Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / A new No. 1 team, eye-opening major penalty numbers and Thanksgiving tourneys

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A new No. 1 team, eye-opening major penalty numbers and Thanksgiving tourneys · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

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We have a new number one team in the country and it is the Ohio
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State Buckeyes after a pretty comprehensive sweep of the former number one team, the
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Wisconsin Badgers. I'm Todd Maluski. I'm here with the Cole Hosey on the
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podcast. Thanks for joining us again the Cole. I guess what was your
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big takeaway from that series between the former number one and the now current number
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one. It was a pretty complete performance from Ohio State, like just start
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to finish. I was just really impressed with the pressure that Ohio State put
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on, the way that they moved the puck, just really everything. I
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you know, we as we had mentioned last week, we haven't seen a
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lot of the top teams play each other. I wasn't I hadn't seen a
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ton from Ohio State yet against a top opponent. And Wow, they really
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showed. They really showed up and showed off in this series. I was
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really impressed with them. How about you. One of the things I wrote
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kind of even as the third period of the second game was going on,
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is that they're there aren't many teams that make Wisconsin look mediocre. And I
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really thought that over the last two seasons and maybe even the last three seasons,
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we've seen that happen out of Ohio State doing that to Wisconsin multiple times.
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We look back at the the series in Columbus last season, the five
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to nothing game the second day, that was just a complete whitewashing of Wisconsin,
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which we don't see happen very often. And Ohio State has found the
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secret sauce to do that, I think with put pressure, with spending as
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much time as possible in the defense, in making Wisconsin spend as much time
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as possible in the defensive zone, not giving them easy breakouts. These these
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are things that are that really stood out to me and just seem to be
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a you know, the calling card of Ohio States. Game really put a
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lot of pressure on on Wisconsin and got the job done, and you know,
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they need to overtime the second game. But I really still felt like
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even though Wisconsin was better in the second game, better than they were in
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the first game, Ohio State was really the team that was clearly a you
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know, the better team for the weekend. Yeah. Absolutely, I think
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it's interesting that these do tend to happen in Columbus. I'm not sure what
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part of sort of their special sauce need requires sort of some of that and
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that why or how you know it works that the obviously every game Ohio State
2:39
in Wisconsin place doesn't end up like this, but yeah, they put pressure
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on the Badgers, and you know, the Badgers have some injuries. I
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think there are you know, a couple. I feel like the youth of
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the Badgers really showed in like sort of not being able to adapt when their
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game was taken away from them. But like those aren't excuses Ohio State dominated.
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I just thought like maybe without some of those players on the ice and
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players in playing in different roles or on different lines and things like that,
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like, Wisconsin was just exposed pretty badly. And yeah, kudos to the
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Buckeyes because they came out and really showed up and showed out. So it
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was for a Badger perspective, a Badger fan perspective, was not fun for
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any of them to watch that game. But in terms of if you're looking
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for really unique and interesting hockey, like you said, you're not going to
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see too many teams do that to a Mark Johnson team. And so for
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for six street periods, well seven, wow, did the buck Eyes just
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sort of seem to do everything right. Yeah, exactly. And so it's
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the Buckeyes that are number one this week in the USACHO dot Com Division one
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women's poll, and the Badger slipped the number three, with Colgate moving up
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to number two. And that was a you know, this is something that
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you know, Wisconsin had come into that series twelve and twelve and zero,
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and we'd talk in the past that you know, maybe not necessarily as challenged
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as as some of the other schools at the the upper reaches of the pole.
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And I think maybe we saw that in the fact that Colgate jumps ahead
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of Wisconsin to number two in this week's rankings. What was your your feeling
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on that? And Colgate thirteen and one. Obviously they're they're you know,
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they're just kind of you know, rolling along here early in this season.
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But seeing seeing them at number two, what's uh, what's your your feeling
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there? Well? I think, uh, you know, Wisconsin uh probably
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would not have been number one had they not started the season number one,
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right, like the returning national champion gets that nod and they just hadn't lost
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to make anybody move them out of that position. So to me, it's
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not surprising then with those two losses and like, as we said, dominating
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victories for Buckeyes that the Badgers dropped down bul hole Colgate. Colgates only losses
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to Ohio State, and they also they have given Ohio State they're only loss.
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So you know, if you see a team come out and show their
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dominance, first of all, they get to go to number one, and
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in the team that has beaten them and has their only loss to them,
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I think it absolutely made sense to move Cogate up to number two. And
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Colgate has played pretty much everybody ranked in the ECAC so far and come out,
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you know, without a loss in the conference. So it's it's difficult
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to argue with any of those voters. In fact, I like I voted
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the same way I when I went to write it down, and I didn't
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consciously think about it, and then I looked at you know, I always
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look at what I voted last week, and I was like, well,
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yeah, Kogate gets to be number two now, Like there's just there was
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no question in my mind looking at that. And you know, they played
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their sort of perpetual biggest opponent or biggest rival in the ECAC in Quinnipeac and
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came out with the win this weekend. So yeah, I Colgate it's got
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a really interesting roster. They've got, you know, Daniel Serdaknew, the
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leading scorer in the country from last year, but they also have some really
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smart, savvy, interesting play young players. I'm a big fan of Elisa
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Beiederman, and I just think that they, you know, they're out there
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kind of competing at a level higher than everybody else in their conference, and
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there they've been doing it, you know, for a couple of seasons.
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At this point, it feels like at this point it's almost like quietly just
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kind of going out and doing their business and maybe not be the most flashy
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team. I think what's really interesting for them is that sud Acney this year
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has kind of taken on a bit more of a role of dishing the puck
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in. The goalscorer thus far has been Kalti calchun Kova, who is a
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player that I think is still trying to figure out the balance of being a
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big, physical forward and not sort of over using her size, and so
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I think she's she's really starting to even out and get comfortable in her game,
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and she's really dynamic to watch, especially with Sir d Acney feeding her
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the puck. Yeah, that was a four to one win for Colgate over
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Quinnipiac on Saturday. It was really a big first period that got that done
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for Colgate. Biederman Carlton Cova scored one in five on five, one on
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a five on three power play uh to one break a tie, and then
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to go up by two and emptying that or late was less scoring. So
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that was a you know, I think we've we've seen, you know in
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the E C a C where you're gonna pretty much every we can you're almost
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gonna be facing you're almost guaranteed to be facing a A ranked team the way
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that it's gone, uh at least one every weekend because of the way that
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the schedule works. That may be an exaggeration a little bit, but it
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seems that way. Sometimes the the best of the ACAC teams really just kind
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of need to keep the uh, the ball rolling here and and you know,
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kudos the Colgate for doing that. Like you've said, it's you know,
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there's a you know, a pretty talented cast there that that seems to
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be getting the job done. And you know, it's you know, it
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seems like they're they're kind of moving to the top of that pack, but
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you know it's Clarkson's in there. Cornell is still you know, they had
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a rough week last week, but you know you can't really rule them out.
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Saint Lawrence's is lingering in there. These there's a bunch of teams that
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feels like in the ec AC are really just kind of, you know,
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clawing their way to the top here. Do you see any separation happening there?
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I don't know if that if that's really anything that you can look at
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yet. Uh, we're you know, more than the third of the way
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into the season for some teams. But do you feel like there's that that
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kind of of split happening between the These are the teams that are going to
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compete, and these are the teams that are just trying to hang on.
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Well, I mean, I think mentioning all those other squads, like you
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said, Cornell losing, you know, they're two games of the season.
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Saint Lawrence had been cruising and you know, then had the loss to Princeton.
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Was it Princeton and then But to me, what all those other teams,
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all those other teams beating up on each other sort of then shows even
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more how how good Colgate is doing. Right, So the fact that Colgate
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is not kind of falling prey to any of these other of Cornell, Quinnipiac,
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Clarkston, Saint Lawrence, Yale, Princeton, that Colgates come out through
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that and still been the winner like definitely puts them, you know, sort
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of ahead of everyone for me. But you know, Clarkson is technically currently
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is undefeated, right, like they have two ties, but they they needed
9:41
a miracle to beat Brown this weekend. And so I think what's great about
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the ECC right now is of course there's all those ranked teams, but I
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don't think there's an easy weekend for any of them, particularly because of the
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way that they do the travel pairs. But you know, Saint Lawrence was
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picked to finish six in this content reference and like is now seventh in the
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country, So I don't I don't think that you can really count anybody out.
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And like Brown just continues to make these great strides. Like obviously having
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a player like Chada Ginlam makes you know, having her the dynamics that she
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brings to the ice is huge. But like the entire team has come along.
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You know, they had a three to one win in the final or
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a three month lead in the final minute of that game, Clerks, And
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there was also a ton of penalties and overlapping, and I will not try
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to unravel all of that in terms of what it was five on three,
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five on whatever, but there was definitely a point where Clarkson had two extra
10:35
skaters on the ice and so they scored two extra like they they were up
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two players, and then they were up one player and they scored extra attacker
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goals, two of them in the final like minute to force overtime, and
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then could not you know, shut the game down in that extra period.
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So I think what's great about watching these games is that you just kind of
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never know. And we've seen you know, new coaches in the past two
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years of Brown at Dartmouth and really see the sort of second half of I
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would say heightsing bottom half of the conference. But like that, those teams
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that are not, you know, at the top of nationally ranked are still
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teams that are You can't take any weekend off and I think that's not entirely
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new this season for the ECC. It's sort of happened over the last couple
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of years, but it does make for a lot more fun that. Like
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you said, you mostly don't see a weekend where you're not going to play
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a ranked opponent. But those aren't the only games that they're they're gonna have
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to worry about. Yeah. I jotted down the records of the seven teams
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from the ECAC who are in the top fifteen really top thirteen in the US
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EHO rankings. Colgate thirteen oh one, Clarkson fourteen oho and two, Cornell
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ten two and one, Saint Lawrence twelve and three, Quinnipiac twelve and three,
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Princeton seven to four and one, Yale five and five. And that's
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a you know, a Yale team that just lost to last week to Saint
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Lorance and Clarkson kind of running through the part of the schedule there to have
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that happen. But I mean, we know that can't continue that way where
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all those teams are going to have records that good. But I just think
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that they've really set themselves up when you're looking towards February and talking pairwise,
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to be in the situation to have a bunch of AC teams in contention to
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make the add large segment of the tournament. Yeah, absolutely right, Like
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Yale is five and five and they did drop, you know to thirteenth,
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you know, drop in sort of air quotes there. Yeah, but at
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five and five, you like, it's hard to discount a team or like
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sort of drop them in the polls because they're losing the teams ranked above them.
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And so yeah, we get especially when you are at the bottom half
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of the poll, right like one through seven and eight nine maybe usually gets
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pretty clear. And then that second half as you're talking about teams that have
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losses, and you would get into comparing who those losses are too, and
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even how they looked in some of those games. And so yeah, I
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think it's a ECAC definitely has an argument this year for being the best conference
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in the country. Right, Like they're just week after week, these teams
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are going out and doing it and they're going to continue to set like the
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fans are discovering what it means when the teams beat up on each other and
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what that can do to rankings and to records, and so yeah, it'll
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definitely be interesting to see how that continues to shake out as the season moves
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forward. Yeah. Over in the w CHA. Last week we were talking
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obviously about the Wisconsin Ohio State series at Ohio State won two games, but
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the other teams in the two teams in the top what's projected to be the
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top half of the WHA or what kind of historically has been also played last
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week, but Minnesota got two wins at Minnesota Duluth to improve the nine to
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two on the season. I feel like maybe we're we're seeing that there is
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that split there. I think we're I was asking about a split in the
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in the E C A C. We are definitely seeing it there between UH
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three and four in the w C h A. And maybe that's not a
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surprise considering, you know, it's been a for the last couple of seasons.
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It's been a Wisconsin Ohiose State, Minnesota three, and then Minnesota Luke
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being the four. And then you're looking now at Saint Cloud, you know,
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charging its way up and kind of threatening to to push its way into
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the top four, and Duluth has to has to hold them off a little
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if they want to keep that spot uh in in in the upper half of
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the standings. Uh you know, with what Saint Cloud has done in the
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last two seasons, uh to improve itself. So I just thought that was
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an important couple of wins for Minnesota to uh to establish themselves in that uh
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you know, get those points h on the road, especially against one of
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those teams that's expected to be kind of in that contention for for top half.
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And that was a pretty impressive win for for a couple of wins from
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Minnesota, which was helped if and you can correct me if I'm wrong here,
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I'm going off what you wrote in this week's Monday piece. Helped by
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a former Daluth player. Correct, Yeah, you want to mention anything about
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that there? Yeah, well I was gonna see that that series Minnesota Duluth
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Minnesota is always a close series. I do think it was closer games than
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maybe the scores ended up. And I do think that that Minnesota really,
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you know, they needed some outstanding performances to take those wins. As that
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team continues to find out and figure out like kind of who they are and
15:50
who can score goals aside from Habbie Murphy though at this point I'm not sure.
15:54
Maybe Abby Murphy is just going to do it all. Yeah, he's
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doing it pretty well. Yeah, everybody knows she's the one that's gonna to
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do it, and she's still doing it, so you know, kudos to
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her and to the Gophers. But yeah, the you know, it was
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it was a the Gophers were shooting more, they were out shooting Minnesota Duluth,
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but was a close game. And yeah, the game winner for the
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Gophers was scored by Taylor Stewart, who played four years at Minnesota Duluth.
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So this was her first return to Duluth playing you know, sort of for
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the rivals, and uh, it was a really you know, she's a
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defender. It was a really nice play where she is a player that doesn't
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necessarily often step up from the blue line, but saw the puck, saw
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the opportunity. You kind of see her come from out of the frame in
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the highlight video and just step in and bury that goal to score the game
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winner. You know, the Gophers ended up scoring an empty nutter as well.
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But yeah, it was definitely the poetic It was zim poetic justice for
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her or you know, sort of an exclamation point for her. It was
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pretty cool to see. Obviously the fans did not think so, but yeah,
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it's interesting. I keep thinking that Minnesota, you know, not figuring
17:07
out that scoring depth or not, you know, sort of getting a one
17:10
B or a number two sort of forward stepping stepping up is going to be
17:14
an issue, but thus far it has not. And so you know,
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between the way that Minnesota played this week and the way Wisconsin played, I
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would have said there was sort of a you know, a half step between
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one and two being Ohio State and then down to Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth.
17:29
But looking at the two performances this weekend, I think that two and three
17:32
are much more contentious and up for grabs at this point. So interesting when
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those two teams play each other, for sure, Minnesota and Wisconsin. There
17:40
are a couple of big wins for l i U two and the New HA
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last weekend against stone Hill. What's and lu is kind of pushing to the
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top of that pack. What can't tell us about that? Yeah, so
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they are they made a program record, they're tenth straight win, they are
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ten and zero in conference, and they were playing stone Hill and the stone
18:03
Hill l A. You are two of the three teams along with Saint Anselm,
18:07
on the top of a new host standing. So LAU getting those two
18:11
wins really put themselves, uh, sort of in the driver's seat. They
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have a couple fewer they have four fewer games played than Saint Ansom in the
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conference and two then Stone Hills, so they have the point lead in several
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games in hand. And so they came out theyuh really gutted out a one
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oh win on Friday and then turned around and got a very convincing for one
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win on Saturday. So nice to see them, you know, as a
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new program, newer program, they have come out, you know and really
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just shown themselves well to get the first and see a bid from New High
18:47
last season and there they've continued it, you know, continued it this season.
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Tinjoholme had a forty four safe shutout in that one oh win, so
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having that solid goalie is huge for them, and then they just sort of
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continue to roll. So kudos to them. I just wanted to mention that
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they've kind of put themselves in the driver's seat the top that conference, which
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is pretty cool. We'll stick around with us. We will have more on
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the podcast when we come back. Hi, welcome back. This is Nicole
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Hasey and this is the podcast right now. I'm talking to Chrissy Langley,
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the NCAA coordinator of women's ice hockey officiating National coordinator. Christy is also USA
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Hockey's national referee and chief of Female Development. I noticed that there has been
19:36
an increase in major penalties this year at NCAA hockey, and when I reached
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out to NCAA, Christy said, yes, I've noticed that too, let's
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talk about it. So welcome Christy, Thanks for coming. Thank you,
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Nicole. I'm excited to be here and connect with you on this. Definitely
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appreciate your perspective and an acknowledgment of the increase in major penalties. We were
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just talking about it last week with the coordinators of officials for each conference at
20:03
the division level, and we brought it up at their coaches meeting also on
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Wednesday. Yeah, it was definitely something where I was like, I have
20:08
a feeling that there is more of this, but it's not actually something really
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easy for sort of us on the outside looking in to go look up.
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So could you maybe share with us, you know, some of the stats
20:18
that you found, the details and what you think might have led to some
20:22
of this. Yeah, so I asked for last year's breakdown of the whole
20:26
season and compared it to this year's up to date, and so there were
20:32
twenty seven major penalties up until the middle of November last year twenty seven and
20:37
this year there have been sixty one. Oh my goodness, yeah, more
20:41
than double. And I'd say it's not an officiating problem at all. I'm
20:48
very proud of our officials for you know, talking through these situations and calling
20:52
them as they see them. It's definitely been a change in the physical contact
20:56
that we've had in the women's game at the NCAA level, and that players
21:02
are seeing this level of physicality for the first time when he get to college.
21:08
So there's a pretty good conversation going on amongst coaches and amongst the coordinators
21:15
of officials. You know, how is this happening, What is happening?
21:19
Is there something we need to do in the future, and how do we
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how do we prepare the players a little bit better protect them even more.
21:29
You know, there's a lot of conversation about you know, boys play checking
21:33
hockey quite a few years before they get to college. Girls don't, right,
21:37
So that that's been eye opening in the last two weeks and for me
21:41
in this new role, I mean USA Hockey. Yeah, we have major
21:45
penalties, We have stuff that happened throughout the year, but not at this
21:52
magnitude. Yeah, no, that more than double. Do you think just
21:56
kind of hypothesizing maybe that this we will see maybe a little bit of flat
22:00
now. This comes with it being the beginning of a year and players just
22:03
sort of getting comfortable, particularly some of the younger players, and so not
22:07
necessarily knowing trying to ride that line and not necessarily knowing where it is.
22:11
I hope it flattens out because the stats have been brought to coaches attention,
22:15
and you know, if a player receives a third major penalty, they're out
22:21
a whole other game, right, So far as student athletes and player safety,
22:26
I hope it flattens out because the awareness is out there now, and
22:32
as you said, it's just there's a different level of physicality in the women's
22:37
college game, Like, yes, there's no checking, but obviously there's tons
22:38
of physicality and body to body contact. And I think it the major penalties
22:45
come because we're for player safety, right, Like we're talking about boarding,
22:48
particularly, which I think is what a lot of this ends up happenings hits
22:52
along the boards and unsafe hits for players. But I actually have that broken
22:57
down as well. Cool, So hitting from behind is actually up three times
23:03
it was last year. So it's it's how a player is standing and getting
23:11
hit from directly from behind, whether it's into the boards or in the open
23:15
ice. You know, like what's happening there that that number has tripled.
23:21
Contact of the head has also tripled, and you're right boarding has gone up
23:29
from two last year at this point to twelve. Oh my goodness. Yeah,
23:33
So those are the big ones I'm keeping my eye on, and I
23:37
know the coordinators of officials for each conference are looking at as well. We've
23:41
been sharing clips pretty regularly, making sure that we have a consistent standard across
23:47
our conferences. And then you said those coordinators are then going to their conferences
23:52
and their coaches and sort of sharing this information as well. Yeah, I've
23:56
seen some incredible memos and videos and conversations going out. I mean, the
24:04
Hockey East has a new coordinator this year, Derek Zuckerman. He's done incredible
24:08
jobs regularly communicating with his officials. Gino Benda Junior has the ch A and
24:15
you know he's doing his role this year and he sends out regular videos to
24:19
his group, and it's been highlighting not only these but some rule clarifications or
24:27
things that we need to get right. I've really appreciated seeing their notes.
24:33
Yeah, I would say sort of eye test and and you know, fan
24:38
conversation would be that that they don't always feel that the officiating is consistent between
24:44
conferences, that things, particularly when you see intraconference match interconference matchups are when
24:51
just just it doesn't always feel like it's being called consistently across the country.
24:53
So it sounds like that's something that you are sort of focusing on and making
24:57
sure that that starts to figure out in the future. You know, I've
25:02
heard that statement quite a bit. And the first thirty days in my role,
25:07
I met with all the different conference coordinators and you know, what's been
25:11
going on, what's worked, what hasn't worked, Who are the officials in
25:15
your conference, and what are the initiatives by the conference and how can I
25:19
support Because my role is national base, it needs to be more macro level
25:25
as they're diving in deep with their officials throughout the season. And the sentiment
25:30
of last year's people felt the standard got better, people felt the consistency across
25:37
the country was way better. And I'd say from the officials I've seen the
25:41
games I've been able to observe both online as well as in person, I'm
25:48
not seeing dramatic differences. That's good. It's interesting, right, You never
25:53
know what everybody has biases, and if you're a fan of a particular team
25:59
or conference, you're sort of only watching those games and maybe one or two
26:02
outside. So I definitely know that it is the perception, even if it
26:06
isn't necessarily the reality. Right, Right, And so with my used to
26:11
hockey role, that one's very intentionally focused on female development female officials, and
26:17
one thing I absolutely have to learn in this role is who are the key
26:21
male officials across every conference. That's one big area for me. I need
26:25
to know who those big male official names are and make sure that they're in
26:29
the running for postseason for NCAA, because that's that's the big part of my
26:33
role is assigning the nca officials. So our conference coordinators are, you know,
26:38
drawing up their list. Here's our long list, here's the officials that
26:41
we need to start watching. Come January, we'll get that short list together
26:45
and check to see how the officials are doing, what headspace are they and
26:48
what type of penalties are they calling, how's their positioning? Are they injured?
26:52
You know what's going on. And of the female officials across the country,
26:57
I know them right, you know, I've been working with them for
27:00
the last three seasons, if not longer, So I have a pretty good
27:03
understanding of those officials. And I feel like their standards are pretty dang consistent
27:08
and they get a ton of coaching, more so than some of these male
27:12
officials. Gotcha. And I would assume that many of those women came from
27:18
college, but like grew up playing the game, played the game collegiately.
27:22
That that there's a ten tends to be a pipeline that way as well.
27:26
Oh, that pipeline is beautiful. Yes, Definitely, officials that have worked
27:30
played, they're working higher level hockey, whether it's American Hockey League or juniors.
27:37
You know, we've gotten into the Advanced Officiating Development program this last year
27:41
with a pretty solid group of female officials getting the you make the call of
27:45
videos from the junior program as well as information from their conference coordinators. So
27:52
there's this beautiful wealth of knowledge coming to that group. Experiences they can learn
27:56
through others and then stay consistent throughout their seasons. I wanted to ask you,
28:03
I mean kind of a crossover, but with your role, particularly with
28:07
USA Hockey, and we just know there's well there's always a need for more
28:11
officials, but particularly to the women's game. We would love to have more
28:14
female officials. And sometimes when I have talked to officiating coordinators at conferences and
28:19
things like that, there hasn't always been a clear idea of like how that
28:23
can happen or what that pipeline can really look like. Like yes, they'll
28:26
mention two players like, oh, have you considered officiating? But I was
28:30
just curious kind of combining your two knowledge bases in these two roles, if
28:34
that's a focus for you in terms of like talking to players both at D
28:38
one and D three and creating more of a pipeline of those former players,
28:42
oh and getting them into officiating, Nicole, that was an interview question and
28:47
something I'm super passionate about. So not only the USA Hockey position, So
28:52
even before I was in it, I was the referee supervisor for an adult
28:56
women's league in Minnesota for seven years. In that league, Wham played out
29:03
of Augsburg Ice Arena and we got to see a ton of Augsburg women's ice
29:07
hockey games. Well, a girlfriend of mine, Lee Rizilo, helped recruit
29:11
official while she was officiating a lot of their games, and she's friends with
29:15
the head coach, and it was just perfect to get two really strong officials
29:19
coming out of Augsburg's playing program. Well, one of those players today is
29:25
an official, and she just worked the gold medal game at the last World
29:27
Championships, which is a phenomenal official. Sarah Buckner's her name, and somebody
29:33
keep an eye on out here out west. She works Division three women's hockey
29:38
and anywhere that they put her on the ice. So she just got her
29:41
first USHL game a couple weeks ago, and you know, hopefully has more
29:44
in her future. So that pipeline is something we've been talking about for a
29:49
number of years, is how can you play Division one or Division three hockey
29:55
and then within a three to five year timespan get back to that level as
29:59
an official. It's possible. The road map's there. Kendall Hanley, who's
30:04
the manager of officials for the North American Hockey League. She has a program
30:08
called Next Shift. So if you have that high level playing experience and you
30:14
sign up for her program. Uh, there's camp, there's summer camps,
30:19
there's coaching opportunities. She has several several weekends of he what's it called the
30:29
n a PHL where you go in and you work games in a controlled environment.
30:33
It's sixteen and eighteen year old boy level games. But you have coaches
30:38
at the arena and they're seeking out every single official to give feedback and help
30:42
develop and it's really a safer setting than just sending them off into the abyss
30:48
of youth hockey. You know, wait and I this is not less of
30:55
a problem now more of a but used it used to be the sort of
30:57
the complaint, for particular the high level of Mien hockey was that the pace
31:02
of place sort of outpaced the experience of the officials. And so we've seen
31:06
that get close, but it is still sort of a limited number or not
31:10
as many women officials as we would like that are sort of used to that
31:12
pace of play and can officiate at that high level. And so the idea
31:17
of transitioning players is that they're sort of already used to that pace of play.
31:19
You don't have to start at the beginning with learning rules and sort of
31:22
it's a it's a sort of an on ramp part way through that official training,
31:26
right, Like that's that's why it's they're such a great resource for you
31:32
as potential officials. Yep and Kendall had three start this year in her program,
31:37
and all three of them, to my understanding, have been doing very
31:41
well. All three of them were here in Minnesota for the National Invitation Tournament
31:47
the third weekend in October, and they're all excellent candidates for our USA Hockey
31:52
summer camps. And once you get to a US Hockey summer camp, I
31:57
mean, we'll we'll give you tutelage and the and the understanding and support you
32:02
to go after Division three or Division on hockey, whatever your caliber is,
32:07
ready for the next year. That's interesting is that that three to five year
32:12
timeline. Is that something I guess maybe is that a little accelerated. Is
32:15
that sort of accepting that, like this person has the space of knowledge and
32:20
we can really they we don't have to I'm sorry, like maybe accelerating the
32:23
learning curve or things like that. Yeah, didn't say that, well,
32:28
but already Yep, and you come out of playing eighteen you know, you
32:34
nineteen hockey or high school hockey something you could be on that accelerated track as
32:38
well. You absolutely could. It's what opportunities are you getting and who are
32:44
you connected with? You know, who's your mentor, who's your officiating coach,
32:47
who's the supervisor in your district, and are they helping promote you in
32:52
getting you access. So we just got an email earlier this week from Minnesota's
32:59
youth Use It High used dit or ten saying, Holy buckets, this girl
33:01
played college hockey. She played some pro hockey over in Austria. I was
33:07
impressed with her. I'm going to put around these games. Here's our schedule.
33:12
Can one of you make time to go see her and help give her
33:15
the ideas of what's in her future? You know, if she keeps us
33:19
up, so our numbers and you say, hockey are up up again,
33:24
which is wonderful. So last year there are about two thousand female officials.
33:28
This year we've had about twenty three hundred registered female officials. That's great.
33:31
Of that, over fifty percent of them are under the age of eighteen.
33:37
It's it's pretty common across men and women to have that statistic that we're pretty
33:44
young in our numbers in our age, but that means there's still about I
33:51
don't know, twelve hundred that we can go after over the age of eighteen
33:55
for that education. Where are you at in your career? What is your
33:58
goal? What is your dream? And with USA Hockey, like I said
34:01
earlier, I have an incredible group backing me up and supporting me in these
34:05
two rules. And there's thirty five to forty women that I've been meeting with
34:09
with USA Hockey for over a year now, well over a year and a
34:12
half. And our mentoring subcommittee is led by Katie Gay and she's doing an
34:21
incredible job. Ready. They sent out a note in September or October,
34:24
are you interested in having a mentor being a mentor? What are you looking
34:28
for? Got great responses that went out to all of our Level three and
34:32
Level four US Hockey officials. And then just last night they had a zoom
34:37
call which highlighted development opportunities within USA Hockey and they had women from across the
34:45
country, So Pacific District, Northern Plains, Massachusetts, Colorado, Rocky Mountain
34:51
District, lish here from Minnesota, all giving their stories to the attendees in
34:58
saying, you know, as a matter how old you are, right,
35:01
you know, get in the game and share your passion, share your goals,
35:06
and there's a spot for you in officiatings here. It's it's going to
35:09
always be here for you. So if you want to play, keep playing,
35:13
then here are some incredible resources in your district to help you get to
35:16
college, to help you get to summer camps, to help you get to
35:19
national tournaments. So that's what I love about my role is it combines them
35:23
both. I get to see what both sides are doing. Yeah, yeah,
35:30
well I think too, it takes maybe someone to explain that, like
35:35
if you are you know, if you're a younger official, like why or
35:39
a younger player, like why adding officiating to something that you do can both
35:45
help your game and just be a really positive experience, you know, like
35:49
you obviously there's tons of sort of negative publicity that comes, you know,
35:53
about how people treat officials and and sort of all of that, but there's
35:57
there's a lot of positivity and particularly as your mentioned, all this mentoring and
36:01
camaraderie among female officials. And then I think too, it can be hard
36:06
for a high level athlete to reframe the thinking, but like the idea that
36:09
you could still go to Olympics and World Championships and high level tournaments and travel.
36:15
But as an official, I think is a really I think it takes
36:19
a unique brain to make that flip. But I think sometimes once it needs
36:22
to be pointed out to a high level player that like, these are other
36:25
options, like maybe that path, the player path isn't the only one for
36:30
you. Oh that's incredible, you will, said Nicole, and that were
36:34
that was quite a bit of the highlights last night on that zoom call.
36:38
I would a thousand percent agree that it takes a special mind to flip,
36:45
but I would also say you have to ask somebody. You can't just assume
36:52
they know that officiating is a path out. The conversation must be there.
36:57
In a goal that we have is by the end of the season, so
37:01
closer to February March, we have a flyer available for all the NCAA officials
37:07
or excuse me, NCAA players and the alumni. For NCAA alumni that they
37:14
get this flyer and the coaches the NCAA team can actually help promote not only
37:20
becoming an official, but also becoming a female coach important. Both are important,
37:25
right yeah, yeah. So here's the outlet. Here's the QRO code
37:30
on the flyer that says Chris Wing out of Maine is the national referee or
37:36
national coach in chief for USA Hockey and can help get you connected on a
37:39
great path to become a coach. Doesn't matter what district you're in because we
37:44
have incredible resources across USA Hockey. Same thing with officiating. We won't game
37:50
set up and on the same document, but you have to be asked SHO
37:53
have that conversation. Here's an outlet the conversation, the recruiting tactic of of
38:04
having that conversation is what makes the difference. We're back on the podcast.
38:14
I'm Todd Mlesky, Nicole Hase is with me as always, and we are
38:19
wanting to send our best wishes to Minnesota state coach John Harrington, who is
38:23
away from the team for an indetermined undetermined amount of time after hip surgery.
38:31
Sherry Dickerman is stepping in as the interim head coach. She is an assistant
38:37
with with the Mavericks. It's it's an awkward time to to have to do
38:44
that, but you know, sometimes the real world and real life tells you
38:47
when when you have to have things done. And uh, we just wanted
38:52
to send our best to John Harrington. And and I know the the hockey
38:55
world is hoping for a quick recovery for him and hope he's back behind the
39:00
bench soon. But as we look towards this coming week, this is an
39:05
important week in terms of, you know, spreading the gospel of women's college
39:09
hockey in some ways around the country because it goes into some areas that you
39:15
don't normally get to see high level women's college hockey. There's a couple of
39:22
tournaments, a couple of events, a showcase event. One of them is
39:27
in the DC area, one of them is in Nashville. Uh, in
39:30
the Nashville area. And Nicole, maybe can you give us an idea of
39:37
what this means for exposure and and just you know, getting the game out
39:44
in the different areas where then you can hopefully grow, uh, you know,
39:47
the next generation of of of women's college hockey players. Yeah, I
39:52
think the holiday weeks right, so we'll see this with Thanksgiving league and usually
39:58
we might see some stuff around New Year's in the winter break. Given opportunity
40:02
for teams, you know, that have don't have conference game scheduled, don't
40:07
normally you know, have games that they might play, uh to to look
40:10
for other opportunities, and as we've seen over the years, you know there
40:14
might be one off tournaments. There have been times that play teams have gone
40:16
and played in California, Colorado, other places that that are sort of non
40:22
traditional And so now D One in d C and the Smashville Showcase which is
40:25
the one in Nashville are picking up on hockey fandom, not necessarily women's hockey,
40:34
but places where hockey is very popular or is growing and bringing top tier
40:38
women's hockey to those places so that they can you know, show with sort
40:44
of what's possible. And it's what's great about these is you often get several
40:47
ranked teams and so you know D One in DC's got Minnesota, Harvard,
40:52
Saint Thomas and Cornell playing. Smashville Showcase has h be you and Robert Morris
41:00
Minnesota State. So you know, there's just an opportunity for these teams where
41:05
there are not traditionally women's hockey programs or necessarily women's college teams to go and
41:15
really show off and show what make new fans and show what's possible for some
41:20
of the youth players that might you know, in Nashville. Obviously it's not
41:22
new anymore, but when the Predators came, then suddenly there was junior Predators.
41:25
And I think we had our first player from one of those programs commit
41:30
last year, so she's probably she's playing this year. And so it's just
41:35
it's really important that where hockey is a hotbed because of men's pro because of
41:42
the NHL, that the girls see, you know, sort of what their
41:45
options are and what the opportunities are. And I think, you know,
41:49
not only are these drivers of fans an opportunity for young players, but I
41:52
think we will continue to see options for expansion in some of these places.
41:59
And so I I hope that, you know, seeing the growth of women,
42:02
girls and women's hockey in a place like Nashville, then we can start
42:07
talking about, you know, what opportunities there are for expansion for for D
42:12
one and D three programs in that area. So and aside from that,
42:15
then we just get some really cool hockey, oftentimes with teams that maybe don't
42:19
necessarily schedule far away from home and their non conference schedules, but will travel
42:23
for these tournaments and so you know, it's it's really cool to get to
42:27
see like teams like Cornell and Minnesota play each other, right, and things
42:30
like that. So I just they're they're really important. They're really cool opportunities
42:36
where we often get to see teams that don't play each other normally. And
42:39
yeah, I think they're just such a huge part of growing the game and
42:43
making sure future generations know, you know, what's possible and and want to
42:49
keep playing high level girls hockey so that they can be playing in these tournaments
42:52
in the future. For me, it's the you know one there there are
42:57
two things that stand out. One of them is that they're in these buildings
43:00
that you know, the the main draw there. I believe they're in the
43:06
in d C. I know it's the part of the the Capital's Complex is
43:10
where the event is taking place. And I think in Nashville it's it's it's
43:15
a rink that I don't know if the predators are it's their training rink or
43:17
not, but it's one of them. There are two training rinks in Nashville.
43:22
It's uh that both have the same name. I tell you this because
43:25
when I went, we went to the wrong rink, So that was several
43:30
years ago. But yes, they they're in the NHL h L branded facilities.
43:37
So but you know, so the main draw in that in those buildings
43:40
is usually you know, men's hockey. And to see the main draw for
43:45
for these days be women's hockey is I think pretty powerful because you should see
43:52
that as uh, you know, as if you're a young girl playing uh
43:58
in you know, in youth hockey, you should see that this can be
44:01
a featured event and and that's I think to me powerful uh to have that
44:07
as an example out there. But the other thing is that there's I don't
44:09
I don't know the specifics about these these events this weekend, but there's usually
44:15
some kind of you know, learn from the college players kind of event where
44:20
you know, there's an on ice component, maybe some off ice stuff happening
44:23
too, of just you know, let's let's get some some skills we're going
44:27
on out there and just have have some interaction with with college players. And
44:31
I think that's something that we will find in a few years, uh,
44:37
you know, is setting an example and meaning something to some young players where
44:44
in a few years there are going to be college players and we're gonna be
44:46
able to talk about that experience having helped them, uh, somewhere along the
44:51
way, if they were able to take part in that in like you're talking
44:54
about in one of these cities, or in Colorado or in California where where
44:59
events have happened in the past, and part of the uh, the hopeful
45:04
expansion of women's hockey down the road. Yeah, I mean there's pretty much
45:07
not a woman on the inter national team right now that can't tell you of
45:12
a moment of meeting a woman, whether it is another national team player or
45:17
you know, Leila Edwards talks about having met Blake bold In. Pretty much
45:22
every woman that is currently playing in college can tell you a story about,
45:27
you know, the impact of having seen someone like them play the game before
45:30
them. So it's pretty cool to see, uh, these women continue to
45:35
be a part of that. Definitely is there. Those Those aren't the only
45:39
events going on this Thanksgiving weekend around college hockey. A couple of really important
45:49
non conference matchups. The newly ranked number one Ohio State Buckeyes are hosting Saint
45:55
Lawrence for I believe it's two games this week. Yeah, two games number
46:00
six Saint Lawrence and another one is Colgate going on the road to play Minnesota
46:08
Duluth and Duluth obviously looking for a little bit of a rebound after being swept
46:13
by Minnesota, but not getting any easier of a road with Colgate coming in.
46:21
Let's start with that Ohio State Saint Lawrence match up first, And I
46:24
wonder on the Ohio State side, you know everyone was pointing towards last week.
46:29
This is the championship game rematch, It's the number one team in Wisconsin
46:34
coming into the o s u Ice rink. I don't imagine there's gonna be
46:39
any that kind of you know, okay, we we we we scaled the
46:43
mountain, we did those kinds of we did what we needed to do.
46:46
Now it's time to rest when Saint Lawrence comes into town. Knowing that this
46:51
is gonna be a pretty pretty good challenge for the Buck guys with with Saint
46:57
Lawrence coming in, no, I mean, I just there's no way Nadine
47:01
would allow that to happen. So she runs a pretty tight ship around there,
47:05
and so I think, no, I I do I think that you
47:08
know, there was a big high and a focus on that and no looking
47:12
past Wisconsin at that time, for sure, but absolutely the Buckeyes will have
47:17
prepared for Saint Lawrence. You know, it's it would be interesting because it's
47:21
kind of two different styles you have. You know, Saint Lawrence has has
47:24
had this really great season, but also you know was swept by Clerkson two
47:29
weeks ago, has that lost Vermont earlier in the season, needed over time
47:34
to be Mercyhurst at the very beginning of the season. And so while it's
47:37
been an outstanding for season for them, there's also been a little bit of
47:39
that up and down. And so for me, it'll be interesting to see,
47:43
you know, sort of what they come into this weekend with and how
47:46
they prepare to play in that very unusual barn to play the number one team
47:52
in the country, to sort of get that relentless pressure that Ohio State gives.
47:59
And so I've I think not only will sort of the first few minutes
48:02
of that first game be really important that they don't get surprised or don't sort
48:07
of get overwhelmed in those first few minutes and let the game get out of
48:10
hand before they even have a chance to be in it, but I also
48:14
think that if they lose that first game, they really need to come back
48:17
strong for that second one, and so that's where I that's why I mentioned
48:22
sort of the up and down of some of the other stuff. I would
48:23
like to see how they come out for that second game should they lose the
48:27
first one. I think that'll be really sort of important for not only the
48:30
series, but just sort of how the rest of their season goes. I
48:32
think they need to face that adversity and come out a little stronger for the
48:37
next game. And then I think, yeah, I'll go ahead and no.
48:42
The Nutmeg Classic at Yale is a tournament that I think has a really
48:49
interesting first round. Number ten Yukon against number seven Quinnipiac Sacred Heart and Yale
48:57
play in the other semi final. It is a a winners it is a
49:01
tournament where the winners playoff. It's not a set schedule, so that's a
49:08
The semi finals are intriguing there, and specifically to me, that Quinnipiac Yukon
49:14
game. It really seems like this is one of those kind of prove it
49:17
kind of games for Yukon. Off to a nine to three and one start
49:22
and here they go, getting a chance against a top ten ranked team to
49:28
show what they can do. Yeah, and I think Hockey East in general
49:32
has the problem that they don't get super battle tested, and so you know,
49:37
we've seen you know, them coming teams from their coming out at the
49:39
end of the season not necessarily as strong as maybe they thought they were with
49:44
their their conference schedule. So seeing this sort of test for Connecticut at this
49:50
point in the season, to show like, really, where where is the
49:52
Hockey East at compared to sort of the rest of the country will be really
49:55
interesting. But yeah, that nut Mad Classic isn't always so doesn't you feature
50:00
i think three ranked teams, but it's you know, it's for the winner
50:02
of Connecticut, right like those all four of those teams are in Connecticut,
50:06
So it's the not meg Classic. But yeah, I think that one is.
50:08
The other tournaments might get a little more attention, but this one,
50:13
particularly as you mentioned this year, is definitely intriguing and should be fun to
50:16
watch. I'm all about the geographical based tournament if you are too. But
50:21
that's I mean, if you can do that, that's awesome. If you
50:23
can come out with a state champion quote unquote at the end of something,
50:29
I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's a great use of this week
50:32
right of the of the unusual part of the schedule, And yeah, I
50:37
think they do move around who hosts, and you know, what a cool
50:39
thing to really just have that that rivalry and that competition and sort of hype
50:47
up the fan bases. And yeah, I think, like I said,
50:51
it's not necessarily always as exciting. So I think it's it's pretty cool that
50:54
this tournament that happens every year and has for several years, it's really like
51:00
on a national scale this year, so it should be fun. Yeah,
51:02
you had some interesting news about another kind of tournament or a team that's being
51:08
formed to play in another kind of tournament. You want to talk a little
51:10
bit about that. Yeah, So there is a team Caribbean women's ice hockey
51:15
team that's made up of players from that represent that have heritage out of more
51:21
than a dozen nations in the Caribbean. And so this team came together and
51:24
played in the Latin Cup held in Florida in August and one. On the
51:30
way to winning the championship, they beat Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico.
51:36
And every player on the team is a current or former collegiate player.
51:39
So there's some D one players, some d three players and some youth sports
51:43
players. So they're doing a fundraiser to go play a tournament in Madrid.
51:46
We will share that link in the show notes and on our socials. But
51:51
yeah, we'll see players that represent Worcester State, Arcadia, Ontario Technical University
51:58
in Canada, Chase Rudd and Diana Bishop who play at His Sacred Heart,
52:01
Sheila Edwards from the University of Wisconsin, Jada Burke from Lindenwood University, and
52:07
the several of the players. There are four players from the Puerto Rican national
52:10
team and sort of the person that put this team together and drives it all
52:15
as Jasmine Miley, who played at Liberty University, played in Europe and is
52:20
on the Puerto Rican national team. So yeah, they're they're raising money to
52:22
go play in Madrid, which I think is pretty cool and so we will
52:25
share that information. And it's called the Hispanic Cup taking place in May into
52:30
the first week in June in Madrid. So if you want to support them,
52:34
they would absolutely appreciate it. Pretty cool stuff, you know. All
52:38
right, Nicole, let's go out on this today. What's uh, what's
52:42
your Thanksgiving plan uh for this for this week? Area? Are you or
52:47
I guess historically, are you a a pie person? Are you a What's
52:53
what's the big part of Thanksgiving for you? That's unintentionally you called me out
52:59
here, and I'm gonna present the controversial opinion that I hate pie. I
53:05
say this as someone who has a baking and pastry degree. I almost no
53:08
pie has a correct feeling to pie crust ratio. What I really hate is
53:12
dry pie crust. So yeah, I'm I'm not a pie person. I
53:15
don't really like turkey either. I'm in it for the sides. I think
53:20
that's a very fair rational argument that I can't really argue with, especially the
53:28
pie thing, because yeah, I'm with you on the everything being too dry,
53:32
and then that's where I get. You know, turkey, I'm not
53:37
a huge fan. I'll eat it, but yeah, I'm I'm, you
53:42
know, honestly, like the one thing I really really like at at at
53:46
Thanksgiving, and it's gonna sound strange, is like carrots with brown sugar that
53:52
like, I don't do that. I could do absolutely do that any other
53:54
time of the year, but for whatever reason. So yeah, So I
54:00
also, very Wisconsin of me make a brought worst stuffing, which I started
54:04
making I went to college New Orleans and lived down there for several years,
54:07
and so I started making it there when I stayed for Thanksgiving, and now
54:12
is sort of my signature. It's what I have to bring whenever I go.
54:15
My husband's family hosts, so I will be bringing you very large serving
54:21
of brought worst stuffing like the good Wisconsin Midwesterner that I am. And folks,
54:27
if you need the rest of me, find the call on social happy
54:30
to pass that along. Yeah, but we're very thankful for you all.
54:34
Thank you so much for joining us on this. We know we're just getting
54:37
started, and we're so happy that you know, everybody sees the need for
54:42
this and follows along and supports the women playing the sport that we all up.
54:45
So thank you all so much. We hope that you have a great holiday.