(Shoutout to Adam Steinbach and Drew Kohrs for providing a new stash of Stick Taps and Snark photos to use - thanks so much!)
↑ Milestones – Wisconsin's KK Harvey became the all-time leader in points by a defensewoman in the WCHA. Teammate Lacey Eden tallied her 200th career point and Laila Edwards collected her 100th assist. The Badgers’ 87 shots were the most they’ve ever put on net. Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti became the second-ever women's DI coach to reach 600 career wins.
↓ Cornell - The Big Red started red hot, rattling off seven straight wins. Since then they’ve been 3-3-1 with losses to Colgate, Union and Vermont and a tie and shootout loss against Syracuse. It’s left me wondering which of these two disparate versions is the real Cornell. The likelihood is that it’s somewhere in between, but they probably need to find some consistency if they’re going to be in contention at the end of the season. Lucky for them, things have been chaotic in the ECAC and everyone has had some bumps in the road already. But there are too many good pieces on this Big Red team not to be fighting for the conference title and they need to take the winter break as a reset to remind themselves who they are and what they’re capable of.
↑ Penn State – The Nittany Lions might not agree after splitting the weekend with Northeastern and taking their first loss of the season, but I thought they responded well, held their own with another team who's been on a win streak and generally proved they are highly ranked because they are genuinely good, not just because they've not lost a game.
↓ Imbalanced tournament slates – I’m not sure there’s a nuanced or tactful way to say this, but I don’t know what good it does either team or the sport as a whole when the #1 team in the country plays the team sitting in 4th place in NEWHA. I don’t think this is either Stonehill or Wisconsin’s fault, but it just seems patently unkind to create an opportunity for women’s college hockey to be showcased to younger girls playing hockey where one of the teams is so outmatched. Stonehill is only playing in their third-ever season. They are 36th in NPI. Wisconsin is in their 26th season, have won two of the last three national championships and are 2nd in NPI. They set program records in shots and goals against Stonehill. Ultimately I don’t think there were any winners here. For programs to grow and improve, they have to bring in better recruits. Nothing about what happened on Sunday will help Stonehill in that pursuit and honestly negatively impacted their reputation among all the girls teams playing in Nashville.
↑ Boston Fleet to play at TD Garden – They announced today that the team will host a home game at TD Garden on Apr. 11 against the Montréal Victoire at 7 p.m. ET.
