools will no longer need to submit waivers to get approval to pay for these types of benefits.

Let’s say you are a part of your country’s national team program and they want you to participate in a team camp or tournament event. It appears schools will now be able – if they are willing – to pay for their athletes to attend. Or if you’re a potential high draft-pick in your sport and had the potential to get lucrative playing and endorsement contracts, an insurance policy could be purchased by your school to protect against a catastrophic injury and loss of value in your potential earnings.

The D-I Board agreed to not act on the transfer rules package recommended at this time. It seems there was a bit of pushback from the D-I membership as well as SAAC – The Student Athlete Advisory Committee in that some of the transfer rules seemed too restrictive. The original recommendations by the NCAA TC would have allowed for an academic eligibility exception where students would not only be academically eligible from the school they were transferring from, but also have enough credits to be eligible at the school they were transferring to. Additionally, several ‘transfer windows’ would be available where athletes would have a certain amount of time to give written notice to their school with intentions to transfer. However those windows would close after a certain number of days. The SAAC Committee commented that the overall transfer package was deemed too restricting and limited a players’ freedom of movement.

The NCAA’s D-I Board will next meet and vote on additional recommendations from the Transformation Committee on August 31. You can read the full NCAA announcement on its approval of enhanced student-athlete benefits HERE.

U-18 USA & Canada Selection Camps

Hockey Canada’s U18 selection Camp… is already underway in Calgary Alberta. Goaltenders had the first few days of camp Aug. 2nd & 3rd. Forwards and defenders had a series of position specific practices Aug. 4th and 5th prior to the 45-player group is split into 2 teams, Red & White, where team practices will commenced on Aug. 6th. Interestingly, Finland has brought it’s U-18 team over to participate along with Canada. Finland’s participation began with its own team practices Aug. 5 and begin play vs. Team Red Aug. 10.

Speaking of games, it looks like Hockey Canada will be streaming quite a bit of hockey over the next little while.

Canada U-18 Selection Camp Game Streams can be found HERE and then by clicking on the ‘Watch’ link in the right-hand side of the page, see example below.

USA Hockey’s U18 and O18 selection Camp… get’s underway today with games beginning today at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, NY. Players are split into 2 age groups, Under-18 and Over-18. The U18 group will practice and scrimmage together with 4 total games vs. one another. The Over-18 group will be split into 4 teams for practices and games with each team playing 3 games.

You can find the U18 and O18 team rosters HERE. We haven’t been able to find any info on links to watch live streams. We will keep you posted if we do find some.

Do The Math

Wondering how much you’ll have to pay for college? Best to ‘Do The Math’ now, so you know how much you have to work with down the road – when you’ll need to know…

Unless you plan on your daughter getting a full scholarship, (there aren’t many of that get offered), families are going to wind up paying some amount of money out-of-pocket to put your daughter through college. How much exactly, that’s a lot harder to determine when the college hockey recruiting process is involved.

But even if a final dollar amount is unattainable right now and college could be years away, families SHOULD do something in the meantime to help make things a lot easier in the future.

What families should be doing is a ‘Family Financial Evaluation’.

Simply stated, this is a process where families crunch the numbers and find out a worst-case / this-is-what-we-can-afford at the top end of our budget amount – in order to make paying for college, work. Consider it like an internal family audit and a way of determining what your family finances will be over the next 6 to 7 years. And that’s how many years ahead families should be evaluating their finances for.

Why 6-7 years?

For those players who are heading into grade 11 this coming Fall, you are either in the midst of the recruiting process already or it’s going to probably happen before the grade 11 year is over and that’s the time frame you’ll need to evaluate. 2 more years of high school + 4 years of college. Add in a post-grad year perhaps, and that is how you get to 7.

So why is it important to do this now if we’re talking about something that may not happen for another 7 years!!??

3 reasons. 1) As they say, knowledge is power. The more you know how much you can afford, the better off you will be when it comes time to evaluate college costs. You can focus your time and efforts where legit opportunities are. 2) For someone who is going through the recruiting process right now or soon will, you could be faced with having to make some decisions – and soon. In order to do so, those opportunities have to be affordable in order to work out. 3) Some schools may be real aggressive with making offers, and it’s not just on the D-I side any longer,. Plenty of offers come in the grade 11 year for players at the D-3 level. And at D-I – it’s all about financial aid and knowing costs as there are no athletic scholarships.

In next week’s post, we’ll breakdown what to evaluate when looking at your finances.

Sifters

As David Bowie sang, Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes… The coaching changes keep coming. This time if year is somewhat late for departures, especially of head coaches – but that’s exactly what has happened. Tim Crowley, head coach at Elmira College, has stepped down. We have a suspicion it’s for another coaching position, but that hasn’t been made public yet, and don’t want to speculate. Elmira’s assistant coach, Mandy Montgomery stepped down earlier this summer and that leaved Elmira with two very important positions to fill.

The more unexpected departure came when it was reported last week University of Maine’s Head and Assistant Coach, who are husband and wife, Richard Reichenbach and his wife Sara, resigned for undisclosed reasons. In an article posted by a local TV station WGME, it appears the school has commenced its search process already. You can read that story HERE and see our updated 2022-2023 Coaching Changes Tracker HERE.

Season Almost Here… You know the season is getting closer when conferences start to announce their schedules. The CHA 22-23 schedule can be found HERE. The WCHA conference schedule can be found HERE.

Regional Representation… Ontario and Minnesota Lead The Way… Canada’s U18 Selection camp has players from 7 different provinces, here is a breakdown:

Province# of Players
British Columbia6
Alberta4
Saskatchewan2
Manitoba3
Ontario21
Quebec5
Nova Scotia3

Team USA’s U18 National Festival Camp Roster has players from 13 different states, here is a breakdown:

State# of Players
California2
Montana1
Missouri1
Minnesota13
Illinois1
Michigan2
Pennsylvania2
Florida1
New York1
Vermont1
Connecticut1
Massachusetts4
Wisconsin1

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.

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

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

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.

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

RnkTeamRecordPointsLast Poll
1Wisconsin (14)17-1-21491
2Ohio State15-3-01302
3Northeastern16-2-11163
4Quinnipiac (1)15-1-21085
5Minnesota14-5-1964
6Colgate15-4-1656
7Yale10-3-1597
8Minnesota Duluth9-7-0459
9Clarkson15-2-3348
10Harvard9-3-01910

Others receiving votes: Connecticut 3, Penn State 1

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

December 14, 2021

RANKTeamPointsLast PollRecordWeeks in Poll
1University of Wisconsin (19)190117-1-214
2Ohio State University163215-3-014
3Northeastern University143416-2-114
4Quinnipiac University133515-1-211
5University of Minnesota125314-5-114
6Colgate University80615-4-114
7University of Minnesota Duluth7179-7-014
8Yale University67810-3-14
9Clarkson University45915-2-37
10Harvard University21109-3-06

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-TPctPtsGF/GA Overall W-L-TPctGF-GA Home W-L-T Away W-L-T
Syracuse5-3-00.6251025/166-9-40.42146/504-5-12-4-3
Penn State4-2-00.667819/1410-6-20.61152/345-3-15-3-1
Mercyhurst4-2-00.667817/1113-6-20.66759-/28-1-15-5-1
Lindenwood3-3-00.500617/175-13-00.27848/785-7-00-6-0
RIT0-6-00.00006/260-19-00.00024/1030-11-00-8-0

ECAC

TeamW-L-T-OW-OLPctPtsGF-GAW-L-TPctGF-GAW-L-TW-L-T
Quinnipiac7-1-0-0-00.8752122-715-1-20.88961-219-1-16-0-1
Harvard6-3-0-1-20.7041932-199-4-00.69248-305-2-04-2-0
Clarkson6-1-1-1-00.77118.523-1015-2-30.82565-296-1-29-1-1
Princeton5-2-1-0-00.68816.516-116-5-30.53624-232-3-04-2-3
Yale5-2-1-0-00.68816.531-1510-3-10.75057-224-2-06-1-1
Colgate5-2-1-2-00.60414.528-2015-4-10.77586-396-4-19-0-0
St. Lawrence3-3-2-0-00.5001216-157-8-50.47543-403-4-24-4-3
Rensselaer3-7-0-0-20.3671125-236-13-00.31642-454-6-02-7-0
Cornell3-4-1-0-00.43810.515-244-7-10.37524-342-3-12-4-0
Dartmouth2-7-0-0-00.222618-327-8-00.46742-395-4-02-4-0
Brown1-6-1-0-00.1884.514-301-12-20.13325-531-6-10-6-1
Union1-9-0-0-00.10039-434-16-10.21431-811-11-13-5-0

Hockey East

TeamW-L-T-SO-OW-OLPctPtsGF-GAW-L-TPctGF-GAW-L-TW-L-T
Northeastern11-2-1-1-0-00.8333544-1416-2-10.86861-187-0-19-2-0
Boston University8-4-3-0-1-00.5782637-299-6-30.58345-375-1-24-5-1
Connecticut8-3-2-0-1-00.6412531-2214-4-20.75057-328-3-26-1-0
Boston College8-5-0-0-3-00.5382132-3010-8-00.55641-434-1-06-7-0
Providence5-4-2-1-0-10.5761923-198-5-50.58334-286-2-22-3-3
Vermont6-5-1-0-1-10.5281931-309-8-20.52647-466-4-13-4-1
Maine4-7-1-1-0-20.4441624-307-12-10.37543-553-7-04-5-1
New Hampshire4-8-1-1-0-10.3851530-396-11-20.36846-524-6-12-5-1
Merrimack4-10-1-1-1-20.3331533-425-14-10.27537-633-9-02-5-1
Holy Cross1-11-0-0-0-00.083316-463-14-00.17625-633-3-00-11-0

NEWHA

TeamW-L-TPctPtsGF-GAW-L-TPctGF-GAW-L-TW-L-T
LIU10-0-01.0002047-1311-7-00.61158-439-3-02-4-0
Sacred Heart5-2-10.6881131-109-7-10.55957-395-3-14-4-0
Franklin Pierce5-3-00.6251025-119-8-10.52849-395-1-14-7-0
St. Anselm3-4-10.438715-166-10-10.38229-515-1-01-9-1
Post2-8-00.20047-403-15-00.16716-752-6-01-9-0
St. Michael’s0-8-00.00007-422-10-00.16716-552-3-00-7-0

WCHA

TeamW-L-T-SO-OW-OLPctPtsGF-GAW-L-TPctGF-GAW-L-TW-L-T
Wisconsin13-1-2-1-2-00.8334067-2117-1-20.90094-225-1-212-0-0
Ohio State13-3-0-0-0-10.8334082-2615-3-00.83391-3010-0-05-3-0
Minnesota9-4-1-1-0-10.7143047-3114-5-10.72577-396-4-08-1-1
Minnesota Duluth8-6-0-0-1-10.5712453-329-7-00.56259-383-4-06-3-0
Minnesota State5-10-1-1-0-10.3751830-549-10-10.47555-656-4-03-6-1
Bemidji State4-10-2-0-1-00.2711324-587-10-30.42535-642-6-25-4-1
St. Cloud State2-11-1-1-1-10.190823-586-11-10.36139-654-3-12-8-0
St. Thomas2-11-1-0-0-00.167714-604-13-10.25023-702-8-02-5-1

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.

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 #55 – 9/22/21 – The Adjustment, Pre-Season Polls, Sifters


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.


In This Post…

  • The Adjustment Phase|
  • Pre-Season Polls |
  • Sifters |

The Adjustment Phase

If you are one of those players moving up an age level this year, from U14 to U16 or U16 to U19, how are you feeling about your game so far? A little off or frustrated you’re not playing as well as you thought you would… Overwhelmed with all those new skills & systems to learn… Not playing as much as you would like… No time yet on the PP or PK… does everyone you play against seem bigger, faster, stronger???

Well, if you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above – welcome to the Adjustment Phase.

Just about everyone, at every level hockey, has some kind of adjustment. Youth players all the way up to NHLers have adjustment periods – seldom is anyone immune from it. We’ll answer exactly what the adjustment phase is, how long it can last for, and why it’s probably the most critical period of your hockey development. The ‘Adjustment Phase’ is really just a period of time during ones hockey development where a player might struggle with certain elements of the game as they move from one level to another.

May be the pace of the game is too fast to handle and you struggle to make good decisions. Or you aren’t physically strong enough to handle the much older/stronger competition.

Yes – the adjustment phase is excruciatingly frustrating at times, who wants to play poorly, right? Players hate when this happens, that is until you understand how it can help you. It’s kind of like taking a test in school… if you knew what questions were going to be on the test before you took it, that would really help, right? Well, if hockey is the test, then the adjustment phase are the ANSWERS! When players go through the adjustment phase, they learn what they need to focus on in order to improve and hopefully get to a point where they can impact the game on a consistent basis at the new level they are at. The time it takes to get to that point can vary greatly however.

If we knew how long the adjustment phase lasted, someone would be a gazillionaire. There’s a lot that goes into how long this takes. For some players it could take weeks to get adjusted, or months, or the better part of a full season. It’s going to be different for everyone. Genetics plays a role, learning ability plays a role, work ethic, desire, mental mindset, and the list goes on. What can help accelerate passing by the adjustment phase? Tough to come up with a full-proof answer but, here are a few things you can do to possibly shorten the length your adjustment may take.

  • Know what your coach wants to see in your play
  • Evaluate your game with video (if possible), so you can see how what your coaches are describing… or perhaps in this case, not seeing so you can identify what you’re struggling with
  • Identify the skills needed to accomplish your goals
  • Create an action plan and timeline to work on the skills necessary

Bottom line, the Adjustment Phase could be the most important piece to your hockey development. It’s a necessary part of the process of playing well at the level you’re at. The more you understand how to approach it – the better you’ll be the next time it comes around.

Pre-Season Polls

It’s that time of year, Pre-Season Coaches Poll time. The NCAA D-I season starts up for real this weekend with games that count, and each conference has announced its pre-season coaches poll. In addition, USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine publish a weekly Top 10 poll during the season.

Like with most pre-season polls, there is nothing to go on from this year. These for the most part, are purely based on last seasons records, key player departures as well as recruited additions. The WCHA, CHA, and ECAC have announced their pre-season coaches polls which are below. We’ll get you Hockey East and the NEWHA once they are officially announced.

Sifters

New NCAA Stat Site To Replace Collegehockeystats.net… Long time statistical college hockey website collegehockeystats.net, a favorite among college hockey coaches and fans, will no longer be updating statistical season data. 20-21 was its last year in service. The website will however, still remain and any of its prior year statistical data will be available. CHS filled a huge void and was the ‘Go-To’ college hockey online resource for live scores, game stats, game line-up charts, conference standings, and any number of college hockey stats. Taking its place will be a NCAA branded site found here: https://stats.ncaa.org/. We have provided a limited overview of the NCAA site and included a comparison vs. collegehockeystats found HERE. The NCAA site tracks many of the same data, there are some major differences as well. A detailed description of how to get certain data is outlined in the form also.

So why the change? The NCAA is transitioning away from a very popular game stats software program called StatsCrew and moving to a new software program called LiveStats.

Marmer and Roth Selected to Work With Boston Bruins… Quinnipiac Player Development and Operations Director Danielle Marmer and Holy Cross Associate Head Coach Meredith Roth have been selected to participate in the Boston Bruins Diversity & Inclusion Scouting Mentorship Program. The 9-month project aims to use members of the Bruins’ operations staff to increase the mentee’s pursuits in scouting and or a professional career in hockey. You can read the official Bruins’ announcement HERE.

U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Game Announced… The Minnesota Golden Gophers will host St. Cloud State University Nov. 20th in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Face-Off Classic. Puck drop is set for 3pm cst.

Speaking of Minnesota, the Gophers program turns 25-years this year.

US Allows Non-Citizens To Travel By Air To US In November… The U.S. Gov’t announced Monday starting in November fully vaccinated non-US citizens will be able to fly to the US. A negative COVID test will be required within three days of arrival. The land border between the US and Canada remains shut-down for another month until Oct. 21. We can’t seem to find much in the way of specifics with the new US guidance regarding Canadians. We will keep you updated as more is known.

IIHF World Championships Moves to August… Women’s hockey just got a nice boost from the IIHF as it is moving the top level Women’s World Championships Tournament to August in Olympic years beginning with 2022. Denmark has applied to be the host country in 2022. It’s a move that makes a lot of sense coming off the sports most high profile event at the Olympics. The best get to showcase themselves on the world stage 6 months later at a time of year when there is a hockey void on TV. No other league in the world that garners a TV audience, are usually playing games in August. You can read the IIHF official announcement HERE.

Until Next Time…


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.

Extra Post — 8/20/21 – IIHF Women’s World Championship Stream Info


NCAA Coaching Changes… See all the coaching changes in one spot – HERE – on our google sheet. Announcements on new hires and recent openings can be found below in the Sifters section.

Stick Taps Section… We need your ‘Stick Taps’ suggestions! Have someone in the world of women’s college hockey you think deserves some recognition? Let us know who they are and why you think they’re so deserving! You can fill out our online submission form right HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com or tweet at us: @WMNSCollHockey. Stick Taps go out the first post of every month so stay tuned!

Online Directory of Recruiting Events/Leagues… We received several messages from event and league organizers wishing to get their events/league weekends/showcases listed in our online directory. So – we’ve created a google sheet with all the events that present good scouting opportunities we’re are aware of. You can find that list HERE. If you run a recruiting event or league and want to have us list it in our online directory, please click HERE and fill out our WCH.org recruiting event form.


In This Post…

  • IIHF Women’s World Championship Stream Info|

What…

How to watch the IIHF Women’s World Championships:

Where

In the United States ESPN + will stream all games of the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championships that ARE NOT televised on the NHL Network.

In Canada, TSN Direct will be streaming all games live

TSN requires a Canadian physical address in order to subscribe.

Links

ESPN+ can be found HERE.

fuboTV, a popular streaming service carries the NHL Network. They have a 7-day free trial which appears to include access to its entire 157 channel lineup. You can find their link HERE.

Worlds Schedule…

You can find a complete tournament schedule link HERE. Today’s games are:

TimeGroupVisiting TeamHome Team
2:00PMBCzech RepublicDenmark
6:00PMACanadaFinland
9:30PMAUSASwitzerland
All times Eastern Standard Time. All games played at WinSport Arena

Lots of NCAA players and coaches taking the ice today for their respective countries. In additional Joel Johnson and Courtney Kennedy of Team USA, Denmark is coached by Peter Elander who spent time as the Associate Head Coach at the University of North Dakota and at Ohio State from 2010-2018. Elander, who is Swedish also was Head Coach of the Swedish Women’s Olympic Team in 2006 and 2010. Elander took over as Head Coach of the Senior Women’s National program for the Danes in 2019.

Until Next Time…


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 #49– 8/18/21 – D-I 21-22 Season Update, A 3rd Wave?, Sifters

In This Post…

  • D-I 2021-2022 Season Update|
  • A 3rd Wave?|
  • Sifters|

NCAA Coaching Changes… See all the coaching changes in one spot – HERE – on our google sheet. Announcements on new hires and recent openings can be found below in the Sifters section.

Stick Taps Section… We need your ‘Stick Taps’ suggestions! Have someone in the world of women’s college hockey you think deserves some recognition? Let us know who they are and why you think they’re so deserving! You can fill out our online submission form right HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com or tweet at us: @WMNSCollHockey. Stick Taps go out the first post of every month so stay tuned!

Online Directory of Recruiting Events/Leagues… We received several messages from event and league organizers wishing to get their events/league weekends/showcases listed in our online directory. So – we’ve created a google sheet with all the events that present good scouting opportunities we’re are aware of. You can find that list HERE. If you run a recruiting event or league and want to have us list it in our online directory, please click HERE and fill out our WCH.org recruiting event form.


D-I 2021-2022 Season Update

21-22 Season could in theory could start today… Hard to believe but yes, the NCAA D-I season here. Franklin Pierce University of the NEWHA begins classes today, Aug. 18. The NCAA rules allow teams beginning with the first day of classes or Sept. 15, whichever is earlier, to have up up to 4 hours of on-ice skill related activity per week. Most D-I programs will be up and running by Sept. 13th, that’s when Union and Dartmouth begin classes. Especially for the programs that did not have a season last year due to COVID, you can bet they’ll want to begin their seasons as soon as NCAA rules allow. There are also some programs that take a little slower approach and opt for a few days to go by, especially for freshmen, so everyone can get their bearings before jumping into the team schedule as to not overwhelm.

We went online and compiled a list of when each D-I school starts undergraduate classes… not taking into account COVID, some unknown delay like an athletic department policy, or scheduling error, here is a ‘fairly accurate’ (according to the internet anyway) list of dates when programs can get back on the ice if they so choose HERE.

NCAA 1st Official Practice Date… Contrary to the above mentioned 4-hours per week of on-ice skill work, Sept. 18 is actually the first official practice date in NCAA women’s ice hockey for the 2021-2022 season. That’s when all D-I programs, minus Ivy League schools, are allowed to begin their regular season allotment of up to 20-hours per week of required athletic activity–on-ice practice, strength & conditioning, team meetings, video sessions, team building, etc. The first official practice date for Ivy League institutions will be Oct. 1.

First D-I Games Just 37 Days Away… The first slate of games are scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 23-26 – just 37 days away. On Thursday Sept. 23, St. Lawrence travels to take on Penn State to kick off the 2021-2022 NCAA season. It’s customary for programs to schedule an exhibition game prior to the NCAA season beginning. After going through D-I online schedules, we are unable to find any exhibition games scheduled so far. Certainly we’re all hoping the season altering COVID restrictions are behind us and teams across all divisions (and in all sports) can have a safe normal season without interruption.

COVID Fallout – Large Rosters… As expected team roster sizes for the 21-22 season are bigger on average than in prior years. We went to every programs official website to look at 21-22 rosters that were posted. Thus far Harvard has the largest at 34 players. Not all teams are accounted for and there could be roster additions and even deletions as school begins. We’ll put together a comprehensive list once all teams rosters are finalised.

A 3rd Wave… Of Coaching Changes?

Historically the month of August and into September bring a few late coaching changes. A head or assistant coach leaves abruptly and bam, schools are left scrambling to find a replacement. This year is a bit different with more coaching changes than we’re ever seen. But that doesn’t mean we’re done with seeing some movement. Case in point, D-III Nichols College just announced an opening for their Head Coach position as Sam Fallon has resigned to take a similar position at a prep school. I expect a few more surprises. You can find our complete list of coaching departures and hires from this year HERE. As classes begin, programs are announcing recent hires… more on those below.

  • Mercyhurst University has hired Scott Spencer as an Assistant Coach. Spencer knows the CHA well as he was the first D-I Head Coach at Lindenwood University. Prior to Lindenwood, Spencer has coached at Ohio State, Robert Morris University, and Bemidji State on the men’s side. You can read more about his hire HERE.
  • Union College has filled its two Assistant Coach positions and has hired Chris Ardito and Breanne Wilson-Bennett. You can read Union’s official announcement HERE. Ardito comes to Union after having spent the past 3 seasons as the Head Girls Hockey Coach at Vermont Academy. Wilson-Bennett was a former player at Colgate during Head Coach Josh Sciba’s time as an Assistant at Colgate.
  • William Smith announced the hiring of former Dartmouth Assistant Coach Matt Cunningham as its next Head Coach. Cunningham spent the previous two seasons with ‘The Big Green’ in Hanover. You can read more on Matt’s hiring HERE. Cunningham who is originally from Phoenix, AZ played his college hockey for Minnesota State-Mankato. He will be the 3rd Head Coach in Heron history.

While not a NCAA coaching announcement, we’re glad to see former Robert Morris University Head Coach Paul Colontino land a new job in Hockey. Colontino was recently hired as Vice President of Hockey Operations and U19 Girls Head Coach at Selects Academy. You can read more on Colontiino’s delima to move to Selects HERE.

Sifters

RMU Update… Speaking of Paul Colontino and the Robert Morris program, it seems the RMU administration has put the brakes on a reboot of the program until the 2022-2023 season, if at all. Tim Benz of Trib Live gives an update on where things stand with both the women’s and men’s program. You can read that HERE.

North Dakota Women’s Program Lawsuit Gets A Boost… 11 former University of North Dakota women’s hockey team members sued The University of North Dakota System for shutting down the women’s hockey program back in March of 2017. Well, they got some good news last week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has reversed a 2019 decision by the North Dakota District Court which originally dismissed the case for what it called ‘a failure to state a claim’. The Eighth Circuit stated, “Ultimately, we conclude that the district court’s primary reasons for dismissing the complaint rested on an incorrect view of the law,”… “But given a level playing field, or in this case, a properly smoothed ice rink, the athletes may be able to state an actionable Title IX claim.”

Shortly after the University of North Dakota women’s hockey was shut down, a group of 11 former UND women’s hockey players sought legal action by filing a discrimination lawsuit against the University of North Dakota System and asked to reinstate the program on the grounds the decision was in violation of Title IX.

You can read more on this story HERE with an article that appeared in the Grand Forks Herald written by Brad Elliott Schlossman. Brad used to cover the women’s team during its existence.

2021 World Championships Get Underway… The IIHF officially announced the tournament is a go. 1,047 PCR tests were conducted in the Calgary bubble since teams arrived and all were negative.

Pre-Tournament games begin today, you can find today’s schedule HERE. Team USA takes on Russia at 2pm EST and Canada plays Finland at 6pm EST. Both games will be broadcast LIVE on the NHL Network. Get the full NHL Network Women’s World Championship telecast schedule HERE. It looks like all US and Canadian games will be broadcast live.

While official team rosters won’t be announced until tomorrow, IIHF.com did post a list of 250 players who came with each country to Calgary. You can find that list HERE. By our count, there are a total of 31 players who are listed on NCAA rosters, 1 U Sports player (U Sports is Canada’s version of the NCAA), and 5 players still in high school.

D-III Update… With D-I programs starting their seasons in a matter of days, the D-III season isn’t far behind. NCAA rules don’t allow D-III coaches to get on the ice with their teams until October 15th but you can bet teams will be getting organised well before that with Captains practices, strength & conditioning workouts, and plenty of team building, etc.

  • New this year for the NESCAC is the ability to begin practice when the Oct. 15th hits. It has been customary for NESCAC teams to begin practice Nov. 1.
  • We are hearing rumors that InStat, a video analytics company, has signed a few deals with D-III conferences for this coming season. InStat provides game video breakdown and scouting services to a bulk of the NCAA D-I and D-III women’s and men’s teams. This will make pre-scouting your opponent much easier as well as adding a level of player development. We can remember the days of VHS tape to tape recordings that had to be done and then Fed-Exed out to your next opponent. How times have changed.
  • Mike O’Grady, Head Coach at Chatham University announced the hiring of Lila Toczek as his new Assistant Coach.

Tweet of The Week… Kelly Rider, Head Coach at Curry College, had one of the more interesting Tweets from college coaches this past week. Given WCH.org’s mission – which is in part to help educate parents, players, and coaches, her post seems very appropriate. Please take a look and click on the photo to expand. We’re not sure where she got the list from – but we’d love to know!

Until Next Time…


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 #48– 8/12/21 – Visits and Communication, Mailbag Monday, Stick Taps, Sifters

In This Post…

  • Recruiting Visits and Communication|
  • Mailbag Monday|
  • Stick Taps|
  • Sifters|

NCAA Coaching Changes… See all the coaching changes in one spot – HERE – on our google sheet. Announcements on new hires and recent openings can be found below in the Sifters section.

Stick Taps Section… We need your ‘Stick Taps’ suggestions! Have someone in the world of women’s college hockey you think deserves some recognition? Let us know who they are and why you think they’re so deserving! You can fill out our online submission form right HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com or tweet at us: @WMNSCollHockey. Stick Taps go out the first post of every month so stay tuned!

Online Directory of Recruiting Events/Leagues… We received several messages from event and league organizers wishing to get their events/league weekends/showcases listed in our online directory. So – we’ve created a google sheet with all the events that present good scouting opportunities we’re are aware of. You can find that list HERE. If you run a recruiting event or league and want to have us list it in our online directory, please click HERE and fill out our WCH.org recruiting event form.


Recruiting Visits & Communication

It’s that time of year. Mid August is just about here and the desire for recruits to take unofficial and official visits grow with each passing day. Although the NCAA clearly defines what Unofficial visits are and what is allowed to occur, we would argue there are actually different types of unofficial visits. Every coaching staff has their own philosophy on how to structure and schedule their unofficial visits. But with literally hundreds of players asking coaches to take a visit, they all can’t be the same. We identify a few of those ‘different’ types of visits below as well as give a few tips on how to approach your communication with coaches on the visit subject.

Different types of ‘Unofficial’ Visits… You won’t find these defined in the NCAA manual, rather these visit types are actually based on the priority coaches have for the player who wants to visit and the amount of time available as well as which coaches will be around campus. 1) There are Unofficial visits that seem more like Official visits, 2) There are Unofficial visits with some or very little to no facetime with members of the coaching staff, and 3) There are visits where you won’t spend any time with the coaching staff at all–you are basically on your own.

We’ll call #1 ‘The Proper Visit’. This is the type of visit where you are invited to campus (the invite is key!) by the coaching staff and what occurs is more akin to what takes place on an ‘Official’ visit. That is to say recruits get a top notch experience with lots of facetime with the coaching staff, strength coach, perhaps athletic trainer, and even current players, other coaches in the department, academic or financial aid personnel. A tour of campus and athletic/team facilities led by one or even all coaches on staff, may be a driving tour of the area around campus. Of course–facetime with the coaching staff for a good discussion on how the recruit fits into the programs’ recruiting plans is the main event. Possibly even an overnight stay might be part of the visit plan depending on time if year. Bottom line, the coaching staff wants you there and they set everything up for you-usually.

Unofficial visit type #2, we’ll call this the ‘Soft Visit’. This is the type of visit where there is probably some facetime with a member (or entire) coaching staff, but not a ton. Or may be the coaching staff directs you to the admissions office for your campus tour and to set up academic meetings. An invite from the coaching staff could or could not happen, but the classic situation here–is when there is no initial invite from the program but rather the recruit basically invites herself to visit. One of the coaches may respond with – yea, sure – we can make that work. There is usually a discussion had at some point where questions can be asked/answered and potentially some direction from the staff on where they see the recruit fitting into their plans. But there are legit reasons why visits get set-up this way… 1) the recruit may only have a particular day to visit that conflicts with the coaches’ schedule. 2) The coaching staff may know absolutely nothing about the recruit and this is how they handle visits of this nature. 3) The player may simply just not be a high priority–and coaches do have to prioritize who they want to spend their time with. It can’t be everyone who wants a visit – that could be a full-time job in itself.

Visit type #3 is the ‘Self Directed’ visit… This type of visit happens when either a recruit has contacted the hockey program to see if visiting is possible but hasn’t gotten a reply back… or just wants to visit the school on her own and does not contact the hockey program she is doing so. In both cases – the recruit winds sets up all the appropriate appointments herself–tour of campus, academic meeting, may be financial aid, even potentially with the coaching staff. The coaching staff basically has no involvement, and unless the recruit communicates to the staff she would like to set up a time to chat about the hockey program, it’s doubtful the staff will even know you’re on campus. Sometimes the admissions office alerts coaches if a recruit indicates an interest in playing a sport (usually asked by admissions to the recruit). But as the name indicates, this type of visit is all directed by you.

Communication with Coaches About Visits… There are generally some Do’s and some Don’ts when communicating with coaches about visits to their school. Here are some tips that can help you in the process. And in doing so, you’ll learn some pretty important information which should help you in your process. You potentially are going to know exactly where you fall on that school’s priority list.

Do’s…

  • Use Email First… It’s a great respectable option to open up the lines of communication with coaches about your desire to visit the school–especially if you’ve never communicated with anyone on staff before. If you don’t have a prior relationship, email is best instead a text or a phone call. Be sure to add a bit about your hockey and academic background, like what position you play, what team you play for, what year you are graduating, your GPA, perhaps intended academic area of interest, as well as your contact info and preferred method of communication desired.
  • Communicate You Want to Visit Campus… Let the staff know you want to visit their school by asking if you can take an unofficial visit. Be sure to include what you might want to accomplish on the visit, like a tour of campus, athletic/hockey facilities, meet with the coaching staff and or a current player, admissions and or financial aid office etc. Asking does 2 things – one, it gives coaches a chance to see you are organized and two – it gives the staff a chance to respond and set something up with you.
  • Be Prompt If You Get A Response Back… If you get a reply back about your request to visit, be prompt in getting back to the coach who communicated with you and include any information the coach was asking for.
  • Be On-Time and Look Nice… You’ve got your visit date all set and a time to meet the staff… DON’T BE LATE! Things happen, so if your arrival time needs to adjust because of traffic, wrong turn, something unforeseen etc. be sure to communicate with someone on staff so they can be aware. Dress for the occasion… you are meeting for the first time people who could potentially change the trajectory of your life. Appearances matter, so dress like the visit is important to you. It’s not a formal event of course, but don’t show up looking like you just came from the gym either.

Don’ts

  • Leave Spelling/Grammar Mistakes… Make sure you proofread your emails and any written communication back to coaches. Eliminate spelling/punctuation mistakes, and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE… make sure you address the email to the correct coaches at that particular school! You have no idea how many emails coaches get with the wrong names of coaches or the school.
  • Expect Coaches to Meet With You Because You Show Up On Campus… Often times recruits will just stop by campus, find there way to the hockey office, poke their head in and ask to meet and get shown around. Unless you’re a future olympian, this is generally not a good idea. Just because you took the time to visit campus on your own doesn’t entitle you to a sit down with the staff. Especially during the season, the days for coaches are jam packed and the schedule is tight. If you are coming to visit campus, send them a note and wait for a reply.
  • Ask for an official visit… Official visits are paid for by the school, so the staff decides who they will offer an Official visit to. Asking for one is a bit presumptive, especially if you’ve never communicated with a particular coaching staff before. Best to let the staff invite you on one rather than you ask for one.

Mailbag Monday

Mailbag Monday… There’s a new Women’s College Hockey Pipeline blog post coming on Monday’s where we’ll be answering your questions about women’s NCAA college hockey. Ever had a question about women’s college hockey but just never had the opportunity? May be a question about the recruiting process or how coaches plan practices? Now you can get your questions answered in our new ‘Mailbag Monday’ question and answer series. Each Monday we’ll select a few questions to answer submitted by our loyal readers. It’s easy, just click HERE to submit your questions by Friday and we’ll answer them the following Monday. So get those questions ready and ask away – Start HERE!

Stick Taps Go To…

With August now upon us, we will begin announcing our Monthly ‘Stick Taps’ winners during the first post of each month. Anyone connected to the game of women’s NCAA college hockey and who is doing ‘good work’, can be nominated. Who can nominate someone–YOU CAN–our loyal readers! There are lots of people in this game who deserve recognition of their work. All you need to do is fill out our ‘Stick Taps’ online nomination form HERE.

So, without further ado, the July Women’s College Hockey.org inaugural ‘Stick Taps’ go to: Joel Johnson for being named Head Coach of the 2022 US Women’s Olympic Hockey Team and Brian Idalski for being named Head Coach of the 2022 Chinese Women’s Olympic Hockey Team.

Joel Johnson, just named to his first Division I head coaching position in July taking over the University of St. Thomas program of the WCHA, is no stranger to USA Hockey. He served as Head Coach of the US Under-18 Team from 2015 to 2018 winning 4 Gold Medals. Also in 2018, Johnson led the US Under-22 Team to a 3-game series victory vs. Canada. In addition he helped guide the US Senior National Team as an Assistant Coach to a 4-Nations Cup victory. In 2019 he also helped lead Team USA to an IIHF World Championship. Johnson was just recently named Head Women’s Hockey Coach at the University of St. Thomas. Prior to that, Johnson spent the better part of his coaching career as the Associate Head Coach of the Minnesota Gophers Women’s program where he helped guide them to 6 NCAA National Titles.

Brian Idalski was the former Head Women’s Hockey coach at the University of North Dakota from 2007-2017 before the program was abruptly shut-down. Idalski, a U.S. citizen has never coached in an IIHF sanctioned event for USA Hockey, is no stranger to success behind the bench as a head coach. Idalski started his head coaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where he won 108 games during his five years there ending with two trips to the NCAA’s and a 3rd place finish in his final year. After 2 years as an asst. coach at St. Cloud University, Idalski took over as Head Coach of a University of North Dakota team that went winless the season prior to his arrival. During Idalski’s ten years at UND, he put the program on the national map as it became a nationally recognized and ranked. While at UND, he coached the fighting Hawks to 5 straight 20-win seasons, amassed an overall record of 169-156-39 which included 2 NCAA appearances in 2014 and 2015. The 2014 NCAA appearance included an EPIC triple OT loss in the 2014 NCAA quarter-final to Minnesota who went on to an undefeated season.

Congrats to Joel and Brian on their well deserved career achievements. Perhaps we’ll see these two outstanding coaches go head to head in Beijing?

Sifters

Idalski Heads Up Team China in 2022 Olympic Games… As mentioned above, former North Dakota Head Coach and current Vaneke Rays bench boss Brian Idalski has been named 2022 Women’s Olympic Head Coach for Team China. The move was announced by the Chinese State Administration of Sports in late July.

Here is a great piece by Grand Forks Herald reporter Brad Elliott Schlossman about Idalski’s rise to become China’s choice in Beijing–just click HERE.

IIHF Worlds Update… The IIHF World Championships are set to take place in Calgary in little less than 2 weeks after having been postponed back in May due to COVID concerns. The US is looking to defend its 2019 World Championship title, and 6th since 2012. The official IIHF Worlds event website can be found HERE. All Team USA games will be broadcast on The NHL Network – you can find that schedule below.

Team USA is coached by Joel Johnson, Head Coach at the Univ. of St. Thomas and assisted by Courtney Kennedy, Associate Head Coach at Boston College, and Brian Pothier. Pothier may be a bit unknown in the women’s coaching world but he does have a vast playing experience at the NHL/AHL level and has worked with Team USA Women’s teams in the past. You can find a link to his bio HERE.

Several NCAA players with eligibility remaining will play in this tournament for various countries. Rosters have not been named for each country except for Canada and Team USA. Here’s a look at who from Team USA Team Canada still have NCAA eligibility left. Once additional rosters are names, this list will be updated.

FirstLastPositionCountryLast TeamNCAA Years left
CaylaBarnesDTeam USABoston College2
NatalieBuchbinderDTeam USAWisconsin1
CarolineHarveyDTeam USANAHA White U194
JesseCompherFTeam USABoston University1
BritaCurlFTeam USAWisconsin2
LaceyEdenFTeam USAWisconsin4
AbbeyMurphyFTeam USAMinnesota4
GraceZumwinkleFTeam USAMinnesota1
SarahFillierFTeam CanadaPrinceton2
AshtonBellDTeam CanadaUniv. MN-Duluth1
EmmaMaltaisFTeam CanadaOhio State University1

Coaching Changes… Long time D-III coach Jackie MacMillan has decided to step down from her post as head coach at The College of St. Scholastica to pursue other opportunities. Assistant Coach Julianne Vasichek will take over and become the 2nd Head Coach in program history. You can read more on Jackie’s departure HERE.

Former Brown assistant coach Melissa Kraus (Paluch) has been named Associate Head Coach at Trine University. Head Coach Tom Hoffman made the announcement August 10. Kraus is returning back to the midwest as she was a star player at Lake Forest College and coached there for two seasons before heading off to Brown for the 19-20 season. You can read more on Kraus’ hire HERE.

Stonehill Hires Myers… Tara Watchorn has announced the hiring of assistant coach Megan Myers. Myers had spent the previous five season as an Assistant Coach at D-III Becker College. You can read more about Megan’s hiring below.

Conference Schedules Released… Hockey East and the NEWHA have finally revealed their season schedules. In Hockey East, the season begins September 24th with 3 games as LIU visits UCONN, Minnesota State travels to Merrimack, and Maine heads to Hamden, CT to take on Quinnipiac. You can view the composite Hockey East season schedule HERE. The NEWHA – New England Women’s Hockey Alliance has their composite schedule which you can find HERE. In addition to LIU @ UCONN the Sept 24-26 weekend, Sacred Heart hits the road and travels to the North Country to take on Clarkson.

Olympic Medal Payouts… Speaking of the Olympics, did you know many countries pay their medal winning athletes? In some countries – it’s a hefty payout. Here a list of the top paying countries and what they pay.

NCAA D-I Women’s & Men’s Conferences Tackle Social Justice Issues… Lastly, this story appeared on NCAA.org about NCAA D-I Women’s and Men’s hockey conferences joining together to make playing NCAA Hockey more Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive. The story features UNH Goaltender Nikki Harnet. You can read her story and how NCAA conferences are trying to help HERE.

Until Next Time…


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.