(Shoutout to Adam Steinbach and Drew Kohrs for providing a new stash of Stick Taps and Snark photos to use - thanks so much!)
↑ Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson – The Badgers' win in the NCAA quarterfinal on Saturday was the 700th of Johnson's coaching career - all spent leading Wisconsin. He's the winningest NCAA women's hockey coach (of any division) and the first to reach this milestone. (Middlebury coach Bill Mandigo ended the season with 698 wins). Congratulations to Mark and the Badgers on this spectacular accomplishment.
↓ National semifinals not televised – With the IIHF Women's World Championship/IIHF window no longer dictating when the season needs to end, I hope someone at the NCAA is taking a serious look at shifting some of the women's college hockey schedule so the national championship isn't going against the first weekend of both basketball tournaments and wrestling and swimming and indoor track and fencing and anything else that may or may not be televised before it. If ESPN is going to hoard rights, playing at a time that ESPN isn't showing 12 different women's basketball games and the wrestling national semifinal might be a good idea.
↑ Frozen Four is set – No. 1 Ohio State will play no. 5 Northeastern on Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern. No. 2 Wisconsin will play no. 3 Penn State at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
↓ Overlapping games – I'll say it every year until we see some changes - I don't think the quarterfinals should be played at the same time. Even if they can't be fully staggered, it really sucked to have three games happening at once on Saturday. There has been a clear Olympic bump for women's hockey post Milan Olympics and it feels like the NCAA is missing that boat once again. With so many collegians becoming nationally recognizable and household names a few weeks ago, it's a shame that games were online only and happening at the same time. My kingdom for one ounce of marketing conversation to happen at the NCAA and one smidgen of work to grow a fanbase and invite people in.
↑ Milestones – With her hat trick on Saturday, Wisconsin's Kelly Gorbatenko reach 100 career points. Penn State and Connecticut won their first-ever NCAA Tournament games this week. Penn State is advancing to its first-ever Frozen Four. Quinnipiac goalie Felicia Frank set a new program record for saves in a season. Ohio State goalie Hailey MacLeod set a new program record for goalie wins in a season. Penn State set a new benchmark for wins in a season with 33 and counting.
↓ Lack of Frozen Four support events – I'll preface this by saying that I am unaware of any events occuring around the Frozen Four this year. I'd be happy to be wrong. In Minneapolis last season there were clinics and signings. It's still not the Fan Fest that the men's Frozen Four has, but there were additional things happening. I don't think that's the case in State College this weekend. Add in that the university is usually hosting several events (like middle school boys basketball, I guess?) that make hotel and flight prices extra high and I can't imagine why any fans would want to go this weekend. I've been to the men's Frozen Four a few times simply because a bunch of people I know are there and it's a wonderful celebration of NCAA hockey. I wish the women's event could get even a sniff of that.
↑ Awards top-three finalists – Congratulations to Wisconsin's Caroline Harvey, Penn State's Tessa Janecke and Minnesota's Abbey Murphy for being named Patty Kazmaier Award top-three finalists. Further Congrats to Connecticut's Tia Chan, Quinnipiac's Felicia Frank and Minnesota Duluth's Ève Gascon for being named Goalie of the Year top-three finalists.
↓ Minnesota – With a season that fell pretty flat in the end, I've seen a lot of talk about whether or not Minnesota head coach Brad Frost will retain his job. The rumor is that his contract ended this season and as far as we know, a new one hasn't been offered or signed. He has been the head coach for 19 years, since 2007 and was an assistant with the Gophers for six years before that. He won four national championships in that time, but none since 2016. They've made the title game once since then, losing to Wisconsin 2-0 in the 2019 National Championship. I'm not sure there's a clear candidate for a successor and that may play into the university's decision here. But with Abbey Murphy graduating, the outlook for Minnesota doesn't seem like it will improve next season so maybe the time is right to start a new era.
