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|
NCAA Tourney Preview|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey|
D-I Weekly Schedule
Thursday March 10th, 2022
Minneapolis Regional – Harvard vs. Minnesota-Duluth 7pm EST. WATCH B1G+ (FREE)
Columbus Regional – Syracuse vs. Quinnipiac 6pm EST. WATCH – B1G+ (FREE)
Boston Regional – Clarkson vs. Wisconsin 7pm EST. Watch – SportsLive (FREE)
Friday March 11, 2022 – DAY OFF
Saturday March 12, 2022
Boston Regional Final – Clarkson/Wisco winner vs. #3 Northeastern 1pm EST. Watch – SportsLive (FREE)
Hamilton Regional Final – #5Yale vs. #4 Colgate 3pm EST. Watch – NCAA.com
Minneapolis Regional Final – Harvard/MN-Duluth winner vs #2 Minnesota 3pm EST. WATCH – B1G+ (FREE)
Columbus Regional Final – Syracuse/Quinnipiac winner vs. #1 Ohio State 5pm EST. WATCH – B1G+ (FREE)
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
Evan’s last look at his Top 10 in D-I women’s college hockey came in Pipeline Post #65. You can find it HERE.
2022 NCAA Tourney Preview
The Bracket
Seedings
-5 teams are seeded, #1 Ohio State, #2 Minnesota, #3 Northeastern, #4 Colgate, and #5 Yale
-Seeds 1-5 get an automatic bye into the regional final. There are 4 regions: Columbus – Ohio State as the host, Minneapolis – Minnesota as the host, Boston – Northeastern as the host, and Hamilton, NY – Colgate as the hosts. Seeds 6-11 play a 1st round game with the winner moving on to the regional final.
-The top 5 teams, by virtue of their pairwise rankings after all post-season playoff championships were completed, received seeds 1-5. Using the pairwise rankings as the seeding method was determined by the 2022 NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament Committee.
How They Got There
There are 4 automatic qualifiers for the 4 D-I conference playoff champions that award ‘Auto-bids’ and 7 ‘At-Large’ bids awarded that make up the 11-team NCAA Tournament field.
-#1 Ohio State, received the WCHA automatic qualifier by winning the WCHA playoff championship 3-2 in OT vs. Minnesota and ranked #1 in the pairwise.
-#2 Minnesota received an At-Large bid and ranked 2nd in the pairwise rankings.
-#3 Northeastern University, received the Hockey East automatic qualifier by winning the Hockey East Playoff championship vs. UCONN 3-1 and ranked #3 in the pairwise.
-#4 Colgate University, received the ECAC Automatic qualifier by winning the ECAC playoff championship over Yale 2-1 in overtime and ranked #4 in the pairwise.
-#5 Yale University, received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 5th in the pairwise rankings. Yale lost to Colgate in the ECAC Championship game 2-1 in OT.
–Syracuse University, received the College Hockey America Automatic qualifier by defeating Mercyhurst University in the CHA Championship 3-2 in overtime.
–QuinnipiacUniversity received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 7th in the pairwise rankings. The Bobcats lost to Colgate 3-2 in the semifinals of the ECAC post-season tournament.
–Wisconsin received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 6th in the pairwise rankings. The Badgers lost to Ohio State in the semifinals of the WCHA post-season tournament.
–ClarksonUniversity received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 10th in the pairwise rankings. The Green Knights lost to Quinnipiac in the first round of the ECAC post-season tournament.
–Minnesota-Duluth received an ‘At-Large’ bid and is ranked 8th in the pairwise. The Bulldogs lost to Minnesota 5-1 in the WCHA post season tournament semifinals.
–Harvard University received an ‘At-Large’ bid and is ranked 9th in the pairwise. The Crimson lost its first-round ECAC quarterfinal series to Princeton.
Sifters
Free Viewing… Nice to see first round NCAA games free to watch. Click the links above for info.
National Awards Season… This is the time of year when national players’ of the year, coach of the year, goaltender of the year, etc. get named. The 3 finalists for Goaltender of the Year in D-I have been announced–2 from the ECAC, St. Lawrence’s Lucy Morgan and Quinnipiac’s Corinne Schroeder. And from Hockey East, it was Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel. The winner will be announced March 17th.
USA Hockey Nationals Update… One of the last events for D-I college coaches to get some in-person evals in before the April-May quiet period takes place will be in Pittsburgh, PA as USA Hockey hosts its girls tier I national championships.
Tier I Schedule and Info can be found HERE. Tier II Schedule and Info can be found HERE. All games will be streamed live on HockeyTV.
Here is who we know to have made the field as of now… with still a few spots to doll out the next few weeks.
U14s – Qualified
Amherst Lady Knights
Cleveland Lady Barons
Detroit Little Caesars
FL Alliance
LA Lions
MN Green Giants
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite
Team North Dakota
4 more teams to qualify + 3 At Large Bids
Central District
Mass District
New England District
Rocky Mtn District
U16s – Qualified
Anaheim Lady Ducks
BK Selects Academy (Rochester Youth Hockey)
Detroit Belle Tire
East Coast Wizards
Gilmour Lancers
FL Alliance
MN Grey Sharks
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite
Team Colorado
Team North Dakota
2 more teams to qualify + 3 At Large Bids
Central District
New England District
U19’s – Qualified
Alaska All-stars
BK Selects Academy (Rochester Youth Hockey)
NAHA White – North American Hockey Academy
Detroit Little Caesars
Gilmour Lancers
FL Alliance
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite
Shattuck St. Mary’s (Prep)
3 more teams to qualify + 4 At Large Bids
Central District
New England District
Rocky Mtn District
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.
NCAA Championship Tournament Selection Show Details
Pairwise Update
Here is the latest Pairwise rankings as detailed by USCHO. Rankings are updated as of Sunday March 6th at just after 3am this morning.
There was one more game to be played this afternoon in the WCHA Final-Faceoff as Ohio State beat Minnesota in a #2 vs. #1 match-up. Ohio State erased a 2-goal deficit in the 3rd period to force overtime. It only took OSU 23 seconds into OT while on a PP to end it and win the WCHA Championship and the WCHA’s auto-bid to the NCAA tournament.
Ohio State and Minnesota are #1 and #2 respectively in the Pairwise, so not much movement should happen below them. It’s now up to the NCAA D-I tournament committee to work on sorting out the bracket & regional site team placements.
The NCAA D-I National Collegiate Tournament Selection Show will air tonight, Sunday March 6, at 9pm EST. For the first time ever, it will be broadcast on television live via the ESPN News channel. Check local cable listings for where you can find ESPN News.
If you have access to the ESPN App, you can subscribe to ESPN+ and watch the selection show from there.
More on how to watch the selection show can be found HERE.
Be sure to tune in!
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.
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|
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s hockey|
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.
It’s ‘Final-Four’ Weekend for NEWHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA… The CHA completed its post-season playoff championship last weekend with Syracuse beating Mercyhurst in the final 3-2 in OT. The NEWHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA are all down to its ‘Final-Four’ championship weekend. The NEWHA held quarterfinal games Tuesday. Hockey East played its Semifinal games last night. The NEWHA and ECAC championship weekends have semifinals Friday and championships Saturday. The WCHA final-four championship weekend is Saturday/Sunday. All schedules are below:
Make sure to scroll down
Tuesday, March 1
NEWHA Quarterfinals #6 St. Michael’s 1 @ #3 St. Anselm 2
NEWHA Quarterfinals #5 Post 2 @ #4 Sacred Heart 5
Wednesday, March 2
Hockey East Semifinal #3 UCONN 3 @ #2 Vermont 1, HIGHLIGHTS
Hockey East Semifinal #5 Maine 1 @ #1 Northeastern 3, HIGHLIGHTS are ⬇️
We're headed to our sixth-straight @hockey_east title game.
Hockey East Championship TBD, 7PM, @ TBD Campus site of highest remaining seed, TV-NESN+
WCHA Semifinal #4 MN-Duluth vs. #1 Minnesota, 1:07PM CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
WCHA Semifinal #3 Wisconsin vs. #2 Ohio State, 4:07PM CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
Sunday, March 6
WCHA Championship TBD, 1Pm CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
NCAA Tournament Selection Show, 9PM EST, TV-ESPN NEWS Channel, Stream Info Coming Soon
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
Evan’s last look at his Top 10 in D-I women’s college hockey came in last week’s Pipeline Post #65. You can find it HERE.
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney
The Pairwise
In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.
Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.
There are 5 D-I conferences. 4 of the 11 bids come from conference post season playoff tournament championship Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.
The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.
After the 11-team tournament field has been selected, then the fun begins in putting together 4 regional sites. To learn more about how the selection process works and how regional sites will be determined – click here for the 2022 NCAA Pre-Championship Manual.
Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Wednesday March 2, 2022.
#8 Outlasts #1 In ECAC… For the first time in the 20-year history of the ECAC Playoff Championship Tournament, the #8 seed Princeton Tigers knocked off the #1 seed Harvard Crimson. The Tigers won game one 3-2, lost game two 2-1 in overtime, but won the third and deciding game, 3-2. #8 Princeton will play #2 Yale in the first ECAC Semifinal set for 3Pm Friday. #2 seed Yale also went the distance in its first-round quarterfinal series with #7 seed St. Lawrence.
Top 10 Patty Kaz Announced… The 10 Patty Kaz finalists were announced today by USA Hockey.
Introducing the top-10 finalists for the 2022 #PattyKaz Award!👏
The WCHA leads the way with 6 finalists while Hockey East landed 4. No one from the ECAC, CHA, or NEWHA made the cut. Northeastern leads the way with 3 players themselves,Minnesota and Wisconsin with 2 each. Ohio St., MN-Duluth, and Vermont each have 1. Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel, last year’s Patty Kaz winner, is a finalist this year.
The Patty will be awarded on the NHL Network March 27 in a special on-air television presentation. The top-3 finalists will be announced March 17th during the Women’s Frozen Four National Championship.
Possible NCAA Recruiting Rule Changes… As the NCAA often does each year, proposals for various rule changes in a variety of areas like recruiting, financial aid, eligibility etc., are announced and then voted on in April to become legislated. The following rule proposals were just announced and will be voted on in April.
Amend the trigger for student-athlete status to align with the approach authorized by waivers the past two academic years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An individual would remain a prospective student-athlete until the individual signs a National Letter of Intent or the school’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid or the school receives the individual’s financial deposit in response to its offer of admission and completes all high school graduation requirements or all transfer academic eligibility requirements.
An individual would revert to prospective student-athlete status if the individual does not attend classes at the beginning of the first full-time regular academic term after the individual completes all high school graduation requirements or all transfer academic eligibility requirements.
Specify a school shall not provide more than two consecutive nights of lodging to a prospective student-athlete in conjunction with an official visit.
Eliminate the limitation on the number of official visits a prospective student-athlete may take.
Specify that in sports other than basketball, contact may not be made with a prospective student-athlete during the time of day when classes are in session at their school.
WCH Spring Recruiting Event List… Coming shortly will be our WCH Spring/Summer Recruiting Event List. We’ll keep track of all showcases, camps/clinics, and recruiting events from March until the end of August across North America & beyond we’re aware of. We’ll post a link with event names, dates, and locations along with links to info if provided. For any coaches who want their event listed, please fill out our online form and we’ll be sure to list it. You can find it HERE.
Changes to Camps & Clinics for D-I Schools… In an effort to curb early recruiting tactics by college coaches in sports other than women’s basketball, the NCAA has legislated new ‘Institutional’ camp/clinic rules which took effect in January of 2022. ‘Institutional Camps/Clinics’ are now only allowed to be conducted during the months of June, July, August and December to Feb. 1. Institutional camps/clinics are not allowed outside of that time period.
Institutional camps and clinics are defined as those 1) owned/operated by a D-I coach or the institution institution itself and 2) where participants are classified as prospective student-athletes and have entered grade 9.
This new legislation does not impact Institutional Camps/Clinics where the participants are in grade 8 & below or the ability of college coaches to work for privately owned camps/clinics.
What’s Next For Women’s Hockey… It seems like the sport has this conversation after every Olympics. One would think with over 6 million viewers world-wide for the Gold Medal game, there is a way to harness a sustainable viewing audience for our sports best during the regular hockey season. Word came this week of something in the works. Yahoo Sports’ Justin Cuthbert & Co. bat around whats needed for a viable pro league:
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.
Weekly Top 10 National Polls – USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the NCAA’s ‘Power 10’|
Pairwise Rankings |
D-I Conference Playoffs|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey & beyond|
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
The regular season has ended for 4 out of the 5 D-I conferences. The NEWHA still has one more regular season weekend to complete. Hockey East kicked off the Conference Tournament season Wednesday with two games. Here’s the weekly schedule.
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #5 Minnesota State @ #4 MN-Duluth, 2pm CST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #7 St. Cloud @ #2 Ohio St., 3pm EST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #8 St. Thomas @ #1 Minnesota, 2pm CST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #6 Bemidji St. @ #3 Wisconsin, 2pm CST
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
What a regular season.
The women’s college hockey regular season did not disappoint. Weekend after weekend, college hockey fans were treated to great individual and team performances. The best part was the ever-changing rankings every week due to the amount of parity inside the top 10.
Let’s dive into the final Power 10 of the regular season.
1. Minnesota (26-7-1) | Prev: 1
The Golden Gophers finished the regular season with a sweep of St. Thomas, earning a pair of 7-1 wins. Minnesota was scorching hot in their final 15 games, going 13-2-0 with big wins over then-No. 7 Minnesota Duluth, then-No. 2 Ohio State and a sweep of then-No. 1 Wisconsin. Senior Taylor Heise posted five points on the weekend, bringing her season-total to 60 — good for first in the nation.
2. Ohio State (25-6-0) | Prev: 3
In the biggest series of the final weekend, Ohio State swept Wisconsin by scores of 5-1 and 2-1. Despite the close score in Game 2, Ohio State outshot Wisconsin, 45-23. Junior forward Kenzie Hauswirth entered the weekend with only one goal on the season. She potted three on the weekend, including the game-winner on Saturday. With the sweep, the Buckeyes proved they’re the second-best team in the nation heading into the WCHA postseason and the national tournament.
The Huskies move up a bit in the final rankings of the regular season after earning a 2-1 win over UNH and then going 1-0-1 against UConn this past weekend. It’s fitting that graduate student goalie Aerin Frankel ended the season with a 32-save shutout in the 5-0 win. Frankel finishes the regular season with the best goals against average (1.07) and save percentage (.956) in the country. She’ll be must-watch in the national tournament.
4. Wisconsin (23-6-4) | Prev: 2
The Badgers had a tough weekend at Ohio State, dropping both games and getting outplayed. In Wisconsin’s defense, they were only able to skate three forward lines. The star of the weekend for Wisconsin was backup goalie Cami Kronish. On Saturday, in just her third start of the season, she stopped 43 of 45 Ohio State shots in the 2-1 loss. Starter Kennedy Blair missed the game with an upper-body injury.
5. Minnesota Duluth (22-9-1) | Prev: 4
The Bulldogs only move down a spot because I think the top four teams in college hockey are the four listed above. They faced St. Cloud State over the last week, going 2-0-1 against the Huskies. In the two wins, fifth-year Elizabeth Giguere and redshirt senior Naomi Rogge posted big weekends. Giguere had four assists, while Rogge registered two goals and a helper.
Also, how about senior McKenzie Hewett winning the game with nine seconds to play on Senior Day?
Colgate moves up a spot after three big wins last week. The first was a 3-2 victory over Cornell, then a 2-1 win over then-No. 10 Clarkson. The Raiders finished off the weekend by beating St. Lawrence, 9-1. In the win over ranked Clarkson, Colgate got goals from senior Rosy Demers and sophomore Kalty Kaltounkova. Freshman goalie Hannah Murphy turned aside 39 of the 40 shots she faced.
7. Harvard (21-7-1) | Prev: 8
The Crimson ended their regular season with a 4-1 win over RPI and a 3-0 victory over Union. They got goals from sophomores Shannon Hollands and Courtney Hyland, senior Becca Gilmore, and first-year Taze Thompson in Game 1 and junior Kristin Della Rovere, senior Emma Buckles and senior Dominique Petrie in Game 2. Gilmore has put on an especially great season, potting 43 points in 29 games, which is good for first on her team and tied for 14th in the nation.
8. Yale (22-6-1) | Prev: 6
The Bulldogs fell to Quinnipiac, 4-1, on Friday, but finished strong with a 3-0 win at Princeton on Saturday. Sophomore Elle Hartje finished off a strong second season, posting a goal and an assist over the two games. She’s been dynamite this year, leading her team in points with 44. That number ranks 13th in the nation. Her two-way skills, matched with her production, project her to be an even greater force in the coming years.
The Bobcats earned a 4-0 win over RPI last Tuesday and then a strong 4-1 victory over then-No. 6 Yale. They finished off this past weekend with a 1-0 loss to Brown on Saturday. In the win over the Bulldogs, Quinnipiac got goals from Renee Saltness, Kendall Cooper, Jess Schryver and Olivia Mobley. They also got a great game out of goalie Corinne Schroeder, who stopped 38 of 39 shots en route to the win. Schroeder’s save percentage of .946 is good for third in the nation, while her 1.43 GAA ranks sixth.
10. Clarkson (22-9-3) | Prev: 10
Clarkson ended its season with a 2-1 loss to Colgate and a 3-1 loss to Cornell. Despite ending on two-straight losses, Clarkson is the No. 10 team in the nation. The Golden Knights rank ninth in the country in both goals for (104) and goals against (59). They’ll face Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals this weekend.
Pairwise Rankings & NCAA Tourney
The Pairwise
In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.
Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.
There are 5 D-I conferences and 11 teams that make the tournament. 4 of those bids come from conference Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. Winners of the Hockey East, ECAC, College Hockey America, and WCHA post-season playoff championship receive the auto bids. You win, and you’re in. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.
The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.
Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Tuesday, Feb. 22 just past 8pm.
Below are the final regular season standings for each conference minus the NEWHA which has one more regular weekend of play this Friday and Saturday. Each conference’s post-season playoffs structure is described as well.
Hockey East Post-Season Playoff Format
For the first time ever, the Hockey East Women’s Tournament will feature all 10 member programs in a single-elimination postseason tournament for the Bertagna trophy. Seeds seven and eight will host seeds 10 and nine, respectively, in the Opening Round on Wednesday, February 23 while the top six seeds receive a bye into the Quarterfinals. After a reseeding, the top two seeds will host the winners of the Opening Round while the three seed will host the six seed and the four seed will host the five seed. Semifinals will take place on Wednesday, March 2 and the Championship is set for Saturday, March 5 in prime time for just the second time ever.
QUARTERFINALS, Best 2 Out of 3 Series – Feb. 25, 26 and 27 if necessary
Teams TBD, Highest remaining seed to host, single elimination
The Championship will open on Feb. 24 with a quarterfinal match-up between No. 4 seed Lindenwood and No. 5 seed RIT. Thursday’s winner will advance to meet No. 1 seed Syracuse in the first semifinal on Feb. 25. No. 2 Penn State will then face. No. 3 Mercyhurst in Friday’s second semifinal with Friday’s winners advancing to Saturday’s final at 2 p.m. ET.
The winner of the 2022 CHA Championship will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
As the 2021-22 WCHA regular season champion and Julianne Bye Cup winner, MInnesota is the tournament’s top seed and is set to host No. 8 St. Thomas. No. 2 Ohio State hosts No. 7 St. Cloud State, No. 3 Wisconsin hosts No. 6 BEmidji State, while No. 4 MInnesota Duluth earned the final home ice advantage to host No. 5 MInnesota State.
The four winners of the best-of-three quarterfinals advances to the 2022 Final Faceoff, held March 5-6 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The winner of the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff receives the League’s automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
Pairings, locations, and start times for the Friday-Sunday, Feb. 25-27 best-of-three WCHA Quarterfinals:
No. 8 St. Thomas at No. 1 Minnesota (Ridder Arena – Minneapolis, Minn.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 6 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 4 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 7 St. Cloud State at No. 2 Ohio State (OSU Ice Rink – Columbus, Ohio) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 5 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. ET Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET (if necessary)
No. 6 Bemidji State at No. 3 Wisconsin (LaBahn Arena – Madison, Wis.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 7 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 3 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 5 Minnesota State at No. 4 Minnesota Duluth (AMSOIL Arena – Duluth, Minn.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 2 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
2022 WCHA FINAL FACEOFF
The premier conference tournament in women’s college hockey, the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff will be held March 5-6, 2022 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Annually featuring a collection of the nation’s highest-ranked programs and best players, the WCHA’s four remaining teams will compete for the league’s playoff championship and automatic berth to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
The league’s top event and best weekend of the year for college hockey fans, the two-day 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff weekend is a celebration of the sport’s past, present, and future.
Saturday, March 5, 2022 Semifinal Game 1 – No. 1 remaining seed vs. No. 4 remaining seed: 1 p.m. CT Semifinal Game 2 – No. 2 remaining seed vs. No. 3 remaining seed: 4 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 6, 2022 WCHA Championship – 1 p.m. CT
Sifters…
Robert Morris Names Head Coach… Former Robert Morris University Women’s Hockey Associate Head Coach Logan Bittle has been hired to re-boot the RMU program as its new Head Coach. Bittle’s announcement came Feb. 4th. You can read more about RMU’s new bench boss here ——-> USCHO.com Story, RMU Women’s Hockey Homepage Story
U18 Worlds Back On… News of the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship broke at the Olympics last week in a tweet by the IIHF.
The IIHF leadership met the media in #Beijing2022, discussed the #Olympic#icehockey tournaments, development, #Milano2026 and announced updates on the events that will be postponed from January to summer.
6+ Million Watched… Over 3.54 million viewers in the US and 2.7 million in Canada tuned in to watch the Women’s Olympic Gold Medal game between the US and Canada. It was the most watched hockey game, at any level, in the US since 2019. Given the game was aired live at 11:10pm EST, you can bet those numbers would be bigger had the game been played at an earlier hour. Beijing is 13-hours ahead of EST. Lots of tired eyes the next day, mine included.
US-Canada women’s gold medal hockey game on NBC averaged 3.54 million viewers. That’s more viewers than any NHL game this season. And second most watched hockey game in United States since 2019.
Topic for another post… So, there is a market. A large one. How does the sport tap into a meaningful % of those 6 million who watched on a regular basis… and not just once every 4 years.
Busy Spring for Recruiting… D-I college coaches will have a packed Spring in terms of recruiting events to get to before the NCAA Women’s Hockey ‘Quiet Period’ begins on April 18. USA Hockey National Development Camp tryouts, U.S. District Play-Downs, U.S. National Championships, as well as various US and Canadian Academy ID camps, Canadian league and Provincial Championships are just a few of the events on the calendar college coaches will get to. Coaches have approximately 9 weeks left for off-campus evaluations of recruits in grade 10 before the June 15 call date commences.
A NCAA ‘Quiet Period’ is defined as where NCAA coaches may not conduct any in-person, off-campus evaluations or conduct off-campus face-to-face contact with recruits or their family members from April 18 until June 1. Recruits who are in grade 11 & above may take unofficial visits and have face-to-face contact with coaches as long as it takes place on their campus. There is also a NCAA ‘Dead Period from noon March 17 to noon the 21st., which is defined as a period of time when no on or off-campus evaluations or face-to-face contact may be had. In addition, no unofficial or official visits may take place.
Buckle Up!
Help Women’s College Hockey, Go Attend A Game… For years the National Championship tournament has not had what coaches would call ‘True Bracket Integrity… meaning #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7 and so on. College coaches want that. The NCAA was more concerned with saving money, not flying teams to certain sites, then organizing a proper championship experience for teams. That mindset is somewhat gone in 2022 with an expanded field to 11 teams. However, part of the criteria the NCAA uses to determine who plays at each regional site, is based on the potential for a playoff atmosphere. A playoff atmosphere to the NCAA means fans in the stands and to get butts in the seats, means there has to be a local interest in the teams competing… to the NCAA anyway.
Potentially you could have at least two of three teams at a regional site who are geographical close in proximity to one another, without bracket integrity intact. May be you have the #1, #4, and #5 teams, rather than a schedule that protects the top seed.
So here is how you can help… Go attend NCAA regional tournament games no matter your affiliation with teams there. If you’re a fan of women’s college hockey – pack the stands and sell venues out. Make it so the attendance issue isn’t one the NCAA can hang its hat on to create a schedule where they can save money.
Better attendance helps ensure future NCAA tournaments have true bracket integrity and a better national championship experience for our student-athletes–which should be what matters most.
MN State HS Tourney Underway… There aren’t a lot of states who do a better job of putting on a state tournament than Minnesota. Class ‘A’ got underway yesterday and Class ‘AA’ gets underway today. All games are played at the Excel Energy Center, home to the MN Wild. You can watch all games HERE for FREE.
Tune in Thursday to watch the State Girls Hockey Class AA Quarterfinals! These games will be free to view thanks to the support of @TheUrgencyRoom https://t.co/IdfNDVQVZ6 will also be covering the consol. and 3rd place games. https://t.co/CFNub6u5Fp…
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all games live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
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, & the NCAA ‘Power 10’|
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney|
COVID Thoughts |
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey|
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.
As D-I teams are back from the holiday break, most anyway, so too are COVID related scheduling postponements and adjustments as COVID cases pile up within programs. Game status’ seem to change by the hour. It’s reminiscent of what happened last year around this same time. We’ll try to keep you updated on which games are impacted as much as we are able.
The composite schedules of each respective conference will probably have the most up to date scheduling change info – so just click the link for any conference’s composite schedule.
PPD = Postponed, CNCLD = Cancelled, TBD = To Be Determined
Friday, Jan. 7, 2022
RIT vs. Sacred Heart, TBD
Merrimack vs. Northeastern
Holy Cross vs Maine, Saturday, PPD until Sunday Jan. 9th
Providence vs. New Hampshire
Clarkson vs. Princeton
Minnesota-Duluth vs. St. Cloud State, CNCLD
St. Lawrence vs. Quinnipiac, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Syracuse vs. Minnesota State, CNCLD
Connecticut vs. Vermont
Harvard vs. Colgate PPD to Saturday 1/8
Lindenwood vs. Ohio State
Rensselaer vs. Brown
Union vs. Yale PPD, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Long Island vs. Mercyhurst, TBD
Boston University vs. Boston College, PPD
Dartmouth vs. Cornell PPD to Saturday 1/8
Sacred Heart vs RIT, CNCLD
Saint Michael’s vs. Franklin Pierce, CNCLD
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022
Holy Cross vs Maine, PPD until Monday Jan. 10
UNION vs. Brown, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Brown vs. RPI (at Brown, RPI designated Home team)
Dartmouth vs Cornell
St. Lawrence vs. Princeton, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Clarkson vs. Quinnipiac
RPI vs. Yale, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Sacred Heart vs RIT, CNCLD
Long Island vs. Mercyhurst, TBD
Saint Michael’s vs. Franklin Pierce, CNCLD
Syracuse vs. Minnesota State, CNCLD
Minnesota-Duluth vs. St. Cloud State, CNCLD
St. Thomas vs. Minnesota
Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022
Dartmouth vs. Colgate
Harvard vs, Cornell
St. Thomas vs. Minnesota
Monday, Jan. 10, 2022
Harvard vs. Colgate
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
Also receiving votes: Harvard 8, Providence 1
January 3, 2022
The second half of the women’s college hockey season is underway, which means it’s time to get right back to the Power 10 rankings.
Not every team was in action this past weekend, but the matchups of Wisconsin-Quinnipiac and Harvard-Minnesota Duluth were enough to release a fresh batch of rankings.
Wisconsin is back in the saddle as the No. 1 team in the nation, and rightfully so. They took Quinnipiac down, 5-2, in Game 1 on Saturday and then skated to a 1-1 tie with the Bobcats Sunday.
Sophomore forward Casey O’Brien potted a goal this past weekend, extending league-leading goal total to 21. She also added an assist, which brings her league-leading point total to 38. The sophomore was one of college hockey’s biggest offensive threats through the first half. It doesn’t look like anything’s changed in half No. 2.
The Badgers are off this upcoming weekend, but will pick play up against Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Jan. 10.
2. Northeastern (16-2-1) | Prev: 1
The Huskies didn’t play this past weekend and haven’t since Dec. 5.
They’ll begin their second half this Friday against Merrimack.
3. Ohio State (15-3-0) | Prev: 3
Ohio State also didn’t play this past weekend. It will begin the second half this Friday against Lindenwood.
4. Quinnipiac (15-2-3) | Prev: 6
The Bobcats move up two spots in this Power 10 due to their 1-1 tie of Wisconsin in the second game.
Goalie Corinne Schroeder was the biggest reason why Quinnipiac escaped with a tie. The graduate student turned aside 41 of Wisconsin’s 42 shots. Because of her performance, she won ECAC goalie of the week. Schroeder also owns the country’s second best save percentage (.959) and third-best goals against average (1.07).
The Bobcats get right back at it this Friday against St. Lawrence.
5. Minnesota (14-5-1) | Prev: 4
The Golden Gophers didn’t play this past weekend. They open the second half this Saturday against St. Thomas.
6. Minnesota Duluth (11-7-0) | Prev: 7
The Bulldogs opened their second half with two solid wins over Harvard, taking down the Crimson, 5-2, in Game 1 and then, 4-3, in Game 2.
Senior forward Gabbie Hughes potted four goals on the weekend, bringing her season-tally to 14, which is tied for fourth in the nation. Fifth-year Anna Klein chipped in with a two-goal weekend.
Next up is a road series with St. Cloud State.
7. Colgate (15-4-1) | Prev: 5
Colgate didn’t play this past weekend. It opens the second half this Friday against Harvard.
8. Yale (10-3-1) | Prev: 8
Yale also didn’t play this past weekend. It opens the second half on Tuesday against Sacred Heart.
9. Clarkson (15-2-3) | Prev: 10
The Golden Knights didn’t play this past weekend. They open the second half this Friday against Princeton.
10. Harvard (9-5-0) | Prev: 9
Harvard opened its second half with two disappointing losses to Minnesota Duluth by scores of 5-2 and 4-3. Despite the two losses, Harvard stays ranked this week because the Bulldogs were the team that had the higher rank in their matchup.
The Crimson get a chance to right the ship on Friday at Colgate.
USCHO Division I PairWise Rankings
What is the PairWise and why are we including it?
The USCHO.com PairWise Ranking is a system which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants for the NCAA National Collegiate Women’s hockey tournament. The PWR compares all teams by these criteria: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, and the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
For each comparison won, a team receives one point. The final PWR ranking is based on the number of points (comparisons) won against teams under consideration. Ties are settled by the RPI.
The PWR can be reformatted and redistributed by any media outlet or person, provided USCHO’s URL (https://www.uscho.com/) accompanies the results.
We Need to Figure This Out… Recent numbers of positive cases within college hockey programs have fueled game postponements and cancelations. A lot of people, and rightly so, are on edge. Coaches, players, conference commissioners, and school athletic and health administrators to name just a few. The CDC and now the NCAA have provided new guidance how how to manage life with COVID. The NCAA came out with a statement for winter sports Jan. 6, you can read it HERE.
From a scheduling standpoint, it seems like NCAA hockey is back to where it was last year around this time. No one will know if they are going to play until almost the very last minute. It seems like conference schedules are changing by the hour. But this time around, things are different.
For starters, most within a college hockey program has been vaccinated and or boosted. That was not the case last year. The CDC recently cut its quarantine time in half to 5 days for those who test positive. The new NCAA guidance follows that recommendation. Part of the problem with recommendations – they are just that – recommendations. There is no national NCAA COVID protocol standards forced upon schools. Each school can make up their own protocol how to decide who plays/coaches etc. Last season, if you tested positive, players/coaches/staff were out at minimum 10 days. And until a few days ago, the college hockey season had gone on with every program back playing a normal schedule. Not that there wasn’t the odd game postponement or player out due to COVID protocol. But the year was as normal as any could be with the pandemic still raging on.
Some schools/programs aren’t testing much at all – perhaps only if someone has symptoms. Others are testing all players & staff 2 or 3 times weekly. Different protocols are in place for different schools. At this very moment we’ve heard athletes who test positive at one school are out a min. 16 days while at other institutions it’s only 7 or the NCAA recommended 5 days. As of Friday Jan 7, there were 19 D-I Women’s games alone canceled or postponed, which tells me teams and conferences are getting more cases than their athletic/medical departments feel comfortable with. If D-I women’s and men’s basketball is any indication of how things are going to go for hockey. Most campuses don’t have all of their students back yet. Hockey could be a mess for the next 4-6 weeks before things can get back to normal.
Ultimately, I don’t feel we’ll go a place where the season gets cut short like the Spring of 2020. As with most things in life when there is a great unknown, caution reigns supreme. Science knows little about Omicron. And that means most school administrators/decision makers know just as little.
Sifters…
NCAA COVID Eligibility Update… The NCAA just updated its ‘Eligibility Center FAQ’ for D-I & D-II athletes entering college for next fall. With Schools such as Harvard responding to the pandemic by going ‘Test Optional’ in the admissions process over the next several years, perhaps the NCAA Eligibility Center will take a similar approach or evaluate its criteria on a year-by-year basis? I can’t imagine the NCAA requiring SAT/ACT scores in the future and Harvard and others do not.
Conference POW’s… Usually when you see the ‘POW’ one might think a list of each conferences ‘players’ of the week… not so in this case. Think of this segment as more of a VPOW – or Video Plays Of the Week.
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.
