Category Archives: Scores

Post #62 – 12/1/21 – Weekend Recap, Holiday Tourney Rewind, 5th Years, Polls, and Sifters

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

In This Post…

D-I Weekend Recap, Quick Observations |
Holiday Tourney Rewind |
5th Year Players – Worth It? |
Top 12 instead of Top 10, It’s Time |
Polls |
Sifters |

D-I Weekend Recap

Quick Observations

Every D-I game was non-conference this weekend, not one conference game was played. However, there was one game which saw two conference opponents go at it from the ECAC as #6 Yale and #5 Quinnipiac played in the 1st round of the Nutmeg Classic Friday night. Quinnipiac won in a thriller 3-2 in OT.
5 games went to overtime out of 30 played.
5 teams got shutouts in total as of Sunday.
There 11 – one-goal games.
The D1 in DC event took home top spot in terms of attendance for all 4 of its games this weekend. 1,052 spectators watched each game Saturday and 1046 watched each game on Friday for a total of 4,196 on the weekend. Tournament event attendance numbers are below.

D-I Scores

Friday, November 26, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Notes	Summary	Location
7:10 CT	Bemidji State	4	@	Lindenwood	1		Box Score	Centene Community Ice Center, Maryland Heights, MO
2:00 ET	(9) Clarkson	4	@	Maine	1		Box Score	Alfond Arena, Orono, Maine
5:00 ET	St. Michael’s	2	@	Potsdam	3 – OT		Box Score	Maxcy Hall, Potsdam, N.Y.
3:00 ET	(4) Northeastern	2	@	(10) Princeton	0		Box Score	Hobey Baker Rink, Princeton, N.J.
3:00 ET	St. Cloud State	4	@	Rensselaer	1		Box Score	Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, N.Y.
6:00 ET	New Hampshire	7	@	Union	0		Box Score	Achilles Center, Schenectady, N.Y.
7:00 ET	Syracuse	1	@	Vermont	1 – OT		Box Score	Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
6:15 ET	(6) Yale	2	vs	(5) Quinnipiac	3 – OT	Nutmeg Classic	Box Score	Freitas Ice Forum, Storrs, Conn.
3:00 ET	Sacred Heart	1	@	Connecticut	6	Nutmeg Classic	Box Score	Freitas Ice Forum, Storrs, Conn.
1:00 ET	St. Lawrence	2	vs	(2) Ohio State	5	D1 in DC	Box Score	Capitals Iceplex, Arlington, Va.
4:00 ET	(7) Minnesota Duluth	2	vs	Penn State	3	D1 in DC	Box Score	Capitals Iceplex, Arlington, Va.
1:00 CT	Boston College	1	vs	(8) Colgate	2	Smashville Showcase	Box Score	Ford Ice Center, Nashville, TN
4:30 CT	Mercyhurst	0	vs	(3) Minnesota	4	Smashville Showcase	Box Score	Ford Ice Center, Nashville, TN

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Notes	Summary	Location
3:00 ET	St. Anselm	1	@	Dartmouth	2		Box Score	Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.
2:10 CT	Bemidji State	4	@	Lindenwood	3 – OT		Box Score	Centene Community Ice Center, Maryland Heights, MO
2:00 ET	(9) Clarkson	5	@	Maine	2		Box Score	Alfond Arena, Orono, Maine
3:00 ET	(4) Northeastern	3	@	(10) Princeton	1		Box Score	Hobey Baker Rink, Princeton, N.J.
3:00 ET	St. Cloud State	4	@	Rensselaer	2		Box Score	Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, N.Y.
5:00 ET	Potsdam	2	@	St. Michael’s	6		Box Score	C. Douglas Cairns Arena, South Burlington, Vt.
3:00 ET	New Hampshire	4	@	Union	1		Box Score	Achilles Center, Schenectady, N.Y.
7:00 ET	Syracuse	1	@	Vermont	5		Box Score	Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
7:00 ET	Post	0	@	Wesleyan	4		Box Score	Spurrier-Snyder Arena, Middletown, Conn.
2:00 ET	Providence	4	@	Brown	2	Mayor’s Cup	Box Score	Meehan Auditorium, Providence, R.I.
3:00	(6) Yale	4	vs.	Sacred Heart	1	Nutmeg Classic	Box Score	Freitas Ice Forum, Storrs, Conn.
6:15	(5) Quinnipiac	3	@	Connecticut	2	Nutmeg Classic	Box Score	Freitas Ice Forum, Storrs, Conn.
5:30 ET	Penn State	2	vs.	(2) Ohio State	4	D1 in DC	Box Score	Capitals Iceplex, Arlington, Va.
1:00 ET	St. Lawrence	3	vs.	(7) Minnesota Duluth	4 – OT	D1 in DC	Box Score	Capitals Iceplex, Arlington, Va.
1:30 CT	Boston College	2	vs.	Mercyhurst	4	Smashville Showcase	Box Score	Ford Ice Center, Nashville, TN
4:30 CT	(8) Colgate	2	vs.	(3) Minnesota	1	Smashville Showcase	Box Score	Ford Ice Center, Nashville, TN

Sunday, November 28, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary	Location
4:00 ET	Dartmouth	0	@	St. Anselm	1	Box Score	Thomas F. Sullivan Arena, Manchester, N.H.

D-III Scores

Friday, November 26, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
7:00 ET	Concordia (Wis.)	6	@	Buffalo State	1	Box Score
7:00 CT	(3) UW-Eau Claire	1	@	Lake Forest	0	Box Score
5:00 ET	St. Michael’s	2	@	Potsdam	3 – OT	Box Score

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Notes	Summary
3:00 ET	Manhattanville	3	@	Amherst	7		Box Score
3:00 ET	Concordia (Wis.)	7	@	Buffalo State	1		Box Score
3:00 ET	Johnson & Wales	4	@	Conn. College	3 – OT		Box Score
4:00 CT	(3) UW-Eau Claire	2	@	Lake Forest	1 – OT		Box Score
7:00 CT	Finlandia	1	@	Northland	2		Box Score
7:00 ET	Worcester State	7	@	Rivier	0		Box Score
3:00 CT	Marian	1	@	St. Catherine	0		Box Score
5:00 ET	Potsdam	2	@	St. Michael’s	6		Box Score
3:00 ET	Trinity	3	@	Univ of New England	0		Box Score
7:00 ET	Post	0	@	Wesleyan	4		Box Score
3:00 ET	Bowdoin	8	vs.	Stevenson	1	Codfish Bowl	Box Score
12:00 ET	Trine	0	@	UMass Boston	3	Codfish Bowl	Box Score
3:00 ET	(5) Elmira	1	vs.	(2) Middlebury	2	Cardinal/Panther Classic	Box Score
6:00 ET	(9) Endicott	4	@	(1) Plattsburgh	3 – OT	Cardinal/Panther Classic	Box Score

Exhibition

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
7:30 ET	Assumption	1	@	Anna Maria	3	Box Score

Sunday, November 28, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Notes	Type	Summary
5:00 ET	Worcester State	4	@	Anna Maria	1			Box Score
3:00 ET	Johnson & Wales	1	@	Amherst	4			Box Score
3:00 ET	Manhattanville	1	@	Conn. College	3			Box Score
3:00 ET	Northland	1	@	Finlandia	1 – OT			Box Score
3:00 ET	Utica	2	@	Hamilton	3			Box Score
3:00 ET	Salem State	0	@	Trinity	4			Box Score
6:00 ET	Salve Regina	0	@	Wesleyan	2			Box Score
1:00 ET	Trine	2	vs.	Stevenson	3	Codfish Bowl		Box Score
4:00 ET	Bowdoin	4	@	UMass Boston	2	Codfish Bowl		Box Score
5:00 ET	(2) Middlebury	2	vs.	(9) Endicott	1	Cardinal/Panther Classic		Box Score
2:00 ET	(5) Elmira	4	@	(1) Plattsburgh	3 – OT	Cardinal/Panther Classic		Box Score

Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from 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.

Holiday Tournament Rewind

D-I

Smashville Women’s Collegiate Showcase — Nov. 26-27 — Boston College, Colgate, Mercyhurst, Minnesota
- Colgate wins the title beating Boston College and Minnesota in the Championship by identical scores of 2-1.
Nutmeg Classic — Nov. 26-27 — Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, UCONN, Yale (Hosted by UCONN, @ UCONN)
- Quinnipiac won it’s 2nd Nutmeg Classic in a row with a 3-2 victory over UCONN in the Championship game Saturday. In game one, Quinnipiac had to come from behind after trailing 2-0 to 6th ranked Yale to reacch the finals with a thrilling OT 3-2 winner Friday.
DI in DC — Nov. 26-27 — Ohio St., Penn St., Univ. MN-Duluth, St. Lawrence University
- Ohio St. captured the D1 in DC Championship doubling up Penn State 4-2.
Mayors Cup — Nov. 27 — Providence @ Brown
- The pride of Providence, RI was on the line in the annual Mayor’s Cup game between Providence College and Brown University. The Friars took this one 4-2.

D-III

Cardinal/Panther Classic–Endicott, Plattsburgh, Elmira, and Middlebury (Nov. 27 & 28)
- Middlebury wins the title beating Elmira and Endicott in the Championship with a pair of 2-1 victories

Codfish Bowl–UMASS-Boston, Bowdoin, Trine, and Stevenson (Nov. 27 & 28)
- Bowdoin wins the Codfish Bowl beating host UMASS-Boston 4-2 in the Championship game

5th Year Players – Worth It?

Due to COVID, the NCAA provided an opportunity for anyone on a college hockey roster last year to utilize a 5th year of athletic eligibility beginning with the 2021-2022 season. A lot has been said about how the 5th year rule has impacted the recruiting landscape. Some incoming freshmen were asked to take a PG year, some contemplated a new school that was willing to take them this fall, and countless others will be impacted over the next 4 years in various ways.

So, the million dollar question: How have 5th year players impacted NCAA rosters? Are they lighting it up or has the incoming group of freshman and returners passed them by? Is the 5th year worth it for coaches and players? Tough to answer with a little more than one-third to half of the season gone by for most teams, but we can learn a little as we dive into the stats thus far. We looked at each D-I roster and parsed out the 5th years by position as of games ending on Nov. 28th and here is what we found.

There are a total of 80 Graduate 5th year players on D-I rosters this season. 10 Goalies, 24 Defenders, and 46 Forwards.

Here is a rundown on which conferences have 5th years and at each position:

	Hockey East	ECAC	NEWHA	CHA	WCHA
Goalies	4	2	0	0	4
Defenders	10	1	2	1	10
Forwards	17	7	1	5	16
Totals	31	10	3	6	30

A look at the stats tell us:

Goalies

Of the 8 fifth Yr. goalies who have played in at least 6 games, 5 have a winning % over .500.
The lowest save % is .919… highest is .966, shared by two goalies who have played 14 and 10 games respectively.
3 goalies have gaa’s under 1.00… .7958, .8614, and .9161, with 14, 10, and 14 games played.
The least number of games played is 1, 3, and 6. Everyone else is at 7+ with the most being 14.
Only 2 goalies have double digit wins, 12 and 13. Next is 8, 5 and two have won 4.

Defenders

Of the 24 Defenders, only one has not registered a point.
The ave. number of games played is 13.83. Most games played is 18, least amount played is 1, and all Defenders but 1 have played in a double-digit amount of games.
No Defender has more than 4 goals (only 2 do), 9 have not scored a goal.
3 Defenders have double digit assists – 16, 13, and 12 as well as double digits in points–19, 14, and 13.
Only 5 Defenders are a .50 pts/game or better. Tops is 1.12 pts./gm with 17 games played.

Forwards

27 of 46 Forwards are scoring at a .50 pts/gm pace or better and of those 27, 8 are 1.25 or higher. Tops is producing at a 1.9167 pts./gm clip right now.
Only 3 Forwards have scored in double digits, 12, 11, and 11 goals respectively. 32 Forwards have scored just 5 goals or less.
20 Forwards have scored 10 pts. or more with 6 scoring 20 or more.
The ave. number of games played is 14.8. The lowest number of games played has been 8 – by 3 players. 43 have dressed for 10 or more.

Below is a link to our master 5th year stat file in an excel format taken directly from USCHO.com. Notice the tabs at the bottom for each position. **Stat note… all stats are taken from USCHO.com D-I women’s team stat pages. We realize some info may be incorrect, whether it be the graduating year or the actual statistical category number being incorrect. However, it is the most comprehensive stat database in a format that was easily transferable to excel at this time.

Enjoy…

WCH-D-I-5Th-Yr-F-D-G-Stats-as-of-11-29-21-1 Download

Top 12 instead of Top 10, It’s Time

*caution, personal opinion based topic* I think it’s time for the national weekly polls in D-I Women’s Hockey to be a Top 12, instead of a Top 10. Why? 2 reasons. First, the D-I NCAA tournament is moving to 11 teams from 8, and if you’re upping the # of teams, I have to imagine those that follow our sport would like to know who’s potentially on the cusp of a tourney berth. Important to keep in mind these polls do NOT determine who makes the NCAA tourney, but they do tell you which teams are in the conversation to be there. Second, media partners along with the D-I coaches’ blessing, should be doing everything they can to promote more teams on as wide a scale as possible. I don’t know the number of eyeballs that each poll receives each week, but logic says if you increase the number of teams, you’ll get more eyeballs paying attention. As a sport, we want all the positive attention we can grab. And i’ll throw in a third reason for good measure… it matters in recruiting. You get ranked in a poll and that shows well on your program which translates into increased interest from recruits. College coaches constantly hear from club and high school coaches about Susie Smith who wants to play for a top 10 program. Well, now that can change to be a top 12. With the NCAA’s final decision tournament expansion to 11 (which is widely expected to pass… why not 12 teams is a story for another day) being voted on Dec. 15, perhaps the D-I coaching body may find value in the suggestion and we can change our future polls? We shall see…

Top 10 Polls

USCHO Division I Women’s Poll – November 29, 2021

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Wisconsin	(15)	15-0-1	150	1
2	Ohio State		14-2-0	135	2
3	Northeastern		14-2-1	117	4
4	Quinnipiac		15-1-2	100	5
5	Minnesota		12-4-0	93	3
6	Colgate		15-4-1	76	8
7	Yale		9-3-1	57	6
8	Clarkson		14-2-2	42	9
9	Harvard		7-3-0	21	10
9	Minnesota Duluth		7-5-0	21	7

Others receiving votes: Princeton 6, Penn State 4, Mercyhurst 2, Connecticut 1

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

November 30, 2021

	Team	Points	(First Place Votes)	Last Poll	Record	Weeks in Poll
1	University of Wisconsin	190	(19)	1	15-0-1	12
2	Ohio State University	171		2	14-2-0	12
3	Northeastern University	142		4	14-2-1	12
4	Quinnipiac University	126		5	15-1-2	9
5	University of Minnesota	119		3	12-4-0	12
6	Colgate University	95		8	15-4-1	12
7	Yale University	62		7	9-3-1	2
8	Clarkson University	58		9	14-2-2	5
9	University of Minnesota Duluth	42		6	7-5-0	12
10	Harvard University	18		NR	7-3-0	4

Others receiving votes: Princeton 10, Penn State 4, Boston College 4, Mercyhurst 2, UConn 1, Cornell 1.

D-I Power 10

This past weekend featured two exciting and important tournaments in the women’s college hockey world: the D1 in DC tournament and the Smashville Showcase. Both are large reasons as to why there’s quite a bit of movement within this week’s Power 10.

Let’s dive into one of the most interesting rankings of the season so far.

1. Wisconsin (15-0-1) | Prev: 1

The Badgers didn’t play this past weekend. There’s no doubt about it — they’re currently the best team in the nation.

Up next is a big weekend set with Minnesota.

2. Ohio State (14-2) | Prev: 2

Ohio State posted a huge weekend in the D1 in DC Tournament, first taking down St. Lawrence, 5-2, and then beating Penn State, 4-2.

Junior forward Jennifer Gardner and senior defenseman Sophia Jacques traded roles in both games. Gardner tallied two goals against St. Lawrence, while Jacques posted a goal. In the win over Penn State, Jacques registered two lamplighters, while Gardner scored one. Hard to complain with that kind of production.

Next on the schedule is a series with Minnesota Duluth this weekend.

3. Northeastern (14-2-1) | Prev: 4

While the Huskies didn’t participate in a cool-named tournament, they did go on the road to Princeton to take on the Tigers. They swept them, winning, 2-0, on Friday and 3-1 on Saturday.

In the 2-0 win Friday, Northeastern goalie Aerin Frankel posted a 22-save shutout. Princeton responded Saturday by peppering the graduate student goalie with 42 shots, but only mustering one goal. Frankel’s goals against average is tied for second in the nation at 0.86. Her save percentage of .966 is third.

😳😳😳 My goodness, Aerin.

Frankel gets a couple clutch saves and gets a little help from the skaters in front of her to keep Princeton off the board!#HowlinHuskies🐾🏒 | #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/ifVrrtzQUO
— Northeastern Women’s Hockey (@GoNUwhockey) November 27, 2021

The Huskies will look to maintain their spot in these rankings next weekend when they face Cornell.

4. Colgate (15-4-1) | Prev: 7

After a brief time in the second half of this Power 10, the Raiders move back into the top 5 after a terrific showing at the Smashville Showcase.

Colgate edged out Boston College Friday, 2-1, and then-No. 3 Minnesota on Saturday, 2-1. Despite being one of the nation’s top offenses, Colgate could only muster four goals over the two games. Instead, it was its defense and goaltending that saved the day. Freshman goalie Hannah Murphy made 50 stops on 51 shots over the two days.

Here’s a wild stat from the weekend: the Raiders tallied 57 shots on BC goalie Abigail Levy Friday. Props to her for stopping 55 of them.

When it came to the Smashville Showcase, the only thing better for Colgate than earning this high of a spot on this list was winning a guitar for a trophy. That’s pretty cool.

Strung it together.#WePlayFree pic.twitter.com/mSSyIxP9FH
— Colgate Women’s Hockey (@ColgateWIH) November 28, 2021

Colgate can now enjoy a long break, as it doesn’t play another game until Jan. 1 when it takes on Sacred Heart in an exhibition game.

5. Minnesota (12-4) | Prev: 3

After having swept Colgate earlier this season, the Golden Gophers lost in the Smashville Showcase final to the Raiders, 2-1. They beat Mercyhurst, 4-0, the day before.

The big reason for Minnesota falling a whole two spots is a combination of two things: losing to Colgate and Northeastern having a big weekend. Nothing to panic over, Minnesota fans.

Things won’t get any easier for Minnesota, as it faces No. 1 Wisconsin this upcoming weekend.

6. Quinnipiac (15-1-2) | Prev: 5

The Bobcats won the Nutmeg Classic this past weekend, beating then-No. 6 Yale, 3-2, in OT and then UConn by the same score in the championship.

Quinnipiac’s win over Yale was especially impressive, considering it was down 2-0 after one period and spent most of the game down 2-1. It wasn’t until sophomore forward Olivia Mobley scored, forcing OT with 45 seconds left in the game. Graduate student forward Taylor House won the game in overtime.

COMEBACK CITY!!!

Reilly → Peart → T-🏡 for the WIN!! pic.twitter.com/mxFOOuLG75
— QU Women's Hockey (@QU_WIH) November 27, 2021

The Bobcats begin a long break, as they don’t play until Jan. 1, 2022. That matchup comes against Wisconsin.

7. Yale (9-3-1) | Prev: 6

The Bulldogs fell to Quinnipiac in the Nutmeg Classic, 3-2, but then beat Sacred Heart, 4-1, the next day. The matchup with Quinnipiac was as close as it gets, but that’s now two losses to the Bobcats this season.

Like with Minnesota, there’s nothing to panic over for Yale. The only issue for the Bulldogs is having to watch the Bobcats “run” Connecticut.

WE RUN THIS STATE 👏😼🏆 pic.twitter.com/h7JDaJyq9Z
— QU Women's Hockey (@QU_WIH) November 28, 2021

8. Clarkson (14-2-2) | Prev: 9

The Golden Knights posted a great weekend, sweeping Maine on the road. Friday afternoon saw Clarkson earn a 4-1 win, while Saturday brought a 5-2 win.

Junior forward Gabrielle David was the star of the weekend for Clarkson, putting up a hat trick in Game 1 and posting two more in Game 2. She leads her team in goals with 13.

Up next is a home-and-home series with St. Lawrence.

9. Minnesota Duluth (7-5) | Prev: 8

Like many teams in this Power 10, the Bulldogs were apart of a tournament this past weekend. They were down in Washington D.C. for the D1 in DC Tournament. They lost, 3-2, to Penn State on Friday but put together a nice performance Saturday, beating St. Lawrence, 4-3.

Fifth year forward Anna Klein posted three goals over the two games.

Up next is a tough weekend series at home against Ohio State.

10. Harvard (7-3) | Prev: 10

The Crimson didn’t play this past weekend, however they earned a 3-2 win over New Hampshire last Tuesday.

This weekend brings dates with Union and a sneaky good RPI team. The Engineers have a win over a ranked opponent this year (then-No. 9 Providence) and took Colgate to OT on Nov. 12.

Evan Marinofsky has covered the Boston Bruins for CLNS Media and WEEI, covering three postseasons and the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. He covered the UMass hockey team for two seasons for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, including its national championship run in 2021. He also covered the Cape Cod Baseball League for a summer in 2019. You can follow him on Twitter @EvanMarinofsky.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NCAA or its member institutions.

Sifters

Recruiting Schedule Gets BUSY… NCAA programs are winding down over the next few weeks with the Fall semester coming to a close. Coaches will be logging some major miles on the road and in the air as recruiting really begins to pick up in December. The madness kicks off this weekend with events in Chicago and Kitchener/Waterloo in Ontario and continues all across the US and Canada until early January. Things begin to slow down after the IIHF U18 World Championships Jan. 8-16 in Sweden… we hope anyway. This new COVID variant has already cancelled one European event and we hope there is not another.

As promised in our last post, here is a list of the more well-known recruiting events–showcases & holiday tournaments you will see NCAA coaches attending. Just click HERE. We know this is not a complete list–we did not include any prep or high school league games from anywhere that coaches will also make an attempt to get to. So, if there is an event you would like posted on this list, please send us an email to womenscollegehockey@gamil.com with your event details or fill out our online recruiting event form HERE. College coaches will thank you!

FISU Event Postponed… Speaking of COVID concerns, the 2021 Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire has been postponed. The FISU is an international sports event management organization providing University students around the world the chance to compete on a global stage in various sports. This years event was supposed to be held in Lucerne, Switzerland. Northeastern’s women’s and men’s hockey teams were set to compete and represent the United States. See NU’s announcement Tweet below:

From Athletic Director Jim Madigan regarding the cancellation of the 2021 Winter World University Games pic.twitter.com/eBvOqpbmtE
— Northeastern Huskies (@GoNUathletics) November 30, 2021

Streaming Issues?… We heard through the grapevine there were streaming issues with all 3 D-I holiday tournament events ranging from no announcers for some games at the Nutmeg Classic to people paying to watch games that could not be watched, to just poor quality of the stream itself. Again, we have not verified what has been said to have taken place. But if it did, it looks really poor on our sport. In fairness, these events are hard to put on when they are not hosted by an NCAA school with the man-power and resources to produce such an event. That said, if these events are worth putting on, provide a level of service that is the same for all teams participating and make sure the streaming capabilities are functional.

Get Your Tickets… The NCAA released ticket information for the 2022 Women’s Frozen Four earlier this week. Tickets are available for purchase as we speak. See tweet below. The 2022 event will take place on the campus of Penn State University at Pegula Ice Arena in State College, PA.

All-session tickets for the 2022 #WFrozenFour are available NOW!

🎟 https://t.co/A2tHVnVu5S pic.twitter.com/Ek3VJorQOI
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) November 30, 2021

Get To Know Renault… Nice piece by Providence on new asst. coach Nicole Renault can found below.

On this week of Rinkside Report, meet @PCWHockey's new assistant coach, Nicole Renault! #GoFriars pic.twitter.com/2DctFawPkx
— Providence W Hockey (@PCWHockey) November 24, 2021

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 #60 – 11/24/21 – Weekly Recap, Weekly Polls, D-I Tournament Events, Sifters

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

In This Post…

D-I Weekly Recap |
D-I Weekly Polls |
D-I Tournament Events |
Sifters |

D-I Weekly Recap

Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from 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.

Quick Observations

There were 12 shutouts in games this past weekend through tonight — Wednesday — out of 41 games played, just shy of 1/3 of all games where a team didn’t score a goal.
7 games needed overtime, 4 teams won in OT while 3 remained tied after OT. One game, in Hockey East ended in a shootout win for Providence.
MN-Duluth hadn’t played a game in three-and-a-half weeks dating back to Oct. 23/24.
Speaking of Duluth… congrats to grad transfer forward Elizabeth Giguere who notched her NCAA career 250th point in a 5 assist effort vs Bemidji on Nov. 19.

And there it is — Élizabeth Giguère has become the ninth player in NCAA history to reach 250 career points. With four assists today, Giguère now has 104 career goals in addition to 146 career assists. pic.twitter.com/TwUJmyCzml
— UMD Women's Hockey (@UMDWHockey) November 19, 2021

Game Schedule, Results & Box Scores

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
6:00 ET	Post	1	@	Rensselaer	4	Box Score

Friday, November 19, 2021

CHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
2:00 ET	Mercyhurst	3	@	RIT	1	Box Score
7:00 ET	Penn State	1	@	Syracuse	0 OT	Box Score

ECAC

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
6:00 ET	Brown	1	@	(7) Clarkson	5	Box Score
3:00 ET	(10) Princeton	1	@	(5) Colgate	1 OT	Box Score
3:00 ET	(6) Quinnipiac	4	@	Cornell	0	Box Score
6:00 ET	(9) Yale	4	@	St. Lawrence	4 OT	Box Score

Hockey East

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
2:00 ET	Holy Cross	2	@	Boston College	4	Box Score
6:00 ET	Boston University	1	@	Maine	5	Box Score
6:00 ET	New Hampshire	1	@	(4) Northeastern	4	Box Score
6:00 ET	Providence	3	@	Connecticut	3 OT – PC wins SO, 1-0	Box Score

NEWHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:00 ET	St. Anselm	1	@	LIU	5	Box Score
4:00 ET	Franklin Pierce	9	@	Post	0	Box Score
7:00 ET	Sacred Heart	10	@	St. Michael’s	0	Box Score

WCHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:07 CT	(7) Minnesota Duluth	9	@	Bemidji State	0	Box Score
6:07 ET	Minnesota State	3	@	(2) Ohio State	6	Box Score
6:07 CT	(3) Minnesota	6	@	St. Cloud State	2	Box Score

Saturday, November 20, 2021

CHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
1:00 ET	Mercyhurst	6	@	RIT	1	Box Score
3:00 ET	Penn State	3	@	Syracuse	6	Box Score

ECAC

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:00 ET	(9) Yale	4	@	(7) Clarkson	2	Box Score
3:00 ET	(6) Quinnipiac	4	@	(5) Colgate	0	Box Score
3:00 ET	(10) Princeton	0	@	Cornell	2	Box Score
3:00 ET	Brown	1	@	St. Lawrence	2	Box Score

Hockey East

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:00 ET	Vermont	5	@	Merrimack	4 OT	Box Score
2:00 ET	Connecticut	2	@	(4) Northeastern	3	Box Score

NEWHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
2:00 ET	St. Anselm	2	@	LIU	3 OT	Box Score
3:30 ET	Franklin Pierce	3	@	Post	0	Box Score
4:00 ET	Sacred Heart	6	@	St. Michael’s	3	Box Score

WCHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
2:07 CT	(7) Minnesota Duluth	4	@	Bemidji State	1	Box Score
1:07 ET	Minnesota State	0	@	(2) Ohio State	9	Box Score
2:00 CT	(1) Wisconsin	7	@	St. Thomas	1	Box Score
3:07 CT	St. Cloud State	1	@	(3) Minnesota	5	Box Score

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Hockey East

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:00 ET	Boston College	4	@	Boston University	5	Box Score
3:00 ET	Vermont	5	@	Merrimack	2	Box Score
2:00 ET	Providence	2	@	Maine	3	Box Score

WCHA

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
2:00 CT	(1) Wisconsin	5	@	St. Thomas	1	Box Score

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:00 ET	(6) Yale	2	@	LIU	1 OT	Box Score
6:00 ET	St. Lawrence	5	@	RIT	1	Box Score
1:30 ET	Post	0	@	Sacred Heart	4	Box Score
7:00 ET	(10) Harvard	3	@	New Hampshire	2	Box Score

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Non-Conference

Time	Opponent	Opp Score	@	Home	Score	Summary
3:00 ET	Merrimack	1	@	Brown	0	Box Score

D-I Weekly Polls

Beginning this week, we’ll publish three nationally recognized ‘Top 10’ polls – 1) USCHO.com Women’s Top 10 Poll and 2) USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Women’s Poll, and the NCAA Power 10 Rankings compiled by Evan Marinofsky as seen on NCAA.com.

The USCHO.com ranking will be listed first and the USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine ranking listed second when identifying rankings for teams. Example, ‘#4/5’

USCHO Division I Women’s Poll – November 22, 2021

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Wisconsin	(15)	15-0-1	150	1
2	Ohio State		12-2-0	135	2
3	Minnesota		11-3-0	115	3
4	Northeastern		12-2-1	102	4
5	Quinnipiac		13-1-2	93	6
6	Yale		7-2-1	63	9
7	Minnesota Duluth		6-4-0	60	7
8	Colgate		13-4-1	49	5
9	Clarkson		12-2-2	33	7
10	Harvard		6-3-0	12	NR
10	Princeton		5-2-1	12	10

Others receiving votes: Boston College 1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s Poll

(2021-22 Season, Week 11 Poll)

First-place votes in parentheses

RANK	SCHOOL	LAST WEEK’S RANKING	2021-22 RECORD	WEEKS IN TOP 10
1.	University of Wisconsin, 190 (19)	1	15-0-1	11
2.	Ohio State University, 171	2	12-2-0	11
3.	University of Minnesota, 150	3	11-3-0	11
4.	Northeastern University, 121	4	12-2-1	11
5.	Quinnipiac University, 113	7	13-1-2	8
6.	University of Minnesota Duluth, 90	6	6-4-0	11
7.	Yale University, 66	NR	7-2-1	1
8.	Colgate University, 61	5	13-4-1	11
9.	Clarkson University, 43	8	12-2-2	4
10.	Princeton University, 24	9	5-2-1	7

Others Receiving Votes: Harvard, 10; Boston College, 4; UConn, 1; Cornell, 1.

Notes: University of Wisconsin remains in the top spot of the rankings with 190 points and 19 first-place votes… The ECAC leads with five teams in the ranking, while the WCHA has four and the HEA has one… Team records are listed as W-L-T… For past poll results, click here.

About the Poll: The 25th annual USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association. The poll includes input from coaches and journalists representing each of the five NCAA women’s hockey conferences who are eligible for the NCAA Women’s National Collegiate Ice Hockey Championships, as well as composite votes from officers of the AHCA and USA Hockey.

NEW – NCAA Power 10 Rankings… by Evan Marinofsky

WCH will begin to post a new Rankings list and commentary published on the National Collegiate Women’s site on NCAA.com which can be found HERE. It’s put out by Evan Marinofsky who covers NCAA Ice Hockey for the NCAA. Evan is a media professional who covers the Bruins for WEEI and has an extensive college hockey media background. Long story short, he’s credible.

Another great weekend of women’s college hockey has us back for another Power 10 rankings.

This week doesn’t see much movement in the top four, however, there is some serious movement in the middle of my top 10. Yes, I’m looking right at you, Quinnipiac, Yale and Minnesota Duluth.

Let’s dive in.

1. Wisconsin (15-0-1) | Prev: 1

The Badgers are still ridiculously good. They steamrolled St. Thomas this past weekend, winning 7-1 on Saturday and 5-1 Sunday.

Sophomore forward Maddi Wheeler had quite the weekend, potting two goals and two assists in the first game and then adding two more assists in the second. That brings her point total to 18, which is good for fifth on the team. After this weekend, forwards Casey O’Brien (16) and Makenna Webster (14) rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation for goals. Not bad.

After getting this upcoming weekend off, the Badgers will have a big test against Minnesota on December 3 and 4.

2. Ohio State (12-2) | Prev: 2

The Buckeyes had no issues with Minnesota State this weekend, taking the Mavericks down by scores of 6-3 and 9-0.

In the 6-3 win, graduate student forward Clair DeGeorge and senior forward Paetyn Lewis both posted four-point nights. In the nine-goal rout, 12 Buckeyes posted at least one point. Most notably, sophomore Jenna Buglioni registered four.

P2| Clair DeGeorge scores her second of the period with 3:22 on the clock!

Ohio State 6, Minnesota State 0#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/O73keTrtiK
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) November 20, 2021

Next up is the D1 in DC Tournament. Ohio State will play St. Lawrence first and then Penn State.

3. Minnesota (11-3) | Prev: 3

Minnesota had another great weekend, sweeping St. Cloud State with scores of 6-2 and 5-1. Senior forwards Abigail Boreen and Taylor Heise and senior d-man Gracie Ostertag all registered two goals apiece on the weekend.

Here’s a fun stat: In its last four games, Minnesota is outscoring the opposition 28-4. That’s quite the goal differential.

The Gophers will look to continue dominating this weekend at the Smashville Showcase. First up is Mercyhurst, a team very close to earning a spot in these rankings, on Friday.

4. Northeastern (12-2-1) | Prev: 4

The Huskies continued strong play with two victories over good Hockey East opponents this past weekend. First up was New Hampshire, who Northeastern beat, 4-1. The following day was a 3-2 win over UConn.

WOAH: Here are 6 crazy stats from this women’s ice hockey season so far

Even though Friday’s win was only by three goals, the Huskies dominated, outshooting UNH, 46-13. In Saturday’s game against UConn, Northeastern was down 2-0 but rattled off three-straight lamplighters over the final two periods to win the game.

Next up is a big weekend series at Princeton.

5. Quinnipiac (13-1-2) | Prev: 6

The Bobcats move up a spot on my Power 10 for two main reasons. One is they took care of business against Cornell, winning by a final of 4-0. The second, and this one is bigger, is that they took down the team that previously held this No. 5 spot.

That’s right: Colgate had this spot last week, and Quinnipiac beat it, 4-0.

In its biggest win so far this season, the Bobcats got goals from sophomore forwards Sophie Urban and Nina Steigauf, junior forward Jess Schryver and first-year forward Maya Labad.

Quinnipiac moves up in the latest Power 10 rankings.

But the story of the game was graduate student goalie Corinne Schroeder. She stopped all 38 shots she faced from Colgate’s relentless offensive attack, as the Bobcats were outshot, 38-13. After this weekend, Schroeder leads the nation in goals-against average with an incredible .663. She has yet to allow more than a single goal in nine games.

Next up is the Nutmeg Classic. The first game will be against Yale this Friday.

6. Yale (7-2-1) | Prev: 7

Speaking of Yale, the Bulldogs come in this week at No. 6.

They tied St. Lawrence, 4-4, Friday night and beat Clarkson, 4-2, the following day. First-year forward Anna Bargman, junior forward Claire Dalton and junior defenseman Emma Seitz all registered a goal in each game.

This one from Seitz was particularly spectacular.

Seitz's second goal was an absolute beauty!#ThisisYale pic.twitter.com/InEvty1fp1
— Yale Women’s Hockey (@YaleWHockey) November 21, 2021

Up next for Yale is a game against LIU Tuesday night. Then comes its biggest test of the season so far against Quinnipiac in the Nutmeg Classic. That will have massive implications on these rankings.

7. Colgate (13-4-1) | Prev: 5

It was a tough weekend for Colgate. The Raiders tied Princeton, 1-1, and then lost to Quinnipiac, 4-0.

Last week, I said both games would be huge tests for Colgate because each opponent was ranked. In the tie against Princeton, the offense peppered Tigers goalie Rachel McQuigge with 48 shots. She stopped 47 of them. The next day it was more of the same. Once again, Colgate put up a ton of shots (38) and once again, it ran into a hot goalie in Quinnipiac’s Schroeder.

Next up is the Smashville Showcase. Colgate gets Boston College first on Friday. Saturday will bring either Minnesota or Mercyhurst — both very good opponents.

8. Minnesota Duluth (6-4) | Prev: NR

After almost a full month away from competition, the Bulldogs were back playing games. They traveled to Bemidji State this past weekend for a series with the Beavers. Friday’s game was a 9-0 win, while Saturday brought a 4-1 victory. In the nine-goal win, fifth-year forward Elizabeth Giguere posted a team-high five assists.

Minnesota Duluth’s next game is this weekend in the D1 in DC tournament. Its first matchup is against Penn State on Friday.

9. Clarkson (12-2-2) | Prev: 9

The Golden Knights stay put at No. 9 in these rankings after splitting this past weekend. Friday saw Clarkson take down Brown, 5-1. But the following night, Clarkson was bested by Yale, 4-2.

Clarkson took down Brown, 5-1, this past weekend.

There were lots of signs of encouragement in the 5-1 win. The Golden Knights enjoyed scoring from all over the lineup and outshot Brown, 44-23.

Next up is a weekend set against Maine.

10. Harvard (6-3) | Prev: 10

The Crimson didn’t play this past weekend, so no reason to move them out of the No. 10 spot.

Next up is a date with New Hampshire Tuesday night, another weekend off and then Union on Dec. 3.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NCAA or its member institutions.

Holiday Tournament Time

It’s that time of year. Hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is here Thursday and with it, comes a slew of tournament events. Here is a rundown of what’s happening this weekend.

Smashville Women’s Collegiate Showcase — Nov. 26-27 — Boston College, Colgate, Mercyhurst, Minnesota
Nutmeg Classic — Nov. 26-27 — Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, UCONN, Yale (Hosted by UCONN, @ UCONN)
DI in DC — Nov. 26-27 — Ohio St., Penn St., Univ. MN-Duluth, St. Lawrence University
Mayors Cup — Nov. 27 — Providence @ Brown
World University Games — Dec. 10-17 — Northeastern University, Team Switzerland, Team China, Team Canada, Team Russia, Team Japan. You can find out more on this event HERE.

The D-III season is now under way and there are some holiday tournament events being played as well:

Cardinal/Panther Classic–Endicott, Plattsburgh, Elmira, and Middlebury (Nov. 27 & 28)
Codfish Bowl–UMASS-Boston, Bowdoin, Trine, and Stevenson (Nov. 27 & 28)
Castleton Invitational–Conn. College, Castleton, Potsdam, and Colby (Dec 10 & 11)
East/West Showcase–Adrian, Norwich, Elmira, Plattsburgh (Dec. 11 & 12)

Sifters

Katey Stone Wins #500… A 5-2 win vs. Brown on the road Nov. 13th gave Harvard Head Coach Katey Stone her 500th career NCAA win. She now becomes the first female head coach to reach the 500 win plateau. You can read more on Coach Stone’s 500th win HERE. You can find a list of the top 100 coaches in NCAA women’s hockey HERE as well.

NCAA D-I Tourney Expansion Update… Big news came out Tuesday as the Division I Competition Oversight Committee supported the recommendation for expansion of the women’s D-I NCAA National Collegiate Championship tournament to 11 teams in 2022. The NCAA D-I Council still needs to give final approval and will meet Dec. 15th to decide. You can read the official announcement from NCAA.com HERE. The cliff notes version is this:

11 teams make the tournament.
The top five seeds in the tournament would receive first-round byes. The fifth-seeded team would play at the campus site of one of the top four seeds.
Three first-round games would be played at the campus sites of three of the top four seeds in the tournament. The winners of first-round game would receive a day off before playing in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The four second-round winners would advance to the Women’s Frozen Four March 18-20 in Park, Pennsylvania.

Holiday Recruiting Events Dot the Schedule Into December… It’s that time of year. College’s are winding down the first half of their respective seasons over the next few weekends (can you believe it!… seems like the season just started.) and that means one thing: Time to hit the recruiting trail. Several events are taking place around North America beginning this weekend and continuing late into December. Look for our complete list of marquee recruiting events next week. Things kick off this weekend with showcase events in Nashville to coincide with the ‘Smashville’ D-I Thanksgiving tournament as well as the Massachusetts State Championship tournament that gets underway Friday.

21-22 NCAA S-A Guide… Speaking of recruiting, the NCAA came out with its annual Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete. You can download it HERE for free. This is the perfect document for anyone wondering about NCAA eligibility in the post-COVID era. It’s a must read!

Athletic Scholarships for RIT ad Union?… Yes, you read that correctly. Athletic scholarships could be on the way for these two long-time D-III schools with Division I Women’s and Men’s Ice Hockey programs. Final approval of the measure could come at the 2022 NCAA Convention. In late October, the D-III NCAA President’s Council supported a change to legislation concerning Bylaw 15 of the NCAA Manual–Financial Aid. Which would allow a small number of institutions who sponsor a D-III athletic department with a D-I team to give athletic scholarships. Allowing it at the NCAA level is one thing, having each school come up with the $ to fund athletic scholarships is another. A NCAA waiver in 2004 allowed current D-I hockey programs like Clarkson and St. Lawrence to give athletic scholarships. A move to allow D-III schools to fund it’s D-I teams with scholarships could have far reaching impacts for a sport like hockey. I don’t know all the inns and outs of what schools would have to do to elevate their hockey teams to D-I status, but imagine of Adrian, Plattsburgh, or Elmira, wanted to jump up to D-I? Hmmm… Interesting.

Kaplan, Hecker & Fink NCAA Gender Equity Review… If you have not so done yet, give this document a read, you can find it below. It’s absolutely stunning what the findings bring to light about how the NCAA operates, what it holds true to prioritize, and the disparities that exist in certain sports. It’s hard to put into words how bad it is. Ice Hockey as a sport is highlighted as one of the worst culprits in terms of disparities between the student-athlete experience for it’s women’s and men’s programs as well as the NCAA National Championship S-A experience. This document has much to do with the D-I tournament being expanded.

KHF Gender Equity Review Phase II Report (1)Download

Until Next Time…

21-22 Streaming Info

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Post #33 — 3/12/21 — Wknd Wrap-Up, NCAA Polls, NCAA Preview, Sifters

Posted on March 14, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

In This Post…

Recruiting Rule of The Day
WKND Wrap-Up
NCAA Polls
NCAA Preview
Sifters

Recruiting Rule of The Day…
Question: During the temporary COVID-19 recruiting dead period, may a prospective student-athlete reach out to a student-athlete, on his/her own accord, to meet and tour campus?

Answer: During the temporary COVID-19 recruiting dead period, institutions may not be involved in securing or arranging a prospective student-athlete’s visit to campus. However, this does not preclude a prospective student-athlete from reaching out to a student-athlete, on his/her own accord, to meet and tour campus. As previously noted, the temporary COVID-19 recruiting dead period was established by the NCAA Division I Council as one way the Division I membership may be able to avoid the unnecessary health and safety risks associated with travel and in-person interactions between coaches and student-athletes and other individuals they may encounter during these activities.

Weekend Wrap-Up…

All four conference tournaments concluded by the end of last Sunday. Here’s a run-down on how each of the conference tournaments finished up.

Hockey East Notes…

Northeastern won its fourth straight Hockey East playoff championship defeating Providence 6-2 in the Championship game. Northeastern’s path included a 7-0 win over UNH in the quarter-finals and a tightly contested 2-1 semi-final win over UCONN.
Providence made its first trip to the Hockey East championship game under head coach Matt Kelly but it wasn’t easy. The needed a pair of one-goal wins, 4-3 over #6 seed Boston University and it took overtime to get by #5 seed Maine 1-0 in the semis.
Is parity here to stay? Two teams, #7 seed UCONN and #5 seed Maine had to win on the road. UCONN won their quarter-final games as they “upset” #2 seed Boston College 5-1. Maine beat Vermont 3-1 in Burlington and took Providence to OT at Providence. This was UCONN’s 5th trip to the semis in seven years and the second time in as many years it ended BC’s Hockey East championship run.

ECAC Notes…

Colgate won its first ever ECAC playoff championship coming from behind to beat St. Lawrence 3-2. Colgate beat Quinnipiac 2-1 in the semis to get to the championship game.
St. Lawrence had one of the more interesting paths to get to the ECAC finals. Having only started its season in January, SLU’s schedule included playing North Country arch-rival Clarkson three straight games to to end the regular season. SLU won each game 4-3 in OT, 2-1, and 5-1. This ultimately set up game #4 vs. the Golden Knights in the ECAC semi-finals. That’s 4 games in eight days. SLU came out on top again–its fourth straight win 4-3 on OT. However, there was a bit of controversy on the OT goal. Clarkson challenged the OT winner saying the puck hit something as it was flipped into the air, a flag or the scoreboard perhaps. You can’t tell on video what exactly happened. Nonetheless, SLU advanced to ECAC Championship game.

College Hockey America Notes…

Robert Morris University beat Syracuse to win the Peters Cup 1-0 and earned a date with #1 ranked Northeastern in the first round of the NCAA’s. RMU’s path to the CHA championship included a first-round 4-0 over RIT, a 3-2 OT thriller vs. arch-rival Mercyhurst where it had to come from behind down 2-1 heading into the 3rd period. In the final, it was a 1st period Gillian Thompson goal and sold goaltending my Raygan Kirk to seal the win.
Syracuse got by Lindenwood with a 6-0 first round win setting up a semi-final clash with #7 nationally ranked Penn State. The Orange beat Penn State to get to the finals 3-2 but it wasn’t easy. Syracuse built a 3-0 lead heading into the 3rd period where Penn State, playing for it collective postseason lives, scored twice cutting Syracuse’s lead to one, with under nine-minutes to play.
Syracuse had been on a roll toward the end of the season going 9-0-0 before losing to RMU in the finals.

Western Collegiate Hockey Association Notes…

The WCHA was the only conference championship that needed overtime. Tournament #1 seed Wisconsin beat #3 seed Ohio State 3-2 in OT on a Lacey Eden goal, second of the game, less than a minute into overtime. OSU tied the game at two on a Sophie Jacques goal in the 3rd period at about the halfway point.
Wisconsin got to the finals by beating #4 seed Minnesota in its semi-final 5-3. It was the 5th time this season Wisconsin and MN had met. Wisconsin had built leads of 2-0 and 4-3 before putting the game away late in the third period at 19:45 with a tally from Brita Curl.
#3 seed Ohio State squared off against #2 seed MN-Duluth in its semi-final and routed the Bulldogs 7-2. A five-goal second period for OSU sealed its date with Wisconsin for the WCHA title.

NEWHA Commissioner’s Cup Notes…

Last week the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance held a special end of the year event for Long Island Univ. and Sacred Heart, the only two programs to play a consistent schedule of games this season. It was a best two-out-of-three series event with LIU winning the series 2-0.

NCAA Polls…

Weekly polls are out as of March 8th.

USCHO.com Top 10
#1 Northeastern
#2 Wisconsin
#3 Ohio State
#4 Colgate
#5 Minnesota
#6 MN-Duluth
#7 Boston College
#8 Penn State
#9 Providence
#10 Robert Morris

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10
#1 Northeastern
#2 Wisconsin
#3 Ohio State
#4 Colgate
#5 Minnesota
#6 MN Duluth
#7 Boston College
#8 Penn State
#9 Providence
#10 Robert Morris

NCAA Preview…

The dust has settled and the field of 8 is set, but no amount of Head & Shoulders will cure the head-scratching that has gone on since the pairings came out. We’ll save the ‘Why did this team get left out and this team get in’ post for another time, as it probably requires some length to put into context. For now, here is a preview of the first two games and a bit about how the matchups look. We’ll look at the second pair of games in our post tomorrow.

#8 Robert Morris vs. #1 Northeastern | Monday March 15, 2pm EST | Link to Live Stream on NCAA.com

Northeastern comes in as the #1 ranked team in both polls with a record of 20-1-1, its lone loss coming way back on Dec. 13th. NU is led by Senior netminder Arien Frankl who boasts a goals against ave. of just .70 and a ridiculous save percentage of .969%. In front of her is an experienced D corps lead by Patty Kaz Top 10 finalist Skylar Fontaine, as well as Brooke Hobson. Both combining for 40 pts. from the back-end. Up front you have two world class players in Alina Mueller and Chloe Aurard. All told, NU has 8 players in double-digit point territory and with Frankl in net, NU is tough to beat.
Robert Morris University has been to the NCAA’s before and they know the drill, win your conference tournament or go home. They had a strong second half of the year going 7-2 in their last nine game. Overall, the Colonials finished the season 16-7-1 playing a total of 24 games – more than any other team in the country. They led by Sophomore goaltender Raygan Kirk who has some impressive stats herself — a 1.68 GAA and a .945 SV % while winning eight of the thirteen games she played, including the CHA championship game. To NU’s 8 players with double-digit points, RMU has eleven – four are seniors led by Lexi Templeman 29 points.
Northeastern Video Preview

#5 MN-Duluth vs. #4 Colgate | Monday March 15, 7pm EST | Link to Live Stream on NCAA.com

MN-Duluth is in the tournament as the #5 seed after having played just seventeen games this year, fewest of any tournament team. They finished the year with an overall record of 11-6-0, good for a .647 winning % and one win each over Ohio State and Wisconsin. Seven of their seventeen games were against ranked teams–Minnesota twice, Ohio State for three, and Wisconsin for two. They are led from the net out in Swedish star Junior Emma Soderberg who has played in 94.5% of the time this year good for a 1.60 GAA and a .941 save %. Offensively Senior Anna Klein and Junior Gabbie Hughes lead the way with 21 pts. a piece. On the blueline, Senior Ashton Bell leads an experienced group of D.
Colgate the tourney’s #4 seed, has played on the big stage before making it to the national championship game in 2017-2018 losing to Clarkson 2-1 in OT. Colgate is ‘battle tested’ having played fifteen of its twenty-two games vs. ranked opponents at some point this year. Ten of those vs. Clarkson alone and 5 vs. Quinnipiac. Freshman Kayle Osborne leads the way for the Raiders in net with a 1.74 GAA and .925 SV %. Colgate’s offense is led by a talented group of soph’s in Danielle Serdachny and Sammi Smigliani. Freshman Kalty Kaltounkova is second in team scoring with six goals and twelve assists for eighteen points behind Serdachny’s twenty-one points.
Duluth Video Preview

Sifters…

NCAA Tourney to Have Limited Number of Fans… It was announced earlier this week the the NCAA tournament will allow fans up to 15% capacity for all seven games taking in account local and state restrictions. You can find the story HERE and tickets can be purchased online HERE. Erie Insurance Arena has roughly 6,700 seats for hockey which would put attendance at about a max. of 1,000 fans per game.

Awards… With the NCAA tournament coming up, that means it’s awards season. New this year is a national goaltender of the year award (yet to be named) from the women’s hockey commissioners association. The top 10 finalists have been named. Hockey East and the WCHA lead the way with three nominees each. Six of the ten will be in the NCAA tournament. You can see the full list HERE.

Also announced are the top 10 finalists for the Patty Kaz. award. Click HERE for the list of Top 10 finalists. Northeastern leads the pack with three nominees, Clarkson and Wisconsin each have two. The WCHA as a conference leads the way with four nominees total. A group of three finalists will be named March 18th with the winner announced March 27th.

USA Hockey and Hockey Canada Announce Worlds Camp Rosters… For now anyway, the IIHF Senior Women’s World Championships is a go and both the U.S. and Canada have named their respective training camp rosters in preparation of team selection.

Canada… Hockey Canada named 35 players to attend their training camp in Halifax, Nova Scotia that ran from March 1-7. You can find the camp roster HERE. Princeton Junior forward Sarah Fillier was the only player on the camp roster who currently plays in the NCAA. USA Hockey has invited 46 players to its evaluation training camp in Blaine, MN March 24-30. You can view the camp roster HERE. The World Championships are slated to take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia May 6-16.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Streaming Info

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

-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE for homes games at Bemidji, MSU-Mankato, MN-Duluth, and St. Cloud. Streams for home games at Minnesota, Ohio St., and Wisconsin can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games in the WCHA.

Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE and all streams FREE of charge for the 20-21 season.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. home games can be found HERE. Penn St. home game are streamed on the Big Ten Network + and can be found HERE.

Post #31 — 3/3/21 — Conference Tourney Time, Weekly Poll, Scores, sifters

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

Recruiting Rule of the day… NCAA Bylaw 13.1.1.1
Off-campus recruiting contacts shall not be made with an individual (or his or her family members) before August 1 at the beginning of his or her junior year in high school.

In This Post…

Conference Tourney Time
NCAA Weekly Polls
Sifters

Conference Tourney Time…

Hockey East – And Then There Were Two… The #1 seed and nations #1 ranked team the Northeastern Huskies will meet #3 seed and the nations #9 ranked team Providence College for the 2021 Hockey East Championship. This tournament began last week with an 9 vs. 8 ‘Opening Round’ game, then four quarter-final games last Sunday, and two Semi-Final games last night. Here are the scores, highlights, and postgame reaction.

#9 vs. #8 Opening Round Game
#9 Holy Cross 0 @ #8 New Hampshire 3 \| Box / Video Highlights / Postgame

#6 vs. #3 Quarter-Final Game #1
#6 Boston University 3 @ #3 Providence 4 \| Box / Video Highlights & Postgame

# 5 vs. #4 Quarter-Final Game #2
#5 Maine 3 @ #4 Vermont 1 \| Box / Video Highlights / Postgame

#7 vs. #2 Quarter-Final Game #3
#7 UCONN 5 @ #2 Boston College 1 \| Box / Video Highlights / Postgame

#1 vs. #8 Quarter-Final Game #4
#8 UNH 0 @ #1 Northeastern 7 \| BOX / Video Highlights / Postgame

March 3, 2021 Hockey East Championship Semi-Finals
#7 UCONN 1 @ #1 Northeastern 2 \| Box / Video Highlights / Postgame
#5 Maine 0 @ #3 Providence 1 OT \| Box / Video Highlights & Postgame

March 6, 2021 Hockey East Championship Game
Providence vs. Northeastern\| 7:00pm \| NESN-TV

ECAC Quartet Set… Only four teams competed in the ECAC this season with all 6 Ivies and Union / RPI cancelling their seasons. It took until the last regular season weekend of the year do determine tournament seedings. Colgate, the nations #6th ranked team, is the #1 seed and will host #4 seed and the nations #10th ranked team Quinnipiac. #2 seed St. Lawrence will host #3 seed Clarkson. SLU had a late start to its season but managed to climb into 2nd place after three straight wins over Clarkson last week. The highest remaining seed will host the Championship game. You can read more on the tournament HERE. The tournament schedule and streaming info is below.

March 5, 2021 – ECAC Hockey Women’s Championship Semi-Finals
#4 Quinnipiac @ #1 (6) Colgate \| 5:00PM \| ESPN + Stream
#3 Clarkson @ St. Lawrence \| 5:00pm \| ESPN + Stream

March 7, 2021 – ECAC Hockey Women’s Championship Game
#4 Quinnipiac / #1 Colgate winner VS. #3 Clarkson / #2 St. Lawrence Winner \| ESPN + Stream

NEWHA To Host Commissioner’s Cup End of Year Event… The 6-Team New England Women’s Hockey Alliance was not able to have a season. Two teams however, Sacred Heart and second year program Long Island University, were able to play a schedule of non-conference games and a few vs. one another. The NEWHA announced it would host a end of year event for both teams, a 3-game series to win what the NEWHA is calling The Commissioners Cup. You can read the official NEWHA announcement HERE. LIU won the series 2 games to 0 over Sacred Heart.

2021 New England Women’s Hockey Alliance Commissioner’s Cup
Game 1 – Long Island Univ. 3 @ Scared Heart 2 – OT \| Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame
Game 2 – Sacred Heart 2 @ Long Island Univ. 5 \| Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame

College Hockey America Quarter-Final Field Ready To Go… All six teams make the Championship tournament hosted this year by Mercyhurst University at Erie Insurance Arena. The top two seeds, #1 Penn State and #2 Mercyhurst will get first-round byes. Teams will get 60 tickets and a total of 120 fans per game is being allowed. You can read the official tournament announcement HERE. Erie Insurance Arena is also the site of the Women’s Frozen Four March 18-20. The full tournament schedule is below.

March 4, 2021 College Hockey America Tournament First Round
#6 RIT 0 @ #3 Robert Morris 2 \| 2:00pm \| Box / Video Highlights & Postgame–Scroll down page for video
#5 Lindenwood @ #4 Syracuse \| 7:30pm \| Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame

March 5, 2021 College Hockey America Tournament Semi-Final Round
#1 Penn State vs. Syracuse \| 2:00pm \| Stream Info
#2 Mercyhurst vs. Robert Morris \| 7:30pm \| Stream Info

March 6, 2021 College Hockey America Tournament Championship Game
Winner Semi-FInal #1 vs. Winner Semi-Final #2\| 6:00pm \| Stream Info

Top Four In WCHA Set for Final Faceoff… Minnesota’s Ridder Arena will play host to the WCHA’s postseason tournament. This year, only four teams make the field–#1 seed Wisconsin, #2 Minnesota-Duluth #3 Ohio State, and #4 Minnesota. That is a pretty loaded field given Wisco is nationally ranked at #2, Ohio St. #3, Minnesota #4, and Duluth at #5. Schedule and streaming info is below. You can read the WCHA official tournament announcement HERE.

March 6, 2021 WCHA Final Faceoff Semi-Final
Game #1 – #1 Wisconsin vs. #4 Minnesota \| 1:07pm CST\| Stream Info
Game #2 – MN- Duluth vs. Ohio St. \| 5:07pm CST \| Stream Info

March 7, 2021 WCHA Final Faceoff Championship Game
Game 3 – Game #1 winner vs. Game #2 Winner\| 2:07pm CST \| Stream Info

NCAA Weekly Polls…

Weekly polls are out as of March 1.

USCHO.com Top 10 Poll
#1 Northeastern
#2 Wisconsin
#3 Ohio State
#4 Minnesota
#5 MN-Duluth
#6 Colgate
#7 Penn State
#8 Boston College
#9 Providence
#10 Quinnipiac

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10
#1 Wisconsin
#2 Northeastern
#3 Ohio State
#4 Minnesota
#5 MN-Duluth
#6 Colgate
#7 Penn State
#8 Boston College
#9 Providence
#10 Clarkson

Sifters…

USA Hockey Nationals Is A Go… For now anyway. Earlier this week USA Hockey announced it was moving forward with its youth National Championships. You can read their official announcement HERE. The Tier I U14, U16, and U19 Girls Divisions will take place in West Chester, PA. The Tier II tournament will take place in Denver, CO. Dates for both tournaments are April 28 – May 3, 2021.

Canada on the other hand has a national championship at the Midget (U18AAA) age level in the late Spring called the ESSO Cup. That tournament has been cancelled.

The NHLCA Announces Female Coaches Spotlight… The National Hockey League Coaches Association started a female development program last year as the pandemic began. 50 female coaches from across North America took part. Aimed at improving skills development, leadership strategies, communication tactics, and career advancement opportunities, members of the program where available, were paired with their local NHL team to enhance the connection to the local community. You can read the full list of coaches in the program HERE, several of which are coaching at the NCAA.

MN HS Update… High School hockey in Minnesota is in its final month of the regular season. It looks like most teams have played around 12-14 games with some as few as 9-10. The state tournament is one of the great girls high school events around. Minnesota is divided into 8 sections, section winners move on to the state tournament at the Excel Energy Center where the NHL’s MN Wild play. Section tournaments are slated to run from March 15-21 and the State Tournament April 1-3.

Monthly NCAA Zoom Meeting Update… This past Tuesday the NCAA D-I and D-III coaching body along along with conference commissioners and members of the NCAA took part in it’s monthly zoom call. Here is a rundown of what was discussed:

D-III National Tournament Cancellation… The D-III National Championship was cancelled due to low numbers of programs participating due to COVID
D-I Tourney Selection… The D-I National Tournament Selection Committee has been hard at work watching as many games this year as they are able. The ‘eye test’ will play a more prominent role than ‘the math’ this year due to the lack of inter-conference competition
D-I Selection Show Stream… Sunday March 7 at 9PM EST. the NCAA will announce the field of 8 for the National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Championship. The selection show will be streamed by the NCAA live and for free. You can find a link to the NCAA’s D-I women’s hockey page HERE where streaming information should be provided.
NCAA Quarter-Final games on ESPN?… Our NCAA partners said ESPN is working on making arrangements to stream all four NCAA quarter-final games on ESPN3. Nothing is final yet. All NCAA tournament games will be streamed on NCAA.org. Last week we learned ESPN entered into a multi-year contract to televise the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four. The first Semi-Final will be streamed live on ESPN3 and the second semi-final and national championship game will be televised on ESPNU.
Bracket Integrity… One advantage to every game of the national tournament being held at one location vs. just the Frozen Four, is you can have bracket integrity and a true seeded bracket where #1 plays #8, #2 vs. #7, etc. In prior years, the NCAA would have to take into account geography and travel restrictions which didn’t always allow for a true seeded bracket schedule.
A Return to Recruiting… Our NCAA partners on the Zoom call discussed how the NCAA’s D-I Council might handle a return to recruiting come June 1. It is thought the NCAA will 1) not have sport-specific recruiting rules, 2) more than likely allow camps and clinics as part of a first wave of allowable activity for college coaches, and 3) Off-campus recruiting and campus visits could come later in the summer or even latter.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Streaming Info

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

Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE and all streams FREE of charge for the 20-21 season.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. home games can be found HERE. Penn St. home game are streamed on the Big Ten Network + and can be found HERE.

Post #28 — 1/19/21 — Weekend Update, Scores and Highlights, COVID Recruiting, Sifters

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

In This Post…

Weekend Recap…
Scores & Highlights…
COVID Recruiting Update…
Sifters…

Weekend Recap…

To clarify, the first ranking number you see will always be the USCHO.com poll and the second will be from the USA Toda/USA Hockey Magazine Poll.

How The Top 10 fared… Top 10 teams through Sunday’s games went 11-6-1-1-1 (W-L-T-OTW-OTL). #2 Wisconsin swept #1 Minnesota at home in Madison.

#3/4 Northeastern needed OT to beat Maine

#4/3 Ohio State split with #6 Duluth.

#5 Colgate beat #9 Clarkson at home in game one of that series.

#7 Providence swept its weekend series with Merrimack.

#8 Boston College swept its series with Holy Cross.

#10/NR Mercyhurst tied and lost to Robert Morris in OT

#NR/10 Quinnipiac swept its series with LIU.

All scores, game highlights, and postgame reaction can be found below.

COVID Postponements… Due to COVID protocols the Penn State @ RIT and Lindenwood at Syracuse series were postponed.

Conference Standings as of 1/18/21…

Friday Scores & Highlights – 1/15

Holy Cross 2

#8 Boston College 3

Box / Video Highlight s / Postgame Video

#1 Minnesota 0

#2 Wisconsin 5

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video (MN)

#7 Providence 3

Merrimack 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Concordia-Wisconsin 1

Adrian College 9

Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Robert Morris 2

#10/NR Mercyhurst 2

Box / Video Highlights & Postgame Reaction

UCONN 1

New Hampshire 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Bemidji State 1

St. Cloud 3

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Ohio State 0

MN-Duluth 2

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Penn State @ RIT – PPD

Lindenwood @ Syracuse – PPD

Saturday Scores & Highlights – 1/16

#10/NR Mercyhurst 2

Robert Morris 3 (OT)

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Long Island Univ. 0

#NR/10 Quinnipiac 5

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Minnesota 3

Wisconsin 6

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video (MN)

#9 Clarkson 1

#5 Colgate 4

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Bemidji 2

St. Cloud 2 (OT) BEMIDJI Wins Shootout 1-0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

#4/3 Ohio State 1

#6 MN-Duluth 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video UMD

Adrian College 4

Concordia-Wisconsin 1

Box / No Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

UCONN 4

New Hampshire 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Penn State @ RIT – PPD

Lindenwood @ Syracuse – PPD

Sunday Scores & Highlights – 1/17

Merrimack 2

#7 Providence 4

Box / Video Highlights & Postgame Video

Maine 2

Northeastern 3 (OT)

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

#NR/10 Quinnipiac 11

Long Island Univ. 0

Box / No Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

COVID Recruiting Update… Players & Parents Hang In There!

Recruiting in women’s hockey has been turned on its head and in many respects has come to a standstill for certain age groups. Needless to say, it’s been a bit messy. On March 12th, 2020 the NCAA announced the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship due to concerns over COVID. Shortly after that announcement the NCAA announced a temporary ‘COVID’ recruiting dead period which basically meant no off-campus recruiting for D-I coaches nor could recruits and or their families make trips to visit campuses in an official or unofficial capacity. Since then, the COVID recruiting dead period has been extended several times and is currently in effect until April 15, 2021.

As coaches we often tell our players to be patient… things will work themselves out in time. Well… whether you’re a player, a parent, or minor/youth coach reading this, I’d like to offer the same bit of advice – be patient with the recruiting process during COVID.

I’ve spoken to several club and high school coaches since the holidays on how the pandemic is impacting their players. Almost across the board, coaches have intimated their players and parents are on full out freak-out mode relative to their D-I recruiting situations and perceived loss of opportunity–mostly for those who are in grade 11. And the biggest complaint I heard is the lack of information coming from college coaches back to these players and parents. And there is good reason why college programs aren’t providing that info — because they don’t have it themselves, yet.

Part of this angst stems from a recruiting environment we were all used to prior to the pandemic where early commitments and back-and-forth communication was the norm. Players could call coaches on their own and get the info they wanted/needed to make decisions or just to know who had interest in them was nice to know because it meant you might have some options. Since June for those in grades 9 and 10, most of that has been taken away due to NCAA rules. Players in grades 11 and 12 have been subject to a whole new world of college recruiting in the COVID era where coaches won’t know how many spots they’ll need or what there roster could look like in a lot of cases until May or June this Spring. I’ve talked with plenty of college coaches of late, and the sense I get is they want to be patient. Not being able to see players play live doesn’t make for great recruiting decisions. And let’s face it – players haven’t really been able to play. Some yes, but this hasn’t been a normal hockey season of development. Add in a whole class of NCAA players who can come back and play next year and you have a new transfer market college coaches are now taking into account. Trouble is, college coaches won’t know who’s going to transfer in a lot of cases until this Spring.

When I first started coaching in the early 2000’s, coaches wouldn’t even call players for the first time until the summer between a players’ junior and senior year when the rules said we could. Official visits were a real and a vital aspect of the recruiting process which absolutely helped determine who we made official offers to… after the player came to campus. Players would actually take multiple visits to schools before making a decision and for the most part were patient with the process.

Then, all of a sudden the process changed and early recruiting/commitments became the norm. So too did the expectations of players, parents, and their club or high school coaches. Patients in the process went out the window. Enter the pandemic, a NCAA dead period that will last at least 13 months, and NCAA rules allowing current college players an extra year of eligibility… Welcome back to the early 2000’s and programs taking their time to make recruiting decisions.

Here is the reality for a lot of college programs–they don’t even have all of the info they want and need to make recruiting decisions. In part because watching live games of club and high school hockey has been off-limits due to the dead period. And also because the NCAA threw a nice wrench into the mix granting all players on a roster this year an extra year of eligibility. A lot of programs are still trying to hash-out what seniors may come back or transfer elsewhere. Chances are that won’t be known until sometime this Spring after the season is over.

The old saying ‘control what you can control’, really applies here – otherwise you are going to drive yourself nuts over-thinking all of this. You can’t control what the NCAA does nor a college program.

So if you want to be smart, use this time to your advantage and take control of your development. Do what you can to make yourself a better player so when the time comes for coaches to get back out on the road and watch games live, you’re ready and can show them how much you’ve improved. You might have to re-think your approach to your process like taking a gap year somewhere or you might have to consider other schools where you know there is an opportunity for you. Because there are still spots available out there – but you have to be good enough to get one. Case in point… when the Univ. of North Dakota dropped their program in March of 2017, all but a player or two found a home. That meant there had to be space on rosters and scholarship money available to give out – and there was. So, if you’re one of those players who’s in a holding pattern and haven’t heard much from the coaches you were chatting it up with this summer or early fall, take a deep breath, hang in there and be patient as you let this crazy process play itself out. Things will get better but it will take some time.

Sifters…

Transfers Make Debuts… A couple of recent transfers have made debuts with their new teams. Freshman forward Lacey Eden was supposed to suit up for Princeton this year but has found her way to Madison, Wisconsin and is now a Badger. She skated in her first game this past weekend in UW’s sweep in #1 ranked Minnesota. You can read her story HERE. Maureen Murphy suited up for Northeastern this past weekend after spending 2+ years at Providence College. The Hockey East executive committee granted her immediate eligibility beginning this Spring semester. You can read her story HERE.

A Change for the May Quiet Period… There has been talk D-I Coaches will try and request the NCAA to suspend its self-imposed May quiet period this Spring. D-I coaches in women’s hockey have long had what is called the May Quiet Period where from the Monday prior to the American Hockey Coaches Association convention (usually late April) and ending 12:01am June 1, coaches were not allowed to go off-campus to recruit and evaluate or meet face-to-face with perspective players and their families. So, with the NCAA COVID temporary dead period slated to end on April 15, that would give D-I coaches a 10 day stretch to get out and watch players play. Not exactly an ideal amount of time to make recruiting decisions. By April 15, D-I coaches will have gone a year + without being able to watch players live. We’ll keep you posted on future developments.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Post #27 — 1/15/21 — mon / tues scores and highlights, ncaa polls and wknd schedule, sifters

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

IN THIS POST…

Monday/Tuesday Scores & Highlights…
Polls and NCAA Weekend Schedule…
Sifters…

Monday Scores & Highlights

Lindenwood 5

RIT 1

Box / No Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Long Island Univ. 1

Clarkson 5

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Tuesday Scores & Highlights

Long Island Univ. 1

Clarkson 8

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Providence 0

Northeastern 4

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Polls for the Week Jan. 11…

Both polls are out after last weekend’s games and they are identical. We have a new #1 and Penn State debuts at #10 in both polls for the first time this season. Congrats to coach Kampersal and his staff. Penn State is currently 6-1-1.

RNK	TEAM
#1	Minnesota
#2	Wisconsin
#3	Ohio State
#4	Northeastern
#5	Colgate
#6	MN-Duluth
#7	Providence
#8	Boston College
#9	Clarkson
#10	Penn State

USCHO.COM Top 10 Poll

RNK	TEAM
#1	Minnesota
#2	Wisconsin
#3	Ohio State
#4	Northeastern
#5	Colgate
#6	MN-Duluth
#7	Providence
#8	Boston College
#9	Clarkson
#10	Penn State

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Poll

Weekend Schedule…

Schedule in full swing… Once again we have a packed schedule over the next 5 days–24 games in all from today through Wednesday. NESN Plus will once again provide some televised Friday afternoon hockey at 2pm today with Holy Cross traveling to play Boston College. NESN Plus will also carry game 2 Saturday at 6:30pm. As always, streaming info is at the very bottom of each post. We’ll keep you updated throughout the weekend with scores and highlights if we can find them.

Notable Games… For the first time this year we’ll see the consensus #1 vs. #2 in what is known as the ‘Border Battle’ between #1 Minnesota vs #2 Wisconsin. This will be the 107th meeting all-time between these two programs. Both games will be in Madison and are set for a 3:07pm EST puck drop each day. Friday’s game will air on BTN+ and Saturday’s will also air on Fox Sports North as well as BTN+.

Also in the WCHA, #3 Ohio State travels to take on #6 MN-Duluth.

In the ECAC, #9 Clarkson and #5 Colgate will play a Saturday / Monday home-and-home series. Game one is set for Saturday 4pm at Colgate. Clarkson is coming its first two games of 2021 in a sweep of LIU while Colgate managed a sweep of ECAC opponent Quinnipiac. This will be the 5th and 6th games these two teams play against one another this year already… and 4 more are scheduled for later this year.

In the CHA, Robert Morris travels to play Mercyhurst for two games. Robert Morris is coming off getting swept by Penn State last weekend and the Lakers last played on Jan. 7 beating RIT 4-0.

And in Hockey East, #7 Providence takes its 7-1-1 record on the road to Merrimack Friday. On Sunday, the Friars return home to face Merrimack on the back-end of their home-and-home series.

And for the first time in quite a while we have some D-III hockey action to talk about as Concordia-Wisconsin travels to play Adrian College Friday at 4pm. You can watch that game live HERE. The same two teams will pack-up the busses after Friday’s game and head back to Wisconsin to play the very next day at 5pm CST.

Sifters…

COVID Postponements… Penn State will have to wait at least one more weekend to defend its new top 10 ranking as their next two series with RIT have been postponed beginning with this weekends’ games due to RIT COVID protocols.

Vermont’s series with Maine has been postponed due to COVID protocols within Vermont’s program.

The NHL, it’s back… The NHL began its 2021 season this past week and we saw some fans in the stands!

3.2 seconds left?

More than enough time for Phil! pic.twitter.com/RdSQsx9vgN
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) January 15, 2021

Streaming Info

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

Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE and all streams FREE of charge for the 20-21 season.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. home games can be found HERE. Penn St. home game are streamed on the Big Ten Network + and can be found HERE.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Post #26 — 1/12/21 — wknd recap, scores and highlights, nwhl in lake placid, sifters

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

In This Post…

Weekend Recap…
Scores & Highlights…
NWHL Set to Compete in Lake Placid Bubble…
Sifters…

Weekend Recap…

To clarify, the first ranking number you see will always be the USCHO.com poll and the second will be from the USA Toda/USA Hockey Magazine Poll.

How The Top 10 fared…

Consensus #1 Wisconsin hosted #4/3 Ohio State and split winning game 1 but losing game 2 in overtime. Both games had identical scores of 2-1.

#2 Minnesota played a home-and-home-and-home vs. St. Cloud Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Gophers came away with the three-game sweep winning 2-1, 4-1, and 4-0. Taylor Heise paced the Gophers with a Hat-Trick on Sunday while linemates Emily Odena and Freshman Abby Murphy each chipped in with 3 assists.

#3/4 Northeastern hosted New Hampshire and took game one 3-1 Friday night. Saturday the series shifted to the Olympic sheet of the Whittemore Center at UNH and ended in a tie 2-2. Chavonne Truter for UNH tied the game with just under three minutes to go. After a scoreless overtime, UNH won the extra point in a 5-round shootout 1-0.

#5 Colgate hosted #NR/10 Quinnipiac for a pair of games and came away with two wins, 4-0 and 4-1. Colgate improves to 6-1-1 and Quinnipiac falls to 3-2 on the year. Colgate’s Danielle Serdachny had 4 points, two each game, to help Colgate secure the sweep.

#6 MN-Duluth was idyle.

#7/9 Providence traveled to Holy Cross Saturday and came away with a 5-2 victory. Providence went up 1-0, then found themselves down 2-1. Providence would then score 4 unanswered goals with Hayley Lunny, Sara Hjalmarsson, and Annelise Rice getting two points a piece on the day.

#8 Boston College played a home-and-home with Merrimack and swept both games 5-3 at home and 3-1 on the road in North Andover. BC forward Willow Corson had a three-point weekend to help BC move to 7-3-0 on the year while Merrimack falls to 1-5-0.

#9/7 Clarkson was Idyle

#10/NR Mercyhurst was supposed to host Sacred Heart, but those games were postponed.

In other games…

MSU-Mankato @ Bemidji… Mankato swept Bemidji 2-1 and 4-0.

Vermont @ UCONN… Vermont got the road sweep at UCONN shutting out the Huskies 2-0 Friday and on Saturday coming back from a two-goal deficit to win in OT. Freshman goaltender Jessie McPherson got her 2nd shutout of her career in as many games Friday. Vermont moves to 5-1-0 and UCONN stands at 3-5-1.

Penn State @ Robert Morris… The Nittany Lions of Penn State did something they never have – they swept Robert Morris. Penn State followed up Friday 3-2 win with a commanding 4-0 victory on Saturday.

Lindenwood @ RIT… Lindenwood got its 1st victory of the year downing RIT 2-0 on Sunday. Game 2 is set for Monday at 3pm est.

COVID Postponements… Due to COVID protocols at Sacred Heart, Mercyhurst postponed its game with the Pioneers. No make-up date has been schedule.

Conference Notes… NEWHA Announces Season Plans… Hockey East Video Update… WCHA Commissioners Corner Video… ECAC Season Promo Video… CHA Releases 2nd Half Schedule…

Friday Scores & Highlights – 1/8

Merrimack 3

Boston College 5

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

#4/3 Ohio State 1

#1 Wisconsin 2

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

MSU-Mankato 2

Bemidji 1

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

New Hampshire 1

#3/4 Northeastern 3

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Vermont 2

UCONN 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Penn State 3

Robert Morris 2

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Saturday Scores & Highlights – 1/9

#4/3 Ohio State 2

#1 Wisconsin 1 (OT)

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

#8 Boston College 3

Merrimack 1

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Penn State 4

Robert Morris 1

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Vermont 3

UCONN 2 (OT)

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

MSU-Mankato 4

Bemidji 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

#NR/10 Quinnipiac 0

#5 Colgate 4

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

St. Cloud 1

#2 Minnesota 4

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

#3/4 Northeastern 2

New Hampshire 2 (OT) UNH Wins Shootout

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

#7/9 Providence 5

Holy Cross 2

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Sunday Scores & Highlights – 1/10

#NR/10 Quinnipiac 1

#5 Colgate 4

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Lindenwood 2

RIT 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

#2 Minnesota 4

St. Cloud 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Sacred Heart –

#10/NR Mercyhurst –

PPD

NWHL Set to Compete in Lake Placid Bubble…

The National Women’s Hockey League is in final prep mode for its 2-week bubble season that begins with player arrival January 21.

The NWHL bubble is taking place in Lake Placid, New York with team arrivals scheduled to take place Jan. 21 through 23 in a staggered fashion. A final schedule will be made public soon. We do know the semi-finals and championship game will be broadcast on NBCSN Feb. 4 and 5. This will be the first time a major television network in the US will broadcast professional women’s hockey.

Sifters…

One More Opts-Out… Division III Finlandia University of the NCHA has opted-out of the 20-21 season sighting the health and safety concerns for the program. You can read the full announcement HERE. The Finlandia men’s team still plans to continue play this season. The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association is set to begin play after Jan. 14 and a full conference schedule is expected to come out soon.

Predetermined sites for all NCAA Winter Championships… The NCAA announced yesterday it will hold all Winter sport championships at predetermined sites, this includes D-III women’s and men’s hockey. Championship sites that have been previously announced can continue to host provided local and state health authorities say it is safe to do so. The women’s D-I championship is scheduled to be played in Erie, PA March 19-21. You can read the NCAA’s official announcement HERE.

A New #1… The USCHO.com Top 10 poll has been released and we have a new #1 – the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Gophers had a 3-game sweep of Saint Cloud this past weekend, while previous #1 Wisconsin split with Ohio State. We’ll have a rundown of both polls tomorrow.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Post #25 — 1/8/21 — WED / THURS RECAP, NCAA POLL AND WKND SCHEDULE, SIFTERS

Posted on January 8, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

IN THIS POST…

Wednesday/Thursday Recaps…
Polls and NCAA Weekend Schedule…
Sifters…

Wednesday Scores & Highlights

RIT 1

Mercyhurst 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Sacred Heart –

Long Island Univ. –

PPD – COVID – Write-Up

Thursday Scores & Highlights

Mercyhurst 4

RIT 0

Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

St. Cloud State 1

Minnesota 2

Box / NO-Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Polls for the Week Jan. 4…

Both polls are out after last weekend’s games. Some variance between the two towards the bottom.

RNK	TEAM
1	Wisconsin
2	Minnesota
3	Northeastern
4	Ohio State
5	Colgate
6	MN-Duluth
7	Providence
8	Boston College
9	Clarkson
10	Mercyhurst

USCHO.COM Top 10 Poll

RNK	TEAM
1	Wisconsin
2	Minnesota
3	Ohio State
4	Northeastern
5	Colgate
6	MN-Duluth
7	Clarkson
8	Boston College
9	Providence
10	Quinnipiac

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Poll

Weekend Schedule…

It’s a packed schedule as the college hockey schedule is now back in full swing. As you can see below, we do have a few TV games on NESN, 2pm and 4:30pm today Friday. As always, streaming info is at the bottom of each post. We’ll keep you updated throughout the weekend with score and highlights if we can find them.

Sifters…

One More Team Begins Play Soon… St. Lawrence University is back on campus and will take part in the ECAC schedule. Players recently arrived on campus and are going through COVID protocol. If all goes well, SLU will play their first game vs. Colgate Jan. 22.

USA Wins World Junior Tourney… Team USA beat arch rival Canada 2-0 to win the gold medal at the IIHF World Jr. Championships. What a performance from USA goaltender Spencer Knight, he was spectacular. It doesn’t matter how good a team you have in front of you, teams need excellent goaltending if you want to win – as well as goal scoring. Very entertaining game to watch… it looked like the pace Team USA played at was a bit much for Canada to handle at times. And what an advertisement for NCAA college hockey… Congrats to the all NCAA coaching staff of Team USA, including Theresa Feaster, the first women asst. coach at a major men’s IIHF event.

COVID Recruiting… Interesting article about Wisconsin’s recruiting. You can read it HERE. It brings up a topic we posted earlier about – recruiting in the new COVID era for college hockey. This is a topic we are going to pick up again with a more in-depth post. Wisco is not the only school who will ‘wait and see’.

Streaming Info…

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

Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE and all streams FREE of charge for the 20-21 season.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. home games can be found HERE. Penn St. home game are streamed on the Big Ten Network + and can be found HERE.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Post #24 — 1/5/21 — WKND RECAP, SCORES AND HIGHLIGHTS, SIFTERS

Posted on January 5, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

In This Post…

Weekend Recap…
Scores & Highlights…
Sifters…

Weekend Recap…

How The Top 10 fared… Teams in the Top 10 went 6-0-0 this weekend as of Sunday evening. #1 Wisconsin squeaked by MSU-Mankato winning two 1-goal games, 3-2 and 1-0. It was the Badgers first set of games in a little more than a month. #3 Northeastern Swept Maine 3-0 on Sunday and 1-0 Monday. In the process, Northeastern goaltender Aerin Frankl recorded her 20th and 21st career shutout and is now the new program shutout leader. #4 Ohio State took two games from Bemidji State 4-1 in game one and 7-1 in game 2 where OSU had 68, yes–68– shots on goal. Mercyhurst won its lone game of the weekend, an exhibition game vs. D-III Adrian College which we talked about in our previous post. Mercyhurst went up 3-0 after two periods but Adrian came out strong in the 3rd, out-shooting Mercyhurst 7-5 and scoring two goals in the process making for a very entertaining period.

D-III Adrian College Continues D-I Swing… Up next for Adrian was another CHA opponent Robert Morris University as it continued on its New Year’s D-I swing Monday afternoon. Things didn’t go as well for Adrian as they did at Mercyhurst as Robert Morris proved to be too much. RMU forwards Lexi Templeton and Michaela Boyle paced the way for RMU with three points each and all three goaltenders for RMU saw action. We don’t have game highlights below at this time but we’ll post them once available.

Vermont swept Holy Cross in Burlington beating the crusaders 4-0 and 6-1. Vermont held Holy Cross to 16 and 17 shots on goal respectively. Vermont freshman goaltender Jessie McPherson earned her first career start, win and shutout on Friday. Not a bad way to begin your college career.

Quinnipiac fired 53 shots on net enroute to a 6-0 win vs. Long Island University Sunday. This was LIU’s first game of this season, while only the 3rd for the Bobcats. Quinnipiac and LIU will meet 3 additional times this season. In two weeks QU and LIU will play in a home-and-home series Jan. 16-17 and one final time Feb. 26.

COVID Postponements… #6 Minnesota-Duluth had to postpone it series with the #2 ranked Univ. of Minnesota Golden Gophers as Duluth did not have the minimum number of players required by WCHA return-to-play protocol. No timetable has been given for a makeup date. Duluth was supposed to travel to Minneapolis.

Hockey East announced Saturday’s game between #3 Northeastern and Maine would be rescheduled on Monday Jan 4. No reason was given as to why the game was moved to Monday. Game time is still set for 4pm and will air on NESN.

Friday Scores & Highlights – 1/1

Holy Cross 0

Vermont 4

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Bemidji State 1

Ohio State 4

Box / No Video/Write-up / Postgame Video

Saturday Scores & Highlights – 1/2

Holy Cross 1

Vermont 6

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-up

Adrian 2

Mercyhurst 3

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-up

Bemidji 1

Ohio State 7

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Wisconsin 3

MSU-Mankato 2

Box / Video Highlights / MSU-Postgame Video

Wisconsin Postgame Video

Sunday Scores & Highlights – 1/3

Wisconsin 1

MSU-Mankato 0

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Wisconsin Postgame Video

Maine 0

Northeastern 3

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Long Island Univ. 0

Quinnipiac 6

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-up

Monday Scores & Highlights – 1/4

Maine 0

Northeastern 1

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Adrian 0

Robert Morris 7

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Sifters…

1980 Miracle On Ice Teammates Face-Off… Wisconsin Badger head coach Mark Johnson and Minnesota State Mankato head coach John Harrington, teammates on the 1980 USA Gold Medal Olympic Team, faced each other as their teams battled it out this weekend. You can imagine how competitive these two individuals are having not only been Olympic athletes, but major contributors as Team USA beat the Russians at the Olympics in 1980. We can only imagine the pre-game speeches. I’m sure neither likes losing, much less to one another, but in college hockey there are no ties. Coach Harrington came into this weekend having won the last game going back to Feb. of last season. This time around, coach Johnson now has the upper hand beating MSU-Mankato twice in close games.

Minnesota High School Hockey Revs Up, COVID Masks Mandatory… Minnesota High School Hockey started today. Monday 1/4/21 is the first official practice day with 1/14/21 the first official start day for games. COVID mask coverings will be mandatory to wear. Additionally, in almost all cases no spectators will be allowed at practices. For now, games will be without fans and concessions… AKA the snack-bar, will not be selling food items. Girls hockey will have an 18-game schedule followed by the state tournament playoffs. Tourney dates are TBD as of now.

NCAA Temporary COVID Recruiting Rules Update… On Dec. 18th the NCAA updated its temporary COVID dead period rules, some of which affect coaches like yourselves. D-I coaches are not allowed to have in-person contact with coaches or individuals associated with prospective student-athletes. With all of the COVID state travel restrictions, I doubt there is a lot of this happening in our sport, but nonetheless, the NCAA put it in writing. We’ll be putting together a ‘NCAA Rules You Should Know’ post very soon–should be very informative for coaches, players, and parents.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Post #23 — 1/1/21 — HAPPY NEW YEAR! UNH / HOLY CROSS RECAP, POLLS AND WKND SCHEDULE, SERIES PREVIEWS, SIFTERS

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Grant Kimball Leave a comment

IN THIS POST…

Happy New Year!..
New Hampshire/Holy Cross Recap…
Weekend Schedule/Polls…
Series Previews…
Sifters…

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2021… and good riddance to 2020. Wow – what a year it has been. No need to go into details, you know them all too well. But as a new year begins, we at the Bulldog Pipeline would like to wish everyone a healthy and safe start to a prosperous and joyful year ahead.

Great things are happening at Yale with our program and we can wait to get back to a more normal way of life and college hockey season. Happy New Year!

New Hampshire vs. Holy Cross Recap…

New Hampshire 2

Holy Cross 5

Box / Video Highlights / Postgame

In almost a complete reversal from a week earlier, Holy Cross up-ended New Hampshire 5-2 for its third victory of the year. Holy Cross netminder Jada Brenon turned aside 49 of 51 UNH shots for the win and good for a .960 save %. It was just a week earlier on Dec. 23rd where Holy Cross found itself on the wrong side of a 6-2 loss against UNH. Holy Cross was a perfect 3-for-3 on the power play and 5-of-6 on the penalty kill while UNH only went 1-for-7 on the PP. These two teams will meet again in a home-and-home series in late February.

Weekend NCAA Schedule/Polls…

All Times are Eastern Standard Time, EST.

Observations…

D-III vs. D-I… NCAA Division III Adrian College is continuing their season against two D-I teams this weekend. Tonight, it’s facing nationally ranked (USCHO.com poll) Mercyhurst University and Monday will take on vs. Robert Morris University, another strong CHA opponent. RMU is a program that has been to the NCAA tournament and nationally ranked before. So you have one of the best programs in D-III going against some of the best in Division I. Should be an interesting match-up. For those who don’t know or follow D-III hockey all that much, you should. After many years as a D-I asst. coach, I got the opportunity to start a D-III program from scratch as the head coach at Aurora University and play in the same conference as Adrian. We took a beating, granted we were a brand new team, but they were tough, skilled, and well coached. I can tell you there is some excellent hockey being played at that level. Adrian College is just one of many D-III teams that have a long tradition of success with a quite a few D-III alumni playing on NWHL rosters.

The University of Wisconsin… The Badgers will finally get to play its 3rd & 4th games of the year this weekend vs. Minnesota State University-Mankato. After only playing its first series of the year back in late November, UW is still currently ranked #1 in both the USCHO.com and USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today Top 10 polls.

Long Island University… Head Coach Rob Morgan and the Sharks get their first game action of the year as they take on Quinnipiac Sunday. The Sharks are coming off the programs’ inaugural season in 2019-2020 as a D-I program where they won the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance playoff championship. LIU and Sacred Heart are the only NEWHA teams to play this season.

National Polls – Week of Dec 28…

Weekly Polls… With no games last week, there are no updated weekly polls.

What the Top 10 are up to…

Where Is The Top 10 This Week… As we mentioned above, #1 Wisconsin is back at it this weekend vs. MSU-Mankato for 2 games. #3 Northeastern and #4 Ohio State are back in action since before the holiday break. Northeastern hosts Maine while Bemidji travels to Columbus to face the Buckeyes. #10 Quinnipiac hosts D-III power Adrian College for one-game Friday.

#2 Minnesota, #5 Colgate, #6 MN-Duluth, #7 Clarkson, #8 Boston College, and #9 Providence are all idle this weekend.

Series Previews…

Holy Cross @ Vermont	Video Preview
Bemidji @ Ohio State	Video Preview
Adrian @ Mercyhurst	Video Preview
Wisconsin @ MSU-Mankato	Video Preview
Maine @ Northeastern	TBA
Long Island Univ. @ Quinnipiac	TBA

Streaming info is below. TBA series previews will be updated as they become available.

Sifters…

Women’s Hockey On TV… The New England Sports Network (NESN) will televise each game of the Maine/Northeastern series this Saturday and Sunday. Games time are set for 4:30PM & 4PM. I will say NESN has done a great job of broadcasting women’s hockey games this season. Curious to know if the uptick in the amount of televised women’s games was a contractual obligation with Hockey East and would have happened anyway w/ out COVID? Anyway, it’s nice to see a major sports network broadcasting games.

Men’s World Junior Tourney… The IIHF Men’s U20 World Junior Championships are entering its playoff phase in Edmonton, Alberta. They are using a very similar bubble approach to hosting the event as did the NHL. Team Canada and Team USA came in first-place of their respective groups.

Sweden… Tre Kronor, who had won 54 strait preliminary round games dating back to 2006, has now lost two games in a row. They lost 4-3 in OT to Russia Dec. 30 and 4-0 last night to Team USA. That is quite a streak! Interestingly, Team Sweden’s loss in 2006 cam when the tournament was held in Sweden to Team USA in OT. Jack Johnson scored the winner.

Germany Moves to Quarter Finals… Team Germany is moving on the to Quarter Finals for the first time… ever with a thrilling 4-3 win over Switzerland. And they’ve done so with a shorthanded group too. Several players tested positive before the tournament began which gave Germany just 14 skaters through the first few games of the tournament. Credit Germany’s first round pick in the 2020 NHL draft Tim Stutzle – this kid is fun to watch.

Streaming Info

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

Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE and all streams FREE of charge for the 20-21 season.

-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. home games can be found HERE. Penn St. home game are streamed on the Big Ten Network + and can be found HERE.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

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