Nicole's NCAA Notebook: March 2, 2026

• What a weekend of games. We had five game threes on Sunday because of upset and chaos all weekend. There were not enough screens to keep up with all that was happening. I hope new fans tuned in because we had upsets and milestones, great goaltending and all kinds of overtime. It felt like the very best NCAA women's hockey has to offer.
• I feel like Switzerland in the Olympics proved the power of a well-executed plan based on a stellar goaltender and is defense-first. A couple of teams made good use of that concept, including St. Cloud State on Friday against Minnesota.
• I know there's nothing for it, but is there anything worse than sitting through a full intermission before overtime only to have someone score in the opening minutes of the extra frame?
• I'm on the Patty Kazmaier Award selection committee and really started thinking about it in earnest this weekend. It's going to be a very interesting conversation with so many variables in play. I'm trying to wrap my head around how to weigh those different things in order to come up with the best player and I admit I'm about as unsure where I'm leaning as I've ever been in the multiple times I've served on this committee.
• All hail the goalies! It's been such a good year for goaltending, both from the netminders we expected on top and from newcomers and breakout stars. The goalies were the arguable stars of the weekend.
• I've been someone who proselytizes about the importance of the faceoff in women's hockey for awhile now, but the power of earning a zone draw and winning the puck was on display this weekend. There were so many great shots off the draw. Obviously every team works on faceoffs, but I feel like we've seen more success on set plays from the circle of late and it's such an underrated part of the game. When puck possession is so crucial to success, the faceoff becomes a super important tool.
• This might be a me-specific complaint, but would it kill someone to stagger the starts of some of these games? They all start on the hour and thus all go to intermission at pretty much the same time. Someone drop the puck at 2:15, please! I just want to not have all six games playing to not go to intermission simultaneously. That feels like a low stakes ask.
• Goals of the week:

This is a program-record-breaking 140th goal for Abbey Murphy

Some pretty stick-work from Vermont's Julia Mesplède

Kahlen LaMarche continues to be unreal. But first clock the pass from Ainsley Aynsley D'Ottavio (It's the goal on the right)

Speed, moves and a shot from the knee from Wisconsin's Adéla Šapovalivová

Loved the speed from Jordan Ray and the confidence of Kennedy Walker on her first-collegiate goal to one-time this for Yale

From the not-Top-10 files, Wisconsin's Ava McNaughton has an oopsie and Bemidji's Hailey Armstrong took advantage to make a highlight of her own