↑ International rookie goalies SHOWING OUT – St. Cloud freshman Emilia Kyrkkö has been spectacular to start the season. The Finnish national has a 0.98 goals against average and she was outstanding against #2 Ohio State on Saturday. She stopped breakaways, point blank shots and just did not get flustered. She also stopped all three of the Buckeyes' shootout attempts. Overall she made 45 saves and had a career performance in just her third start. Czech rookie Michaela Hesová made 41 saves in her debut on Friday, holding #12 Penn State to one goal (they would go on to add an empty-netter) with some highlight-reel saves. Mercyhurst freshman from Austria Magdalena Luggin made 43 saves on Saturday to backstop the Lakers to a 2-1 win over #6 Cornell.
↓ Persistent use of the word "man" during women's hockey broadcasts – I am fully prepared to die on this hill. Language matters and this is such a simple change to make. There's no need to say "defenseman" or "too many men" or "man advantage" when "defender" and "too many skaters/players" and "player advantage" are all right there. Men's sports aren't the default, we don't have to use gendered terminology and it costs literally nothing but the barest effort. I called this out during the ESPNU broadcast a few weeks back and the phenomenon was back with this week's game on Big Ten Network, particularly from color analyst Julie Friend.
↑ Wisconsin – The Badgers were down 3-0 and being seriously outplayed just before the midpoint of their game against Border Battle rivals Minnesota on Saturday. But the #1 ranked team in the country showed why they're holding that spot, reeling off four unanswered goals to take a 4-3 win and earn a weekend sweep. It was also UW's sixth-straight win over Minnesota dating back back to Dec. 9, 2023, setting a new program record for consecutive wins over the Gophers.
↓ Dark, shadowy streams that make it difficult to see the action – This could have been a ↑↓ because it steams from the absolutely gorgeous color and white balance on the Wisconsin/Minnesota broadcast on BTN. The TLDR;/camera nerd rundown here is that it takes a ton of effort to get good video/photos from a hockey rink because of the white ice and dasher boards. Things like teams in bright or dark jerseys facing a team in white jerseys and sunlight streaming in through windows add extra levels of difficulty. I'm by no means pro photographer, but I have to make major adjustments to my settings to account for all of those things. All of that is a long way of saying that the students that run many of the team streams struggle to get that balance corrected and it was never more obvious than during that BTN broadcast that showed how gorgeous and easy to watch a game can be.
↑ Ohio State freshman Jordyn Petrie – There were a lot of hyped up rookies coming into this season, but Petrie has pushed her way into the conversation. A gold medalist with the US U18 team at January's World Championship where she had a goal and seven assists, she's had a nose for the goal so far and is just one goal off the national lead with seven. She's scoring on just under 30% of her shots.
↓ Cornell – The Ivy League schools finally started playing this weekend and it was not a great start for the Big Red, who have been ranked highly since the start of the season. But a 0-0 tie and 2-1 loss to unranked Mercyhurst was not the start they wanted to their season. It dropped them to #11 in the rankings and puts them on an uphill battle from the get go.
↑ Least penalized teams – With a season that's felt really defined by penalties and power plays early on, let's celebrate Clarkson, who is averaging just three penalty minutes a game. Honorable mention to St. Lawrence and Mercyhurst, who are next with just 3.25 penalty minutes a game. These teams are playing really clean hockey.
↓ Minnesota – Through four WCHA games, the Gophers have earned just one point and currently sit sixth in conference standings.
(Photo: Flickr/Steve Goodyear)