↑ Milestones – Wisconsin's Casey O'Brien first reset a record she established last season, posting 51 assists in a single season and then went on to set a new Wisconsin program record for career points with 263, surpassing Hilary Knight. Teammate Kirsten Simms reached 100 career assists on Saturday, as well. Minnesota Ella Huber scored her 50th career goal on Friday.
↓ Streams – When I tell you I think I watched at least a few minutes of every game played this weekend, I am not exaggerating. And the biggest takeaway was how widely varied they all, from color and lighting to volume and camera angles. I had to crank volume just to hear some broadcasts and others had so much overzealous yelling that I had an itchy mute button finger. I don't expect any of it to be standardized, but that it was such a subpar viewing experience from so many different rinks was really disheartening. There are some ways that NCAA woho has grown so much and others where there is so much work to be done. What I can't get over is that even if the reason for the variations is that students are staffing the broadcasts, there seem to be no advisors or bosses or people in charge that ensure a baseline of a stream that doesn't look like it's being played in the shadows. Even if there isn't a process for immediate corrections (though there should be), they should be reviewing things after they happen so that the students can learn and grow. And that's just clearly not happening anywhere. While I want this to improve as someone who watches all these feeds, I also think it's endemic of wider neglect and indifference towards women's sports. The lack of improvement in a season-long broadcast tells me the university does not care about and certainly does not respect women's hockey. That's a problem for a myriad of reasons and it's unlikely this is the only way that failure to care shows up.
↑ Great performances, losing teams – Teams whose seasons end often get overlooked at this time of year, so I wanted to shout out some spectacular performances from Bemidji State, who made 36 blocks as a team on Friday against Wisconsin and Minnesota State goalie Hansen, who made 122 saves over the weekend, including 66 saves Saturday against Minnesota, which established a new single-game school record, were the second most saves in NCAA this season and were the second most in WCHA history.
↓ Quinnipiac – After taking the first game of their series with Clarkson, the Golden Knights won two straight, not only eliminating the Bobcats from the ECAC tournament, but bumping them down in the Pairwise and out of consideration for an at-large bid. It was a frustrating and disappointing end to a promising season.
↑ Wisconsin – The Badgers continue to roll. They finished the regular season with more conference wins (25) than any other time in their history. They lead the country in team offense (5.56 gpg), team defense (1.06 gapg), power play (37.23%) and penalty kill (92.31%). Five of the top ten scorers in the country are Badgers, including the top three. Goalie Ava McNaughton leads the country in goals against (1.14 gapg) and is second in save percentage (.948).
↓ Penalty reviews (and also officiating) – There were quite a few long reviews this past weekend, including a few that were for penalties that weren't called but were then challenged for a major. First off, officials HAVE to get better and more consistent at making these calls the first time. They're human and mistakes will be made, but it feels like contact to the head calls in particular have been inconsistent and spottily applied. Player safety has to be at the forefront. They have to do a better job of getting these calls correct. And reviews have to be done more speedily. At this point teams are calling for a review in place of taking a timeout because they review lasts longer and they might come out of it with their timeout still in tact. It's a flawed system that's not protecting the athletes and is altering the flow of the game. Something has to be improved here.
↑ Comeback kids – Boston University, Clarkson and Minnesota all had rough stretches towards the end of the regular season, but are still alive in their chase for conference tournament titles and NCAA Tournament berths. BU needed OT to advance in their single elimination tournament and both Clarkson and Minnesota had their series go the full three games, but they survive and advance to play another day.
↓ Conference tournament game times – Three of Friday's four semifinal games take place during the work day and the fourth starts at 6:00 PM Eastern. Saturday's three championship games are all midday. Tournaments have shifted in the last couple of years to completing by Saturday so that the student athletes can return home before traveling for the NCAA Tournament and the committee has more time to select the field, but it feels like having games at a time when most fans can watch and also prioritizing the student athletes doesn't have to be a mutually exclusive situation. It's an absolute shame that these semifinal games on Friday will go largely unwatched, both in person and via stream.
(Photo: Pexels/Ron Lach)