Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Women’s Notes: Let the Post-Season Begin

AHA and ECAC Action Gets Underway

The road to the championship is officially underway for two of the five conferences in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. While Hockey East, NEWHA, and the WCHA have one final week of regular-season action, the postseason begins for both the AHA and ECAC Hockey.

No. 4 Penn State enters the AHA postseason as the top seed after capturing a fourth consecutive regular-season conference championship. On Thursday, Delaware will face Robert Morris in the AHA opening round. The winner will advance to the single-elimination quarterfinals to play No. 3 Lindenwood, while No. 4 RIT hosts No. 5 Syracuse. Quarterfinal winners will move on to the semifinals, hosted by No. 1 Penn State and No. 2 Mercyhurst, in a best-of-three series. Semifinal winners will advance to a single-game championship hosted by the highest remaining seed.

Click HERE to view the AHA Postseason bracket.

Yale and Princeton were crowned ECAC Hockey regular-season co-champions as opening round action features four single-elimination matchups. This weekend, No. 12 Union travels to No. 5 Clarkson, No. 11 RPI visits No. 6 Colgate, No. 10 Dartmouth heads to No. 7 Brown, and No. 9 St. Lawrence faces No. 8 Harvard. Winners will advance to the quarterfinals to take on the league’s top four seeds. Yale, Princeton, Quinnipiac, and Cornell have already secured their spots in the quarterfinals as the race to Lake Placid begins.

Click HERE to view the ECAC Hockey Championship bracket.

2025-26 Conference Champs (reg. season)
AHA: Penn State (fourth in a row)
ECAC Hockey: Princeton & Yale (co-champions)
Hockey East: Northeastern
NEWHA: TBD
WCHA: TBD

Daily Scoreboard | National Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Must Read:

Duluth News Tribune: Gascon still unbeatable as UMD caps clean sweep of Tommies

ESPN: USA vs. Canada is the women’s Olympic hockey rematch everyone was waiting for

NCAA: NCAA women’s hockey power rankings

NCAA: Team USA vs. Canada women’s hockey at Milan Cortina 2026 is an NCAA showcase

Sports Illustrated: Boston College Women’s Hockey Stuns No. 5 Northeastern in Overtime

Sports Illustrated: Two Dramatic Overtime Games Lead to Women’s ECAC Co-Champions: Puck Drop

The Hockey Journal: Harvey Is The Top Prospect For 2026 PWHL Draft

The Hockey Journal: Marie-Philip Poulin Sets All-Time Canadian Olympic Goal Scoring Record

The Ice Garden: ECAC Monthly Recap: January (and Part of February) 2026

USCHO: Women’s Hockey Weekend Wrap – February 16, 2026

USCHO: How the top 15 NCAA women’s hockey teams fared, Feb. 9-25

Must Hear & See:

Breaking the Glass: Episode#28: Quinnipiac Bobcat Kahlen Lamarche

ECAC: 2026 Mandi Schwartz Scholar Athlete of the Year: Princeton’s Issy Wunder

Jocks in Jills: Momcast in Milan

NBC Olympics: Marie-Philip Poulin breaks all-time Olympic goals record

Our Girls Play Hockey: Winn on Making Team USA, Scoring Her First PWHL Goal & Living the Dream

Our Kids Play Hockey: Youth Hockey Stats, Goalie Blame, and Smarter Coaching Conversations

Ride to the Rink: Stats — Friend, Foe, or Fuel for Growth?

Rinkside Rundown: Inside a Brand-New NCAA DI Women’s Hockey Program

Rinkside Rundown: Abby Boreen on Joining Vancouver and Her Path to the PWHL

The PodKaz: A wild finish to the ECAC Hockey regular season

The GOAT:

Boston University alum, five-time Olympian, and all-time great Marie-Philip Poulin scored her 19th and 20th Olympic career goals in Canada’s 2-1 semifinal win over Switzerland, surpassing the previous record of 18 held by Hayley Wickenheiser.

Canada and the United States advanced to the gold medal game on Thursday at 1:10 p.m. ET, where they will face off for the seventh time in Olympic women’s hockey history.

St. Cloud Sweep:

St. Cloud State graduate goaltender Jojo Chobak (Chicago, Ill.) set a program record with her 11th career shutout, backstopping the Huskies to a 5-0 win over Bemidji State on Saturday.

Chobak made 24 saves to earn the shutout, surpassing former Husky Sanni Ahola’s (’25) mark of 10, while five different SCSU players scored for the Huskies. Junior forward Alice Sauriol (Sherbrooke, Quebec) recorded three assists Saturday after posting a five-point game Friday with two goals and three assists.

Too Close to Call it:

Both the NEWHA and WCHA have yet to crown a regular-season champion, and seeding will come down to the final weekend of play.

In the NEWHA, just five points separate the top three teams with two games remaining. Franklin Pierce currently sits in first place but faces third-place Saint Anselm on Friday and Saturday in a home-and-home series. Second-place Assumption also takes on Sacred Heart in a home-and-home series, and the outcomes of those games could shake up the final standings.

In the WCHA, the top two teams in the country will battle for positioning, with only two points separating the two juggernauts. Ohio State hits the road to face Bemidji State on Friday and Saturday and may have to wait on its fate as Wisconsin hosts St. Cloud State on Saturday and Sunday.

RIT-OT:

RIT upset conference opponent and No. 4 Penn State on Friday, earning its first win at Penn State since 2014.

The Tigers were led by a group of underclassmen, including sophomore goaltender Brenna McNamara (Keswick, Ontario), who made 34 saves, including five in overtime. RIT’s first two goals came from a pair of sophomores from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan when Madison Buziak scored her second of the season, and Ireland Stein netted her ninth.

Freshman forward Cassandra Barnes (Uxbridge, Ontario) scored the overtime winner, her second goal of the season, both of which have been game-winners.

Fifty is Nifty:

Five different players have surpassed the 50-point mark for the 2025-26 season, with the newest additions being Quinnipiac junior Kahlen Lamarche (Sudbury, Ontario) and Clarkson freshman Sara Manness (Winnipeg, Manitoba).

Lamarche recorded four points, including three goals and one assist, as the Bobcats defeated Brown on Friday and Yale on Saturday to secure the No. 3 seed in the ECAC tournament.

Manness eclipsed the 50-point mark in the Golden Knights’ loss Friday, recording two assists in the effort.

Gascon is Heating Up:

Minnesota Duluth junior goalie Eve Gascon (Mascouche, Quebec) recorded her third straight shutout over the weekend, earning her eighth and ninth shutouts of the season. She has not allowed a goal in her last 194 minutes, 4 seconds of action. Gascon now owns 20 career shutouts, tied for the second-most in program history at University of Minnesota Duluth.

Gascon leads the WCHA and is tied for the second-most shutouts in the NCAA with Felicia Frank (So. Gävle, Sweden) and only trails to Katie Desa (Sr., Pawcatuck, Conn.) by one.

Notebook Quotebook:

“Well, I think this is what we’re capable of, and I think we’ve been working our butts off for a long time, doing a lot of things well, and we haven’t gotten any puck luck. We got some puck luck today, we earn it, that’s how you get that. You work for it, you stick together, and you don’t quit, and that’s what happened today. We were rewarded, so now we get to take that momentum into the playoffs.”.

— Dartmouth head coach Maura Crowell (Colgate ’02)comments on the Big Green’s final regular season game and carrying the win over RPI into the ECAC Hockey playoffs (source: Dartmouth Women’s Hockey).

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Colgate junior forward Emma Pais (London, Ontario) reached the 100-point milestone on Saturday, the 22nd player in Colgate history to reach that mark … Vermont freshman goalie Lily Prendergast (Hanover, Mass.) recorded 29 saves to secure her first career shootout victory in her first career shootout appearance on Friday against Maine … Merrimack sophomore goalie Adreanna Doucette (Milbury, Mass.) made 69 saves on 72 shots against Holy Cross and Vermont, including a 40-save performance on Saturday. Doucette has four 40-save outings and 10 games with 30 or more saves this season … Assumption swept Saint Anselm to establish a new program-highs in consecutive regulation wins (four) and improved its regular season win total to 16. Wisconsin graduate Marianne Picard (Repentigny, Quebec) tops the league in face off percentage (over 100 taken) with a 67.5% … Providence defeated Holy Cross on Saturday and moved to 6-0-1 when leading after two periods … Cornell junior forward Delaney Fleming (Rochester, Minn.) notched her second game-winning goal of the season against Clarkson on Saturday … Franklin Pierce sophomore forward Bo Dean (Toronto, Ontario) scored five goals over the weekend, including her first career hat trick Friday and game-winning goals in both contests.

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

4 games, UConn (began Feb. 6, 2026)
4 games, Cornell (began Feb. 6, 2026)
4 games, Minnesota Duluth (began Feb. 6, 2026)
4 games, Assumption (began Feb. 6, 2026)
4 games, Franklin Pierce

Longest Active Goalie Winning Streaks:

6 games, Taylor Kressin, Ohio State (began Jan. 25, 2026)
5 games, Ava McNaughton, Wisconsin (began Jan. 10, 2026)
5 games, Taylor Hyland, Princeton (began Oct. 24, 2025)

Longest Active Point Streaks:

25 games, Josefin Bouveng, Minnesota
- 13G, 26A (began Sep. 26, 2025)
17 games, Abbey Murphy, Minnesota
- 24G, 17A (began Oct. 25, 2025)
17 games, Carina DiAntonio, Yale
- 13G, 12A (began Nov. 29, 2025)
12 games, Hilda Svensson, Ohio State
- 6G, 13A (began Nov. 28, 2025)
9 games, Maddy Christian, Penn State
- 6G, 6A (began Jan. 20, 2026)

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

10 games, Abbey Murphy, Minnesota (began Dec. 5, 2025)
4 games, Morgan Giannone, Robert Morris (began Feb. 6, 2026)
4 games, Kayla McGaffigan, Assumption (began Feb. 6, 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!