On August 3rd the NCAA Division I Board of Directors acted on recommendations made by the Transformation Committee. Some items made it through are were put into action immediately, like more benefits to support athletes. One item did not. The package of recommendations on Transfers was sent back and not voted on.
The NCAA’s D-I Board of Directors took action earlier last week on recommendations made by the Transformation Committee. Schools are now be allowed – immediately – to offer enhanced benefits for student-athletes. The D-I Board of Directors took no action on the TC’s proposed new set of transfer rules.
Institutions are now able to provide enhanced benefits to better their support athletes in a variety of areas such as personal well being & safety, insurance products for major injury and loss of value, and funding participation in elite-level training, tryouts, and competition. It used to be schools were very limited in what they spend $ on to support their athletes in these areas. Starting August 3, schools will no longer need to submit waivers to get approval to pay for these types of benefits.
Let’s say you are a part of your country’s national team program and they want you to participate in a team camp or tournament event. It appears schools will now be able – if they are willing – to pay for their athletes to attend. Or if you’re a potential high draft-pick in your sport and had the potential to get lucrative playing and endorsement contracts, an insurance policy could be purchased by your school to protect against a catastrophic injury and loss of value in your potential earnings.
The D-I Board agreed to not act on the transfer rules package recommended at this time. It seems there was a bit of pushback from the D-I membership as well as SAAC – The Student Athlete Advisory Committee in that some of the transfer rules seemed too restrictive. The original recommendations by the NCAA TC would have allowed for an academic eligibility exception where students would not only be academically eligible from the school they were transferring from, but also have enough credits to be eligible at the school they were transferring to. Additionally, several ‘transfer windows’ would be available where athletes would have a certain amount of time to give written notice to their school with intentions to transfer. However those windows would close after a certain number of days. The SAAC Committee commented that the overall transfer package was deemed too restricting and limited a players’ freedom of movement.
The NCAA’s D-I Board will next meet and vote on additional recommendations from the Transformation Committee on August 31. You can read the full NCAA announcement on its approval of enhanced student-athlete benefits HERE.
Hockey Canada’s U18 selection Camp… is already underway in Calgary Alberta. Goaltenders had the first few days of camp Aug. 2nd & 3rd. Forwards and defenders had a series of position specific practices Aug. 4th and 5th prior to the 45-player group is split into 2 teams, Red & White, where team practices will commenced on Aug. 6th. Interestingly, Finland has brought it’s U-18 team over to participate along with Canada. Finland’s participation began with its own team practices Aug. 5 and begin play vs. Team Red Aug. 10.
Speaking of games, it looks like Hockey Canada will be streaming quite a bit of hockey over the next little while.
Canada U-18 Selection Camp Game Streams can be found HERE and then by clicking on the ‘Watch’ link in the right-hand side of the page, see example below.
USA Hockey’s U18 and O18 selection Camp… get’s underway today with games beginning today at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, NY. Players are split into 2 age groups, Under-18 and Over-18. The U18 group will practice and scrimmage together with 4 total games vs. one another. The Over-18 group will be split into 4 teams for practices and games with each team playing 3 games.
You can find the U18 and O18 team rosters HERE. We haven’t been able to find any info on links to watch live streams. We will keep you posted if we do find some.
Wondering how much you’ll have to pay for college? Best to ‘Do The Math’ now, so you know how much you have to work with down the road – when you’ll need to know…
Unless you plan on your daughter getting a full scholarship, (there aren’t many of that get offered), families are going to wind up paying some amount of money out-of-pocket to put your daughter through college. How much exactly, that’s a lot harder to determine when the college hockey recruiting process is involved.
But even if a final dollar amount is unattainable right now and college could be years away, families SHOULD do something in the meantime to help make things a lot easier in the future.
What families should be doing is a ‘Family Financial Evaluation’.
Simply stated, this is a process where families crunch the numbers and find out a worst-case / this-is-what-we-can-afford at the top end of our budget amount – in order to make paying for college, work. Consider it like an internal family audit and a way of determining what your family finances will be over the next 6 to 7 years. And that’s how many years ahead families should be evaluating their finances for.
Why 6-7 years?
For those players who are heading into grade 11 this coming Fall, you are either in the midst of the recruiting process already or it’s going to probably happen before the grade 11 year is over and that’s the time frame you’ll need to evaluate. 2 more years of high school + 4 years of college. Add in a post-grad year perhaps, and that is how you get to 7.
So why is it important to do this now if we’re talking about something that may not happen for another 7 years!!??
3 reasons. 1) As they say, knowledge is power. The more you know how much you can afford, the better off you will be when it comes time to evaluate college costs. You can focus your time and efforts where legit opportunities are. 2) For someone who is going through the recruiting process right now or soon will, you could be faced with having to make some decisions – and soon. In order to do so, those opportunities have to be affordable in order to work out. 3) Some schools may be real aggressive with making offers, and it’s not just on the D-I side any longer,. Plenty of offers come in the grade 11 year for players at the D-3 level. And at D-I – it’s all about financial aid and knowing costs as there are no athletic scholarships.
In next week’s post, we’ll breakdown what to evaluate when looking at your finances.
As David Bowie sang, Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes… The coaching changes keep coming. This time if year is somewhat late for departures, especially of head coaches – but that’s exactly what has happened. Tim Crowley, head coach at Elmira College, has stepped down. We have a suspicion it’s for another coaching position, but that hasn’t been made public yet, and don’t want to speculate. Elmira’s assistant coach, Mandy Montgomery stepped down earlier this summer and that leaved Elmira with two very important positions to fill.
The more unexpected departure came when it was reported last week University of Maine’s Head and Assistant Coach, who are husband and wife, Richard Reichenbach and his wife Sara, resigned for undisclosed reasons. In an article posted by a local TV station WGME, it appears the school has commenced its search process already. You can read that story HERE and see our updated 2022-2023 Coaching Changes Tracker HERE.
Season Almost Here… You know the season is getting closer when conferences start to announce their schedules. The CHA 22-23 schedule can be found HERE. The WCHA conference schedule can be found HERE.
Regional Representation… Ontario and Minnesota Lead The Way… Canada’s U18 Selection camp has players from 7 different provinces, here is a breakdown:
Province
# of Players
British Columbia
6
Alberta
4
Saskatchewan
2
Manitoba
3
Ontario
21
Quebec
5
Nova Scotia
3
Team USA’s U18 National Festival Camp Roster has players from 13 different states, here is a breakdown:
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
We’ll take a look at the upcoming weekly D-I schedule|
See who’s ranked in the USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the ‘Power 10’ national polls|
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s hockey|
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
It’s ‘Final-Four’ Weekend for NEWHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA… The CHA completed its post-season playoff championship last weekend with Syracuse beating Mercyhurst in the final 3-2 in OT. The NEWHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA are all down to its ‘Final-Four’ championship weekend. The NEWHA held quarterfinal games Tuesday. Hockey East played its Semifinal games last night. The NEWHA and ECAC championship weekends have semifinals Friday and championships Saturday. The WCHA final-four championship weekend is Saturday/Sunday. All schedules are below:
Make sure to scroll down
Tuesday, March 1
NEWHA Quarterfinals #6 St. Michael’s 1 @ #3 St. Anselm 2
NEWHA Quarterfinals #5 Post 2 @ #4 Sacred Heart 5
Wednesday, March 2
Hockey East Semifinal #3 UCONN 3 @ #2 Vermont 1, HIGHLIGHTS
Hockey East Semifinal #5 Maine 1 @ #1 Northeastern 3, HIGHLIGHTS are ⬇️
We're headed to our sixth-straight @hockey_east title game.
Hockey East Championship TBD, 7PM, @ TBD Campus site of highest remaining seed, TV-NESN+
WCHA Semifinal #4 MN-Duluth vs. #1 Minnesota, 1:07PM CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
WCHA Semifinal #3 Wisconsin vs. #2 Ohio State, 4:07PM CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
Sunday, March 6
WCHA Championship TBD, 1Pm CST, @ Univ. of MN Ridder Arena, TV/Stream INFO
NCAA Tournament Selection Show, 9PM EST, TV-ESPN NEWS Channel, Stream Info Coming Soon
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
Evan’s last look at his Top 10 in D-I women’s college hockey came in last week’s Pipeline Post #65. You can find it HERE.
The Pairwise & NCAA Tourney
The Pairwise
In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.
Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.
There are 5 D-I conferences. 4 of the 11 bids come from conference post season playoff tournament championship Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.
The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.
After the 11-team tournament field has been selected, then the fun begins in putting together 4 regional sites. To learn more about how the selection process works and how regional sites will be determined – click here for the 2022 NCAA Pre-Championship Manual.
Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Wednesday March 2, 2022.
#8 Outlasts #1 In ECAC… For the first time in the 20-year history of the ECAC Playoff Championship Tournament, the #8 seed Princeton Tigers knocked off the #1 seed Harvard Crimson. The Tigers won game one 3-2, lost game two 2-1 in overtime, but won the third and deciding game, 3-2. #8 Princeton will play #2 Yale in the first ECAC Semifinal set for 3Pm Friday. #2 seed Yale also went the distance in its first-round quarterfinal series with #7 seed St. Lawrence.
Top 10 Patty Kaz Announced… The 10 Patty Kaz finalists were announced today by USA Hockey.
Introducing the top-10 finalists for the 2022 #PattyKaz Award!👏
The WCHA leads the way with 6 finalists while Hockey East landed 4. No one from the ECAC, CHA, or NEWHA made the cut. Northeastern leads the way with 3 players themselves,Minnesota and Wisconsin with 2 each. Ohio St., MN-Duluth, and Vermont each have 1. Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel, last year’s Patty Kaz winner, is a finalist this year.
The Patty will be awarded on the NHL Network March 27 in a special on-air television presentation. The top-3 finalists will be announced March 17th during the Women’s Frozen Four National Championship.
Possible NCAA Recruiting Rule Changes… As the NCAA often does each year, proposals for various rule changes in a variety of areas like recruiting, financial aid, eligibility etc., are announced and then voted on in April to become legislated. The following rule proposals were just announced and will be voted on in April.
Amend the trigger for student-athlete status to align with the approach authorized by waivers the past two academic years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An individual would remain a prospective student-athlete until the individual signs a National Letter of Intent or the school’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid or the school receives the individual’s financial deposit in response to its offer of admission and completes all high school graduation requirements or all transfer academic eligibility requirements.
An individual would revert to prospective student-athlete status if the individual does not attend classes at the beginning of the first full-time regular academic term after the individual completes all high school graduation requirements or all transfer academic eligibility requirements.
Specify a school shall not provide more than two consecutive nights of lodging to a prospective student-athlete in conjunction with an official visit.
Eliminate the limitation on the number of official visits a prospective student-athlete may take.
Specify that in sports other than basketball, contact may not be made with a prospective student-athlete during the time of day when classes are in session at their school.
WCH Spring Recruiting Event List… Coming shortly will be our WCH Spring/Summer Recruiting Event List. We’ll keep track of all showcases, camps/clinics, and recruiting events from March until the end of August across North America & beyond we’re aware of. We’ll post a link with event names, dates, and locations along with links to info if provided. For any coaches who want their event listed, please fill out our online form and we’ll be sure to list it. You can find it HERE.
Changes to Camps & Clinics for D-I Schools… In an effort to curb early recruiting tactics by college coaches in sports other than women’s basketball, the NCAA has legislated new ‘Institutional’ camp/clinic rules which took effect in January of 2022. ‘Institutional Camps/Clinics’ are now only allowed to be conducted during the months of June, July, August and December to Feb. 1. Institutional camps/clinics are not allowed outside of that time period.
Institutional camps and clinics are defined as those 1) owned/operated by a D-I coach or the institution institution itself and 2) where participants are classified as prospective student-athletes and have entered grade 9.
This new legislation does not impact Institutional Camps/Clinics where the participants are in grade 8 & below or the ability of college coaches to work for privately owned camps/clinics.
What’s Next For Women’s Hockey… It seems like the sport has this conversation after every Olympics. One would think with over 6 million viewers world-wide for the Gold Medal game, there is a way to harness a sustainable viewing audience for our sports best during the regular hockey season. Word came this week of something in the works. Yahoo Sports’ Justin Cuthbert & Co. bat around whats needed for a viable pro league:
Until Next Time…
21-22 Streaming Info
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Weekly Top 10 National Polls – USCHO.com, USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine, and the NCAA’s ‘Power 10’|
Pairwise Rankings |
D-I Conference Playoffs|
Sifters… Little tidbits of news and info from around women’s college hockey & beyond|
D-I Weekly Schedule
We are going to try a new format for displaying the weekly schedule as well as games played with links to box scores. Formatting from USCHO.com is not kind to mobile users. So to help, we will be using the links CHN – College Hockey News.
The regular season has ended for 4 out of the 5 D-I conferences. The NEWHA still has one more regular season weekend to complete. Hockey East kicked off the Conference Tournament season Wednesday with two games. Here’s the weekly schedule.
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #5 Minnesota State @ #4 MN-Duluth, 2pm CST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 2, #7 St. Cloud @ #2 Ohio St., 3pm EST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #8 St. Thomas @ #1 Minnesota, 2pm CST
WCHA Quarterfinal Game 3 (If Necessary), #6 Bemidji St. @ #3 Wisconsin, 2pm CST
Game results, box scores, and statistics come directly from CHN – College Hockey News, USCHO.com or the NCAA’s official stats site HERE.
Video highlight links are to individual program produced media, some of which may be found on team twitter or other social media accounts – so scroll the feed to see the game highlights.
Postgame links are any postgame video produced by individual programs and found on either team websites or social media accounts.
Don’t See a link… for video highlights or postgame? Assume there was none available at the time of our post.
D-I Top 10 Polls
What a regular season.
The women’s college hockey regular season did not disappoint. Weekend after weekend, college hockey fans were treated to great individual and team performances. The best part was the ever-changing rankings every week due to the amount of parity inside the top 10.
Let’s dive into the final Power 10 of the regular season.
1. Minnesota (26-7-1) | Prev: 1
The Golden Gophers finished the regular season with a sweep of St. Thomas, earning a pair of 7-1 wins. Minnesota was scorching hot in their final 15 games, going 13-2-0 with big wins over then-No. 7 Minnesota Duluth, then-No. 2 Ohio State and a sweep of then-No. 1 Wisconsin. Senior Taylor Heise posted five points on the weekend, bringing her season-total to 60 — good for first in the nation.
2. Ohio State (25-6-0) | Prev: 3
In the biggest series of the final weekend, Ohio State swept Wisconsin by scores of 5-1 and 2-1. Despite the close score in Game 2, Ohio State outshot Wisconsin, 45-23. Junior forward Kenzie Hauswirth entered the weekend with only one goal on the season. She potted three on the weekend, including the game-winner on Saturday. With the sweep, the Buckeyes proved they’re the second-best team in the nation heading into the WCHA postseason and the national tournament.
The Huskies move up a bit in the final rankings of the regular season after earning a 2-1 win over UNH and then going 1-0-1 against UConn this past weekend. It’s fitting that graduate student goalie Aerin Frankel ended the season with a 32-save shutout in the 5-0 win. Frankel finishes the regular season with the best goals against average (1.07) and save percentage (.956) in the country. She’ll be must-watch in the national tournament.
4. Wisconsin (23-6-4) | Prev: 2
The Badgers had a tough weekend at Ohio State, dropping both games and getting outplayed. In Wisconsin’s defense, they were only able to skate three forward lines. The star of the weekend for Wisconsin was backup goalie Cami Kronish. On Saturday, in just her third start of the season, she stopped 43 of 45 Ohio State shots in the 2-1 loss. Starter Kennedy Blair missed the game with an upper-body injury.
5. Minnesota Duluth (22-9-1) | Prev: 4
The Bulldogs only move down a spot because I think the top four teams in college hockey are the four listed above. They faced St. Cloud State over the last week, going 2-0-1 against the Huskies. In the two wins, fifth-year Elizabeth Giguere and redshirt senior Naomi Rogge posted big weekends. Giguere had four assists, while Rogge registered two goals and a helper.
Also, how about senior McKenzie Hewett winning the game with nine seconds to play on Senior Day?
Colgate moves up a spot after three big wins last week. The first was a 3-2 victory over Cornell, then a 2-1 win over then-No. 10 Clarkson. The Raiders finished off the weekend by beating St. Lawrence, 9-1. In the win over ranked Clarkson, Colgate got goals from senior Rosy Demers and sophomore Kalty Kaltounkova. Freshman goalie Hannah Murphy turned aside 39 of the 40 shots she faced.
7. Harvard (21-7-1) | Prev: 8
The Crimson ended their regular season with a 4-1 win over RPI and a 3-0 victory over Union. They got goals from sophomores Shannon Hollands and Courtney Hyland, senior Becca Gilmore, and first-year Taze Thompson in Game 1 and junior Kristin Della Rovere, senior Emma Buckles and senior Dominique Petrie in Game 2. Gilmore has put on an especially great season, potting 43 points in 29 games, which is good for first on her team and tied for 14th in the nation.
8. Yale (22-6-1) | Prev: 6
The Bulldogs fell to Quinnipiac, 4-1, on Friday, but finished strong with a 3-0 win at Princeton on Saturday. Sophomore Elle Hartje finished off a strong second season, posting a goal and an assist over the two games. She’s been dynamite this year, leading her team in points with 44. That number ranks 13th in the nation. Her two-way skills, matched with her production, project her to be an even greater force in the coming years.
The Bobcats earned a 4-0 win over RPI last Tuesday and then a strong 4-1 victory over then-No. 6 Yale. They finished off this past weekend with a 1-0 loss to Brown on Saturday. In the win over the Bulldogs, Quinnipiac got goals from Renee Saltness, Kendall Cooper, Jess Schryver and Olivia Mobley. They also got a great game out of goalie Corinne Schroeder, who stopped 38 of 39 shots en route to the win. Schroeder’s save percentage of .946 is good for third in the nation, while her 1.43 GAA ranks sixth.
10. Clarkson (22-9-3) | Prev: 10
Clarkson ended its season with a 2-1 loss to Colgate and a 3-1 loss to Cornell. Despite ending on two-straight losses, Clarkson is the No. 10 team in the nation. The Golden Knights rank ninth in the country in both goals for (104) and goals against (59). They’ll face Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals this weekend.
Pairwise Rankings & NCAA Tourney
The Pairwise
In a Jan. 8th post of the Pipeline we introduced what is known as the Pairwise rankings. ‘The PWR’ or ‘The Pairwise’ as it’s known in NCAA hockey circles, is a way to rank teams that play an unbalanced schedule based on a specific mathematical formula. We use the USCHO.com iteration of the Pairwise rankings which can be found online HERE.
Why are the Pairwise Rankings important? It is what the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Committee will use will determine the 11-team field for the NCAA Tournament. And this year, the committee is strictly going by the math and not subjectivity. The Committee will conviene Sunday March 6th and crunch the numbers to announce the 11-teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
Contrary to what many may think, the USCHO.com top 10 poll that comes out each week or any other media poll that exists, has no bearing on who makes the NCAA tournament. Those polls are for media purposes only and not used by the D-I NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee.
Making The NCAA Tournament, Auto & At-Large Bids
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament’s 11-team field. Receive your conference’s automatic bid by winning the conference post-season playoff championship – or – have a high enough Pairwise Ranking to fall within the top 11 teams and receive an ‘At-Large’ bid.
There are 5 D-I conferences and 11 teams that make the tournament. 4 of those bids come from conference Auto Bids. The other 7 are ‘At-Large Bids. Winners of the Hockey East, ECAC, College Hockey America, and WCHA post-season playoff championship receive the auto bids. You win, and you’re in. The NEWHA does not have an automatic bid until the 22-23 season by virtue of an NCAA rule which stipulates conferences must compete with 6 teams for two full seasons before getting an automatic bid. The NCAA determined the 20-21 COVID season did not count as a full season for the NEWHA while only 2 NEWHA teams played games.
The CHA, which was a 6 team conference until it lost member Robert Morris University when the school shut-down the program in May of 2021, is allowed to retain its auto bid for a period of two years. The CHA would lose its auto bid if it were unable to get a 6th team beginning with the 23-24 season.
Below is the USCHO.com Pairwise rankings as of Tuesday, Feb. 22 just past 8pm.
Below are the final regular season standings for each conference minus the NEWHA which has one more regular weekend of play this Friday and Saturday. Each conference’s post-season playoffs structure is described as well.
Hockey East Post-Season Playoff Format
For the first time ever, the Hockey East Women’s Tournament will feature all 10 member programs in a single-elimination postseason tournament for the Bertagna trophy. Seeds seven and eight will host seeds 10 and nine, respectively, in the Opening Round on Wednesday, February 23 while the top six seeds receive a bye into the Quarterfinals. After a reseeding, the top two seeds will host the winners of the Opening Round while the three seed will host the six seed and the four seed will host the five seed. Semifinals will take place on Wednesday, March 2 and the Championship is set for Saturday, March 5 in prime time for just the second time ever.
QUARTERFINALS, Best 2 Out of 3 Series – Feb. 25, 26 and 27 if necessary
Teams TBD, Highest remaining seed to host, single elimination
The Championship will open on Feb. 24 with a quarterfinal match-up between No. 4 seed Lindenwood and No. 5 seed RIT. Thursday’s winner will advance to meet No. 1 seed Syracuse in the first semifinal on Feb. 25. No. 2 Penn State will then face. No. 3 Mercyhurst in Friday’s second semifinal with Friday’s winners advancing to Saturday’s final at 2 p.m. ET.
The winner of the 2022 CHA Championship will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
As the 2021-22 WCHA regular season champion and Julianne Bye Cup winner, MInnesota is the tournament’s top seed and is set to host No. 8 St. Thomas. No. 2 Ohio State hosts No. 7 St. Cloud State, No. 3 Wisconsin hosts No. 6 BEmidji State, while No. 4 MInnesota Duluth earned the final home ice advantage to host No. 5 MInnesota State.
The four winners of the best-of-three quarterfinals advances to the 2022 Final Faceoff, held March 5-6 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The winner of the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff receives the League’s automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
Pairings, locations, and start times for the Friday-Sunday, Feb. 25-27 best-of-three WCHA Quarterfinals:
No. 8 St. Thomas at No. 1 Minnesota (Ridder Arena – Minneapolis, Minn.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 6 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 4 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 7 St. Cloud State at No. 2 Ohio State (OSU Ice Rink – Columbus, Ohio) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 5 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. ET Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. ET (if necessary)
No. 6 Bemidji State at No. 3 Wisconsin (LaBahn Arena – Madison, Wis.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 7 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 3 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
No. 5 Minnesota State at No. 4 Minnesota Duluth (AMSOIL Arena – Duluth, Minn.) Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 25: 2 p.m. Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 26: 2 p.m. Game 3 – Sunday, Feb. 27: 2 p.m. (if necessary)
2022 WCHA FINAL FACEOFF
The premier conference tournament in women’s college hockey, the 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff will be held March 5-6, 2022 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Annually featuring a collection of the nation’s highest-ranked programs and best players, the WCHA’s four remaining teams will compete for the league’s playoff championship and automatic berth to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
The league’s top event and best weekend of the year for college hockey fans, the two-day 2022 WCHA Final Faceoff weekend is a celebration of the sport’s past, present, and future.
Saturday, March 5, 2022 Semifinal Game 1 – No. 1 remaining seed vs. No. 4 remaining seed: 1 p.m. CT Semifinal Game 2 – No. 2 remaining seed vs. No. 3 remaining seed: 4 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 6, 2022 WCHA Championship – 1 p.m. CT
Sifters…
Robert Morris Names Head Coach… Former Robert Morris University Women’s Hockey Associate Head Coach Logan Bittle has been hired to re-boot the RMU program as its new Head Coach. Bittle’s announcement came Feb. 4th. You can read more about RMU’s new bench boss here ——-> USCHO.com Story, RMU Women’s Hockey Homepage Story
U18 Worlds Back On… News of the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship broke at the Olympics last week in a tweet by the IIHF.
The IIHF leadership met the media in #Beijing2022, discussed the #Olympic#icehockey tournaments, development, #Milano2026 and announced updates on the events that will be postponed from January to summer.
6+ Million Watched… Over 3.54 million viewers in the US and 2.7 million in Canada tuned in to watch the Women’s Olympic Gold Medal game between the US and Canada. It was the most watched hockey game, at any level, in the US since 2019. Given the game was aired live at 11:10pm EST, you can bet those numbers would be bigger had the game been played at an earlier hour. Beijing is 13-hours ahead of EST. Lots of tired eyes the next day, mine included.
US-Canada women’s gold medal hockey game on NBC averaged 3.54 million viewers. That’s more viewers than any NHL game this season. And second most watched hockey game in United States since 2019.
Topic for another post… So, there is a market. A large one. How does the sport tap into a meaningful % of those 6 million who watched on a regular basis… and not just once every 4 years.
Busy Spring for Recruiting… D-I college coaches will have a packed Spring in terms of recruiting events to get to before the NCAA Women’s Hockey ‘Quiet Period’ begins on April 18. USA Hockey National Development Camp tryouts, U.S. District Play-Downs, U.S. National Championships, as well as various US and Canadian Academy ID camps, Canadian league and Provincial Championships are just a few of the events on the calendar college coaches will get to. Coaches have approximately 9 weeks left for off-campus evaluations of recruits in grade 10 before the June 15 call date commences.
A NCAA ‘Quiet Period’ is defined as where NCAA coaches may not conduct any in-person, off-campus evaluations or conduct off-campus face-to-face contact with recruits or their family members from April 18 until June 1. Recruits who are in grade 11 & above may take unofficial visits and have face-to-face contact with coaches as long as it takes place on their campus. There is also a NCAA ‘Dead Period from noon March 17 to noon the 21st., which is defined as a period of time when no on or off-campus evaluations or face-to-face contact may be had. In addition, no unofficial or official visits may take place.
Buckle Up!
Help Women’s College Hockey, Go Attend A Game… For years the National Championship tournament has not had what coaches would call ‘True Bracket Integrity… meaning #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7 and so on. College coaches want that. The NCAA was more concerned with saving money, not flying teams to certain sites, then organizing a proper championship experience for teams. That mindset is somewhat gone in 2022 with an expanded field to 11 teams. However, part of the criteria the NCAA uses to determine who plays at each regional site, is based on the potential for a playoff atmosphere. A playoff atmosphere to the NCAA means fans in the stands and to get butts in the seats, means there has to be a local interest in the teams competing… to the NCAA anyway.
Potentially you could have at least two of three teams at a regional site who are geographical close in proximity to one another, without bracket integrity intact. May be you have the #1, #4, and #5 teams, rather than a schedule that protects the top seed.
So here is how you can help… Go attend NCAA regional tournament games no matter your affiliation with teams there. If you’re a fan of women’s college hockey – pack the stands and sell venues out. Make it so the attendance issue isn’t one the NCAA can hang its hat on to create a schedule where they can save money.
Better attendance helps ensure future NCAA tournaments have true bracket integrity and a better national championship experience for our student-athletes–which should be what matters most.
MN State HS Tourney Underway… There aren’t a lot of states who do a better job of putting on a state tournament than Minnesota. Class ‘A’ got underway yesterday and Class ‘AA’ gets underway today. All games are played at the Excel Energy Center, home to the MN Wild. You can watch all games HERE for FREE.
Tune in Thursday to watch the State Girls Hockey Class AA Quarterfinals! These games will be free to view thanks to the support of @TheUrgencyRoom https://t.co/IdfNDVQVZ6 will also be covering the consol. and 3rd place games. https://t.co/CFNub6u5Fp…
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all games live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Streaming Info-Updated as of 9-21-21
-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. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA D-I Weekend Game Schedule
With a weeks worth of regular season practice under their belts, quite a few NCAA D-I teams are playing games for real now. Some games on the weekend schedule are exhibition games. The new NCAA Stat Site schedule doesn’t reference whether games are Exhibition, Conference, or Non-Conference, which was a nice feature of CHS (collegehockeystats).
Several pre-season USCHO.com Top 10 ranked teams, as well as those just outside the Top 10, are in action this weekend.
Quinnipiac, just outside the Top 10 hosts Maine for a 2-game Friday/Saturday series at home. Clarkson, who is also just outside the Top 10 faces off against Sacred Heart at home for a pair of games Friday and Saturday. #9 Penn State welcomes St. Lawrence for a Thursday/Friday series. #6 Colgate and RIT play a home and home Friday and Saturday. #3 Ohio State hosts new WCHA member St. Thomas Friday/Saturday in Columbus. And #1 Wisconsin travels to North Andover, MA to take on Merrimack for a pair of games.
You can see the full weekend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday schedule below. All times are Eastern Standard Time. Streaming information can be found above.
Updated Coaching Changes… Nichols College has hired former Quinnipiac Head Coach Michael Barrett. Barrett coached the Bobcats from 2002-2008 before moving into an Athletic Department Development role.
Josh Glaser has been hired as RIT’s newest Assistant Coach. Josh has spent time with Vermont, Colgate, and Utica in various roles.
Kate Leary has been hired at Merrimack College as an Assistant Coach. She replaces Stephanie Moberg who is now at Dartmouth College. Leary was a standout at Boston College where she amassed 85 pts in 149 games.
Zoey Pellowitz iis the new Graduate Assistant Coach at Nazareth College. She just completed her playing career at Manhattanville.
Mike Frost is the new Assistant Coach at Johnson & Wales.
Transfers, Where Are They Now… It was quite a year for the transfer. Nicole Haase of USCHO.com has compiled a thorough list of which players have departed certain programs and where they wound up at for the season. You can find her complete list 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.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
In This Post…
The Adjustment Phase|
Pre-Season Polls |
Sifters |
The Adjustment Phase
If you are one of those players moving up an age level this year, from U14 to U16 or U16 to U19, how are you feeling about your game so far? A little off or frustrated you’re not playing as well as you thought you would… Overwhelmed with all those new skills & systems to learn… Not playing as much as you would like… No time yet on the PP or PK… does everyone you play against seem bigger, faster, stronger???
Well, if you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above – welcome to the Adjustment Phase.
Just about everyone, at every level hockey, has some kind of adjustment. Youth players all the way up to NHLers have adjustment periods – seldom is anyone immune from it. We’ll answer exactly what the adjustment phase is, how long it can last for, and why it’s probably the most critical period of your hockey development. The ‘Adjustment Phase’ is really just a period of time during ones hockey development where a player might struggle with certain elements of the game as they move from one level to another.
May be the pace of the game is too fast to handle and you struggle to make good decisions. Or you aren’t physically strong enough to handle the much older/stronger competition.
Yes – the adjustment phase is excruciatingly frustrating at times, who wants to play poorly, right? Players hate when this happens, that is until you understand how it can help you. It’s kind of like taking a test in school… if you knew what questions were going to be on the test before you took it, that would really help, right? Well, if hockey is the test, then the adjustment phase are the ANSWERS! When players go through the adjustment phase, they learn what they need to focus on in order to improve and hopefully get to a point where they can impact the game on a consistent basis at the new level they are at. The time it takes to get to that point can vary greatly however.
If we knew how long the adjustment phase lasted, someone would be a gazillionaire. There’s a lot that goes into how long this takes. For some players it could take weeks to get adjusted, or months, or the better part of a full season. It’s going to be different for everyone. Genetics plays a role, learning ability plays a role, work ethic, desire, mental mindset, and the list goes on. What can help accelerate passing by the adjustment phase? Tough to come up with a full-proof answer but, here are a few things you can do to possibly shorten the length your adjustment may take.
Know what your coach wants to see in your play
Evaluate your game with video (if possible), so you can see how what your coaches are describing… or perhaps in this case, not seeing so you can identify what you’re struggling with
Identify the skills needed to accomplish your goals
Create an action plan and timeline to work on the skills necessary
Bottom line, the Adjustment Phase could be the most important piece to your hockey development. It’s a necessary part of the process of playing well at the level you’re at. The more you understand how to approach it – the better you’ll be the next time it comes around.
Pre-Season Polls
It’s that time of year, Pre-Season Coaches Poll time. The NCAA D-I season starts up for real this weekend with games that count, and each conference has announced its pre-season coaches poll. In addition, USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine publish a weekly Top 10 poll during the season.
Like with most pre-season polls, there is nothing to go on from this year. These for the most part, are purely based on last seasons records, key player departures as well as recruited additions. The WCHA, CHA, and ECAC have announced their pre-season coaches polls which are below. We’ll get you Hockey East and the NEWHA once they are officially announced.
Sifters
New NCAA Stat Site To Replace Collegehockeystats.net… Long time statistical college hockey website collegehockeystats.net, a favorite among college hockey coaches and fans, will no longer be updating statistical season data. 20-21 was its last year in service. The website will however, still remain and any of its prior year statistical data will be available. CHS filled a huge void and was the ‘Go-To’ college hockey online resource for live scores, game stats, game line-up charts, conference standings, and any number of college hockey stats. Taking its place will be a NCAA branded site found here: https://stats.ncaa.org/. We have provided a limited overview of the NCAA site and included a comparison vs. collegehockeystats found HERE. The NCAA site tracks many of the same data, there are some major differences as well. A detailed description of how to get certain data is outlined in the form also.
So why the change? The NCAA is transitioning away from a very popular game stats software program called StatsCrew and moving to a new software program called LiveStats.
Marmer and Roth Selected to Work With Boston Bruins… Quinnipiac Player Development and Operations Director Danielle Marmer and Holy Cross Associate Head Coach Meredith Roth have been selected to participate in the Boston Bruins Diversity & Inclusion Scouting Mentorship Program. The 9-month project aims to use members of the Bruins’ operations staff to increase the mentee’s pursuits in scouting and or a professional career in hockey. You can read the official Bruins’ announcement HERE.
U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Game Announced… The Minnesota Golden Gophers will host St. Cloud State University Nov. 20th in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Face-Off Classic. Puck drop is set for 3pm cst.
Speaking of Minnesota, the Gophers program turns 25-years this year.
US Allows Non-Citizens To Travel By Air To US In November… The U.S. Gov’t announced Monday starting in November fully vaccinated non-US citizens will be able to fly to the US. A negative COVID test will be required within three days of arrival. The land border between the US and Canada remains shut-down for another month until Oct. 21. We can’t seem to find much in the way of specifics with the new US guidance regarding Canadians. We will keep you updated as more is known.
IIHF World Championships Moves to August… Women’s hockey just got a nice boost from the IIHF as it is moving the top level Women’s World Championships Tournament to August in Olympic years beginning with 2022. Denmark has applied to be the host country in 2022. It’s a move that makes a lot of sense coming off the sports most high profile event at the Olympics. The best get to showcase themselves on the world stage 6 months later at a time of year when there is a hockey void on TV. No other league in the world that garners a TV audience, are usually playing games in August. You can read the IIHF official announcement HERE.
Until Next Time…
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
NCAA Coaching Changes…Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Give Someone a Stick Tap… Know someone in women’s college hockey who’s work needs some recognition? Nominate them for WCH.org’s monthly ‘Stick Tap’HERE or Email us at: womenscollegehockey@gmail.com
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
In This Post…
Busy Recruiting Weekend|
New NCAA Waiver Adds Exhibition Game
Sifters
Busy Recruiting Weekend
NCAA coaches will be putting on the miles this weekend as there are 3 major recruiting events taking place.
In Burlington, Vermont the North American Hockey Academy is hosting its 21st annual NAHA Labor Day Tournament Friday to Sunday. A total of 16–U14, 24–U16, and 19–U19 teams are participating between 5 arena locations. Some arenas are requiring masks for spectators, players, and coaches. etc. while some others are not. You can find which arenas are requiring masks etc. HERE as well as the tournament website with scores, schedules, rosters, and standings HERE.
In Pittsburgh, PA, also Friday to Sunday, it’s the 1st Annual Pip Premier Ice Prospects Labor Day Girls Fest. A total of 16–U14, 18–U16, and 20–U19 teams from around the country will compete. 3 arena locations with multiple sheets are being utilized. We have not heard of any mask mandates at this event yet. You can find tournament info with schedules, standings, and team rosters HERE.
The National Girls Hockey League also has a Labor Day event this weekend in Connecticut for it’s Blue Division teams at the U12, U14, U16, and U19 age groups. You can find scores, schedule, rosters, standings as well as COVID protocols for areas HERE.
There is a 4th major event going on north of Toronto where the ‘top’ 80 — 2004’s and 2005’s will get together as part of the U18 High Performance Team Ontario camp (tryout). The OWHA has unfortunately, due to COVID, closed this event. No scouts, coaches, or spectators will be allowed. It does not look like a live stream will be available either.
NCAAAddsWaiver For Exhibition GM
The NCAA Division I Committee for Legislative Relief announced on August 27th it was granting a waiver to allow D-I Women’s and Men’s hockey teams to play 1 additional exhibition game during the 2021-2022 season against any NCAA institutions in any division. You can read the full text from the NCAA below.
We imagine with Canadian University teams either choosing to or not being allowed to travel to the US, many NCAA schools will take advantage of this. Ivy League schools already have a waiver from the Ivy League allowing them a 2nd scrimmage for this season only and thus, won’t be able to use this NCAA waiver.
Sifters
WCHA Announces Partnership With B1G+ and BIG Ten Network… The WCHA has agree to a streaming partnership for all 8 WCHA member schools for the 2021-2022 season. Part of the package includes every regular season WCHA game as well as the WCHA playoffs streamed on the B1G+ streaming platform. Select games between between member Big Ten schools, Minnesota, Ohio State, and WIsconsin will also be televised on the Big Ten Network as well. There is one other Big Ten school – Penn State – who doesn’t appear to be part of the Big Ten Television package as far as we can tell. Details of the new deal can be found HERE.
Kristi Kehoe Promoted to Associate Head Coach… Lindenwood Assistant Coach Kristi Kehoe has been promoted to Associate Head Coach, announced earlier this week by Head Coach Shelly Looney. You can read more on her promotion HERE.
New Assistant at Merrimack Coming Soon… Although not officially announced yet, sources close to the program indicate a person has been hired and will be in place shortly.
Vermont Adds New Director of Operations… Colby College ’20 grad and former goaltender San Roman has been named new Director of Operations at Vermont. You can read more about San HERE.
New Operations Director For the Crimson… Alicia Scarpa has been named as the women’s hockey director of operations at Harvard. Both the women’s and men’s team shared an operations person in prior years. You can read more on Scala’s hire HERE.
Early Unofficial Top 10… ESPN Sportscaster and College Hockey media personality John Buccigross tweeted his Women’s Preseason #CawlidgeHawkey D-I Top 10. Media and conference pre-season polls will be out soon.
Women’s Preseason #CawlidgeHawkey Top 10 1 Wisconsin 2 Northeastern 3 Ohio State 4 Minnesota Duluth 5 Colgate 6 Princeton 7 Minnesota 8 Harvard 9 Providence 10 Penn State pic.twitter.com/0gdvVfXwxB
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.
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.
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
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
#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.
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.
RANK
TEAM
1
Wisconsin
2
Northeastern
3
Ohio State
4
Minnesota
5
Colgate
6
Boston College
7
Minnesota-Duluth
8
Penn State
9
Clarkson
10
Providence
USCHO.com Poll
RANK
TEAM
1
Wisconsin
2
Northeastern
3
Ohio State
4
Minnesota
5
Colgate
6
Minnesota-Duluth
7
Boston College
8
Clarkson
9
Penn State
10
Providence
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.
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.
RANK
TEAM
1
Wisconsin
2
Minnesota
3
Northeastern
4
Ohio State
5
Colgate
6-T
Minnesota-Duluth
6-T
Boston College
8
Penn State
9
Clarkson
10
Providence
USCHO.com Poll
RANK
TEAM
1
Wisconsin
2
Minnesota
3
Northeastern
4
Ohio State
5
Colgate
6
Minnesota-Duluth
7
Boston College
8
Clarkson
9
Penn State
10
Providence
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.
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.
