Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Women’s Notes: Inside the Postseason Formats

How All Five Conferences Earn an NCAA Tournament Auto Bid

Five conferences and five auto bids to the NCAA tournament are on the line. Here is each team’s path to a 2026 tournament berth.

Atlantic Hockey America:
The chase for the Robert DiGregorio Cup will include all seven Atlantic Hockey America teams. The postseason opens with a first-round game Thursday, Feb. 19, between the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds at the site of the No. 3 seed. The winner advances to the single-game quarterfinals on Feb. 21. The No. 3 seed will host the first-round winner, while the No. 4 seed will host the No. 5 seed.

Quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals, with the lowest remaining seed traveling to the No. 1 seed and the second-lowest remaining seed visiting the No. 2 seed for a best-of-three series Feb. 27–March 1.

The AHA postseason concludes March 7, when the two semifinal winners meet at the home of the highest-seeded semifinalist to determine the 2026 AHA postseason champion.

ECAC Hockey:
The ECAC Hockey playoffs begin Feb. 20 or 21 with a single-elimination first round, as seeds five through eight host seeds nine through 12. Winners advance to the league’s best-of-three quarterfinals, hosted Feb. 27–March 1 by the highest remaining seeds.

New this season, championship weekend will be held in Lake Placid, N.Y., with semifinals March 6 and the championship game March 7.

Hockey East:
All 10 Hockey East programs will compete in a single-elimination postseason tournament for the Bertagna Trophy.

Seeds seven and eight will host seeds 10 and nine, respectively, in the opening round Wednesday, Feb. 25, while the top six seeds receive byes into the quarterfinals. Following reseeding, the top two seeds will host the opening-round winners, the No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed, and the No. 4 seed will host the No. 5 seed. Quarterfinal games are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28.

Semifinals will take place the following week, with the championship game televised nationally on ESPNEWS on Saturday, March 7.

NEWHA:
The league’s top four seeds will host first-round best-of-three series at campus sites Feb. 27–March 1. Series winners advance to single-elimination semifinal games hosted by the top two seeds Wednesday, March 4.

The NEWHA championship game is scheduled for Saturday, March 7, at the site of the highest remaining seed.

WCHA:
The postseason begins with all eight teams competing in best-of-three first-round series from Feb. 27–March 1, 2026. The top four seeds, based on regular-season finish, will host the bottom four seeds at campus sites.

Winners advance to the 2026 Kwik Trip WCHA Final Faceoff, hosted by the University of St. Thomas. Semifinals will be played Thursday, March 5, with the championship game set for Saturday, March 7.

Daily Scoreboard | National Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Must Read:

APX: NCAAW Commitment Tracker

Boston Globe: Women’s Beanpot Team Lessons

NE Hockey Journal: Girls prep rankings: Dexter continues to climb, cracks top three

NHL: Weiss 2nd woman assistant coach after promotion by Avalanche AHL affiliate

Sports Illustrated: The PWHL Has Found a Winning Formula for Women’s Hockey

The Hockey News: Harvard’s Ainsley Tuffy Steals The Show With 46 Saves To Win Women’s Beanpot

The Hockey News: Watch List Unveiled For Women’s College Hockey Goaltender Of The Year

The Hockey News: Full List Of All 10 Olympic Women’s Hockey Rosters

The Hockey News: Best Performers From The 2026 U-18 Women’s World Championships

The Ice Garden: Trade Alert: Charge and Goldeneyes Swap Six Players

USA Today: NCAA women’s hockey power rankings: Yale Climb

USCHO: Hockey Humanitarian announces 12 nominees for 2026

USCHO: How the top 15 NCAA women’s hockey teams fared, Jan. 12-18.

Yahoo Sports: Women’s Beanpot: Harvard Captures Title With Dramatic Win Over Boston U.

Must Hear & See:

Decision Makers: Season 2 Episode 14 | Rory Guilday

Our Girls Play Hockey: From 9-Year-Old Dreamer to Olympian: A Mailbag with Hayley Scamurra

Our Kids Play Hockey: What Elite Players Do Before They Step on the Ice With Sandy Cohan

The PodKaz: Putting a wrap on the Under-18 Women’s World Championship

Fifty is Nifty [Watch]:

There are currently 20 active players who have surpassed the 50-career goal mark. Recent additions to the milestone are Wisconsin F Cassie Hall, Minnesota F Josefin Bouveng, Yale F Carina DiAntonio, Clarkson F Sena Catterall, Quinnipiac F Kahlen Lamarche, Colgate F Emma Pais, Ohio State F Jocelyn Amos, and Providence F Reichen Kirchmair, and Yale F Jordan Ray.

Players to watch:

Caroline Harvey, Wisconsin – 49 goals
Sarah Paul, Minnesota – 49 goals
Jamie Nelson, Minnesota – 49 goals
Maddison Achtyl, Stonehill – 48 goals
Jade Iginla, Brown – 46 goals

A New [Beanpot] Champion Crowned:

Harvard won the 2026 Women’s Beanpot championship on Tuesday night, earning its 16th title with a 2-1 overtime victory over Boston University at TD Garden. Freshman forward Carla McSweeney (Chicago, Ill.) scored the game-winning goal on a penalty shot in overtime to lift the Crimson.

“You sort of have to take what’s given,” McSweeney said. “So I took a deep breath and just went for it.” (source: Boston.com)

Sophomore goaltender Ainsley Tuffy (Duxbury, Mass.) was named tournament MVP after making 46 saves in the championship game. Tuffy stopped 40 shots in the semifinal against Boston College, finishing the 2026 Beanpot with 86 saves.

The Wild (Scoring) West:

The race for the regular-season scoring title is well underway, with just over a month remaining in the regular season. The current top five point leaders are all from the WCHA.

Abbey Murphy, Minnesota – 58 points (33G, 25A)
Caroline Harvey, Wisconsin – 46 points (13G, 33A)
Lacey Eden, Wisconsin – 42 points (17G, 25A)
Hilda Svensson, Ohio State – 42 points (15G, 27A)
Joy Dunne, Ohio State – 41 points (24G, 17A)

2024-25 leader: Casey O’Brien, Wisconsin (‘25) – 88 points (26G, 62A)

2023-24 leader: Kirsten Simms, Wisconsin – 75 points (33G, 42A)

2022-23 leader: Danielle Serdachny, Colgate (‘24) – 71 points (25G, 46A)

2021-22 leader: Taylor Heise, Minnesota (’23) – 66 points (29G, 37A)

Hockey Humanitarian Nominees:

The 12 collegiate hockey players nominated for the 2026 Hockey Humanitarian Award have been announced. The student-athletes are recognized for their significant contributions to their teams and to the community at large through leadership and volunteerism.

The nominees are:

Jack Black, Sr., D, Bowling Green
Davis Bone, Sr., F, Johnson & Wales
Kara Goulding, Sr., F, Boston College
James Hagens, So., F, Boston College
Kelly Howe, Sr., F, Hobart and William Smith
Tyler Mahan, Sr., F, RIT
Grace Sadura, Sr., F, Minnesota Duluth
Meg Simon, Sr., F, Middlebury
Jayden Sison, Sr., D, Princeton
Ryan Tattle, Sr., F, Connecticut
Alex Tracy, Sr., F, Minnesota State
Brendan Vettraino, Sr., F, Misericordia

Finalists will be announced in February with the winer shared during the men’s Frozen Four in April. The 2025 winner was Sarah Thompson of St. Lawrence.

Notebook Quotebook:

“Very good win to close out a strong weekend of play from the team. We felt like the offense was coming based on the decision making and execution to set up chances on Friday, so it was rewarding to see the finish today. Rory [Edwards] gave the team a great effort to allow us to pull away.”

— Brown coach Melanie Ruzzi (Providence ’03) credited junior goaltender Rory Edwards (Schomberg, Ontario) after the Bears’ upset of No. 12/14 Colgate on Saturday. Edwards stopped 32 shots to backstop the win (source: Brown Athletics).

PWHL Note of the Week:

The PWHL set U.S. and weekend attendance records Sunday, highlighted by a crowd of 17,228 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., the largest in-arena attendance for a women’s hockey game in U.S. history. The record-setting game featured the Montréal Victoire and New York Sirens, with New York earning a 2-1 victory.

Two Sirens rookies scored in the win, including Anne Cherkowski (Clarkson), who netted her first career PWHL goal. Kristýna Kaltounková (Colgate) added her eighth goal of the season, moving her into second in the league scoring race behind Minnesota Frost veteran Kendall Coyne Schofield (Northeastern ’16).

The PWHL also announced the league’s largest trade including six players between the Ottawa Charge and Vancouver Goldeneyes. To see the full details, visit here.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

St. Cloud State upset conference opponent No. 8 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday. The win marks the Huskies first win over UMD since Dec. 9, 2023, and the first win at AMSOIL Arena since Feb. 9, 2019 … Yale senior F Carina DiAntonio (Mississauga, Ontario) leads the nation in power-play goals with nine this season, while Saint Anselm senior F Brooklyn Schneiderhan (Helena, Mont.) leads the country with four short-handed goals … Vermont beat Maine in OT on Saturday to extend its unbeaten streak to six games, the longest unbeaten streak since the 2021-22 campaign … Long Island University sophomore netminder Victoria Rutnik (Nutley, N.J) recorded her second win and second straight shutout on Saturday … Ohio State leads the nation at 60.5% in the faceoff dot as a team … Clarkson rookie forward Sara Manness (Winnipeg, Manitoba) extended her scoring streak to seven in the Golden Knights win over Union on Saturday.

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

13 games, Princeton (began Nov. 14, 2025)
9 games, Yale (began Dec. 7, 2025)
8 games, Minnesota (began Dec. 5, 2025)
6 games, Ohio State (began Jan. 2, 2026)

Longest Active Point Streaks:

23 games, Josefin Bouveng, Minnesota
- 12G, 24A (began Sep. 26, 2025)
15 games, Abbey Murphy, Minnesota
- 21G, 17A (began Oct. 25, 2025)
13 games, Issy Wunder, Princeton
- 18G, 10A (began Nov. 14, 2025)
13 games, Mackenzie Alexander, Princeton
- 13G, 13A (began Nov. 14, 2025)
11 games, Carina DiAntonio, Yale
- 8G, 11A (began Nov. 29, 2025)

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

8 games, Abbey Murphy, Minnesota (began Dec. 5, 2025)
8 games, Sara Manness, Clarkson (began Dec. 6, 2025)
7 games, Issy Wunder, Princeton (began Dec. 6, 2025)
5 games, Annabelle Fanale, Minnesota (began Jan. 3, 2026)

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!