2023 NCAA Women's Hockey Tournament: Quarterfinal Recap

The Huskies once again prevailed in a thriller down win New Haven to advance to their third consecutive Frozen Four

Key Takeaways

Northeastern

Scored First

People keep talking about Northeastern being a top line only type of team. Well the scoring got started by a third line freshman out of Northern MA. In a great move right in front of the goalie Lily Shannon netted one early in the second that really settled the Huskies into a groove.

Sick Saves

Gwen Phillips made her NCAA Tournament debut after being Aerin Frankel’s understudy the last few years. While she talked about having some difficulties covering the puck early on and she had her teammates help her she stepped up when it mattered. There were a number of scrums in the crease with loose pucks that Phillips was able to contort to prevent the puck from crossing the line. Late in the game Yale had a hard shot that bounced up but Phillips made the adjustments and made a highlight reel save.

Top Line Performance

The scoring got started by the third line and the defenders had their fingerprints all of the place but the top line each netted a goal, all three of which were pretty to watch, highlighted by the give and go between Aurard and Mueller who tucked it in late to put the game away.

Yale

Staying Home

Every game is win or go home, well Yale didn’t win and were already home. Ingalls Rink hadn’t been very kind to the Bulldogs in the recent weeks. Yale fell down early against rival Harvard in the quarterfinals but recovered then couldn’t quite recover against Clarkson last weekend. This weekend they could not quite solve the Huskies and once again had a disappointing result on home ice.

ECAC Bows Out

The ECAC was viewed as the only competition to the WCHA this season and were poised for a few teams making a run when they garnered a total of four bids for the tournament, three teams reached the quarterfinal round but none advanced. Two went down to WCHA foes and Yale lost to the only eastern team to reach Duluth in Northeastern.

Bright Future ahead

Mark Bolding’s squad is clearly a team that will have potential for the next few years with their goalie only bing a sophomore, and if he can continue to build on the core he has already created he should definitely be able to take the Bulldogs to the next level if he can continue to recruit well.

Out of Town Scores

#1 Ohio State 5 - #8 Quinnipiac 2

#6 Wisconsin 4 - # 3 Colgate 2

#2 Minnesota 3 - #7 Minnesota-Duluth 0

It was all WCHA outside of New Haven, while one WCHA team was guaranteed a spot the other two tickets were up for grabs with the ECAC contending. Colgate was the only one favored but the Badgers seemed to dominate them en route to yet another Frozen Four.