Tag Archives: D-I

Post #50– 8/30/21 – More D-I Starts, 3-Part Mutual Respect series, Sifters

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In This Post…

  • D-I Schools Start The Year |
  • Observations: 3-Part Mutual Respect Series |
  • Sifters |

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

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

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

D-I Schools Starting-Up

By the end of Friday this week, 14 more D-I programs will have joined Franklin Pierce and Syracuse University and started classes for the 2021-2022 D-I season. Just about under 40% of D-I teams will potentially be on the ice this week back in session ]. Whether or not teams are on the ice, is an entirely different story. Ice needs to be laid down, lines need to be painted, equipment needs to be handed out, NCAA compliance meetings need to be held, medical physicals have to occur, COVID protocols need to be met, and classes have to begin. Needless to say there’s a lot that goes into getting a team on the ice. Check below to see who starts class this week.

WCHACHAECACHockey East NEWHA
Bemidji St. – Aug. 23 Syracuse – Aug. 20St. Lawrence – Aug. 25 Boston College – Aug. 30 Franklin Pierce – Aug. 18
Mankato – Aug. 23Lindenwood – Aug. 23Colgate – Aug. 26Merrimack College – Aug. 30 Saint Anselm – Aug. 23
St. Cloud St. – Aug. 23 Mercyhurst – Aug. 23Cornell – Aug. 26Providence College – Aug. 30 Saint Michael’s – Aug.23
Ohio St. – Aug. 24Penn State – Aug. 23Clarkson – Aug. 30UCONN – Aug. 30Post Univ. – Aug. 30
MN-Duluth – Aug. 30 Rochester Inst. of Tech – Aug. 23 Quinnipiac – Aug. 30Univ. of Maine – Aug. 30Sacred Heart Univ. – Aug. 30
RPI – Aug. 30Univ. of New Hampshire – Aug. 30
Univ. of Vermont – Aug. 30

Observations – 3 Part Series On Mutual Respect

There is a tremendous amount of excitement as the 2021-2022 hockey season begins. Not only for NCAA programs, but for minor/youth players, coaches, parents, and everyone who plays a part in women’s hockey alike. We all want to get back to what was normal prior to the pandemic. We miss that sense of enjoyment we get from hockey. One of the ways we can ensure that enjoyment, is in how we treat one another. The better we treat one another, the more we enjoy the game. No matter what your role is within the game, we can all show a little more mutual respect between one another.

So, beginning tomorrow we’ll introduce part 1 of our 3-part ‘More Mutual Respect’ series and take a look at ways in which Parents can be more mutually respectful of one another this season. We’ll follow that up over the next two Tuesday’s, September 7th and 14th, with posts about how Players and Club/High School Coaches can be more respectful as well. Club and High School coaches who intersect with NCAA coaches during the recruiting process will definitely not want to miss this post.

Sifters

College Hockey Season Update… The AHCA, American Hockey Coaches Association met last week to begin it’s 2021-2022 season. One item of note that came up was how conferences and the NCAA will treat COVID related games that do not get played. The Hockey Commissioners association met to discuss possible options. Football conferences, such as The Big 10, have determined how they will handle certain situations should a team not be able to compete due to COVID. We expect all D-I hockey conferences to announce how to handle such situations. The NCAA on the other hand, does not recognize forfeits and no contest games. It will be interesting to see how the men’s and women’ ice hockey committees handles these situations for the NCAA National Tournament. As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Northern Michigan University Talking Women’s D-I Hockey… As it has been talked about before, Northern Michigan University has voiced its desire to have a D-I women’s NCAA program again. Just two days ago an article that appeared in the Brainerd Dispatch where AD Forrest Karr was quoted, “To me it’s an obligation that we have in the state of Michigan to help grow the sport.” You can read the full article HERE. Michigan did have a D-I NCAA program at Wayne State University, where yours truly worked from 2003-2007 under then Head Coach Jim Fetter. But the program fell prey to statewide budget cuts in 2011. No women’s D-I team in the state has existed since.

Coaching Hires Continue… We are just a few weeks away from the start of the season and there are still a few coaching positions both at D-I and D-III left to be filled.

LIU… Head Coach Rob Morgan announced he has filled one of his two open Assistant positions with former Brown alum Erica Kromm. She played for the Bears from ’07 – ’11. You can read more on Kromm’s hire HERE.

St. Anselm College… Head Coach Jen Kindret recently announced the hiring of Vinnie Ferrainola as its new full-time Assistant Coach. Ferrainola comes to St. A’s after spending the 20-21 season as Director of Hockey Operations for women’s hockey at Robert Morris University. You can read more his hire HERE.

Concordia University Wisconsin… has hired Ellie Tabaka, former player at Augsburg College ’20 and will assume the Assistant Coaching duties. You can read more on Ellie’s hire HERE.

RIT, Merrimack, and LIU… still have Assistant positions to announce.

At Division III… There are several Head and Assistants positions that need to be announced. Trinity College has a job posting for it’s Full-Time Assistant Coaching position. Anyone interested in applying can do so HERE.

RMU Update… And speaking of Robert Morris, it appears there will be no hockey played for either the women’s or men’s team for the 2021-2022 seasons. However, the school athletic department announced a ‘Hockey Is The Goal’ fundraising campaign on August 18 to help reinstate the women’s and men’s programs. An amount to get to was never announced.

Muddying the waters a bit is a story on TribLive about a lawyer representing a few RMU hockey players, who has alleged, “…a university official ordered an athletic department employee to “get rid of” text messages and emails about the school’s decision to eliminate the men’s and women’s ice hockey programs.” You can find that story HERE.

Upper Midwest HS Elite League Schedule… The Girls Minnesota High School Elite League gets back into action for the Fall of 2021 September 7th. You can find the entire league schedule HERE. The schedule spans 7 weeks this year culminating the the Girls NIT Tournament October 22-24, 2021.

Ontario U18 Camp… Women’s minor hockey in Ontario is looking more normal as the weeks go by. One sure sign is the OWHA announcing its annual U18 High Performance Invitational Camp September 3-5 in Allston, ON at the Nottawsaga Resort. Eighty players born 2004 and 2005 will be invited. This event in preparation for the Female U18 Canadian National Championships Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, 2021 in Dawson, Creek, BC. Ontario will have 2 team entries – Red and Blue.

World Championship Update… Today the US meets Finland at 3pm EST and Canada meets the Swiss at 7pm EST. Winners of today’s semi-final matchups face one another for the World Championship tomorrow, Aug. 31 at 7:30 EST. The US’s lone loss in the tournament so far was to Canada 5-1 in the prelim round. Canada remains undefeated. Placement games for all other countries have been taking place, Russia takes on Japan tomorrow at 12:00pm EST in the final placement game.

Until Next Time…

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

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

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In This Post…

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

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

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

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

D-I 2021-2022 Season Update

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

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

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

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

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

A 3rd Wave… Of Coaching Changes?

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

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

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

Sifters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until Next Time…

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

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

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In This Post…

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

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

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

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

Recruiting Visits & Communication

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do’s…

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

Don’ts

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

Mailbag Monday

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

Stick Taps Go To…

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

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

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

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

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

Sifters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until Next Time…

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

Post #47– 7/29/21 – What Makes A Good Event, Congrats Joel!, AUG 1 APPROACHES, Sifters

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In This Post…

  • What Makes A Good Event|
  • Congrats Joel!|
  • August 1 Approaches|
  • Sifters|

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

Stick Taps Section… We need your ‘Stick Taps’ suggestions! Have someone in the world of women’s hockey you think deserves some recognition? Let us know who they are and why you think they’re so deserving! Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com or tweet at us: @WMNSCollHockey. Our first Stick Tap goes out August first!

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

What Makes A Good Event

In previous Pipeline posts, we’ve identified some of the frustrations NCAA college coaches have with some events and what they do – or do not – provide. There are plenty of events that fall well short of what might considered ‘a good event’ by NCAA coaches standards. Not providing printed rosters, too many teams participating, or too many rink locations, etc. are just some of the things that make events difficult for NCAA coaches to do their jobs.

In last weeks post about the Beantown Classic, we acknowledged tournament/showcase event operators don’t really have NCAA coaches as their main priority… getting a certain number of teams to pay the entry fee is. So, what actually makes a good showcase/tournament event? In no particular order, here are a few things NCAA coaches enjoy that make their jobs more efficient and will help the reputations of tournament/event operators.

NCAA coaches ‘mostly’ go where the talent is… NCAA Coaches are like mice following cheese, we’re always chasing who we think the best players are wherever they may be playing. Events that attract a competitive field of talent will get coaches to your event.

We put ‘mostly’ in quotes because there times when coaches will go to an event and watch a particular age group where they largely know nothing about who’s there, except knowing what the expected level of play is. Coaches can specifically identify players to add to a particular recruiting class list to continue to evaluate in the future. The Rush Showcase is a good example. This event (in non-COVID years) is held in Brampton, Ontario during early June with 600+ players entering grade 7-Post Grad from all around Canada, the US, as well as Europe. A great event to identify up and coming younger talent that coaches normally would not have watched during the previous hockey season. Plus, it’s all under one roof.

The less travel between arena locations the better… Preaching to the choir here, event operators dislike multiple locations too. NCAA coaches love it when they can stay at one arena location. That said, if multiple locations have to be used, NCAA coaches would rather see one entire age group play all their games on a particular day or for a whole event, at one arena location, rather than have an age group’s games be spread out over multiple arena locations, on multiple days, at multiple times. Bottom line – the less travel rink-to-rink coaches have to do, the better.

Printed rosters and coaches or player contact information… Can’t stress this one enough. Having printed, current, up to date team rosters or an event program and either coaches or player contact information is paramount. If the goal of an organization’s event is to provide opportunities for its participants to be scouted/evaluated by NCAA coaches and hopefully play NCAA college hockey- then do right by your participants and make it as easy as possible for that scouting/evaluation to happen. Dummy-Proof and professionalize your event!

Coaches love to see competitive games… Coaches want to see the best play against the best. While there is value in watching a more talented team play a weaker team, it certainly isn’t ideal for an entire event. Create schedules that have a competitive balance. Coaches can tell when organizations weaken their division or schedule so they can have a chance at ‘winning’ said event. Place all of your players into college hockey programs, and now you’ve really ‘won’.

Event format, time of year, and type of event… This one is important! There’s a bit to unpack here – so pay attention! #1 game format – 3 periods vs. 2 halves… Merritt to both, but if exposure to NCAA coaches is the priority for the event, you’d find most college coaches say ‘two halves’ is a better eval experience. Some events in the summer use this format already. We get not every event has the latitude to use the 2 halve method. But if using 2 halves, allow teams to defend each end of the ice. There is a big difference in how players manage the game when players have the ‘long change’. #2 Period length… Two-25 or 30 min. periods is a good amount of time for players to get into a rhythm. Running time under 25 mins, can be tough. #3 Zam times… 3 periods of play with ice cuts after each can make the game drag on. Ice cut after every 2 periods when 3 are being played, works ok, sometimes too. An ice cut after a half of less than 30 mins. probably isn’t needed.

Here is may be the most important. #4 Time of year and type of event… Understand that D-I coaches have to monitor how often they evaluate players and meet recruits face-to-face off of their campus. Under NCAA rules, D-I coaches get 7 ‘recruiting opportunities’ to evaluate players or meet them face-to-face off of their campus. No more than 3 of these 7 opportunities can be face-to-face meetings. This rule is per recruit coaches focus on to evaluate and per coaching staff, not per coach on staff. This rule goes into effect each year beginning Aug. 1 until the end of the academic year. However, from June 1 to July 31, D-I coaches are allowed an unlimited number of player evaluations. So, the timing of when your events occur does play a critical role in whether coaches decide to attend. Here’s how the type of event factors in. Games that are part of league play, like in the PWHL, JWHL, NEGHL, etc. or any other league event that is considered a ‘league contest’, each game played counts as 1 single evaluation opportunity of the 7 D-I coaches have. Tournaments, showcases, camps, and clinics are considered multi-day events by the NCAA and count only as 1 single evaluation opportunity no matter how many games are played during the event. Watch 7 players play 5 times at the NAHA Labor Day tournament–that’s only 1 evaluation used for every player evaluated at that event, not 5.

Running events are hard work and aren’t easy to run. But by doing most of what is mentioned above, you’ll have coaches that can do their jobs more efficiently and participants who feel like you have their best interests at heart.

Congrats Joel!

USA Hockey announced on Wednesday, July 28 that University of St. Thomas (WCHA) Head Coach Joel Johnson, will be the Head Coach of the 2022 US Women’s Olympic Hockey Team. This will be Johnson’s first trip behind the bench at the Olympics. Needless to say it’s been a busy month for coach Johnson taking over a new D-I program at St. Thomas and now being tabbed to lead the US as they prepare for Worlds and the Olympics. Joel becomes just the 5th Women’s Olympic Hockey Head Coach in US history as he joins some elite company in Ben Smith ’98, ’02, ’06, Mark Johnson ’10-current Wisconsin Head Coach, Katey Stone ’14-current Head Coach at Harvard, and Robb Stauber ’18. This is just the 3rd time a NCAA Women’s D-I Head Coach has named to lead Team USA. You can read more on Johnson’s hire from USA Hockey HERE.

August 1st Approaches

Official and Unofficial Visits for Recruits Entering Grade 11 Begin Sunday… Sunday is a big day in the NCAA recruiting world and in Division I women’s ice hockey as recruits who are entering grade 11 in the fall are allowed to take official as well unofficial visits on an institutions campus while being able to meet with members of the coaching staff as well as have off-campus contact with coaches. Prior to Aug. 1, recruits in entering grade 9 or 10 have been able to visit campuses on their own at their own expense. Contact with the coaching staff has been prohibited however until this Sunday.

Prior to about 2006 or 2007, the official visit was a major important part of the recruiting process. Recruits used it as a serious factor in their decision making process to get to see what like was really like as a potential player in a particular program. That went away when players began committing early. The official visit seemed to happen more often after the commitment was made during grade 12 to meet future teammates etc., it was more of a ‘fun’ visit. When the NCAA rules changes and allowed official visits in the junior year, the official visit became more important again.

Much like the June 15th call date, coaches have a priority list of recruits they will offer the opportunity for an official visit, and in a lot of cases, unofficial visits as well. With official visits, coaches use recruiting funds to pay for travel – and in the new post recruiting COVID era, dollars need to be spent wisely and budgeted against recruiting trip travel for the coaching staff. Why would a staff limit who they invite for an unofficial visits since they don’t have to pay for travel? Time. Every coaching staff has their own way of organizing and planning their visits, but unofficial visits can take just as much time as officials. The problem post COVID is there are more players who want to visit than ever and staffs have only so much man power and time to devote. So, to keep some sanity and eyes on the recruiting trail with evaluations, not everyone who wants an unofficial visit with time spent with the coaching staff will get the opportunity.

One thing we know for sure come Sunday, it’s going to be a very time for coaches.

Sifters

Krampade All-American Scholars Announced… The American Hockey Coaches Association announced its 5th Annual Krampade All-American Scholar Awards earlier this month. 385 women playing Division I hockey received this distinction by maintaining a minimum of 3.65 GPA in both academic semesters during 2020-2021. A full list of awards winners in each conference can be found HERE.

NCAA Players Dominate Hockey Canada Summer Camps… Hockey Canada recently announced its summer camp rosters for its National Development Team and U18 Next Gen Team (2003’s). 54 players either play at or will enter an NCAA program this fall. Of the 5 D-I NCAA conferences, the ECAC leads the way with 29 players attending camp. You can view the National Women’s Under-18 Team Summer Camp (NextGen) roster HERE and the National Women’s Team Development Team roster HERE.

Something Familiar, Something New… Minnesota Gopher Head Coach Brad Frost announced the addition of 2 Assistant Coaches who will be joining him behind the bench this season. Natalie Darwitz returns for her 2nd stint as an Assistant Coach with the Gophers. Natalie worked with Frost in 2008-09 and again in 2010-11 after the 2010 Olympics before moving on and eventually taking over as Head Coach at D-III Hamline University. Also coming to Ridder via Hamline will be Darwitz’ Assistant Coach Jake Bobrowski. Bobrowski is no stranger to women’s hockey in MN having coached at the Girls HS level for several years as a head coach and then as an Assistant on Darwitz’ staff at Hamline for the past 6 years.

USA Hockey Names U18 National Festival Roster… 32 players will tryout and compete at the USA Hockey Women’s National Festival in Blaine, MN Aug. 5-14. This group of 32 was selected from the U18 Select Camp that was recently held in St. Cloud. You can see the list of U18 Festival players HERE. Of the 32 players, 12 represent Minnesota, 5 from the Central, 5 from Michigan, 4 from the Mid-America, 2 from the New England, and 1 each from Massachusetts, New York, Northern Plains, and Pacific Districts.

Until Next Time…

Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org. He currently 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 in 6 different NCAA DIII and DI conferences for various institutions 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.

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

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Recruiting Rule of the day… NCAA Bylaw 13.1.1.1

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

In This Post…

  • Conference Tourney Time
  • NCAA Weekly Polls
  • Sifters

Conference Tourney Time…

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

#9 vs. #8 Opening Round Game
#9 Holy Cross 0 @ #8 New Hampshire 3 | Box / Video Highlights / Postgame
#6 vs. #3 Quarter-Final Game #1
#6 Boston University 3 @ #3 Providence 4 | Box / Video Highlights & Postgame
# 5 vs. #4 Quarter-Final Game #2
#5 Maine 3 @ #4 Vermont 1 | Box / Video Highlights / Postgame
#7 vs. #2 Quarter-Final Game #3
#7 UCONN 5 @ #2 Boston College 1 | Box / Video Highlights / Postgame
#1 vs. #8 Quarter-Final Game #4
#8 UNH 0 @ #1 Northeastern 7 | BOX / Video Highlights / Postgame
March 3, 2021 Hockey East Championship Semi-Finals
#7 UCONN 1 @ #1 Northeastern 2 | Box / Video Highlights / Postgame
#5 Maine 0 @ #3 Providence 1 OT | Box / Video Highlights & Postgame
March 6, 2021 Hockey East Championship Game
Providence vs. Northeastern| 7:00pm | NESN-TV

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

March 5, 2021 – ECAC Hockey Women’s Championship Semi-Finals
#4 Quinnipiac @ #1 (6) Colgate | 5:00PM | ESPN + Stream
#3 Clarkson @ St. Lawrence | 5:00pm | ESPN + Stream
March 7, 2021 – ECAC Hockey Women’s Championship Game
#4 Quinnipiac / #1 Colgate winner VS. #3 Clarkson / #2 St. Lawrence Winner | ESPN + Stream

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

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

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

March 4, 2021 College Hockey America Tournament First Round
#6 RIT 0 @ #3 Robert Morris 2 | 2:00pm | Box / Video Highlights & Postgame–Scroll down page for video
#5 Lindenwood @ #4 Syracuse | 7:30pm | Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame
March 5, 2021 College Hockey America Tournament Semi-Final Round
#1 Penn State vs. Syracuse | 2:00pm | Stream Info
#2 Mercyhurst vs. Robert Morris | 7:30pm | Stream Info
March 6, 2021 College Hockey America Tournament Championship Game
Winner Semi-FInal #1 vs. Winner Semi-Final #2| 6:00pm | Stream Info

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

March 6, 2021 WCHA Final Faceoff Semi-Final
Game #1 – #1 Wisconsin vs. #4 Minnesota | 1:07pm CST| Stream Info
Game #2 – MN- Duluth vs. Ohio St. | 5:07pm CST | Stream Info
March 7, 2021 WCHA Final Faceoff Championship Game
Game 3 – Game #1 winner vs. Game #2 Winner| 2:07pm CST | Stream Info

NCAA Weekly Polls…

Weekly polls are out as of March 1.

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

Sifters…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Streaming Info

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

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

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

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

Post #30 — 2/24/21 — NCAA News, Tournament Time, Weekly Poll, sifters

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In This Post…

  • NCAA Dead Period, Championship Attendance, Social Justice News
  • Post-Season Tournament Time
  • NCAA Weekly Polls…
  • Sifters

NCAA News…

There has been quite a bit of NCAA new over the past few weeks, so let’s get to it.

NCAA Dead Period Extended… The NCAA announced it would extend the temporary COVID recruiting dead period until May 31st. last week. You can read the official announcement HERE. As noted in the release, April 15 is the target date for the NCAA to give further guidance on the transition back to recruiting activities after June 1. If we had to guess, some kind of hybrid ‘quite’ and or ‘dead’ period model will be used. Meaning, we’ll probably see something like camps and clinics allowed first with in-person recruiting activities later in the summer. Unofficial and official visits may have to wait until the Fall.

Attendance Policy at NCAA Winter Championships Announced… The NCAA also announced it would allow 25% attendance for all its NCAA Winter sport championships – including the Women’s Frozen Four. This is as long as state and local authorities allow attendance at all. The WFF will be held in Erie, PA March 18-20 at Erie Insurance Arena home to the OHL’s Erie Otters. Capacity for hockey is listed at 6,716 and 25% would be 1,679. The NCAA’s announcement is HERE. We have yet to confirm if the WFF will have fans but if so, I would think 1,679 would be an easy number of tickets to sell out.

College Hockey Comes Together for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion… A special group has formed representing every NCAA Division I women’s and men’s hockey conference in a new initiative called: College Hockey 4 Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. On Feb. 11th Jennifer Flowers, WCHA Vice President, Women’s Commissioner and chair of CollegeHockey4DEI along with 26 other individuals representing student-athletes, coaches, and administrators announced their intentions to make a cultural change within college hockey to be more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. You can watch the press conference announcement HERE and for more information please go to CollegeHockey4DEI.com.

Post-Season Tournament Time…

Conference Post-Season Tournaments Set to Begin… Hockey East began its post-season tournament Thursday with a March Madness hoops tourney style ‘Opening Round Game’ between #9 Seed Holy Cross and #8 Seed UNH with the winner facing off vs. #1 Seed Northeastern on Sunday. You can checkout the Hockey East Tournament press release HERE for schedules and streaming information as well as bios on how each team did this year. The format calls for an opening round game Thursday evening followed by four quarter-final games Sunday Feb. 28 with 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, and 4 vs. 5. Winners moving on to the semi-final round held Wednesday March 3 with the championship game played Saturday March 6.

In the ECAC, just four teams have played conference games this season–Clarkson, Colgate, Quinnipiac, and St. Lawrence. #1 will host #4 and #2 will host #3 in the four-team semi-final format on March 5. The highest remaining seed will host the championship game Sunday March 7. Seedings are still to be determined as any team with the right combination of wins and help from other teams could claim the #1 seed and regular season ECAC title. You can read more on the tournament HERE.

In the College Hockey America, Mercyhurst University along with the Erie, PA Sports Commission will host the CHA’s annual postseason tournament March 4-6, 2021 at Erie Insurance Arena. You can read the official tournament announcement HERE for schedule and streaming info. The CHA still has one weekend left in their regular season which will determine the eventual tourney schedule. Erie Insurance Arena will be the site of the Women’s Frozen Four March 18-20.

Out west in the WCHA, the top four teams will travel to Ridder Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota to play in the WCHA Final Faceoff March 6-7. This a departure from how the WCHA postseason playoffs usually work, where all eight teams made the field and the tournament was held over two weekends. You can read the WCHA official tournament announcement HERE. Wisconsin, MN-Duluth, Ohio State, and Minnesota round out the top four and meet next weekend in Minneapolis to crown the WCHA Champion.

NCAA Weekly Polls…

Weekly polls are out as of Feb. 22.

RANKTEAM
1Wisconsin
2Northeastern
3Ohio State
4Minnesota
5Colgate
6Boston College
7Minnesota-Duluth
8Penn State
9Clarkson
10Providence
USCHO.com Poll
RANKTEAM
1Wisconsin
2Northeastern
3Ohio State
4Minnesota
5Colgate
6Minnesota-Duluth
7Boston College
8Clarkson
9Penn State
10Providence
USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today Poll

Sifters…

Patty Kaz Finalists Named… The 10 finalist for the 2021 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, given annually to the top D-I women’s player at the Frozen Four, were announced earlier this week. Wisconsin’s Daryl Watts and Clarkson’s Elizabeth Giguere, both past winners of the award, have been named finalists along with eight other players. Northeastern leads the field with three finalists. You can find the entire list HERE.

ESPN to Televise 2021 Frozen Four… In a major boost to expanding television coverage for D-I women’s college hockey and for our sports signature event the Women’s Frozen Four (WFF), ESPN has announced it has entered into a multi-year contract to broadcast the WFF held in Erie, PA on its family of networks beginning this year. You can read ESPN’s announcement HERE. ESPN3 the online streaming service will carry the first national semi-final while ESPNU, ESPN’s cable and satellite TV college sports provider, will carry the second semi-final as well as the championship game. While not the first time the WFF has been on a well know cable channel and streamed online, this however the first time the event will appear on a network with as much reach as ESPN has.

AHCA Naples Convention… The American Hockey Coaches Association is putting together options for its annual convention held in Naples, FL at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Resort. A virtual online event and or an in-person event at the resort could take place. Just about every D-I/D-III women’s and men’s program, support staff, school administrators, conferences, officials as well as junior/youth/minor hockey programs and hockey related companies are members. COVID cancelled the convention last year. This year holds a bit more sentiment as the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Resort which has been home to the AHCA Convention for 30+ years, will be closing its doors and re-developing the property. The AHCA acts as the official NCAA hockey coaches association for all NCAA matters.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

Streaming Info

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

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

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

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

Post #29 — 2/9/21 — Welcome to women’s college hockey.org

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In This Post…

  • Welcome to Women’s College Hockey.org …
  • NCAA Weekly Polls…
  • Sifters — lots of them…

Welcome to Women’s College Hockey.org

Hello everyone, Grant Kimball here, assistant women’s hockey coach at Yale University and welcome to Women’s College Hockey.org! Many of you started following my Bulldog Pipeline blog back in early October where we kept you updated with news, notes, and insight about our program at Yale as well as across the world of NCAA women’s college hockey. Since then, we’ve heard from many of you saying how much you enjoy our content, especially on the recruiting side with all the changes happening in the NCAA due to COVID.

So, in an effort to better serve and educate prospective players, coaches and fans about NCAA women’s college hockey welcome to your new home – Women’s College Hockey.org. Our new site is more robust which allows for additional content and special features like dedicated pages for advice to help you understand the recruiting process, view video clips of game highlights and coaches post-game reaction, league standings, and so much more. There may even be a podcast in our future!

The Bulldog Pipeline IS NOT GOING AWAY but it will get a new home as well on the official Yale Athletics Women’s Hockey website which can be found HERE–be sure to bookmark it! All previous content specific to our program from bulldogpipeline.com will migrate over.

Now you have two great online sources to keep you up to date with what’s going on in NCAA women’s college hockey AND with your Yale Bulldogs. We’ll continue to send emails of new posts once they go live. If you already signed up to follow the Bulldog Pipeline there is no need to do so again. And if you want to keep up to date with all that is going on in the world of Women’s College Hockey – sign up now and give us a follow so you never miss a post! Just go to the Home Page and enter your email address in the ‘Follow Us‘ box located in the right-hand margin of the page.

Okay… on to some women’s college hockey news! Happy reading everyone!

NCAA Weekly Polls…

Weekly polls are out as of Feb. 8 with no change at all between them except for the #8 and #9 spots.

RANKTEAM
1Wisconsin
2Minnesota
3Northeastern
4Ohio State
5Colgate
6-TMinnesota-Duluth
6-TBoston College
8Penn State
9Clarkson
10Providence
USCHO.com Poll
RANKTEAM
1Wisconsin
2Minnesota
3Northeastern
4Ohio State
5Colgate
6Minnesota-Duluth
7Boston College
8Clarkson
9Penn State
10Providence
USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today Poll

Sifters…

New National Goaltending Award Announced… The Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association announced a new D-I women’s national goaltender of the year award given annually to the top female goaltender. The winner will be announced at this years Frozen Four in March held in Erie, PA. On the men’s side they’ve had the exact same award named after former Wisconsin goalie Mike Richter since the 2013-2014 season. The Hockey Commissioners Association assumed the responsibility for the Richter Award this Fall and felt a women’s equivalent was long overdue. A ‘watch list’ of 21 names was announced last week. You can see who’d on that list HERE.

The Hockey Commissioners Association is made up of the commissioners of each women’s and men’s D-I conferences. They are heavily involved in the administration of NCAA D-I women’s and men’s college hockey as well as serving as a partner with the NCAA and the institutions their conferences represent.

D-III Winter National Championships Cancelled… All NCAA Division-III 2020-2021 Winter National Championships have been cancelled as per the NCAA last week. You can read the official story HERE. The NCAA said the reason for the cancellations were due to low sport participation, meaning there weren’t enough teams in their respective sports to have a bona-fide true National Championship. The NCAA set strict limits on how many teams in each sport must play this season in order to play and national tournament. No word yet on what will happen with Spring championships yet.

NCAA Contingencies for Winter Sports Announced… With the NCAA cancelling D-III Winter championships last week, they came out with a statement on contingencies for D-I Winter and Spring sport national championships. You can read the announcement HERE. Based on the number of teams competing in D-I hockey, a full 8-team field is expected to be selected.

One Site Location for Women’s D-I Championship… The NCAA announced it will hold the entire NCAA Women’s National Collegiate Championship at its Frozen Four site in Erie, PA March 15-21. All 7 games of the tournament, 4 qtr. final, 2 semi-final, and 1 championship game will be played at one site. Normally the 4 highest seeds would host a quarter-final game with the winners moving on to a single-site for the Frozen Four. Of course, this is all done to protect the health and safety of all participants in an environment where the NCAA can control what it wants – namely COVID testing. You can read the official statement HERE.

SAT Testing News… A big change from from The College Board, the company that administers the SAT Test… SAT Subject tests will no longer be offered and the optional Essay on the SAT will no longer be offered after the June SAT dates. You can read the official announcement HERE. Some additional SAT test dates were announced as well.

SAT/ACT Test Optional to Continue? A number of high profile institutions, Cornell and Harvard to name a few, have recently announced its extending test-optional policies beyond the ’20-’21 admissions cycle and into ’21-’22. No word if other institutions will follow suit, but you have to think with all the trouble students across the US and Canada have had to even register for a test date, more schools will go test optional.

Dartmouth and Brown announce Athletic Director changes… The Ivy League athletic director landscape has been upended with the announcements of Brown University Athletic Director Jack Hayes and Dartmouth AD Harry Sheehy will step down from their respective posts. Hayes has been at the Brown helm since 2012 and will move on to explore other opportunities, one of which starts March 1 in a new role with Bruin Sports Capital a private sports, entertainment and media company. Sheehy will depart Dartmouth after 45 years in competitive athletics, the last ten of which he spent with the Big Green. The news comes on the heels of both departments deciding to ‘restructure’ and cut various sport programs last Spring and Summer as the COVID-19 pandemic put a choke hold on college athletics. There has been an alumni groundswell of support as well as lawsuits to bring some of those sports back and some with success.

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

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

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In This Post…

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

Weekend Recap…

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

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

#3/4 Northeastern needed OT to beat Maine

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

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

#7 Providence swept its weekend series with Merrimack.

#8 Boston College swept its series with Holy Cross.

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

#NR/10 Quinnipiac swept its series with LIU.

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

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

Conference Standings as of 1/18/21…

Friday Scores & Highlights – 1/15

Holy Cross 2
#8 Boston College 3
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
#1 Minnesota 0
#2 Wisconsin 5
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video (MN)
#7 Providence 3
Merrimack 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Concordia-Wisconsin 1
Adrian College 9
Box / NO Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Robert Morris 2
#10/NR Mercyhurst 2
Box / Video Highlights & Postgame Reaction
UCONN 1
New Hampshire 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Bemidji State 1
St. Cloud 3
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Ohio State 0
MN-Duluth 2
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
Penn State @ RIT – PPD
Lindenwood @ Syracuse – PPD

Saturday Scores & Highlights – 1/16

#10/NR Mercyhurst 2
Robert Morris 3 (OT)
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Long Island Univ. 0
#NR/10 Quinnipiac 5
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Minnesota 3
Wisconsin 6
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video (MN)
#9 Clarkson 1
#5 Colgate 4
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Bemidji 2
St. Cloud 2 (OT) BEMIDJI Wins Shootout 1-0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
#4/3 Ohio State 1
#6 MN-Duluth 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video UMD
Adrian College 4
Concordia-Wisconsin 1
Box / No Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
UCONN 4
New Hampshire 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Penn State @ RIT – PPD
Lindenwood @ Syracuse – PPD

Sunday Scores & Highlights – 1/17

Merrimack 2
#7 Providence 4
Box / Video Highlights & Postgame Video
Maine 2
Northeastern 3 (OT)
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
#NR/10 Quinnipiac 11
Long Island Univ. 0
Box / No Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

COVID Recruiting Update… Players & Parents Hang In There!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sifters…

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

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

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

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

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IN THIS POST…

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

Monday Scores & Highlights

Lindenwood 5
RIT 1
Box / No Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Long Island Univ. 1
Clarkson 5
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Tuesday Scores & Highlights

Long Island Univ. 1
Clarkson 8
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Providence 0
Northeastern 4
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video

Polls for the Week Jan. 11…

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

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

Weekend Schedule…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sifters…

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

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

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

Streaming Info

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

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

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

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

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

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

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In This Post…

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

Weekend Recap…

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

How The Top 10 fared…

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

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

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

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

#6 MN-Duluth was idyle.

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

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

#9/7 Clarkson was Idyle

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

In other games…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Scores & Highlights – 1/8

Merrimack 3
Boston College 5
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
#4/3 Ohio State 1
#1 Wisconsin 2
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
MSU-Mankato 2
Bemidji 1
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
New Hampshire 1
#3/4 Northeastern 3
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
Vermont 2
UCONN 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Penn State 3
Robert Morris 2
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Saturday Scores & Highlights – 1/9

#4/3 Ohio State 2
#1 Wisconsin 1 (OT)
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
#8 Boston College 3
Merrimack 1
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Penn State 4
Robert Morris 1
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Vermont 3
UCONN 2 (OT)
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
MSU-Mankato 4
Bemidji 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
#NR/10 Quinnipiac 0
#5 Colgate 4
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
St. Cloud 1
#2 Minnesota 4
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
#3/4 Northeastern 2
New Hampshire 2 (OT) UNH Wins Shootout
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
#7/9 Providence 5
Holy Cross 2
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up

Sunday Scores & Highlights – 1/10

#NR/10 Quinnipiac 1
#5 Colgate 4
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
Lindenwood 2
RIT 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Write-Up
#2 Minnesota 4
St. Cloud 0
Box / Video Highlights / Postgame Video
Sacred Heart –
#10/NR Mercyhurst –
PPD

NWHL Set to Compete in Lake Placid Bubble…

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

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

Sifters…

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

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

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

Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!

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