Nicole's NCAA Notebook: October 19, 2026

• There are some mighty big names at the bottom of team special teams rankings. Northeastern (66%), Minnesota (75%), Minnesota State (54.55%), Wisconsin (70%) and Clarkson are all in the bottom ten in penalty kill. Northeastern is also bottom ten in power play (1-for-16) and are joined by Providence (1-for-20), St. Lawrence (1-for-21) and Minnesota Duluth (0-for-16).
• Two young Canadians showed off this weekend - Minnesota's Adrianna Milani had two goals and two assists in their win over #1 Ohio State on Friday. But honestly her defense might have been more impressive. Milani accelerated her enrollment and is only just 18, but she's playing like a much older and more experienced player. Wisconsin's Rosalie Tremblay returned from Hockey Canada pre-Worlds camp midweek and by Saturday had racked up four goals and an assist in the Badgers' 12-1 rout of Minnesota State. Tremblay's poise, speed and puck-handling are all already elite. Both players are going to be a problem in the NCAA and on the international stage sooner rather than later.
• Princeton and UConn played an absolutely wild game on Saturday. Connecticut was up 5-2 at one point before Princeton came back to win 6-5. The overtime game-winner was scored by freshman Chloe Brinson - it was her first career goal in her second NCAA game.
• There were some closer games this week against non-ranked opponents than I would have expected. Penn State eked out a win over Lindenwood while Clarkson edged out Franklin Pierce. Both teams resonded with better showings in the second game of the weekend series. There's been a few of these games and a few upsets as well that raised my eyebrows, but I think right now all I'm doing it noting it. But we may come back to this.
• The Ivies hit the ice for the first time this weekend and it went very well as all swept their weekend series. It's always difficult to come in a few weeks behind the other schools and a few had tough ranked matchups right out of the gate, but they showed the ECAC is going to be extra difficult this season.
• The Friday Ohio State vs. Minnesota game felt like an interesting flip of what the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin game from a week before. Minnesota took an early lead off bad turnovers and build on it based on silly mistakes and dumb penalties by the Buckeyes. It's the same thing OSU did to the Badgers the week before. It was difficult to reconcile the team that looked so dominant seven days ago with the one the Gophers so easily unraveled. And while I'm at it, kudos to Minnesota. I expected it to take them longer to find cohesion and play the way they did this weekend after graduating the class they did and having a coaching change.
• Colgate is the only non-Ivy who is both ranked and has not lost a game. Figuring out how to vote in the polls has been wild to start the season.
• Goals of the week:

As it was mentioned above, there was no way Chloe Brinson's goal wasn't going to be here.

UMD's Caitlin Kraemer also had a short-handed goal on Saturday, but this one was prettier

Gorgeous execution from Delaware's Lily Myers and Kyla Schneider

Gorgeous steal and cross-body shot from Minnesota's Adrianna Milani

Whitney Horton's short-handed goal for St. Thomas

Check out how much ground Wisconsin's Rosalie Tremblay covers in her first of four goals on Saturday

This backhander from Connecticut rookie Caileigh Tiller opened scoring