Stick Taps and Snark - October 6, 2026

↑ Youth movement – The youngsters have been tearing it up early. This week Penn State freshman Sofia Ismael had her first career hat trick in just her fourth game and ended the weekend with six points. Wisconsin rookie Nela Lopušanová had three goals and three assists against Boston University. Franklin Pierce rookie Chloe King had her first career goal on Friday and followed up with a hat trick on Saturday and finished the weekend with five points. Sophomore Maria Mikaelyan has five goals and an assist for St. Cloud State against Minnesota State. Sophomore Hilda Svensson had three goals and three assists for Ohio State against St. Thomas.

↓ International hockey not considering the NCAA – We talk about this on the PodKaz at USCHO this week (and on the preseason episode with Brian Idalski if you haven't listened to that yet). But 12 players from 8 teams will be missing games this week due to Hockey Canada camp. The move of the IIHF Women's World Championships to November helps the PWHL, but hurts NCAA players and teams. Everyone counts on the NCAA to develop players, but no NCAA or collegiate rep gets a seat at the table when discussions and decisions are happening.

↑ St. Cloud State – The Huskies were picked sixth in the WCHA pre-season poll. They're off to a 4-0 start for just the second time in program history and have done it with two sweeps of ranked teams. Maria Mikaelyn and Alice Sauriol have been on fire to start the year.

↓ Clarkson and Northeastern – Clarkson dropped a pair of games to Connecticut while Northeastern lost to RPI, causing both teams to tumble in the polls. Most concerning for Clarkson is how strong they were to start game one and how poorly it went after that. Saturday's loss was a 4-0 shutout where UConn was 4-for-4 on the power play. Northeastern's loss to an unranked 0-4 RPI team came from lackadaisical defensive play in overtime and is the kind of result that could really affect their NPI - and therefore tournament seed - come March.

↑ Minnesota Duluth coach Laura Schuler – Congratulations to coach Schuler on earning her 100th career D1 win last weekend!

↓ More and more Thursday and early Friday games – There has been a proliferation of games not following a standard weekend schedule already this year. Women's hockey is so difficult to watch and follow as it is, but with games happening during the workday, it's even harder to try and keep up. Occasional changes for building conflicts or school games is one thing, but it feels like women's hockey keeps getting shuffled around to accommodate others and to the detriment of the student-athletes.

Since I wasn't able to watch much hockey this weekend there was no Monday notebook, but I did see some goals that needed to be shared.

Vermont's Hilary Wilkin scoring her first career goal

Ohio State's Kate Viel with her first goal and it's through the five hole

UMD's Caitlin Kraemer scores in a 1-on-3

RPI's Barbora Černá Prošková with the goal to upset Northeastern

One of Sofia Ismael's hat trick

Wisconsin's Nela Lopušanová with a snipe

This one-timer on a steal from Maria Mikaelyan is filthy

(Photo: Jen Gallardo/Flickr)