Nicole's NCAA Notebook: September 23, 2024

Welcome to what I plan on becoming a weekly recurring piece where I collect all the fun, interesting and weird things I make note of over a weekend of watching women's DI college hockey games.

This was a slow starting week with just two series, but there's plenty to talk about:

• No. 7 Minnesota Duluth pulled a massive upset, heading to Columbus and sweeping the defending national champions and No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. It was UMD's first sweep of OSU since February 2020. The Buckeyes hadn't been swept by anyone since the 21-22 season.
  
• UMD freshman Caitlin Kraemer was outstanding on Canada's U18 team that past two World Champions, scoring 20 goals. In her U18 career, she amassed 37 goals in 32 games played for a total of 53 points. She's been a bit overshadowed by Canada teammate Chloe Primerano, but Kraemer was a huge get for Minnesota Duluth and is going to be a massive for them over the next for years. She was immediately impactful, scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals on Sunday. She also took two penalties. Kraemer is big and powerful and aggressive and she's going to have to learn to find a balance, but I have a feeling UMD fans are going to love both parts of her game.
  
• Buckeye Makenna Webster continues to make every other DI athlete look silly as she stars for not one but two teams at OSU. This weekend she played two field hockey games and in between was all over the ice in Saturday's ice hockey game. In field hockey, she had two goals and three assists to help her team to two wins in which she logged 76 minutes. She is the team's leading scorer in all categories - eight goals, nine assists and 25 points.
  
• There were 21 total penalties called in the St. Cloud State/Lindenwood series. St. Cloud was 100% on the penalty kill and 4-for-8 on the power play. Generally I find that AHA (formerly CHA) refs are the least lenient/most whistle-happy in women's college hockey and this series at Lindenwood didn't do much to change my mind.
  
• In their 4-0, 6-2 weekend sweep, 15 different SCSU players tallied a point.
  
• There won't be new polls this week - this ranked series was an anomaly and it's normal to take a week between the preseason poll and the first official poll of the season, but wow do I wish there was one after this chaos!
  
• I thought it was cool to see former UMD coach Maura Crowell wish her former team luck as they opened the season.

• Goal of the week - Caitlin Kraemer game-tying goal on Sunday