NCAA Division III hockey: Women’s hockey a natural fit at Milwaukee School of Engineering →

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When an alumna donated a rumored $4 million dollars earmarked for expansion of women’s sports opportunities at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), it seemed natural that one of the first programs added was women’s hockey. The university already fields a men’s hockey team and has their own rink, so few structural changes were necessary.

One big missing piece at the Kern Center, the recreation facility on campus that houses the ice rink in the basement, was a need for women’s locker rooms and additional coaches offices in order to immediately add five new women’s teams – lacrosse, hockey, swim, golf and bowling – as well as expand their women’s track and field options.

The MSOE men’s team has had varsity status since the 1998-99 season and play in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA), where it is expected the women will play.

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Women’s Hockey: 43% of players competing in Beijing Olympics played NCAA D-I hockey →

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Of the 230 women rostered on 10 teams set to drop the puck next Thursday in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, 102 played at least one season of NCAA Division I hockey. Five more women are committed to start their NCAA career next season.

In total, 107 women have connections to North American collegiate programs. They represent 32 Division I schools, one Division III school and two U-Sports programs. Twenty-nine of the 105 women are currently enrolled in college or have remaining eligibility in their collegiate career.

Every Division I conference is represented. There are four CHA teams, 10 ECAC teams, nine Hockey East teams, one NEWHA team and eight WCHA teams (including since-shuttered North Dakota).

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COVID cancellations prevent Princeton goalie Rachel McQuigge’s men’s hockey debut →

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On Saturday evening, New England Hockey Journal contributor Mark Divver tweeted that the University of New Hampshire men’s program looked into using one of the UNH women’s team goalies as their backup but couldn’t fulfill NCAA requirements in time to make it happen.

While New Hampshire looked into the option of dressing a women’s team goalie as backup, but was unable to follow through, another team had completed the paperwork in time.

Before their weekend games against Harvard and Yale were canceled, the Princeton men’s team was set to have women’s goalie, senior Rachel McQuigge, on the bench as their backup goalie.

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Division I Women’s Hockey: NCAA removes minimizing flights from bracket selection criteria →

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The NCAA formally approved the expansion of the the women’s hockey tournament to 11 teams for the 2021-22 season yesterday. But two big changes to the women’s bracket selection process were also quietly made.

The women’s hockey pre-championship manual has always included a stipulation to prioritize cost reduction and fewer flights when setting up the quarterfinal matchups. “Pairings in the quarterfinal round shall be based primarily on the teams’ geographical proximity to one another, regardless of their region, in order to avoid air travel in quarterfinal-round games whenever possible.” (View the 2019 pre-championship manual here. Criteria on pages 13-14.)

As first reported by Todd Milewski in the Wisconsin State Journal, that criteria has been removed from women’s hockey championship selection criteria.

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Division I Women’s Hockey: NCAA approves immediate expansion of bracket; 11 teams to compete in 2022 National Championship tournament →

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The NCAA announced Thursday it has approved an immediate expansion of the women’s ice hockey championship bracket from eight teams to 11 teams. The expansion will take place for the 2022 tournament. The 2022 Frozen Four is being hosted at Penn State March 18-20, 2022.

Per the release: “The 2022 National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Championship will feature the top five seeds in the tournament receiving a first-round bye. The fifth-seeded team will play at the campus site of one of the top four seeds. Three first-round games will be played at the campus sites of three of the top four seeds in the tournament.

The winners of the first-round games will have a day off before playing in the quarterfinals. The tournament will stay on its current schedule since no weekends will be added with this format.”

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NCAA Division I Women’s Hockey: Coaches, teams organize on social media to demand expanded tournament field →

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The NCAA Championship Oversight Committee will convene November 10th to immediately reconsider the petition to expand the women’s hockey tournament from 8 to 12 teams for this season.

According to UMD coach Maura Crowell, this comes as a response to the findings from the report published by Kaplan, Hecker and Fink (KHF) law offices last week detailing gender inequities in the NCAA. (Read more about what the report said about college hockey here.)

The report, published on October 25, detailed gender inequities across a number of NCAA sports, but the disparities in hockey were particularly bad. With the new meeting a week away, it was important to make sure the information in the report continues to be noticed, discussed, disseminated and taken seriously.

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Phase II NCAA external gender equity review report details disparities in women’s, men’s college hockey →

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After videos went viral last March detailing the inferior weight room setup provided to the women’s basketball championship, NCAA president Mark Emmert commissioned an external gender equity review across all sports.

Phase one of the report came out in early August and focused specifically on men’s and women’s basketball. Monday’s report was the second phase and detailed inequities across all other NCAA-sponsored sports.

The 154 page report can be found here and it should be required reading for anyone involved in sports. The majority of the report is a breakdown of inequities in individual sports, but the opening 60 pages do a stellar job of showing how the problems shown therein are systemic, problematic and fixable.

This report contained no information that was surprising or groundbreaking to anyone that has spent time around the NCAA and in particular, women’s college hockey. The inequities are not new. While helpful to have the information gathered and reported from an outside source and freely available to the general public, it also does not matter if the report does not incite major change.

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Women’s DI College Hockey: How freedom and chaos beget success at Colgate →

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It’s impossible to follow the Colgate women’s hockey team without seeing their motto “We Play Free” hashtagged on nearly every social media post. It’s not just a marketing tactic and it’s not tied to the school’s Raider mascot. It’s a directive.

Or better yet, a declaration.

While much of the hockey world is predicated on systems – that is, a firm set of tactics that define how a team plays – the coaches at Colgate teach a system-free approach. When they say “We Play Free,” they mean freedom on the ice to be creative and to make mistakes.

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Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel wins 2021 Patty Kazmaier Award →

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Northeastern senior goaltender Aerin Frankel has been awarded the 2021 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. The honors were presented live on NHL Network this year as the in-person Patty Kazmaier Ceremony was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The award, which is in its 24th year, is presented annually to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s hockey by the USA Hockey Foundation.

Women’s Division I College Hockey: Fontaine’s overtime goal sends Northeastern to their first-ever national championship game →

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ERIE, Pa. – The Northeastern Huskies advanced to their first-ever NCAA championship game with a 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs Thursday night at Erie Insurance Arena.

Senior defender Skylar Fontaine intercepted a pass at the blue line and skated across the goal before shooting back at the far post to beat UMD goalie Emma Soderberg and win the game for Northeastern with 26 seconds left in the overtime period.

Women’s Division I College Hockey: It’s time to make a separate Goaltender of the Year award →

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I’m beginning to wonder if it’s time women’s Division I college hockey starts talking about adding more awards, particularly a Goalie of the Year award. 

The men’s game added the Mike Richter Award in the 2013-14 season after just two goalies had ever won the Hobey Baker Award over the course of its-then 34-year history. As the women’s game continues to expand, we probably should start talking about doing the same. 

UW women 2, Northeastern 1: Badgers repeat as NCAA champions after Daryl Watts' overtime goal bounces off of defender's back →

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ERIE, Pa. - Daryl Watts and Kennedy Blair both said they transferred to Wisconsin to win national championships. They did exactly that as the Wisconsin women’s hockey team defeated No. 1 Northeastern, 2-1, in overtime to earn the program’s sixth title.

Women’s DI: Players from non-traditional markets highlight the importance of tournaments like the Country Classic in Nashville →

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In 2010, Minnesota Duluth’s reign was coming to an end and Minnesota’s was just beginning. The Bulldogs won their fifth title to start the decade. The Gophers had just two NCAA national championships when the decade started. Clarkson emerged as a force to be reckoned with and become the only non-WCHA team to win a title.

To only look at the big picture, it looks like not much has changed in the women’s game. At the start of the decade, there were three teams that led the pack – Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth and Wisconsin. As we close it out, there’s still a focus on three programs, with Clarkson having replaced UMD in the top trio.

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NEWHA is driving women’s hockey expansion and could help push for a larger NCAA tournament field

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On Monday, Division II Stonehill College announced that they were adding women’s hockey as a varsity sport. Stonehill was a natural fit for the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance (NEWHA), who’s member institutions Franklin Pierce, Post, Saint Anselm and St. Michael’s all have men’s teams that compete in the Northeast-10 conference against Stonehill’s men’s squad. 

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Wednesday Women: Pondering players taking time away to play international tournaments and the impact their absence has on their college teams →

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But I also think it’s unfair of country federations to use NCAA programs as the primary tool of women’s top tier talent and also not take those programs’ schedules into account. Changing the status quo would require a lot of finagling of the international calendar, but it certainly feels like the federations get the benefit of top tier instruction, training and facilities for their players (that most of those federations refuse to even provide themselves) and also take advantage of the programs providing those things by taking their players for international competition whenever they want. It just seems like this could and should be a bit more of a cooperative relationship. 

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