• Recency bias and my poor memory are definitely at play here, but goodness I don't remember a season this fun in quite awhile - particularly when we're still in November! Every team is beatable and so many games that we used to assume the outcome of are absolutely up for grabs. And it's not just because of one good performance or one great goalie. Teams are bringing it night in and night out. The absolute uncertainty makes every game must-watch and we are still four months out from the NCAA Tournament.
  • Keep an eye on Yale. The top of the ECAC is going to be tough to crack, but the Bulldogs are a team that's going to cause difficulties for their opponents and they will only continue to improve. They are just 2-4 over the last six games, but lost those four games by a combined five goals and were all against the ECAC's nationally ranked teams. They have to be the best .500 team in the country right now.
  • Sacred Heart made a statement with two big wins over Franklin Pierce this weekend while LIU eked out an OT win and tie against Post. The Pioneers have a four point lead on the Sharks atop NEWHA.
  • The chaos in the WCHA has me standings watching far too early in the season, but the fight for positions 2-4 will be fascinating and where a team places there is the difference in playing St. Cloud State, Mankato and St. Thomas.
  • Saturday was a near perfect hockey watching day - games started at noon and went until after 7 pm. There were upsets. There were overtimes. There were records broken. There were a group of games at 1 pm and 2 pm, but there were also plenty of others spread out throughout the day, so there was always something to watch, including at intermissions. Would that they could all be like that.
  • We're going to continue to see records broken by players in their fifth year of eligibility and it feels like the default is to say those will have an asterisk by them, but I wonder if there's something else that can/should be done? I both think it's important to note how many games a player took to achieve certain milestones and think Covid changed everything. It's not as though 20-21 was a regular season. And the game has changed so much in the past 20 years, particularly in depth and parity. What used to be standard numbers for the star player on a handful of teams is now unthinkable because there isn't one single person needed to carry that much weight now. This is an incomplete thought, but I don't like how much we're taking away from these players as they do great things in the name of denouncing the extra season. Note the disparity, but let's still celebrate the women advancing the game.
  • Goals you need to see:

Minnesota State's Taylor Otremba sticks with the puck to secure a massive upset win

These moves from Issy Wunder to score the overtime game-winner for Princeton

A gorgeous wrap-around from UMD's Olivia Wallin

Stonehill's Maddie Achtyl goes 1-on-3 for the goal

The fake by Wisconsin's Kristen Simms and the goal by Casey O'Brien

Some gorgeous moves by Grace Outwater and the rebound putback by Maddy Christian for a shorthanded goal for Penn State

I still don't see it go in, but Kaley MacDonald tied it for Harvard with 29 seconds left in regulation.