Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Women’s Notes: Murphy Gives Golden Gophers Early Jolt

Freshman Forward Fanale Erupts with 3-Goal, 6-Point Weekend

The Minnesota Golden Gophers opened the 2025–26 campaign with a surge of scoring from 10 different players and points from 16 in a weekend sweep of Boston College. The Gophers are now ranked third in the nation from the most recent USA Hockey poll.

Freshman forward Annabella Fanale (Webster, N.Y.) opened the scoring and didn’t stop there, finishing the weekend with three goals and three assists for a six-point debut.

Graduate forward Abbey Murphy (Evergreen Park, Ill.) leads the Gophers with nine points (4g, 5a) and recorded her 200th career point. She becomes the 11th player in program history to reach that milestone and moves into ninth place on Minnesota’s all-time scoring list.

Senior forward Josefin Bouveng (Vassunda, Sweden) scored Saturday night to secure her 100th career point, joining Murphy as the only other active Gopher with triple-digit points.

Goaltenders Hannah Clark (So., Oshawa, Ontario) and Layla Hemp (Fr., Chanhassen, Minn.) both saw action over the weekend and earned their first wins of the season. Hemp posted a shutout in her first collegiate start, stopping all 25 shots in Saturday’s win.

The Gophers claimed three of the four WCHA weekly honors, with Murphy named Forward of the Week, Sydney Morrow (Darien, Conn.) Defender of the Week and Fanale Rookie of the Week.

Minnesota hits the road next to face No. 11 Boston University. The weekend series will air on ESPN+.

Visit the Daily Scoreboard link below to view this week’s matchups.

Daily Scoreboard | National Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Must Read:

Edmonton Journal: Three former Edmonton girls’ hockey teammates achieve NCAA dreams

NHL News: Color of Hockey: Playing for U.S. in Paralympics Zheng’s ‘biggest dream’

The Daily Campus: UConn took on St. Cloud in Husky vs. Husky dogfight

The Hockey News: Top Storylines in the 2025-26 NCAA Season

The Hockey News: Nation-By-Nation Look At Soon-To-Be Women’s Hockey Olympians In The NCAA

The Ice Garden: What Kristin O’Neill Brings to New York

The Ice Garden: Three numbers that indicate Zumwinkle is posed for a resurgence

USCHO: Women’s Hockey Weekend Wrap – September 29, 2025

Must Hear & Watch:

Our Girls Play Hockey: Taylor Heise on Resilience, Olympic Dreams & The Future of Women’s Hockey

Ride to the Rink: Be the Teammate Everyone Remembers: Lessons from Heise & Scamurra

The PodKaz: An early nonconference surprise and a look ahead to a top-10 series

Hall of Famers:

Two former women’s hockey standouts were inducted into their schools’ halls of fame last week.

Jaycee Gebhard (Robert Morris, 2020) finished her career with 198 points, becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer. She earned CHA Rookie of the Year and National Rookie of the Year honors in 2017, was a Patty Kazmaier Award finalist in 2020, and twice won the CHA scoring title. In her senior season, she set single-season records with 63 points and 43 assists, earning her third all-conference selection. Gebhard’s career ranks her among the most dominant players in league history.

Amanda Pelkey (Vermont, 2015) graduated as the Catamounts’ all-time leader in goals (49), assists (56) and points (105), becoming the first UVM player to reach 100 career points. She helped Vermont to its first Hockey East semifinal appearance. Pelkey went on to win World Championship gold in 2016 and 2017 and Olympic gold in 2018. After a decorated professional career, including an NWHL title and PWHL seasons with Boston, she recently announced her retirement and will transition into a senior advisor role with the Seattle PWHL franchise.

Early Season Upsets:

The Merrimack Warriors split the weekend with No. 7 ranked Clarkson, taking game two in the series 5-3 to secure their first win of the season. Freshman goaltender Lauren Lyons (Brooklin, Ontario) delivered a standout performance with 43 saves in her collegiate debut.

The Warriors were outshot 45-17 but were opportunistic and relied on five different goal scorers: sophomore forward Maggie Kime (Plymouth, Mich.), junior forward McKenzie Cerrato (Malden, Mass.), freshman defense Neely Hawn (Mars, Pa.), freshman forward Stina Sandberg (Orebro, Sweden), and junior forward Jenna Chaplain (Peabody, Mass.).

Gabbing About Gascon:

Minnesota Duluth junior goaltender Eve Gascon opened the season with a perfect 4-0 record. The reigning WCHA Goaltender of the Year earned weekly honors after posting back-to-back shutouts in a weekend series at Syracuse. Gascon now has 13 career shutouts, tying fifth all-time with Bulldog legend Maddie Rooney (‘20). The weekend marked Gascon’s second career series shutout.

Gascon is posting a .933 save percentage and a 1.46 goals-against average.

Non-Conference Clashes:

There is a full slate of games this weekend as 28 teams take the ice in 14 nonconference matchups.

No. 12 UConn will be on the road at No. 9 Clarkson, with both teams coming off opening-weekend splits.

No. 2 Ohio State heads to No. 6 Colgate for a top 10 showdown to open the season. The teams last met in September of 2023, when they split a weekend series.

Track all the weekly games and scores here.

Notebook Quotebook:

“Yeah, it’s a pretty surreal feeling. I think I’ve had this date marked off my calendar for quite a while so to finally get through it and win, it means a lot.”

— Union junior forward Maddie Leaney (Maple Ridge, British Columbia) on winning the first game in the Garnet Chargers’ new arena, M&T Bank Center. Leaney goes down in history as the first goal scorer in history at the M&T Bank Center.

PWHL Note of the Week:

The PWHL rolled out its 120-game schedule for the 2025-26 season, with the puck dropping Nov. 21. There will be an international break from Dec. 8-15 for national training camps and competition along with the Olympic break from Jan. 29 to Feb. 25. For more information visit here.

Home Openers:

Minnesota Frost – Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, 7 p.m. ET, vs. Toronto Sceptres at Grand Casino Arena
PWHL Vancouver – Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, 10 pm. ET, vs. PWHL Seattle at Pacific Coliseum
Ottawa Charge – Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, 7 p.m. ET, vs. New York Sirens at TD Place
Boston Fleet – Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, 1 p.m. ET, vs. Montréal Victoire at the Tsongas Center
Montréal Victoire – Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025, 7 p.m. ET, vs. New York Sirens at Place Bell
PWHL Seattle – Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, 4 p.m. ET, vs. Minnesota Frost at Climate Pledge Arena
New York Sirens – Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, 12 p.m. ET, vs. PWHL Vancouver at Prudential Center
Toronto Sceptres – Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, 2 p.m. ET, vs. Boston Fleet at Coca-Cola Coliseum

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Robert Morris sophomore forward Jessica MacKinnon (Clarks Harbour, Nova Scotia) tallied five points in the Colonials sweep over Assumption. MacKinnon went 82.2% in the faceoff dot and leads all players with at least 15 attempts … Saint Michael netminder McKenna Dans (So., Marshfield, Mass.) had a career-high 48 saves in their loss to Assumption on Saturday … Wisconsin forward Maggie Scannell (So., Wynantskill, NY) earned her first career natural hat trick in Friday night’s win over Bemidji State … Mercyhurst senior defense Makayla Javier (Abingdon, Md.) leads the nation in blocked shots with 15, five more than the next player with at four games played … Four teams have notched a short-handed goal this season including RIT, Post, Long Island, and Maine.

Conference Websites

Atlantic Hockey America | ECAC Hockey | Hockey East | NEWHA | WCHA

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 97% of NCAA Division I women’s hockey players earn their degree!