• Colgate has taken calling themselves "Cardiac Colgate" and frankly, they aren't wrong. The Raiders have won three of their last four games in OT and seem to be the masters of finding the crucial score as it comes down to the wire. They were down to Clarkson on Friday and scored with 10 seconds on the clock to force overtime before winning it in the extra frame. It was a heartbreaking loss for Clarkson but the drama of it all seems to be powering the Raiders. There certainly haven't been many dull moments and you can never really look away from their games.
  • After basically cruising through four months of the season, Wisconsin has seemed to hit a bit of a speed bump. Sure, they still took 5 of 6 points this weekend, but they owe a lot of that to very good goaltending from Ava McNaughton and UMD hitting the post several times. All the fluidity that is their hallmark is missing and they're turning over the puck on defense on bad passes way too often. It's certainly better to struggle now and figure it out before the post season, but that's assuming they can figure it out. They host Minnesota for two games this weekend, so they don't have a lot of time to come up with a solution and you can bet the Gophers will be pushing hard on the forecheck and looking for ways to make UW pay if they keep being careless with the puck in their own end.
  • Minnesota gave up 5 unanswered goals in the final 20:50.9 seconds of their second game against Ohio State on Saturday. After defeating the Buckeyes pretty convincingly Friday and trading goals to start Saturday, they looked like they'd be going into the final frame up 3-2. Instead, Sloane Matthews completed her hat trick and OSU carried all the momentum into the third. The game got really chippy and there were a bunch of penalties and Ohio State did not let their opportunities go to waste, scoring three extra attacker goals in the opening five minutes of the third to put the game out of reach just that quickly.
  • The revival for St. Thomas continued with a 2-1 OT win on Saturday where they had just eight shots on goal. Dani Strom continues to shine in net for the Tommies, but also I just love that this team has no quit. They've had to deal with so much this season on and off the ice and it says so much about the players that they're still fighting to the final buzzer. It's impossible not to want good things for them.
  • My far too early, just made a list as I was writing this, thoughts on front runners for some awards:

Goalie of the Year - Annelies Bergmann, Cornell; Katie DeSa, Penn State; Lisa Jönsson, Northeastern; Ava McNaughton, Wisconsin; Emma-Sofie Nordström, St. Lawrence

Rookie of the Year - McKenzie Alexander, Princeton; Monique Lyons, Brown; Hannah Clark, Minnesota; Lisa Jönsson, Northeastern; Grace Outwater, Penn State

Patty Kaz - Jocelyn Amos, Ohio State; Elyssa Biederman, Colgate; Laila Edwards, Wisconsin; KK Harvey, Wisconsin; Tessa Janecke, Penn State; Kalty Kaltounková, Colgate; Abbey Murphy, Minnesota; Casey O'Brien, Wisconsin; Haley Winn, Clarkson; Sarah Paul, Princeton

  • Here are the goals of the week:

Lauren Stenslie's overtime game-winner for St. Thomas

Jada Habisch's near 200-foot goal for Connecticut

Brook Becker showing off patience and speed to win it for Providence

Penn State's Tessa Janecke's handles on this short-hander

The strength and skating from SLU's Abby Hustler

This ridiculousness from UNH's Kira Juodikis

Coast to coast was a thing this week. Here's Brown's Jade Iginla's version

Colgate's Alexis Petford forcing overtime with under 10 to play

Wisconsin's Kirsten Simms proving the adage "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" and scoring a third-chance opp to win in OT

Vermont's Ashley Kokavec scoring short-handed for the only goal in this game