Nicole's NCAA Notebook: January 27, 2025

• The "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed Award for missed opportunities" this week goes to Cornell and Boston College. Honorable Mention to Colgate only because they pulled out on OT win against Harvard and at the moment, getting an OT win instead of a tie is the difference in the ECAC standings. Colgate has 38 points, Cornell has 37.5. Boston College had a loss and OT win against Providence while Connecticut, Boston University and Northeastern all swept their weekend series. UConn and BU lead Hockey East with 42 points. BC is third with 39 and Northeastern is 4th with 38. Northeastern is up to ninth in the Pairwise while BC is now 11th and would not be in the NCAA Tournament if it started today.
• To be fair, a couple of other schools were in contention. Minnesota Duluth gave up five of six points to St. Thomas, losing once in regulation and once in overtime. They are now 6th in the Pairwise. Wisconsin looked asleep at the wheel in their game against St. Cloud on Sunday and the Huskies took advantage. The Badgers eked out a tie and shootout win thanks to goalie Ava McNaughton. UW was outshot 7-4 in the third and 4-0 in overtime.
• In the second year of NPI, we're still figuring how much movement can happen for teams on a game to game basis. In this case, Wisconsin tied and earned a shootout point with the #11 team in the country and dropped 1.5 points in the NPI. They've still got a 6.332 point lead on Ohio State, but that's still a big change on the basis of one game this late in the season, particularly since it wasn't a loss and was to a ranked team. Fine tuning our understanding of what causes movement and by how much helps us predict what the postseason will look like.

• If you have no idea what NPI or Pairwise or any of this stuff means, check out my the NCAA Tournament section of our Intro to NCAA Hockey page. I'm working on updating it and getting it pinned, but the information you need is all explained there. USCHO Pairwise rankings can be found here and are updated as games become final each weekend.
• From the "you never know what to expect" files: After St. Lawrence beat Clarkson 6-5 on Friday, Clarkson won 1-0 on Saturday. Quinnipiac and Brown played to a 0-0 tie, then the shootout lasted ten rounds. After no goals in the first three rounds, each team was five-for-five through the next rounds. The Bobcats eventually won it.
• LIU and Sacred Heart split their weekend series and remain tied atop the NEWHA standings with 39 points apiece. Stonehill and Franklin Pierce are tied for third below them with 34 points.
• Goals of the week:

I'm not sure much can top this "Superwoman" impression by Providence's Reichen Kirchmair. This was goal two in her first career hat trick.

But Quinnipiac's Kahlen LaMarche's behind-the-back, beat-all-the-defenders goal is no slouch

Wisconsin's Lacey Eden scored a short-handed empty-netter from behind her own goal line

You have to wait for the second replay to get the impact of this Lola Reid goal for BU

Take an Abbey Murphy two-fer - one from Friday, one from Saturday

St. Cloud's Allie Qualley's hand-eye coordination