↑ Chaos – At this point I'm just the Elmo in front of the fire meme. I don't know what's going to happen in any given game and that makes me feel kind of useless as a reporter, but as a fan, goodness these past few weeks have been fun. The Pairwise is basically constantly in flux. I don't expect the final regular season weekend or conference tournaments will tone this down. I feel like some upsets are inevitable and I'm here for it. I love an underdog. I love chaos. This is basically the best season in recent memory for me.

↓ Connecticut – The Huskies went from looking like they had the inside track to repeat as Hockey East regular season champs to holding on to the slimmest of margins with in the span of a couple of weeks. They've lost three of their last five while BU is 3-1-1 over the same stretch and now have a five point lead as the two teams head into the final regular season weekend facing two head-to-head games. UConn has to sweep or they end up second. A single point for BU gets them the title.

↑ Milestones – Syracuse goalie Allie Kelley set a new program record for saves with 2,168. St. Cloud State coach Brian Idalski won his 50th game with the Huskies on Friday. Union Stephanie Bourque set a new single season record for most goals scored by a defender. Minnesota's win on Saturday was the 800th in program history. Bryn Prier set a Quinnipiac record for the quickest hat trick in program history, scoring three times in 2:47.

↓ Room for error – The difference between hosting an NCAA quarterfinal or going on the road is .312 in the Pairwise. The difference between 9 and 10, which right now would be the difference between an NCAA berth and staying home, is .187 and overall, there are three teams within .600 of the ninth spot. With the repeating nature of how NPI is calculated and applied, every game can have a ripple effect.

↑ New home for NCAA guides – In case you missed it yesterday, VP has updated all our women's college hockey guides. There's a main info page with all kinds of explainers, plus conference-specific guides. See something missing that you are hoping to know more about? Email nicole@victorypress.org

↓ Season winding down – We're basically one month out from the Frozen Four, which starts March 21 in Minneapolis. The season is both six months long and never long enough. I love how some teams have started to play since the new year and a small part of me wants to see what they could do with a few more weeks of games now that they're playing at their best.

↑ College /pro connection – I've loved the college game pretty much since I was introduced to it, but for folks who aren't very familiar with NCAA women's hockey I feel like Sunday's Takeover Tour game was a good illustration of why getting into the college game can enhance watching the PWHL. Knowing a players' history, their style and their tendencies makes watching the PWHL more fun for me.

Daryl Watts' overtime game winner was gorgeous. But it was also very familiar and maybe a little inevitable? As soon as I saw her take the puck behind the net I figured she'd try what she did. It wasn't the exact same play, but the fundamentals were the same as the National Championship-winning goal she scored for Wisconsin in 2021.

(Photo: Flickr/McArthur)

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