Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Women’s Notes: First Wave of Conference Tournaments Set to Begin
UConn and BU Final Battle for Hockey East Regular-Season Title
The road to the championship is officially underway for two of the five conferences in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. While Hockey East, NEWHA, and the WCHA have one final week of regular-season action, the postseason begins in earnest as the AHA and ECAC drop the puck on their conference tournaments this weekend.
Penn State enters the AHA postseason as the No. 1 seed after capturing a third-consecutive regular-season conference championship. On Saturday, No. 3 Syracuse will host No. 6 Robert Morris, while No. 4 RIT will host No. 5 Lindenwood in a single-elimination quarterfinal round. The winners will move on to the semifinals, hosted by No. 1 Penn State and No. 2 Mercyhurst, in a best-of-three series.
Click HERE to view the AHA Postseason bracket.
Cornell secured the ECAC regular-season championship — and No. 1 playoff seed — dethroning Colgate. The Big Red, joined by Colgate, St. Lawrence, and Clarkson, are among the teams receiving byes into the ECAC quarterfinal round. Seeds five through 12 will meet in the single-elimination opening round on Friday or Saturday.
Click HERE to view the ECAC Hockey Championship bracket.
2024-25 Conference Champs (reg. season)
AHA: Penn State (third in a row)
ECAC Hockey: Cornell
Hockey East: TBD
NEWHA: TBD
WCHA: Wisconsin
Daily Scoreboard | Weekly Schedule | Composite Schedule | Stat Leaders | Goaltending Leaders
Must Read:
The Athletic: Will Michigan launch a varsity women’s hockey team?
Clean Sheet Hockey: Women’s NCAA Commitments
The Daily Gazette: Scholar-Athlete of the Year award surprised Union women’s defenseman Friday
FloHockey: AHA What To Watch: Penn State Women Chase AHA History
The Hockey News: Minnesota Becomes First WCHA Program To Hit 800 Wins
The Hockey News: Finding Balance: NCAA Rookie Jessica Cheung Opens Up About Mental Health
The Hockey News: Ottawa’s Practice At Rogers Place Is A Special Moment Before Tilt vs Toronto
The Hockey News: Montreal Dominates Midseason PWHL Award Choices
The Hockey News: 17,518 Fill Edmonton’s Rogers Place For Thrilling PWHL Match Up
The Hockey News: State Of The Nations: A Look At The Top 20 Ranked Women’s Hockey Teams
The Ice Garden: Canada Wins Third Straight Rivalry Series
NHL: Laing continues to inspire nearly 10 years after spinal cord injury
NHL: Color of Hockey: Petrich hopes to climb coaching ladder to Olympics
PWHL: Weekly Notebook Feb. 18, 2025
St. Cloud Live: SCSU’s Emma Gentry has a special guest coming for her last home game
USCHO: Women’s DI College Hockey Weekend Wrap
USCHO: Schedules, formats for 2025 NC women’s hockey postseason tournaments
Must Watch & Hear:
Decision Makers: Laura Bellamy, Harvard
The PodKaz: Ep. 38 – Playoffs start for some, others chase championship on final regular season
The Ride to the Rink: The Game Changing Power of Positive Body Language
Our Girls Play Hockey: Breaking Barriers in Hockey Broadcasting With NHL Network’s Jamie Hersch
Our Kids Play Hockey: Hockey Parent Awards
Too Close to Call It:
Both Hockey East and NEWHA regular season champions and No. 1 seeds will come down to the final weekend of play.
With a five-point separation, the final regular-season clash between UConn and Boston University will determine the Hockey East rankings. The two teams play Friday and Saturday in a home-and-home where the Huskies will need to sweep the Terriers in regulation to jump them in the Hockey East standings and defend their HE championship title.
Boston hopes to hold its lead and secure its first conference title since 2012-13. The Terriers finished the 2023-24 season in seventh place with 36 points; it currently sits in first with 57.
Long Island University sits atop the NEWHA standings with 52 points, four ahead of Sacred Heart. The Sharks will look to maintain their first-place position as they face Saint Anselm this weekend, while the Pioneers take on Post.
Conference Scoring Leaders:
The end of the regular season in the AHA and ECAC also meant the crowning of the individual scoring champions for those respective leagues:
Penn State junior forward Tessa Janecke (Orangeville, Ill.) claimed her second consecutive AHA scoring title with 28 points in 20 conference games. Janecke ranks sixth nationally in regular season play with 48 points.
In the ECAC, Princeton’s junior forward Issy Wunder (Toronto) and Clarkson forward Anne Cherkowski (Coldstream, British Columbia) finished tied atop the league. Both Wunder and Cherkowski finished with 28 points in 22 conference contests.
Fit To Print:
“…make sure we keep moving forward because we’re going to be in those tight games again and we want to be the ones on the plus side of it. But overall, just a great weekend for us, we’re playing really good hockey right now and need to keep that going.”
— Holy Cross head coach Katie Lachapelle (Providence ’99) comments on the Crusaders’ recent play and first-ever season sweep over Vermont. (Source: Holy Cross Women’s Hockey)
PWHL Note of the Week:
The PWHL Takeover Tour continues to shine this season with a recent stop in Edmonton. Nearly 18,000 fans packed Rogers Place to watch hometown players Danielle Serdachny (Colgate ’24) and Stephanie Markowski (Ohio State ’24) of the Ottawa Charge face off against the Toronto Sceptres. Toronto came away with a 3-2 overtime win.
Next on the tour, the Boston Fleet and New York Sirens will head to Buffalo, New York, where the two teams will square off at the KeyBank Center on Sunday at 4 p.m. EST.
To see the full PWHL schedule, visit here.
Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:
Union defender Emma Hebert (Sr., Sherwood Park, Alberta) set a new career games played record for the Garnet Chargers with 137 … New Hampshire goalie Sedona Blair (Eden Prairie, Minn.) made 40 saves, for the third time this season, in the Wildcats tie with No. 12 ranked Boston University on Saturday … Bemidji State forward Morgan Smith (Winnipeg, Manitoba) recorded the second hat trick of her freshman season on Saturday in the Beavers’ loss to St. Thomas. Smith became just the second BSU women’s hockey student-athlete to record two hat tricks in a season since Erin Cody (2010-11) … Colgate sophomore Emma Pais (F., London, Ontario) scored her ninth power-play goal of the season in the Raiders win over Brown. She sits tied for second in the country in power-play goals this season … Penn State’s win over RIT on Saturday secured the most conference wins in AHA/CHA history for the Nittany Lions with 18. The previous record was set by Mercyhurst in 2012-13 with 17 conference wins … St. Cloud and Minnesota split this weekend with the Huskies taking game one at Ridder arena – the programs first win against the Gophers on the road. Saturday, the Gophers bounced back defeating the Huskies 2-1 and earning the programs 800th win. They are the first WCHA team to reach the 800 all-time win mark.
Postseason Push:
USA Hockey/The Rink Live’s most recent polls, 2/18/2025:
| Rank | Team (First Place) | Last Week’s Rank |
2024-25 Record |
Weeks in Top 20 |
| 1. | University of Wisconsin, 285 (19) | 1 | 29-1-2 | 21 |
| 2. | Ohio State University, 266 | 2 | 23-6-3 | 21 |
| 3. | Cornell University, 237 | 4 | 20-4-5 | 21 |
| 4. | University of Minnesota, 231 | 3 | 23-9-1 | 21 |
| 5. | Colgate University, 206 | 5 | 27-7-0 | 21 |
| 6. | University of Minnesota Duluth, 199 | 6 | 19-11-2 | 21 |
| 7. | St. Lawrence University, 150 | 7 | 19-10-5 | 21 |
| 8. | Penn State University, 141 | T-9 | 28-5-1 | 21 |
| 9. | Clarkson University, 131 | 8 | 22-10-2 | 21 |
| T-10. | Quinnipiac University, 122 | T-9 | 20-10-4 | 21 |
| T-10. | St. Cloud State University, 122 | 11 | 15-11-6 | 21 |
| 12. | Boston University, 70 | 12 | 21-9-2 | 13 |
| 13. | Boston College, 38 | RV | 19-12-1 | 14 |
| 14. | Northeastern University, 31 | 15 | 19-12-1 | 16 |
| 15. | Princeton University, 26 | 13 | 17-10-2 | 17 |
| Others Receiving Votes: University of Connecticut, 14; Providence College, 7; Yale University, 4. | ||||
Upcoming Top Matchups:
Friday – No. T-10 St. Cloud State at Ohio State, No. 6 Minnesota Duluth at No. 4 Minnesota
Saturday – No. T-10 St. Cloud State at Ohio State, No. 6 Minnesota Duluth at No. 4 Minnesota
CONFERENCE WEBSITES
CHA | ECAC | Hockey East | NEWHA | WCHA
Did you know? 97% of NCAA Division I women’s hockey players earn their degree!