After “grow the game,” there’s no other word more often used when talking about women’s hockey than “parity.” Whether it’s talking about unseating perennial favorites in the NCAA, or teams challenging USA and Canada on the international scene, finding a way to lessen the gap between the haves and have-nots in women’s hockey is a priority. It's not possible to grow the game without it.
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The Team USA U-18 team will head to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada this week to defend their IIHF Women's World Championship gold medal.
The United States' U-18 team has played in the gold medal final each of the eight times this tournament has been contested, and has won four of them. They have not won two consecutive gold medals since 2008 and 2009, which were the first two years of the tournament.
Team USA will carry a roster heavy on post-grad players into the 2015 Four Nations tournament. That's a switch from the young roster that won the gold medal at the 2015 IIHF Women's World Championships (WWC), but it's also a deliberate choice by Coach Ken Klee.
While the Four Nations and WWC tournaments are important for USA Hockey, there's no denying that almost everything they do is tied to the Olympics and the goal of winning the gold medal, in some way.
The WCHA (formally, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association) has proven itself to be the conference to beat, with 15 national championships. Though it's been home to some traditional powerhouses, the WCHA featured five different 20-win teams for the first time in its history last season.
WCHA players represent the best of the best, internationally. Forty players with WCHA ties, representing seven member institutions and competing for six different countries, participated in the 2015 IIHF World Championships.
Hockey East was formed in September 2001 in response to the dawn of women's collegiate hockey as an NCAA sport. The five original members were Hockey East schools on the men's side that had formed Division I women's programs - Boston College, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Providence. The original charter stipulated that any other Hockey East school that added a varsity women's program in the future would be freely admitted to the league.
The ECAC began sponsoring an invitational women's tournament in 1985. There was an informal regular season schedule played in the 1988–89 season. The conference officially began sponsoring women's hockey in the 1993–94 season. ECAC Hockey is the only hockey conference with identical membership in both its women's and men's divisions.
College Hockey America (CHA) formed in 2002 with four teams. Mercyhurst is the only original member remaining.
As the puck is set to drop on the inaugural season of the NWHL and the ninth season of the CWHL, more and more attention is being paid to women’s hockey in the US.
But before there was professional women’s hockey, there was NCAA collegiate hockey. More than three-quarters of the women lacing up for the two professional leagues this season got their start in NCAA collegiate hockey.
Whether you’re a new women’s hockey fan, or you love the pros but have never delved into the college waters, here’s a primer that should help you better understand.
Those women were there having a good time. They and 18,000 other poor souls watched two mediocre teams play a mediocre game of baseball. How or why they enjoyed it is really none of my business or concern.
Read MoreEach design for a team incorporates elements from their brand identity, their hometown and their culture--that is, Lenard says, the way they decide to interpret their brand and their colors.
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Six months after the initial announcement of the team's partnerships, the Montreal Stars have completed their transformation to Les Canadiennes.
Though she didn’t spend any time planning a career transition from playing to coaching, when defending NCAA National Champion Clarkson University asked Duggan if she would be an assistant coach for them this season, she found it an opportunity she didn’t want to pass up, despite the strain it’s put on her life and schedule.
Read MoreWhile I – and, I think, many of you reading this – are incredibly proud of Shannon and the ground she’s breaking by playing in the SPHL, are we doing her a disservice by constantly talking about it?
One soccer ball purchased in June 2013 has begun to change hundreds of lives in seven small villages in Kenya.
Read More“People ask me about the Olympics and I feel like it’s everybody’s dream to go, but I just try to take it one day at a time with training,” she said.
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