Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Women’s Notes: Conference Races Come Into Focus

Colgate’s Murphy Makes History; UNH’s Verrier Lights it Up

As difficult as it may be to believe, only four weeks remain in the NCAA Division I women’s hockey regular season. A 2023-24 season that feels like it just got started mere weeks ago is now entering its home stretch and that means the races for conference championships are about to heat up.

League titles remain up for grabs in all five NCAA Division I women’s hockey conferences. The CHA is currently home to the slimmest gap between first and second place, with Penn State holding a two-point edge on Mercyhurst.

The Nittany Lions and Lakers, who split their first series back in November, will go head-to-head again this weekend at PSU’s Pegula Arena. PSU enters the series having won its last three games, while Mercyhurst has won six of eight since the start of January.

In ECAC Hockey, first-place Colgate and second-place Clarkson will square off Friday, with the Golden Knights looking to chip away at the Raiders’ 3.5-point lead in the standings. The two teams are also ranked 3-4 in this week’s national polls.

Colgate (24-3-1) and Clarkson (24-2-2) have combined for just five losses all season. The Raiders are on a seven-game winning streak – with shutouts in six of those – while the Golden Knights have won six of their last seven.

Of course, the Penn State-Mercyhurst and Colgate-Clarkson games also carry national implications. In fact, those are three of 11 games this week that feature two teams in the top 20 in the PairWise Rankings. The others include:

#2 Colgate at #7 St. Lawrence (Saturday)
#3 Wisconsin vs. #10 St. Cloud State (Friday-Saturday)
#4 Clarkson vs. #6 Cornell (Saturday)
#6 Cornell at #7 St. Lawarence (Friday)
#8 Quinnipiac vs. #12 Princeton (Saturday)
#9 Minnesota Duluth vs. #18 Minnesota State (Friday-Saturday)

Stat Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Holy, Hannah!:

Colgate junior G Hannah Murphy (Bradford, Ontario) made school history in Saturday’s 5-0 win over Dartmouth, breaking the program’s shutout record with the 14th of her career.

Murphy toppled the school record that was previously held by Rebecca Lahar (2001-05).

It was the third consecutive shutout for Murphy, and the fifth in her last six appearances, who is now 9-2-0 on the year. She also owns a 1.53 goals against average and .933 save percentage, both of which rank among the top five nationally.

Shea What?:

New Hampshire junior F Shea Verrier (Reading, Mass.) enjoyed the most productive weekend of her NCAA career in the Wildcats’ sweep of rival Maine last weekend, figuring in on six of eight UNH goals.

In Friday’s 4-2 win, Verrier scored a pair of goals – including the power-play game-winner – and assisted on the two others for the first four-point game of her career. Verrier added a pair of helpers the following day in another 4-2 UNH victory. She also won 20 of 28 faceoffs (71.4%) in the series.

Verrier, who had 12 points in 24 games this season prior to last weekend, was named Hockey East Player of the Week.

Fit To Print:

“Some might say that a scoreless game is boring but the competitive level on display by both teams was outstanding and it was a chess match on ice with neither team giving an inch of territory.”

— Vermont Head Coach Jim Plumer following his team’s scoreless tie at No. 11 UConn on Saturday (source: UVMAthletics.com)

PWHL Note of the Week:

Princeton senior F Sarah Fillier (Georgetown, Ontario) was the No. 1 prospect in The Hockey News’ recent 2024 PWHL midseason draft rankings. A three-year captain, Fillier leads the 12th-ranked Tigers in points (30) and goals (19) through 21 games this season.

She has amassed 181 career points in 112 collegiate games and is a two-time Patty Kazmaier Award finalist.

Fillier was one of 25 current NCAA players listed among the midseason rankings. More than 90 percent of the players on the PWHL’s opening rosters this season were college hockey alumni.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Penn State’s Tessa Janecke (So., Orangeville, Ill.) scored 14 seconds into Friday’s win over Lindenwood, the fastest goal to start a game in Nittany Lions history. She finished the night with a hat trick and three points and was later named CHA Forward of the Month … Saint Michael’s freshman G Abbey Gyurko (Dublin, Ohio), making just her sixth collegiate start, stopped a career-high 58 shots in Saturday’s 2-2 overtime tie with Assumption … Colgate graduate D Allyson Simpson (Frisco, Texas) collected her 100th career point in Friday’s win over Harvard, becoming the sixth active Raider to reach that milestone … Cornell received dual hat tricks from freshman F Karel Prefontaine (Gatineau, Quebec) and senior F Kaitlin Jockims (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) in Friday’s win over Dartmouth … Big Red freshman G Annelies Bergmann (Detroit, Mich.) notched her first career shutout in the same game.

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Did you know? 97% of NCAA Division I women’s hockey players earn their degree!