We’ll take a look at the upcoming weekly D-I schedule|
See who’s ranked in the USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the ‘Power 10’ national polls|
NCAA Tourney Preview|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey|
D-I Weekly Schedule
Thursday March 10th, 2022
Minneapolis Regional – Harvard vs. Minnesota-Duluth 7pm EST. WATCH B1G+ (FREE)
Columbus Regional – Syracuse vs. Quinnipiac 6pm EST. WATCH – B1G+ (FREE)
Boston Regional – Clarkson vs. Wisconsin 7pm EST. Watch – SportsLive (FREE)
Friday March 11, 2022 – DAY OFF
Saturday March 12, 2022
Boston Regional Final – Clarkson/Wisco winner vs. #3 Northeastern 1pm EST. Watch – SportsLive (FREE)
Hamilton Regional Final – #5Yale vs. #4 Colgate 3pm EST. Watch – NCAA.com
Minneapolis Regional Final – Harvard/MN-Duluth winner vs #2 Minnesota 3pm EST. WATCH – B1G+ (FREE)
Columbus Regional Final – Syracuse/Quinnipiac winner vs. #1 Ohio State 5pm EST. WATCH – B1G+ (FREE)
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
Evan’s last look at his Top 10 in D-I women’s college hockey came in Pipeline Post #65. You can find it HERE.
2022 NCAA Tourney Preview
The Bracket
Seedings
-5 teams are seeded, #1 Ohio State, #2 Minnesota, #3 Northeastern, #4 Colgate, and #5 Yale
-Seeds 1-5 get an automatic bye into the regional final. There are 4 regions: Columbus – Ohio State as the host, Minneapolis – Minnesota as the host, Boston – Northeastern as the host, and Hamilton, NY – Colgate as the hosts. Seeds 6-11 play a 1st round game with the winner moving on to the regional final.
-The top 5 teams, by virtue of their pairwise rankings after all post-season playoff championships were completed, received seeds 1-5. Using the pairwise rankings as the seeding method was determined by the 2022 NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament Committee.
How They Got There
There are 4 automatic qualifiers for the 4 D-I conference playoff champions that award ‘Auto-bids’ and 7 ‘At-Large’ bids awarded that make up the 11-team NCAA Tournament field.
-#1 Ohio State, received the WCHA automatic qualifier by winning the WCHA playoff championship 3-2 in OT vs. Minnesota and ranked #1 in the pairwise.
-#2 Minnesota received an At-Large bid and ranked 2nd in the pairwise rankings.
-#3 Northeastern University, received the Hockey East automatic qualifier by winning the Hockey East Playoff championship vs. UCONN 3-1 and ranked #3 in the pairwise.
-#4 Colgate University, received the ECAC Automatic qualifier by winning the ECAC playoff championship over Yale 2-1 in overtime and ranked #4 in the pairwise.
-#5 Yale University, received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 5th in the pairwise rankings. Yale lost to Colgate in the ECAC Championship game 2-1 in OT.
–Syracuse University, received the College Hockey America Automatic qualifier by defeating Mercyhurst University in the CHA Championship 3-2 in overtime.
–QuinnipiacUniversity received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 7th in the pairwise rankings. The Bobcats lost to Colgate 3-2 in the semifinals of the ECAC post-season tournament.
–Wisconsin received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 6th in the pairwise rankings. The Badgers lost to Ohio State in the semifinals of the WCHA post-season tournament.
–ClarksonUniversity received an ‘At-Large’ bid and ranked 10th in the pairwise rankings. The Green Knights lost to Quinnipiac in the first round of the ECAC post-season tournament.
–Minnesota-Duluth received an ‘At-Large’ bid and is ranked 8th in the pairwise. The Bulldogs lost to Minnesota 5-1 in the WCHA post season tournament semifinals.
–Harvard University received an ‘At-Large’ bid and is ranked 9th in the pairwise. The Crimson lost its first-round ECAC quarterfinal series to Princeton.
Sifters
Free Viewing… Nice to see first round NCAA games free to watch. Click the links above for info.
National Awards Season… This is the time of year when national players’ of the year, coach of the year, goaltender of the year, etc. get named. The 3 finalists for Goaltender of the Year in D-I have been announced–2 from the ECAC, St. Lawrence’s Lucy Morgan and Quinnipiac’s Corinne Schroeder. And from Hockey East, it was Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel. The winner will be announced March 17th.
USA Hockey Nationals Update… One of the last events for D-I college coaches to get some in-person evals in before the April-May quiet period takes place will be in Pittsburgh, PA as USA Hockey hosts its girls tier I national championships.
Tier I Schedule and Info can be found HERE. Tier II Schedule and Info can be found HERE. All games will be streamed live on HockeyTV.
Here is who we know to have made the field as of now… with still a few spots to doll out the next few weeks.
U14s – Qualified
Amherst Lady Knights
Cleveland Lady Barons
Detroit Little Caesars
FL Alliance
LA Lions
MN Green Giants
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite
Team North Dakota
4 more teams to qualify + 3 At Large Bids
Central District
Mass District
New England District
Rocky Mtn District
U16s – Qualified
Anaheim Lady Ducks
BK Selects Academy (Rochester Youth Hockey)
Detroit Belle Tire
East Coast Wizards
Gilmour Lancers
FL Alliance
MN Grey Sharks
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite
Team Colorado
Team North Dakota
2 more teams to qualify + 3 At Large Bids
Central District
New England District
U19’s – Qualified
Alaska All-stars
BK Selects Academy (Rochester Youth Hockey)
NAHA White – North American Hockey Academy
Detroit Little Caesars
Gilmour Lancers
FL Alliance
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite
Shattuck St. Mary’s (Prep)
3 more teams to qualify + 4 At Large Bids
Central District
New England District
Rocky Mtn District
Until Next Time…
21-22 Streaming Info
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
We’ll take a look at the upcoming weekly D-I schedule|
See who’s ranked in the USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the ‘Power 10’ national polls|
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s hockey|
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
It’s ‘Final-Four’ Weekend for NEWHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA… The CHA completed its post-season playoff championship last weekend with Syracuse beating Mercyhurst in the final 3-2 in OT. The NEWHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA are all down to its ‘Final-Four’ championship weekend. The NEWHA held quarterfinal games Tuesday. Hockey East played its Semifinal games last night. The NEWHA and ECAC championship weekends have semifinals Friday and championships Saturday. The WCHA final-four championship weekend is Saturday/Sunday. All schedules are below:
Make sure to scroll down
Tuesday, March 1
NEWHA Quarterfinals #6 St. Michael’s 1 @ #3 St. Anselm 2
NEWHA Quarterfinals #5 Post 2 @ #4 Sacred Heart 5
Wednesday, March 2
Hockey East Semifinal #3 UCONN 3 @ #2 Vermont 1, HIGHLIGHTS
Hockey East Semifinal #5 Maine 1 @ #1 Northeastern 3, HIGHLIGHTS are ⬇️
We're headed to our sixth-straight @hockey_east title game.
Hockey East Championship TBD, 7PM, @ TBD Campus site of highest remaining seed, TV-NESN+
WCHA Semifinal #4 MN-Duluth vs. #1 Minnesota, 1:07PM CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
WCHA Semifinal #3 Wisconsin vs. #2 Ohio State, 4:07PM CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
Sunday, March 6
WCHA Championship TBD, 1Pm CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
NCAA Tournament Selection Show, 9PM EST, TV-ESPN NEWS Channel, Stream Info Coming Soon
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
Evan’s last look at his Top 10 in D-I women’s college hockey came in last week’s Pipeline Post #65. You can find it HERE.
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney
The Pairwise
In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.
Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.
There are 5 D-I conferences. 4 of the 11 bids come from conference post season playoff tournament championship Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.
The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.
After the 11-team tournament field has been selected, then the fun begins in putting together 4 regional sites. To learn more about how the selection process works and how regional sites will be determined – click here for the 2022 NCAA Pre-Championship Manual.
Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Wednesday March 2, 2022.
#8 Outlasts #1 In ECAC… For the first time in the 20-year history of the ECAC Playoff Championship Tournament, the #8 seed Princeton Tigers knocked off the #1 seed Harvard Crimson. The Tigers won game one 3-2, lost game two 2-1 in overtime, but won the third and deciding game, 3-2. #8 Princeton will play #2 Yale in the first ECAC Semifinal set for 3Pm Friday. #2 seed Yale also went the distance in its first-round quarterfinal series with #7 seed St. Lawrence.
Top 10 Patty Kaz Announced… The 10 Patty Kaz finalists were announced today by USA Hockey.
Introducing the top-10 finalists for the 2022 #PattyKaz Award!👏
The WCHA leads the way with 6 finalists while Hockey East landed 4. No one from the ECAC, CHA, or NEWHA made the cut. Northeastern leads the way with 3 players themselves,Minnesota and Wisconsin with 2 each. Ohio St., MN-Duluth, and Vermont each have 1. Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel, last year’s Patty Kaz winner, is a finalist this year.
The Patty will be awarded on the NHL Network March 27 in a special on-air television presentation. The top-3 finalists will be announced March 17th during the Women’s Frozen Four National Championship.
Possible NCAA Recruiting Rule Changes… As the NCAA often does each year, proposals for various rule changes in a variety of areas like recruiting, financial aid, eligibility etc., are announced and then voted on in April to become legislated. The following rule proposals were just announced and will be voted on in April.
Amend the trigger for student-athlete status to align with the approach authorized by waivers the past two academic years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An individual would remain a prospective student-athlete until the individual signs a National Letter of Intent or the school’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid or the school receives the individual’s financial deposit in response to its offer of admission and completes all high school graduation requirements or all transfer academic eligibility requirements.
An individual would revert to prospective student-athlete status if the individual does not attend classes at the beginning of the first full-time regular academic term after the individual completes all high school graduation requirements or all transfer academic eligibility requirements.
Specify a school shall not provide more than two consecutive nights of lodging to a prospective student-athlete in conjunction with an official visit.
Eliminate the limitation on the number of official visits a prospective student-athlete may take.
Specify that in sports other than basketball, contact may not be made with a prospective student-athlete during the time of day when classes are in session at their school.
WCH Spring Recruiting Event List… Coming shortly will be our WCH Spring/Summer Recruiting Event List. We’ll keep track of all showcases, camps/clinics, and recruiting events from March until the end of August across North America & beyond we’re aware of. We’ll post a link with event names, dates, and locations along with links to info if provided. For any coaches who want their event listed, please fill out our online form and we’ll be sure to list it. You can find it HERE.
Changes to Camps & Clinics for D-I Schools… In an effort to curb early recruiting tactics by college coaches in sports other than women’s basketball, the NCAA has legislated new ‘Institutional’ camp/clinic rules which took effect in January of 2022. ‘Institutional Camps/Clinics’ are now only allowed to be conducted during the months of June, July, August and December to Feb. 1. Institutional camps/clinics are not allowed outside of that time period.
Institutional camps and clinics are defined as those 1) owned/operated by a D-I coach or the institution institution itself and 2) where participants are classified as prospective student-athletes and have entered grade 9.
This new legislation does not impact Institutional Camps/Clinics where the participants are in grade 8 & below or the ability of college coaches to work for privately owned camps/clinics.
What’s Next For Women’s Hockey… It seems like the sport has this conversation after every Olympics. One would think with over 6 million viewers world-wide for the Gold Medal game, there is a way to harness a sustainable viewing audience for our sports best during the regular hockey season. Word came this week of something in the works. Yahoo Sports’ Justin Cuthbert & Co. bat around whats needed for a viable pro league:
Until Next Time…
21-22 Streaming Info
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Weekly Top 10 National Polls – USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the NCAA’s ‘Power 10’|
Pairwise Rankings |
D-I Conference Playoffs|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey & beyond|
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
The regular season has ended for 4 out of the 5 D-I conferences. The NEWHA still has one more regular season weekend to complete. Hockey East kicked off the Conference Tournament season Wednesday with two games. Here’s the weekly schedule.
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #5 Minnesota State @ #4 MN-Duluth, 2pm CST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #7 St. Cloud @ #2 Ohio St., 3pm EST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #8 St. Thomas @ #1 Minnesota, 2pm CST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #6 Bemidji St. @ #3 Wisconsin, 2pm CST
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
What a regular season.
The women’s college hockey regular season did not disappoint. Weekend after weekend, college hockey fans were treated to great individual and team performances. The best part was the ever-changing rankings every week due to the amount of parity inside the top 10.
Let’s dive into the final Power 10 of the regular season.
1. Minnesota (26-7-1) | Prev: 1
The Golden Gophers finished the regular season with a sweep of St. Thomas, earning a pair of 7-1 wins. Minnesota was scorching hot in their final 15 games, going 13-2-0 with big wins over then-No. 7 Minnesota Duluth, then-No. 2 Ohio State and a sweep of then-No. 1 Wisconsin. Senior Taylor Heise posted five points on the weekend, bringing her season-total to 60 — good for first in the nation.
2. Ohio State (25-6-0) | Prev: 3
In the biggest series of the final weekend, Ohio State swept Wisconsin by scores of 5-1 and 2-1. Despite the close score in Game 2, Ohio State outshot Wisconsin, 45-23. Junior forward Kenzie Hauswirth entered the weekend with only one goal on the season. She potted three on the weekend, including the game-winner on Saturday. With the sweep, the Buckeyes proved they’re the second-best team in the nation heading into the WCHA postseason and the national tournament.
The Huskies move up a bit in the final rankings of the regular season after earning a 2-1 win over UNH and then going 1-0-1 against UConn this past weekend. It’s fitting that graduate student goalie Aerin Frankel ended the season with a 32-save shutout in the 5-0 win. Frankel finishes the regular season with the best goals against average (1.07) and save percentage (.956) in the country. She’ll be must-watch in the national tournament.
4. Wisconsin (23-6-4) | Prev: 2
The Badgers had a tough weekend at Ohio State, dropping both games and getting outplayed. In Wisconsin’s defense, they were only able to skate three forward lines. The star of the weekend for Wisconsin was backup goalie Cami Kronish. On Saturday, in just her third start of the season, she stopped 43 of 45 Ohio State shots in the 2-1 loss. Starter Kennedy Blair missed the game with an upper-body injury.
5. Minnesota Duluth (22-9-1) | Prev: 4
The Bulldogs only move down a spot because I think the top four teams in college hockey are the four listed above. They faced St. Cloud State over the last week, going 2-0-1 against the Huskies. In the two wins, fifth-year Elizabeth Giguere and redshirt senior Naomi Rogge posted big weekends. Giguere had four assists, while Rogge registered two goals and a helper.
Also, how about senior McKenzie Hewett winning the game with nine seconds to play on Senior Day?
Colgate moves up a spot after three big wins last week. The first was a 3-2 victory over Cornell, then a 2-1 win over then-No. 10 Clarkson. The Raiders finished off the weekend by beating St. Lawrence, 9-1. In the win over ranked Clarkson, Colgate got goals from senior Rosy Demers and sophomore Kalty Kaltounkova. Freshman goalie Hannah Murphy turned aside 39 of the 40 shots she faced.
7. Harvard (21-7-1) | Prev: 8
The Crimson ended their regular season with a 4-1 win over RPI and a 3-0 victory over Union. They got goals from sophomores Shannon Hollands and Courtney Hyland, senior Becca Gilmore, and first-year Taze Thompson in Game 1 and junior Kristin Della Rovere, senior Emma Buckles and senior Dominique Petrie in Game 2. Gilmore has put on an especially great season, potting 43 points in 29 games, which is good for first on her team and tied for 14th in the nation.
8. Yale (22-6-1) | Prev: 6
The Bulldogs fell to Quinnipiac, 4-1, on Friday, but finished strong with a 3-0 win at Princeton on Saturday. Sophomore Elle Hartje finished off a strong second season, posting a goal and an assist over the two games. She’s been dynamite this year, leading her team in points with 44. That number ranks 13th in the nation. Her two-way skills, matched with her production, project her to be an even greater force in the coming years.
The Bobcats earned a 4-0 win over RPI last Tuesday and then a strong 4-1 victory over then-No. 6 Yale. They finished off this past weekend with a 1-0 loss to Brown on Saturday. In the win over the Bulldogs, Quinnipiac got goals from Renee Saltness, Kendall Cooper, Jess Schryver and Olivia Mobley. They also got a great game out of goalie Corinne Schroeder, who stopped 38 of 39 shots en route to the win. Schroeder’s save percentage of .946 is good for third in the nation, while her 1.43 GAA ranks sixth.
10. Clarkson (22-9-3) | Prev: 10
Clarkson ended its season with a 2-1 loss to Colgate and a 3-1 loss to Cornell. Despite ending on two-straight losses, Clarkson is the No. 10 team in the nation. The Golden Knights rank ninth in the country in both goals for (104) and goals against (59). They’ll face Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals this weekend.
Pairwise Rankings & NCAA Tourney
The Pairwise
In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.
Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.
There are 5 D-I conferences and 11 teams that make the tournament. 4 of those bids come from conference Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. Winners of the Hockey East, ECAC, College Hockey America, and WCHA post-season playoff championship receive the auto bids. You win, and you’re in. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.
The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.
Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Tuesday, Feb. 22 just past 8pm.
Below are the final regular season standings for each conference minus the NEWHA which has one more regular weekend of play this Friday and Saturday. Each conference’s post-season playoffs structure is described as well.
Hockey East Post-Season Playoff Format
For the first time ever, the Hockey East Women’s Tournament will feature all 10 member programs in a single-elimination postseason tournament for the Bertagna trophy. Seeds seven and eight will host seeds 10 and nine, respectively, in the Opening Round on Wednesday, February 23 while the top six seeds receive a bye into the Quarterfinals. After a reseeding, the top two seeds will host the winners of the Opening Round while the three seed will host the six seed and the four seed will host the five seed. Semifinals will take place on Wednesday, March 2 and the Championship is set for Saturday, March 5 in prime time for just the second time ever.
QUARTERFINALS, Best 2 Out of 3 Series – Feb. 25, 26 and 27 if necessary
Teams TBD, Highest remaining seed to host, single elimination
The Championship will open on Feb. 24 with a quarterfinal match-up between No. 4 seed Lindenwood and No. 5 seed RIT. Thursday’s winner will advance to meet No. 1 seed Syracuse in the first semifinal on Feb. 25. No. 2 Penn State will then face. No. 3 Mercyhurst in Friday’s second semifinal with Friday’s winners advancing to Saturday’s final at 2 p.m. ET.
The winner of the 2022 CHA Championship will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
As the 2021-22 WCHA regular season champion and Julianne Bye Cup winner, MInnesota is the tournament’s top seed and is set to host No. 8 St. Thomas. No. 2 Ohio State hosts No. 7 St. Cloud State, No. 3 Wisconsin hosts No. 6 BEmidji State, while No. 4 MInnesota Duluth earned the final home ice advantage to host No. 5 MInnesota State.
The four winners of the best-of-three quarterfinals advances to the 2022 Final Faceoff, held March 5-6 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The winner of the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff receives the League’s automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
Pairings, locations, and start times for the Friday-Sunday, Feb. 25-27 best-of-three WCHA Quarterfinals:
No. 8 St. Thomas at No. 1 Minnesota (Ridder Arena – Minneapolis, Minn.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 6 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 4 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 7 St. Cloud State at No. 2 Ohio State (OSU Ice Rink – Columbus, Ohio) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 5 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. ET Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET (if necessary)
No. 6 Bemidji State at No. 3 Wisconsin (LaBahn Arena – Madison, Wis.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 7 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 3 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 5 Minnesota State at No. 4 Minnesota Duluth (AMSOIL Arena – Duluth, Minn.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 2 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
2022 WCHA FINAL FACEOFF
The premier conference tournament in women’s college hockey, the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff will be held March 5-6, 2022 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Annually featuring a collection of the nation’s highest-ranked programs and best players, the WCHA’s four remaining teams will compete for the league’s playoff championship and automatic berth to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
The league’s top event and best weekend of the year for college hockey fans, the two-day 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff weekend is a celebration of the sport’s past, present, and future.
Saturday, March 5, 2022 Semifinal Game 1 – No. 1 remaining seed vs. No. 4 remaining seed: 1 p.m. CT Semifinal Game 2 – No. 2 remaining seed vs. No. 3 remaining seed: 4 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 6, 2022 WCHA Championship – 1 p.m. CT
Sifters…
Robert Morris Names Head Coach… Former Robert Morris University Women’s Hockey Associate Head Coach Logan Bittle has been hired to re-boot the RMU program as its new Head Coach. Bittle’s announcement came Feb. 4th. You can read more about RMU’s new bench boss here ——-> USCHO.com Story, RMU Women’s Hockey Homepage Story
U18 Worlds Back On… News of the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship broke at the Olympics last week in a tweet by the IIHF.
The IIHF leadership met the media in #Beijing2022, discussed the #Olympic#icehockey tournaments, development, #Milano2026 and announced updates on the events that will be postponed from January to summer.
6+ Million Watched… Over 3.54 million viewers in the US and 2.7 million in Canada tuned in to watch the Women’s Olympic Gold Medal game between the US and Canada. It was the most watched hockey game, at any level, in the US since 2019. Given the game was aired live at 11:10pm EST, you can bet those numbers would be bigger had the game been played at an earlier hour. Beijing is 13-hours ahead of EST. Lots of tired eyes the next day, mine included.
US-Canada women’s gold medal hockey game on NBC averaged 3.54 million viewers. That’s more viewers than any NHL game this season. And second most watched hockey game in United States since 2019.
Topic for another post… So, there is a market. A large one. How does the sport tap into a meaningful % of those 6 million who watched on a regular basis… and not just once every 4 years.
Busy Spring for Recruiting… D-I college coaches will have a packed Spring in terms of recruiting events to get to before the NCAA Women’s Hockey ‘Quiet Period’ begins on April 18. USA Hockey National Development Camp tryouts, U.S. District Play-Downs, U.S. National Championships, as well as various US and Canadian Academy ID camps, Canadian league and Provincial Championships are just a few of the events on the calendar college coaches will get to. Coaches have approximately 9 weeks left for off-campus evaluations of recruits in grade 10 before the June 15 call date commences.
A NCAA ‘Quiet Period’ is defined as where NCAA coaches may not conduct any in-person, off-campus evaluations or conduct off-campus face-to-face contact with recruits or their family members from April 18 until June 1. Recruits who are in grade 11 & above may take unofficial visits and have face-to-face contact with coaches as long as it takes place on their campus. There is also a NCAA ‘Dead Period from noon March 17 to noon the 21st., which is defined as a period of time when no on or off-campus evaluations or face-to-face contact may be had. In addition, no unofficial or official visits may take place.
Buckle Up!
Help Women’s College Hockey, Go Attend A Game… For years the National Championship tournament has not had what coaches would call ‘True Bracket Integrity… meaning #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7 and so on. College coaches want that. The NCAA was more concerned with saving money, not flying teams to certain sites, then organizing a proper championship experience for teams. That mindset is somewhat gone in 2022 with an expanded field to 11 teams. However, part of the criteria the NCAA uses to determine who plays at each regional site, is based on the potential for a playoff atmosphere. A playoff atmosphere to the NCAA means fans in the stands and to get butts in the seats, means there has to be a local interest in the teams competing… to the NCAA anyway.
Potentially you could have at least two of three teams at a regional site who are geographical close in proximity to one another, without bracket integrity intact. May be you have the #1, #4, and #5 teams, rather than a schedule that protects the top seed.
So here is how you can help… Go attend NCAA regional tournament games no matter your affiliation with teams there. If you’re a fan of women’s college hockey – pack the stands and sell venues out. Make it so the attendance issue isn’t one the NCAA can hang its hat on to create a schedule where they can save money.
Better attendance helps ensure future NCAA tournaments have true bracket integrity and a better national championship experience for our student-athletes–which should be what matters most.
MN State HS Tourney Underway… There aren’t a lot of states who do a better job of putting on a state tournament than Minnesota. Class ‘A’ got underway yesterday and Class ‘AA’ gets underway today. All games are played at the Excel Energy Center, home to the MN Wild. You can watch all games HERE for FREE.
Tune in Thursday to watch the State Girls Hockey Class AA Quarterfinals! These games will be free to view thanks to the support of @TheUrgencyRoom https://t.co/IdfNDVQVZ6 will also be covering the consol. and 3rd place games. https://t.co/CFNub6u5Fp…
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all games live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
We’ll take a look at the upcoming weekly D-I schedule|
See who’s ranked in the USCHO .com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, & the NCAA ‘Power 10’|
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney|
COVID Thoughts |
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey|
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
As D-I teams are back from the holiday break, most anyway, so too are COVID related scheduling postponements and adjustments as COVID cases pile up within programs. Game status’ seem to change by the hour. It’s reminiscent of what happened last year around this same time. We’ll try to keep you updated on which games are impacted as much as we are able.
The composite schedules of each respective conference will probably have the most up to date scheduling change info – so just click the link for any conference’s composite schedule.
PPD = Postponed, CNCLD = Cancelled, TBD = To Be Determined
Friday, Jan. 7, 2022
RIT vs. Sacred Heart, TBD
Merrimack vs. Northeastern
Holy Cross vs Maine, Saturday, PPD until Sunday Jan. 9th
Providence vs. New Hampshire
Clarkson vs. Princeton
Minnesota-Duluth vs. St. Cloud State, CNCLD
St. Lawrence vs. Quinnipiac, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Syracuse vs. Minnesota State, CNCLD
Connecticut vs. Vermont
Harvard vs. Colgate PPD to Saturday 1/8
Lindenwood vs. Ohio State
Rensselaer vs. Brown
Union vs. Yale PPD, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Long Island vs. Mercyhurst, TBD
Boston University vs. Boston College, PPD
Dartmouth vs. Cornell PPD to Saturday 1/8
Sacred Heart vs RIT, CNCLD
Saint Michael’s vs. Franklin Pierce, CNCLD
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022
Holy Cross vs Maine, PPD until Monday Jan. 10
UNION vs. Brown, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Brown vs. RPI (at Brown, RPI designated Home team)
Dartmouth vs Cornell
St. Lawrence vs. Princeton, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Clarkson vs. Quinnipiac
RPI vs. Yale, PPD, Make-up date TBD
Sacred Heart vs RIT, CNCLD
Long Island vs. Mercyhurst, TBD
Saint Michael’s vs. Franklin Pierce, CNCLD
Syracuse vs. Minnesota State, CNCLD
Minnesota-Duluth vs. St. Cloud State, CNCLD
St. Thomas vs. Minnesota
Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022
Dartmouth vs. Colgate
Harvard vs, Cornell
St. Thomas vs. Minnesota
Monday, Jan. 10, 2022
Harvard vs. Colgate
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
Also receiving votes: Harvard 8, Providence 1
January 3, 2022
The second half of the women’s college hockey season is underway, which means it’s time to get right back to the Power 10 rankings.
Not every team was in action this past weekend, but the matchups of Wisconsin-Quinnipiac and Harvard-Minnesota Duluth were enough to release a fresh batch of rankings.
Wisconsin is back in the saddle as the No. 1 team in the nation, and rightfully so. They took Quinnipiac down, 5-2, in Game 1 on Saturday and then skated to a 1-1 tie with the Bobcats Sunday.
Sophomore forward Casey O’Brien potted a goal this past weekend, extending league-leading goal total to 21. She also added an assist, which brings her league-leading point total to 38. The sophomore was one of college hockey’s biggest offensive threats through the first half. It doesn’t look like anything’s changed in half No. 2.
The Badgers are off this upcoming weekend, but will pick play up against Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Jan. 10.
2. Northeastern (16-2-1) | Prev: 1
The Huskies didn’t play this past weekend and haven’t since Dec. 5.
They’ll begin their second half this Friday against Merrimack.
3. Ohio State (15-3-0) | Prev: 3
Ohio State also didn’t play this past weekend. It will begin the second half this Friday against Lindenwood.
4. Quinnipiac (15-2-3) | Prev: 6
The Bobcats move up two spots in this Power 10 due to their 1-1 tie of Wisconsin in the second game.
Goalie Corinne Schroeder was the biggest reason why Quinnipiac escaped with a tie. The graduate student turned aside 41 of Wisconsin’s 42 shots. Because of her performance, she won ECAC goalie of the week. Schroeder also owns the country’s second best save percentage (.959) and third-best goals against average (1.07).
The Bobcats get right back at it this Friday against St. Lawrence.
5. Minnesota (14-5-1) | Prev: 4
The Golden Gophers didn’t play this past weekend. They open the second half this Saturday against St. Thomas.
6. Minnesota Duluth (11-7-0) | Prev: 7
The Bulldogs opened their second half with two solid wins over Harvard, taking down the Crimson, 5-2, in Game 1 and then, 4-3, in Game 2.
Senior forward Gabbie Hughes potted four goals on the weekend, bringing her season-tally to 14, which is tied for fourth in the nation. Fifth-year Anna Klein chipped in with a two-goal weekend.
Next up is a road series with St. Cloud State.
7. Colgate (15-4-1) | Prev: 5
Colgate didn’t play this past weekend. It opens the second half this Friday against Harvard.
8. Yale (10-3-1) | Prev: 8
Yale also didn’t play this past weekend. It opens the second half on Tuesday against Sacred Heart.
9. Clarkson (15-2-3) | Prev: 10
The Golden Knights didn’t play this past weekend. They open the second half this Friday against Princeton.
10. Harvard (9-5-0) | Prev: 9
Harvard opened its second half with two disappointing losses to Minnesota Duluth by scores of 5-2 and 4-3. Despite the two losses, Harvard stays ranked this week because the Bulldogs were the team that had the higher rank in their matchup.
The Crimson get a chance to right the ship on Friday at Colgate.
USCHO Division I PairWise Rankings
What is the PairWise and why are we including it?
The USCHO.com PairWise Ranking is a system which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants for the NCAA National Collegiate Women’s hockey tournament. The PWR compares all teams by these criteria: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, and the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
For each comparison won, a team receives one point. The final PWR ranking is based on the number of points (comparisons) won against teams under consideration. Ties are settled by the RPI.
The PWR can be reformatted and redistributed by any media outlet or person, provided USCHO’s URL (https://www.uscho.com/) accompanies the results.
We Need to Figure This Out… Recent numbers of positive cases within college hockey programs have fueled game postponements and cancelations. A lot of people, and rightly so, are on edge. Coaches, players, conference commissioners, and school athletic and health administrators to name just a few. The CDC and now the NCAA have provided new guidance how how to manage life with COVID. The NCAA came out with a statement for winter sports Jan. 6, you can read it HERE.
From a scheduling standpoint, it seems like NCAA hockey is back to where it was last year around this time. No one will know if they are going to play until almost the very last minute. It seems like conference schedules are changing by the hour. But this time around, things are different.
For starters, most within a college hockey program has been vaccinated and or boosted. That was not the case last year. The CDC recently cut its quarantine time in half to 5 days for those who test positive. The new NCAA guidance follows that recommendation. Part of the problem with recommendations – they are just that – recommendations. There is no national NCAA COVID protocol standards forced upon schools. Each school can make up their own protocol how to decide who plays/coaches etc. Last season, if you tested positive, players/coaches/staff were out at minimum 10 days. And until a few days ago, the college hockey season had gone on with every program back playing a normal schedule. Not that there wasn’t the odd game postponement or player out due to COVID protocol. But the year was as normal as any could be with the pandemic still raging on.
Some schools/programs aren’t testing much at all – perhaps only if someone has symptoms. Others are testing all players & staff 2 or 3 times weekly. Different protocols are in place for different schools. At this very moment we’ve heard athletes who test positive at one school are out a min. 16 days while at other institutions it’s only 7 or the NCAA recommended 5 days. As of Friday Jan 7, there were 19 D-I Women’s games alone canceled or postponed, which tells me teams and conferences are getting more cases than their athletic/medical departments feel comfortable with. If D-I women’s and men’s basketball is any indication of how things are going to go for hockey. Most campuses don’t have all of their students back yet. Hockey could be a mess for the next 4-6 weeks before things can get back to normal.
Ultimately, I don’t feel we’ll go a place where the season gets cut short like the Spring of 2020. As with most things in life when there is a great unknown, caution reigns supreme. Science knows little about Omicron. And that means most school administrators/decision makers know just as little.
Sifters…
NCAA COVID Eligibility Update… The NCAA just updated its ‘Eligibility Center FAQ’ for D-I & D-II athletes entering college for next fall. With Schools such as Harvard responding to the pandemic by going ‘Test Optional’ in the admissions process over the next several years, perhaps the NCAA Eligibility Center will take a similar approach or evaluate its criteria on a year-by-year basis? I can’t imagine the NCAA requiring SAT/ACT scores in the future and Harvard and others do not.
Conference POW’s… Usually when you see the ‘POW’ one might think a list of each conferences ‘players’ of the week… not so in this case. Think of this segment as more of a VPOW – or Video Plays Of the Week.
Until Next Time…
21-22 Streaming Info
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
We’ll take a look at the upcoming weekly D-I schedule|
See who’s ranked in the USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the ‘Power 10’ national polls|
Conference Standings after the first half|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey|
Happy New Year!
2021 was an exciting and fun year at Women’s College Hockey.org. Just as the stock market ended the year in the positive, the readership of ‘The Pipeline’ Blog grew quite a bit as well. We ended the year with close to 20,000 unique individual visitors from 54 countries! Yes, I too was shocked to learn that. I had no idea we had that kind of reach. Now in fairness, 90-something % of our visitors are from the US and Canada. But still – people in 52 other countries are paying attention, which is awesome to see.
Several of you have taken the time to stop me in a rink recently to say a quick ‘thanks-for-doing-what-you’re-doing’… It’s extremely gratifying for me when that happens. So, to the nearly 20,000 of you who took the time to read a Pipeline post or watch a video – THANK YOU – it is truly appreciated. Keep the positivity coming. Here’s is to a great 2022!
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
D-I Upcoming Games
January 1, 2022
Minnesota-Duluth vs. Harvard
Quinnipiac vs. Wisconsin
RIT vs. Long Island
Syracuse vs. Boston University
Penn State vs. St. Cloud State
January 2, 2022
BU/Syra. vs. St. Cloud State
PSU/St. Cloud vs. Boston University
PSU/St. Cloud vs. Syracuse
Maine vs. Vermont
New Hampshire vs. Dartmouth
Quinnipiac vs. Wisconsin
Providence vs. Holy Cross
January 3, 2022
Long Island vs. Princeton
Providence vs. Boston College
January 4, 2022
Sacred Heart vs. Yale
Castleton vs. Saint Michael’s
January 7, 2022
RIT vs. Sacred Heart
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
DCU/USCHO Division I Women’s Poll – December 13, 2021
Others receiving votes: Connecticut 3, Penn State 1
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll
December 14, 2021
RANK
Team
Points
Last Poll
Record
Weeks in Poll
1
University of Wisconsin (19)
190
1
17-1-2
14
2
Ohio State University
163
2
15-3-0
14
3
Northeastern University
143
4
16-2-1
14
4
Quinnipiac University
133
5
15-1-2
11
5
University of Minnesota
125
3
14-5-1
14
6
Colgate University
80
6
15-4-1
14
7
University of Minnesota Duluth
71
7
9-7-0
14
8
Yale University
67
8
10-3-1
4
9
Clarkson University
45
9
15-2-3
7
10
Harvard University
21
10
9-3-0
6
Others receiving votes: UConn 4, Providence 2, Penn State 1.
We’ve made it to the holiday break in women’s DI college hockey, which allows us a great chance to look back at the first half.
This week’s Power 10 won’t just be focused on last weekend. Instead, I’m going to rank the best 10 teams from the first few months.
Was it easy? Not really. This fall had some amazing games and upsets, making the job of putting together a top 10 a tough one.
Nevertheless, let’s dive in.
1. Wisconsin (17-1-2)
Admittedly, this wasn’t a hard decision. The Badgers were the best team in the first half and it’s not really close.
For starters, they have the best offense in the country with 94 total goals. Even more impressive is that the top three point-getters in the country are all from Wisconsin — sophomore forwards Casey O’Brien (36) and Makenna Webster (35), as well as fifth-year forward Daryl Watts (34). This team just can’t stop scoring.
The Badgers are also great defensively. They’re tied for third in the nation in goals against, having only allowed 22. Senior goalie Kennedy Blair has been outstanding in net, sporting the fourth-best goals-against average in the country (1.17).
The quality wins so far for Wisconsin have come against Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State but really, Wisconsin is the team to beat in college hockey right now.
2. Northeastern (16-2-1)
The choice to put Northeastern over Ohio State was a tough one, but I went with the better defensive team at No. 2.
The Huskies are the best defensive team in the nation. They’ve given up the least amount of goals against (18) and here’s a whopper — they’ve done it in just 19 games. That’s less than a goal against per game. A lot of that success has come from senior goalie Aerin Frankel, who ranks second in the nation in both save percentage (.962) and GAA (0.94).
Offensively, senior forward Maureen Murphy leads the way with 24 points and senior defenseman Skylar Fontaine, one of the best defenders in college hockey, comes in with 22. Both have a large role on the nation’s fourth-best power play, which sits at a solid 28.5 percent.
The quality wins so far have come against Boston College and Princeton. Much of the rest of their schedule comes against Hockey East opponents.
3. Ohio State (15-3-0)
The Buckeyes are great at overpowering teams offensively, as is evident in their 91 total goals, which is good for second in the nation. It makes sense then that their power play is also second, coming in at 35.2 percent.
A lot of that offense comes from junior forward Jennifer Gardiner and senior defenseman Sophie Jaques who both lead the team in points with 30 each. They’re also both tied for sixth in the nation in that category. Sophomore forward Jenna Buglioni and senior forward Clair DeGeorge come in right behind them at 28 points each.
Another sign that Ohio State is going on all cylinders offensively is its league-best 66.6 percent Corsi For percentage.
The most notable wins for Ohio State came against Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth in the first half. Even though the Buckeyes were swept by the Badgers on Oct. 23 and 24, they’ll get a chance at revenge Feb. 18 and 19.
4. Quinnipiac (15-1-2)
The Bobcats are a very strong No. 4 right now. It’s no surprise they garnered a first-place vote in the Dec. 13 USCHO poll.
Why? Because Quinnipiac is actually the No. 1 team in women’s college hockey, according to USCHO’s PairWise rankings. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The Bobcats are well-rounded, sporting the second-fewest goals against (21) and the sixth-most goals for (61). Senior goalie Corinne Schroeder ranks first in both save percentage (.966) and GAA (0.80).
The Bobcats play in the tough ECAC, so quality wins came against Colgate, Princeton and Yale. If the Bobcats can keep winning with an ECAC-heavy schedule in the second half, their case for No. 1 in PairWise will be strengthened.
5. Minnesota (14-5-1)
The Golden Gophers ended their first half with some big wins over No. 1 Wisconsin and then-No. 9 Minnesota Duluth. Along with a sweep over Colgate on Oct. 22 and 23, those were Minnesota’s biggest wins of the first half.
The stats show Minnesota is a perfect No. 5. They’re No. 5 in PairWise, No. 4 in goals for (77) and they own the fifth-highest even-strength Corsi For percentage at 61.8 percent. This team has no issue putting shots on net either, ranking second with 773. Offensively, this is a very good team.
At the heart of that offensive attack is senior forward Taylor Heise who ranks fifth in the country in points with 31. Senior forward Abigail Boreen ranks second on the team with 23 and freshman forward Peyton Hemp comes in third with 21.
Minnesota will have its toughest stretch of the season in the second half when it takes on Wisconsin one weekend and then Ohio State the next.
6. Colgate (15-4-1)
Out of all the teams on this list, the Raiders did the coolest thing in the first half: They won a guitar.
Yes, back on Nov. 27 when they beat then-No. 3 Minnesota to win the Smashville Showcase, the trophy was a guitar. It was epic.
Aside from the guitar, Colgate is another team with a high-powered offense. The Raiders carry the third-most goals in the country (86) and rank third in even-strength Corsi For at 64.4 percent. Junior forward Danielle Serdachny leads the offense with 30 points, which ranks sixth in college hockey. Junior forward Dara Greig comes in second with 25.
The quality wins for Colgate in the first half came against Minnesota and Harvard. Like I mentioned with Quinnipiac earlier, things won’t be easy for the Raiders in the second half due to all those ECAC games.
7. Yale (10-3-1)
It feels like we’re just going back and forth between really strong offensive teams and really good defensive teams. Here’s a great defensive team for you.
The Bulldogs rank third in goals against with only 22 given up in the first half. Senior goalie Gianna Meloni has gotten the majority of the reps in net, posting an impressive 1.43 GAA and .942 save percentage.
Still, Yale has an impressive offense upfront. Sophomore forward Elle Hartje leads the team with 24 points, while junior forward Claire Dalton ranks second with 22. Yale also has one of the best defenders in college hockey in junior Emma Seitz. She has 17 points on the season.
The quality wins have come against Colgate and Harvard. With an ECAC-packed schedule in the second half, there will be many more quality wins for this group.
8. Clarkson (15-2-3)
The Golden Knights are a solid team overall. They rank fifth in the country for goals for (65) and eighth in goals against (29).
Lots of the offense comes from one of the best forwards in college hockey — senior Caitrin Lonergan. Lonergan ranks fourth in the country in points with 32. Junior forward Gabrielle David slots in right behind her with 25.
One encouraging sign for Clarkson in the second half is that they went 6-1-1 in conference play in the first half. If that trend continues, the Golden Knights will be moving up this list.
9. Minnesota Duluth (9-7-0)
The Bulldogs had a lot of time off, as they didn’t play any games between Oct. 24 and Nov. 19. Still, they put together a solid first half.
They have 59 goals in 16 games, which, if you do the math, comes out to be roughly 74 goals over 20 games. That would have them fifth in the nation for lamplighters. Senior forward Gabbie Hughes has the highest points per game in the nation at 1.81 with 29 points in 16 games. Senior forward Elizabeth Giguere ranks sixth in points per game at 1.68 with 27 in 16.
Despite a tough first half schedule, the Bulldogs earned two big wins over Minnesota and one over Ohio State.
10. Harvard (9-3-0)
The Crimson only have 12 games under their belt through the first half, but that’s still enough to place them inside the top 10.
They’ve already scored quality wins over Cornell and Boston College. Senior forward Becca Gilmore has been a strong line-driver, leading Harvard in points with 15. Senior forward Dominique Petrie ranks second with 14 points and junior forward Anne Bloomer third with 12.
We’ll get a great look at Harvard when it takes on Minnesota Duluth to begin play in the second half of the season.
Division I Conference Standings: As of 12/31/21
Teams are listed top to bottom in order of points accumulated in conference play only. There is no national point system. The first W-L-T column is a teams’ conference record, 2nd W-L-T column is the overall record, and the 3rd and 4th W-L-T columns is the record at home and on the road for all games.
In our next post, we’ll display each conference’s post-season playoff structure.
NCAA Approves 11-Team National Tournament Field for 2022… In the NCAA’s final step on Dec. 15th the D-I Council voted to approve an 11-team field (up from 8) for the 2022 Women’s National Collegiate Championship. 11 teams represents exactly 26.8% of D-I schools that sponsor the sport, which is the same ratio used by the D-I men’s NCAA tournament. You can read the official announcement from the NCAA HERE.
The Takeaway… More teams participating improves the sport because more players gain that do-or-die national Tournament game experience. Returning players the following year can then use their NCAA experience to their teams’ benefit. This development will push the overall level of D-I play forward every year.
The tournament committee will go ‘by the numbers’ this year in selecting the 11 team field. So in theory, teams ranked 1 to 11 in the Pairwise rankings will get a bid to the tourney. Subjectivity has been taken out. Language has also been removed from the pre-championship manual which now brings in line the same priorities used in pairing the men’s tournament brackets. In plain English, pairings will be based on, “competitive equity, financial success and the likelihood of a playoff-type atmosphere at each first/second round site.” Every effort will be made to avoid inter-conference match-ups unless 4 or more teams from the same conference make the tournament.
Because of the parity that exists across D-I and with 6 At-Large berths coming in the 2022-2023 season, we’ll probably not see the same 11 teams year after year. We’ll see much more turnover of teams getting At-Large berths in years to come. There are plenty of teams outside the top 11 that could challenge for a NCAA berth.
Robert Morris Is Back… RMU President Chris Howard announced Friday December 17th the reinstatement of both the RMU Women’s and Men’s hockey programs effective for the 2023-2024 season. Both programs were shutdown in an abrupt cost-cutting move by the RMU administration back in May of 2021. A major groundswell of support both locally in the Pittsburgh area as well as nationally among the hockey circles to get the program back online ensued. Men’s Head Coach Derek Schooley added fundraising campaign manager to his job description and accumulated enough cash in hand and donation pledges to impress the RMU brass to bring the programs back to life.
The Takeaway… This is great and exciting news for all of college hockey. Now the hard part begins. RMU will need to hire a women’s head coach and staff of assistants while recruiting an entire team of players as well as building out a competitive schedule. Both RMU teams are without a conference. The women’s were part of the CHA and the men part of Atlantic Hockey. CHA conference officials have publicly stated they need to find a 6th team for the CHA regardless of RMU came back or not as they would be in jeopardy of losing their NCAA tourney auto-bid without a 6th team after the 2022-2023 season.
With a RMU coming back, this opens the door for a full roster of players to either continue their playing careers as a transfer, a 5th year grad school player, or begin their D-I college hockey career as a freshman recruited player. All told, more spots become available at the D-I level (Stonehill College will also begin play in 2022-2023 as well).
U18 Worlds Cancelled… The IIHF announced on December 24th all January IIHF events would be cancelled due to COVID. This marks the second time in as many years the U-18 World Championships would be cancelled. The announcement was made just as the Men’s World Junior Championships in Alberta, Canada were taking place in arenas with fans. Not only was the timing of the announcement poor with the Men’s WJC was about to get in full swing, but the fact there was no mention or intention of a possible postponement of the event. Voices from current and former Olympians, around the NCAA, NHLers, hockey media personalities, and right down to the U-18 players themselves – took to social media with their rightful frustration. IIHF president Luc Tardiff is taking major heat for how he’s managed the announcement.
To add insult to injury, just days later the IIHF cancelled the WJC’s because a number of teams had positive COVID cases and a number of forfeits occurred.
The Takeaway… The IIHF is in a bit of a pickle. The Men’s WJC’s and the Men’s World Championships held in May are the two big money makers for the IIHF. One has to think a future date for the Women’s U-18 Worlds would have to be on the table if a future date for the Men’s WJC. The optics without that consideration for the women would be, um… detrimental? However, nothing definitive from the IIHF has been announced or considered. USA Hockey reached out to the IIHF and asked if a later date for the women’s U18’s could be discussed. Even private groups in the US offered to host the event while paying for the ice.
Perhaps a gender equity review of the IIHF is due, just like the NCAA recently had?
NCAA COVID Update… The second-half NCAA schedule is underway and we’ve already seen one series cancelled between Merrimack and RPI for Jan 1 and 2. No official reason was given as to why. Could we assume COVID? Perhaps. Some schools have adjusted their academic calendars and delayed the the return of students to campus, while deciding to begin classes remotely, before allowing in-person classes to begin several weeks later. We are unaware of any hockey program that are on a ‘pause’ or has decided not to play games until COVID improves. That said, if Men’s hockey and D-I women’s and men’s basketball is any indication, women’s hockey is in for it’s fair share of postponements and game cancellations. If think it’s a question of how, not if, the remainder of the season will be impacted.
SAT/ACT Testing Update… Harvard recently announced on Dec 17th it is going test optional for the next 4 years. That means no SAT or ACT test scores will be required for admission. More schools will probably do the same but no official announcements have been made yet. It will be interesting what the NCAA does with the Eligibility Center’s academic requirements moving forward as well.
D-III Gets New Program… The Milwaukee School of Engineering recently announced it’s starting a D-III NCAA program. Former RIT and Adrian Head Coach Chad Davis has been named head coach. No word yet on when the program will begin or what conference it will affiliate with.
2022 Women’s World Championship Host Selected… The IIHF announced in early December that Denmark will host the 2022 Women’s Senior World Championships August 26th to September 4th. This marks the first time Worlds will be held after an Olympic Games in the same year. Denmark is a first-time Women’s Olympic hockey participant in the 2022 games set to begin in about 1 month from now.
WCHA Extends Commissioner Flowers… WCHA Women’s Commissioner Jen Flowers received a three-year contract extension through the 2024-2025 season. Flowers has been instrumental in transitioning the WCHA to a Women’s only conference while navigating COVID-19 for the 8-team conference. Flowers also added a first-of-its-kind streaming partnership with the Big Ten Network and Big Ten+ as the official streaming partner of the WCHA.
UND Case Dismissed For Now… Lawyers representing players for the now defunct University of North Dakota Women’s Hockey Team, have voluntarily dismissed their case last month, for now anyway. The ND Attorney General’s office moved to dismiss the case because none of the players have NCAA eligibility left – leaving their claims moot – and not able to receive any relief. The door is open for future litigation however.
MN Trucker Helps UVM Player Home… This is one of those stories that is classified as ‘only happens in Minnesota’. UVM Women’s Hockey player Ellice Murphy needed a bit of help getting home for the holidays after her flight got cancelled from Minneapolis to Thief-River Falls. Ellice’s quick thinking mom called her friend at Byfuglien Trucking to see if any driver’s were in the Minneapolis area and heading north, who was willing to let Ellice tag along. Sure enough there was. You can read the full story HERE. You have to love small towns!
USA Hockey Announces Olympic Roster… Between the 2nd and 3rd period intermission of last night’s Winter Classic, USA Hockey unveiled its 23-Player final Olympic Roster. 8 newcomers will combine with 15 returning players with previous Olympic experience as Team USA defends it’s Gold Medal from 2018. You can find the roster HERE. 5 players still have NCAA eligibility and 1st time Olympian Caroline Harvey, has yet to step foot on a college campus yet. Minnesota leads the way with 8 players connected to the Gophers program, Wisconsin has 5, BC 3, Northeastern 2, BU, Clarkson, Lindenwood, UMD, and Ohio State each with 1.
Until Next Time…
21-22 Streaming Info
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
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.
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.
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.
*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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
-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.
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
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’
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
In This Post…
The Adjustment Phase|
Pre-Season Polls |
Sifters |
The Adjustment Phase
If you are one of those players moving up an age level this year, from U14 to U16 or U16 to U19, how are you feeling about your game so far? A little off or frustrated you’re not playing as well as you thought you would… Overwhelmed with all those new skills & systems to learn… Not playing as much as you would like… No time yet on the PP or PK… does everyone you play against seem bigger, faster, stronger???
Well, if you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above – welcome to the Adjustment Phase.
Just about everyone, at every level hockey, has some kind of adjustment. Youth players all the way up to NHLers have adjustment periods – seldom is anyone immune from it. We’ll answer exactly what the adjustment phase is, how long it can last for, and why it’s probably the most critical period of your hockey development. The ‘Adjustment Phase’ is really just a period of time during ones hockey development where a player might struggle with certain elements of the game as they move from one level to another.
May be the pace of the game is too fast to handle and you struggle to make good decisions. Or you aren’t physically strong enough to handle the much older/stronger competition.
Yes – the adjustment phase is excruciatingly frustrating at times, who wants to play poorly, right? Players hate when this happens, that is until you understand how it can help you. It’s kind of like taking a test in school… if you knew what questions were going to be on the test before you took it, that would really help, right? Well, if hockey is the test, then the adjustment phase are the ANSWERS! When players go through the adjustment phase, they learn what they need to focus on in order to improve and hopefully get to a point where they can impact the game on a consistent basis at the new level they are at. The time it takes to get to that point can vary greatly however.
If we knew how long the adjustment phase lasted, someone would be a gazillionaire. There’s a lot that goes into how long this takes. For some players it could take weeks to get adjusted, or months, or the better part of a full season. It’s going to be different for everyone. Genetics plays a role, learning ability plays a role, work ethic, desire, mental mindset, and the list goes on. What can help accelerate passing by the adjustment phase? Tough to come up with a full-proof answer but, here are a few things you can do to possibly shorten the length your adjustment may take.
Know what your coach wants to see in your play
Evaluate your game with video (if possible), so you can see how what your coaches are describing… or perhaps in this case, not seeing so you can identify what you’re struggling with
Identify the skills needed to accomplish your goals
Create an action plan and timeline to work on the skills necessary
Bottom line, the Adjustment Phase could be the most important piece to your hockey development. It’s a necessary part of the process of playing well at the level you’re at. The more you understand how to approach it – the better you’ll be the next time it comes around.
Pre-Season Polls
It’s that time of year, Pre-Season Coaches Poll time. The NCAA D-I season starts up for real this weekend with games that count, and each conference has announced its pre-season coaches poll. In addition, USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine publish a weekly Top 10 poll during the season.
Like with most pre-season polls, there is nothing to go on from this year. These for the most part, are purely based on last seasons records, key player departures as well as recruited additions. The WCHA, CHA, and ECAC have announced their pre-season coaches polls which are below. We’ll get you Hockey East and the NEWHA once they are officially announced.
Sifters
New NCAA Stat Site To Replace Collegehockeystats.net… Long time statistical college hockey website collegehockeystats.net, a favorite among college hockey coaches and fans, will no longer be updating statistical season data. 20-21 was its last year in service. The website will however, still remain and any of its prior year statistical data will be available. CHS filled a huge void and was the ‘Go-To’ college hockey online resource for live scores, game stats, game line-up charts, conference standings, and any number of college hockey stats. Taking its place will be a NCAA branded site found here: https://stats.ncaa.org/. We have provided a limited overview of the NCAA site and included a comparison vs. collegehockeystats found HERE. The NCAA site tracks many of the same data, there are some major differences as well. A detailed description of how to get certain data is outlined in the form also.
So why the change? The NCAA is transitioning away from a very popular game stats software program called StatsCrew and moving to a new software program called LiveStats.
Marmer and Roth Selected to Work With Boston Bruins… Quinnipiac Player Development and Operations Director Danielle Marmer and Holy Cross Associate Head Coach Meredith Roth have been selected to participate in the Boston Bruins Diversity & Inclusion Scouting Mentorship Program. The 9-month project aims to use members of the Bruins’ operations staff to increase the mentee’s pursuits in scouting and or a professional career in hockey. You can read the official Bruins’ announcement HERE.
U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Game Announced… The Minnesota Golden Gophers will host St. Cloud State University Nov. 20th in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Face-Off Classic. Puck drop is set for 3pm cst.
Speaking of Minnesota, the Gophers program turns 25-years this year.
US Allows Non-Citizens To Travel By Air To US In November… The U.S. Gov’t announced Monday starting in November fully vaccinated non-US citizens will be able to fly to the US. A negative COVID test will be required within three days of arrival. The land border between the US and Canada remains shut-down for another month until Oct. 21. We can’t seem to find much in the way of specifics with the new US guidance regarding Canadians. We will keep you updated as more is known.
IIHF World Championships Moves to August… Women’s hockey just got a nice boost from the IIHF as it is moving the top level Women’s World Championships Tournament to August in Olympic years beginning with 2022. Denmark has applied to be the host country in 2022. It’s a move that makes a lot of sense coming off the sports most high profile event at the Olympics. The best get to showcase themselves on the world stage 6 months later at a time of year when there is a hockey void on TV. No other league in the world that garners a TV audience, are usually playing games in August. You can read the IIHF official announcement HERE.
Until Next Time…
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
12.1.2 Amateur Status. An individual loses amateur status and thus shall not be eligible for intercollegiate competition in a particular sport if the individual: (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/02, 4/23/03 effective 8/1/03, 4/29/10 effective 8/1/10)
(a) Uses his or her athletics skill (directly or indirectly) for pay in any form in that sport; (b) Accepts a promise of pay even if such pay is to be received following completion of intercollegiate athletics participation; (c) Signs a contract or commitment of any kind to play professional athletics, regardless of its legal enforceability or any consideration received, except as permitted in Bylaw 12.2.5.1; (d) Receives, directly or indirectly, a salary, reimbursement of expenses or any other form of financial assistance from a professional sports organization based on athletics skill or participation, except as permitted by NCAA rules and regulations; (e) Competes on any professional athletics team per Bylaw 12.02.12, even if no pay or remuneration for expenses was received, except as permitted in Bylaw 12.2.3.2.1; (f) After initial full-time collegiate enrollment, enters into a professional draft (see Bylaw 12.2.4); or (g) Enters into an agreement with an agent.
Northeastern’s Frankel Wins The Patty
Northeastern University senior goaltender Aerin Frankel won the 2021 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award on Saturday March 27. The event was televised on the NHL Network live at 2pm as an hour long special. The native of Briarcliff Manor, NY beat out Wisconsin forward Daryl Watts and Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle. Statistically Frankel was in a class by herself this year. With 23 games played this year she had an 0.81 GAA and a .965 Save % seeing just under 23 shots per game.
You can watch her video accepting the award HERE and her Patty Kaz intro video HERE. She is a senior and will have the NCAA extra year of eligibility to use. We assume she’ll be back for the Huskies next season.
Final Top 10 Polls
The final USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls of the season came out for the week of March 22. They are identical to each other. You will notice Minnesota is ranked 6th… and yes they did not get into the NCAA tournament. Keep in mind these rankings are not used by the NCAA selection committee to determine who gets into the tournament or not. These rankings are strictly for media purposes by the various entities.
That said, these rankings are decided by good ‘hockey people’ who know the game… sports writers, NCAA coaches, members of the AHCA membership. I can’t recall a time when a team ranked as high as 6th in any poll, much less both, was left out of the tournament. It will be interesting to hear the selection committee comment on the process this year during the AHCA Convention in May.
USCHO.com Top 10 Poll – March 22
#1 Wisconsin
#2 Northeastern
#3 Ohio State
#4 MN-Duluth
#5 Colgate
#6 Minnesota
#7 Boston College
#8 Penn State
#9 Providence
#10 Robert Morris
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Poll – March 22
#1 Wisconsin
#2 Northeastern
#3 Ohio State
#4 MN-Duluth
#5 Colgate
#6 Minnesota
#7 Boston College
#8 Penn State
#9 Providence
#10 Robert Morris
NCAA News
The D-I and D-III women’s coaching body as well as D-I conference commissioners held their monthly zoom meeting last week. The big topic of discussion was this year’s NCAA national tournament, the selection process, and the absence of Minnesota and Penn State. There was a spirited discussion about the transparency of the process as a whole. Also discussed… D-I hockey could be in position to better the sport given the recent inequities shown in women’s basketball. Fair and equitable treatment could come in the form of an increase in teams selected to the D-I national tournament 8 to 10. Currently, on a percentage basis, the women’s tournament is out of balance compared to that of men’s D-I hockey. The women’s currently have 8 selections that represent 22.22% of the total number of teams at the D-I level eligible to make the tournament (36). Men’s D-I hockey is at 26.66% of it’s membership which is 60 and slated to be 61 after the 21-22 season.
Future meetings later this month will take place between each of the D-I conference commissioners and the D-I coaches chairs of each conference to discuss national agenda items for its AHCA convention in May. More about that agenda and the convention itself later this month.
Sifters
Worlds Update… Multiple NCAA players are off to their countries respective training / tryout camps for the 2021 World Championships being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia May 6-16. Players heading to Canada needed to take into account a mandatory 14-day quarantine before heading off for camp. Team USA’s camp, which just ended March 30, was held in Blaine, MN. twenty-four players on NCAA rosters this season were invited. A total of 46 players total were involved. The U.S. has named their World Championship Roster and you can find it HERE.
The MN State Tournament… continues this week. The Class A and Class AA finals will be held tomorrow and can be seen live HERE. The Class A championship begins at 11AM CST with Proctor/Hermantown vs. Gentry Academy. The Class AA championship has Edina vs. Andover at 1PM CST.
5 OT’s for the North Dakota/MN-Duluth Men… the NCAA men’s tournament kicked off last weekend and it produced the longest NCAA tournament game ever and 4th longest game ever. #1 overall tournament seed North Dakota came back to tie MN-Duluth with less than two minutes to go in the game and eventually lost 3-2 in the 5th overtime. You can watch the game highlights below.
13.02.14.1 Recruited Prospective Student-Athlete is defined by the NCAA as…
Actions by staff members or athletics representatives that cause a prospective student-athlete to become a recruited prospective student-athlete at that institution are: (Revised: 1/10/90, 1/11/94 effective 8/1/94, 1/10/05 effective 8/1/05, 12/13/05, 4/26/17 effective 8/1/17, 4/25/18) (a) Providing the prospective student-athlete with an official visit; (b) Having an arranged, in-person, off-campus encounter with the prospective student-athlete or the prospective student- athlete’s family members; or (c) Issuing a National Letter of Intent or the institution’s written offer of athletically related financial aid to the prospective student-athlete. Issuing a written offer of athletically related financial aid to a prospective student-athlete to attend a summer session prior to full-time enrollment does not cause the prospective student-athlete to become recruited.
20-21 NCAA Season Notes
With the NCAA season now complete, we imagine just about anyone who had anything to do with the 20-21 season is getting some much needed time off. COVID presented challenges unimaginable. There was no what-to-do-in-the-case-of-a-pandemic playbook to draw from. But now there is, and there are so many people to thank who made this season possible. So, a few thank you’s and some notes as we head into the Spring and await what the 21-22 season will bring.
To the Conference Commissioners… Jennifer Flowers-WCHA, Rob DeGregorio-College Hockey America and the New England Hockey Alliance (NEWHA), Steve Hagwell-ECAC, and Steve Metcalf-Hockey East. There aren’t enough THANK YOUs to go around. Without their collective determination, leadership, guidance, patience, and cooperation, we doubt a hockey season would have been in the cards.
To the Players… You are the ones who had to play the games and a feel level of safety doing so, otherwise you wouldn’t have played the games. You had to change how you lived your lives in order to keep your seasons safe as well as your teammates, coaches, and staff safe. The pressure you were all under to accomplish that, no one will ever fully know.
To the Coaches, school administrators & support staff… One can only imagine the stress level you all were under in this type of season. Hockey is a game that changes at a moments notice, and so was the case this year with how you had to manage everything about how this hockey season had to go in order for it to happen at all. To say this year was a grind, would be an understatement. To every coaches credit, you made it to the end and allowed for the ultimate to happen – the crowning of a national champion.
11 of 41 D-I teams did not have a season in 20-21.
Of those teams who played a conference schedule, Robert Morris and Northeastern played the most games this year with 25. The least was played by Vermont with 11.
No two teams played more games vs. one another than Clarkson and Colgate. They played 10 games against one another.
31 Hockey East games were broadcast on television this year on NESN the New England Sports Network.
ESPN and its family of networks broadcast the Frozen Four on ESPNU for the first time and will continue to for years to come after signing and multi-year contract with the NCAA.
Northeastern Junior forward Alina Mueller, (yes, junior), led the nation in scoring with 12 goals, 26 assists for 38 points in 25 games played.
Northeastern goaltender Aerin Frankel led the nation in goaltending statistics with a 0.81 GAA and a .965 SV %.
As of March 25 there were total of 79 women’s ice hockey players in the NCAA Transfer Portal, 35 joined since March 1.
Recruiting: Spring Information Thaw?
One vitally important aspect of the recruiting process largely missing since the pandemic hit as compared to most years, has been a lack of communication and information from college coaches back to recruits, their families, and club/high school coaches. This lapse in communication has been a major source of angst and confusion for players of the 2021 and 2022 recruiting classes who are trying to figure out what their academic and hockey future holds. But, as the saying goes ‘times heals all wounds’… and there could be some healing soon.
With the D-I season now over, college coaches will soon become better equipped to have these all important recruiting conversations with the ’21 and ’22 classes. But why the lapse in the first place? College coaches didn’t have all the info they needed to give recruits the direction they wanted. The NCAA muddied the recruiting process by granting everyone an extra year of eligibility in the Fall. That meant college coaches were put in the not so envious position of dealing with their graduating seniors and figuring out if their were going to return for a 5th year next fall. This added the opportunity for more transfer situations to occur than normal.
So, 2021 and 2022 recruits got stuck in the middle having had conversations with coaches last summer and then getting put on hold as COVID delayed everything, etc. In the coming weeks, college coaches will have a much b etter idea of what their rosters will look like. Why? It’s transfer season and things are really starting to heat up.
Transfer decisions usually happen at the end of the hockey season around now. College coaches generally don’t plan for transfers when forecasting future recruiting classes but that is something they’ve had to take into account this year with COVID. Transfering is not a quick or easy process. A player has to find a program, be academically eligible, and go through the admissions process at the institution as well as figure out finances. All that takes time… and now is when all of these decisions are happening.
To players and parents – hang tight. The information you are seeking is coming soon. As stated above, there are 79 women’s ice hockey players in the transfer portal, 35 joined since March 1. There are surely more to come. You can bet college coaches are scouring the portal to see who is making themselves available. All of this action will help coaches get a handle on how they’re going to manage their rosters and help shape the type of conversations they need to have with recruits.
D-III Wrap-Up
While the D-I season is over, some D-III teams are still playing. It’s been an odd season at D-III with the NCAA cancelling the NCAA National Championship due to lack of participation. Some conferences decided to allow their member teams to play games but not have a structured conference schedule. 21 of 65 D-III teams have not played a game this year. The CCC, MAC, NEHC, NESCAC, and NEWHL did not have conference schedules or playoffs. The MIAC, NCHA, UCHC, and WIAC, played conference schedules to the best of their abilities. The NCHA held it’s conference tournament with Adrian beating St. Scholastica 3-0 and 3-2 to take the best two-out-of-three. The UCHC’s top 8 teams will meet in their conference tournament which will run April 1-6, 2021. UW-River Falls beat UW Eau Claire 2-1 in game 3 for the WIAC conference championship held March 17-19. River Falls took game one 3-2, Eau Claire came back to win game two 3-0 to force a third and deciding game.
Sifters
COVID Update out of Ontario…
Teams registered with the OWHA will not be allowed to travel to the USA for tournaments in 21-22
Tournaments held in Ontario have not been sanctioned or given the green light just yet
No player movement from one team to another will be allowed until Sept. 1, 2021
Team tryouts are slated to begin Sept. 1
More Awards…
Northeastern head coach Dave Flint was named CCM/AHCA National D-I Coach of the Year. You can read the release HERE.
Penn State’s Kiara Zanon has won the AHCA Rookie of the Year Award chosen by D-I assistant coaching staffs. Each staff gets one vote. Runner up was Colgate goaltender Kayle Osborne.
Speaking of Penn State, the Nittany Lions will host the 2022 women’s Frozen Four next year.
The CCM/AHCA All-American Awards have been announced with two teams of six:
FIRST TEAM G – Aerin Frankel, SR, Northeastern D – Grace Bowlby, SR, Wisconsin D – Skylar Fontaine, SR, Northeastern F – Alina Mueller, JR, Northeastern F – Danielle Serdachny, SO, Colgate F – Daryl Watts, SR, Wisconsin
SECOND TEAM G – Emma Soderberg, JR, Minnesota Duluth D – Cayla Barnes, JR, Boston College D – Ashton Bell, SR, Minnesota Duluth F – Chloe Aurard, JR, Northeastern F – Kiara Zanon, FR, Penn State F – Grace Zumwinkle, SR, Minnesota
The Patty Kaz Award… will be unveiled at 2pm this afternoon on the NHL network during an hour-long special. Check your local cable and satellite provider for channel listings. The finalists are Northeastern goaltender Aerin Frankel, Wisconsin forward Daryl Watts, and Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle. You can get more info HERE.
The MN Girls State High School Tournament… is currently underway. The quarter-finals in class AA begin today at the Xcel Energy Center home of the MN Wild. The Class A quarter-finals wrapped up yesterday. You can get the Class A & AA tournament bracket HERE with scores and schedules.
COVID Bounces Men’s Teams from NCAA Tourney… Luckily this did not happen in the women’s NCAA tourney, but on the men’s side both Michigan and Notre Dame had to leave the tournament before playing a game due to positive tier I COVID cases. Tier I cases are those that involve people with the closest contact to players such as the players themselves, coaches, support and medcial staffs. Obviously a huge blow to both teams. Under tournament rules, BC and MN-Duluth automatically advance to the regional finals.