Five of this conference’s eight teams were ranked in our first poll of the season, including a sweep of the top three spots by Wisconsin, Ohio State and Minnesota, in that order. The Badgers are coming off their seventh National Championship, which they won 1-0 over Ohio State, who won the regular season title, while the Gophers defeated them for the tournament crown.
With a number of program-defining players moving on after last season, the WCHA will look a little different but should be no less exciting and competitive. Wisconsin bolsters the talent and experience of last year’s successful freshman class with a new group of young and exciting rookies. Ohio State and St. Cloud State have rounded out their rosters with impactful transfers. Minnesota looks to establish a new identity while Minnesota Duluth is showing they are established as a perennial part of any national conversation. Intriguing rookies at St. Thomas could give the program a big boost while Minnesota State and Bemidji State look to build on the momentum they’ve created the last few seasons.
On paper, Wisconsin looks to have an inside edge on winning the conference simply because they lost the fewest key pieces and have a very friendly schedule to open the year, giving them plenty of opportunity to gel as a team. Many of the questions and concerns for the other top WCHA teams are less about skill and talent and more focused on intangibles. Without seeing how the teams play together, it’s tough to know if those concerns are valid or not. Just assume that any one of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State could win the conference and all of them will likely remain ranked in the top 10 for the duration of the season.
Bemidji State
Last season
5-30-1, 2-26 (eighth). Lost to Ohio State in the WCHA quarterfinals.
Names to know
Genevieve Hendrickson joined the Beavers last season and was immediately impactful on the offense. Now her sister Talya joins Bemidji and the chemistry the two bring together could be a really great kick start to what the team needs to build.
Makenna Deering is a mobile defender who returns as the best shot-blocker on the team, but also stepped up well into the offense. She brings some needed depth of scoring and a good eye for when to unleash a shot from the top of the zone.
What to Watch For
There was a lot of turnover on this roster this offseason, as several players transferred out – many to other teams within the WCHA. Now the Beavers have a fairly inexperienced roster of players who haven’t skated the bulk of the team’s minutes or spent much time in net. There’s an opportunity for a reset here and for the current group to reestablish a culture and baseline for what they want Bemidji State women’s hockey to look like.
Just one player tallied double digits in points last season and she is not back this year. There was an even distribution of a small number of points among that roster, but if Bemidji is going to keep pace in any way this season, they have to be aggressive on offense.
Crystal ball
With a lot of offseason movement and an ever increasingly difficult rest of the conference, it’s going to be difficult for Bemidji to move up the standings this season. I have them eighth.
Minnesota
Last Season
30-6-3, 22-3-3 (second). Lost to Wisconsin in the NCAA semifinals.
Names to know
Abbey Murphy is both one of the most electric and most frustrating players to watch in the country. When you see the moves she can pull with the puck, the needles she threads to find a lane to the net, the wicked shot, the ability to stake claim to prime real estate around the net and how she can absolutely take charge of a game and turn it around for her team, you can’t help but be annoyed by the overly aggressive moments, embellishments and jawing that more often than not lead to penalties. She’s a pest and she definitely gets in opponents heads, but she being that kind of player is about tiptoeing the line of physicality and chirping so that you’re in their head and get the advantage. Murphy is not so good at that part of the dance. Maybe the most frustrating part is that she doesn’t need any of the extras. I find myself wishing she’d just go out and play. She’s damn talented if she can stay out of her own way.
Transfer defenders Taylor Stewart and Solveig Neunzert both bring size and experience to the Gopher blue line this season. Both are calm, solid, unflappable skaters that know how to clog up passing lanes, step into traffic and win back the puck. Both will have a chance to take on bigger roles from the point on offense and could be really interesting additions to the offensive dynamic, as well. I’m particularly excited by the possibilities of Neunzert growing her game that way.
What to Watch For
There is plenty of talent on this Gopher roster, so it’s not so much that Minnesota will need to replace the skill of Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle in terms of goals and points. But those two were leaders who were vocal and demonstrative and also led by example. They pushed each other, pushed their teammates and ensured the whole team was along for the ride. They brought a wealth of international experience. That kind of leadership is going to be much more difficult to replace and replicate. Maybe more than any other team in the country, I think the Gophers’ fortunes this season will be tied to which players take on more leadership this season and how well the group can keep up the drive and motivation that relentlessly pushed Heise and Zumwinkle.
When it feels like every single WCHA point is going to matter, it could be a tough final two weeks for the Gophers, who end the regular season at Wisconsin and then home against Minnesota Duluth.
Skylar Vetter was very good in net for Minnesota last season, but they brought Lucy Morgan in as a grad transfer and I feel like she could really push herself into the conversation for starting minutes. Morgan was a standout at St. Lawrence, helping shore up her team in the face of tough opponents in the ECAC and I think she’ll transition well to the WCHA.
Crystal Ball
I love what the Gophers added this offseason, but they have to replace generational, program-defining players in Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle. I think we’ll probably see Minnesota forge a new identity, but that likely doesn’t happen quickly. I absolutely believe they could upset everyone’s plans, but for now, I’ve got them tied for third with UMD.
Minnesota Duluth
Last Season
26-10-3, 17-8-3 (fourth). Lost to Minnesota in the NCAA regional final.
Names to know
Freshman goalie Ève Gascon is probably the most touted goalie prospect we’ve ever had in women’s college hockey. She was the second to earn a win in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and was first female player to play for a boys major U-18 team in Quebec in 2018. At 20, she comes in with tons of experience and combines being a technical, methodical goalie with speed and big playmaking ability. She has a huge opportunity to be a four year starter at UMD and has big skates to fill with the graduation of Emma Söderberg.
Senior Olivia Wallin joins UMD after three years at Penn State where she skated on the top line. She’s got great vision, is stellar at dishing the puck and not afraid to pick her spot. The WCHA is very different from the CHA and it will be interesting to see how she adapts to the speed, style and physicality, but there’s an opportunity for her to really stand out and become a leader on the Bulldog offense.
What to Watch For
Four of the Bulldogs’ top five scorers are no longer on the roster, but this is a team that has always shown scoring depth and an ability to get scoring from all over the ice. Some of their highest scorers are regularly defenders as this is a team that’s very good at moving up and down the ice as a unit, getting the blue liners involved and finding their passing lanes so that defenders are often setting their counterparts up perfectly on the way to the net.
The Bulldogs continue to consistently good by playing a really successful team game where you might have a standout player or two, but there isn’t one single focus. That makes turnover far less impactful here and gives new players a chance to slot in without so much pressure. They play a strong, smothering defense and are smart about the transitions they push and opportunities they pounce on. Their defense is particularly big this season and I expect to see them frustrating opponents with poke checks and by covering more ice.
Crystal Ball
I talked myself in circles trying to find a reason to pick Minnesota or Minnesota Duluth before the other, so in the end I’m putting them both third. The Bulldogs’ success is probably pretty tied to how well Ève Gascon adapts to the college game.
Minnesota State
Last Season
15-20-1, 9-18-1 (sixth). Lost to Wisconsin in the WCHA quarterfinals.
Names to know
Lauren Barbro took about half the starts in net last season, but the Mavericks also brought in Suzette Faucher, who was the 2020-21 NEWHA Goalie of the Year with Franklin Pierce, saving at least 30 shots in 18 games, including a career high 57 against Penn State. She brings poise, patience and athleticism to Mankato and could be a really interesting option for MSU in net. With four goalies on the roster, I’m guessing the team will try out different combinations to start the season, but a safe bet says they’ll settle on some combination of Barbro and Faucher.
Senior Madison Mashuga led the team with 10 goals last season. She hasn’t gotten near as much attention as some of her teammates over the past few years, but she’s proved really adept at being in the right place at the right time, picking her spots and being unafraid to put the puck on net. Mankato needs even more of that from her this year and I think she has what it takes to take on a bigger role leading the offense.
What to Watch For
After setting a program record for wins two seasons ago, the Mavericks weren’t able to push any further last year and equaled their win total. The hardest part of the WCHA for a team in the middle is how difficult it is to move out of that spot. When the team picked as fourth best in your conference is ranked 8th in the country and the 5th best team is ranked 13th nationally, it can seem a mighty big hill to climb. This season they need to focus on getting sweeps in the series they can win and look for opportunities to push back on and grab points from the teams ahead of them. They did a lot of work to get to this point and now signs of progress are going to be much smaller and harder to find. They need to keep up the confidence and find ways to steal some games from those top teams.
Last season the Mavericks were receiving votes in the polls in the opening month after logging three straight one-goal losses to Ohio State and Minnesota Duluth. They face off with Wisconsin, UMD and Minnesota in the opening weeks of the season again this year and it would be awesome to see them close that gap even more. Can they snatch some important early conference points?
Crystal Ball
I have Mankato finishing seventh
Ohio State
Last Season
33-6-2, 23-4-1 (first). Lost to Wisconsin in the National Championship game.
Names to know
The Buckeyes’ transfer-in list is the stuff coaches dream of, with two-time Olympian Cayla Barnes and two-time World Championship forward Hannah Bilka from BC, former National Rookie of the Year and two-time CHA Player of the Year Kiara Zanon from Penn State, national team pool player Kelsey King from Minnesota State, Quinnipiac’s leading scorer Olivia Mobley and Clarkson’s leading blocker and Canada national team pool player Stephanie Markowski. Barnes may prove to be the most valuable. She is a very different player than 2023 Patty Kazmaier Award winner Sophie Jaques, but she can fill a similar role in terms of stepping into offensive play while not giving up ground on defense.
Freshman Joy Dunne is a 5’11” forward that absolutely dominates the space she occupies on the ice. She is quick and deceptive for her size and is unafraid to unleash her massive shot from anywhere on the ice. She was the USA team captain at the last U18 Women’s World Championships and handled herself incredibly well in front of a lot of attention as the team lost their first-ever semifinal game at the tournament. She was instrumental in keeping her team together to rally for the bronze and stepped up big time behind the scenes. She’s a leader on and off the ice and I’m excited to get to watch her play regularly.
What to Watch For
What’s there to say about a team that was national runner up and went out and added several national team players/Olympians and weapons from across the country through the transfer portal and a couple of impressive rookies to boot. However, that’s a lot of different players (and some pretty big personalities) that need to come together and get comfortable in new roles.
Last year’s class graduating felt like the end of an era for this team – the last members of the group of players that signed on when OSU wasn’t a national powerhouse and who helped bring the program to prominence. I think it will be interesting to see how the team mindset shifts a little as the next generation write their part of the story. With the shift in the transfer portal, we’ve seen the impact a player can make in a year or two and I don’t mean to imply that the incoming players aren’t important or aren’t a part of the legacy, but I also think it’s important for some of the younger players to get dug in and start creating not just what the team looks like and accomplishes this season, but what they can build on for the next few years.
Crystal Ball
Wisconsin proved to be better in the last game of last season, so for the moment Ohio State is second. I’ll be watching to see how they gel, how players adjust to different roles and how they replace that dynamic two-way play of Sophie Jaques.
St. Cloud State
Last Season
18-18-1, 11-16-1 (fifth). Lost to Minnesota Duluth in the WCHA quarterfinals.
Names to know
Klára Hymlárová is a dynamic two-way forward that proved incredibly deadly on special teams. She’s as effective a defender as scoring threat on special teams, blocking shots and quarterbacking the power play, scoring eight extra-attacker goals. She led the Huskies with 17 goals.
Jojo Chobak and Sanni Ahola have proven to be one of the most adept and effective goalie tandems in the country, combining for a .923 save percentage and a 2.48 goals against average. Chobak’s shutout of Wisconsin in their Fill the Bowl game last season was one of the best goalie games of the season.
What to Watch For
We named Brian Idalski our Coach of the Year last year for good reason. He took over the reins in St. Cloud just before the season started with a roster he didn’t recruit and barely had time with before play started and nearly tripled the number of conference wins and doubled the number of wins overall. They earned at least a point from every other team in the conference – something they’d not done since 2010. They tied the program high in wins that hadn’t been touched since 2008 and had the second-most conference wins in a season. He used the transfer portal over the offseason to fill in some of the gaps he felt the roster had and the team returns most of the pieces from last season that helped turn the program around. The result should be another dangerous team that can upset the top four in the conference and push for an NCAA tournament bid.
Their schedule is pretty back-loaded, which means they have time to build for some of the toughest matchups and also means they must take advantage and not drop any early conference points.
Crystal Ball
I both think the Huskies are going to be massively improved this season and am not sure how to put them any higher than fifth. The top half of the conference is tough to crack and the key for SCSU will be stringing together wins after pulling off big upsets last season.
St. Thomas
Last Season
8-27-1, 3-24-1 (seventh). Lost to Minnesota in the WCHA quarterfinals.
Names to know
They had two very solid and experienced goaltenders in Saskia Maurer and Alexa Dobchuk, who graduated so Joel Johnson went out and added Calla Frank and Olivia King through the portal. Both played within the WCHA before, though Frank has more experience with the volume of shots St. Thomas’ net is likely to see. I like the move of bringing in goalies with experience, but wonder if that locks Maggie Malecha out all together, which would leave the team in this same position next year, as both Frank and King are grad students.
What to Watch For
The Tommies won a few more non-conference games last season, but weren’t able to accomplish much more in conference games. It’s clear this program is still growing and they definitely continue to make moves in the right direction through recruiting and the transfer portal. There’s potential here, but they still need time and much like I said above, it’s just an incredibly difficult conference to try and get a foothold in and make any moves. The ceiling is probably sixth at best, so it’s how they find motivation and confidence in that narrow window that will be important here, especially since they play the top four teams in the conference one after another in October and early November.
There are a total of 12 new players on this roster – nine freshmen and three transfers. The learning curve is going to be steep for this squad.
Crystal Ball
The incoming players for St. Thomas are incredibly intriguing and I think there’s potential for this team to be better than people expect, but as with St. Cloud, the hill to climb is absolutely massive. An improved season for them might not actually show any change in the final standings. I have them sixth.
Wisconsin
Last Season
29-10-2, 19-7-2 (third). Won their sixth National Championship.
Names to know
KK Harvey lived up and then exceeded her own hype this season. She scored the game-winner in the national semifinal and assisted on the game-winner in the national championship game. She was our co-Rookie of the Year and Wisconsin’s first rookie All-American in more than 20 years. She went on to have a breakout tournament with Team USA at the 2023 Women’s World Championships, leading all scorers with 14 points, the first defender to do so in IIHF Women’s Worlds history. She’s just a sophomore, but will look to bring that wealth of experience back and keep providing what feels like effortless shut down defense while stepping up in the offensive play and showing off the kind of skating most of us can only dream of.
Rookie defender Ava Murphy is similarly dynamic, with a wicked shot from distance, great instincts from the blue line and the ability to close quickly on defense. She’s incredibly poised and solid on defense with a solid eye for picking out where to place a pass in transition.
What to Watch For
Last season’s rookies made a massive impact and this year’s incoming class look poised to do the same. In addition to the two blueliners above, the Badgers added transfer Anna Wilgren on defense and get Chayla Edwards back for one more season. Like last season, they are in want of a starting goaltender, but 6’0” rookie Ava McNaughton is certainly going to push Jane Gervais and Chloe Baker for playing time. However, with the defense Wisconsin is putting on the ice, goaltending seems far less of a worry.
This team pulled off a bit of a shocker last season, winning their 7th National Championship after losing 10 games for the first time in a decade. They were scrappy and resilient and still came out on top, which is going to give them even more confidence than a team of this caliber normally has at the beginning of the season. They know what they’re made of and that they can fight back. This is a very young, very talented team that has nothing but confidence in themselves and each other, but the humility to know it’s never that simple.
They end the season at home against Minnesota and then Ohio State in late February. If the conference is as close as we all anticipate, those games will have massive implications in the conference title, tournament and national rankings.
Crystal Ball
The defending national champions get the benefit of the doubt for the preseason number one. As with last season, they don’t have a true starter in net to start, but they should be an offensive powerhouse and this year they have the bonus of having one of the most interesting bluelines in the country.
