2016-17 WCHA WEEKLY RELEASE Week One (September 19-25, 2016) / Wcha.Com
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2016-17 WCHA WEEKLY RELEASE WEEK ONE (SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2016) / wcha.com @wcha_whockey @wcha_whockey /WCHAWomensHockey Matt Hodson ● o: 952-818-8872 ● c: 612-801-2808 ● [email protected] WESTERN COLLEGIATE OPENING FACE-OFF HOCKEY ASSOCIATION • Tradition Starts Here: The Women's League of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), home to a record 16 • FOUNDED 1999 • national championships (including 15 NCAA Frozen Four crowns), six Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winners, 86 All- Minnesota State Univ., Mankato at Edina Americans and countless Olympic, national team and professional players, drops the puck on its 18th season this weekend. 7700 France Avenue South, Suite 360C • Polling Place: Five (5) of the WCHA's eight teams earned recognition in the preseason USCHO poll, including three teams Edina, MN 55435 ranked in the top-10. Wisconsin is the nation's preseason No. 1, as the reigning WCHA regular season and playoff champions 952-818-8869 return six of their top seven scorers and record-setting goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. • Two-time defending NCAA champion Minnesota is No. 2, while perennial top-10 fixture North Dakota opens at No. 6. MEMBER TEAMS • Bemidji State, coming off a program-record 22 win campaign, and Minnesota Duluth, which upset the Beavers in the Bemidji State University 2016 WCHA Quarterfinals, are both receiving votes. University of Minnesota • Million Takes the Reigns: Katie Million, an experienced and visionary leader with a proven track record of accelerating University of Minnesota Duluth exposure, partnerships and revenue, was named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Vice President and Minnesota State University Women’s League Commissioner on July 21, 2016. Million joins the WCHA after a highly-successful 17-year stint with the New University of North Dakota York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) in Lake Placid, including the last three years as the organization’s Ohio State University director of events. St. Cloud State University • Rare League Opener: St. Cloud State hosts Wisconsin this weekend in the season- and league-opening series. The last time University of Wisconsin there was a WCHA series on the opening weekend of the season was 2012-13, when the Badgers visited Minnesota State. 16 National Championships BY THE NUMBERS 86 All-Americans • 0.76, .960 and 21: NCAA single-season records for goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts set in 2015-16 by 100+ Olympians and remarkable Wisconsin goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, who was named the USCHO National Player of the Year following her National Team Members brilliant junior campaign. • 4: Returning WCHA All-Americans, of the six the league had in 2015-16: First Team members Desbiens, and Second Team selections Dani Cameranesi (Sr., F, Minnesota), Annie Pankowski (Jr., F, Wisconsin) and Lee Stecklein (Sr., D, Minnesota). A 2016-17 IMPORTANT DATES fifth player, Bemidji State senior goaltender Brittni Mowat, was a First Team All-American in 2014-15. • 5: Straight seasons that WCHA teams have ranked 1-4 nationally in attendance. Last season, Minnesota drew 42,501 (2,125 Date Event per game) to Ridder Arena, Wisconsin welcomed 42,398 (2,019) to LaBahn Arena (including a program-record 12 sellouts), Sept. 23-25 Regular Season begins Minnesota Duluth greeted 21,293 fans (1,331) at AMSOIL Arena and North Dakota hosted 16,143 (1,009) at the Ralph Oct. 7-9 First weekend of four (4) Engelstad Arena. WCHA league series • 8: Of the 10 WCHA players who ranked in the top-25 nationally for scoring in 2015-16 return in 2016-17: Cameranesi (fifth Dec. 19-Jan. 5 Holiday Break at 1.70 points per game), Pankowski (seventh at 1.45), Minnesota sophomore (and 2016 National Rookie of the Year) Sarah Jan. 6-8 Play resumes; U.S. Hockey Potomak (eighth at 1.42), Minnesota Duluth senior Ashleigh Brykaliuk (10th at 1.27), UMN junior Kelly Pannek (15th at 1.23), UMD senior Lara Stalder (16th at 1.21), Wisconsin junior Emily Clark (18th at 1.18) and North Dakota senior Amy Menke Hall of Fame Game (22nd at 1.14). Feb. 17-19 Final weekend of the • 11: 2016 National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) Draft picks on WCHA rosters in 2016-17 - more than half of the 20 overall regular season selections: Stecklein (BUF), Cameranesi (CON), Desbiens (BOS), Wisconsin's Sarah Nurse (BOS), UW's Jenny Ryan (NYR), UW's Feb. 24-26 2017 WCHA Quarterfinals Mellissa Channell (CON), Brykaliuk (BOS), UW's Sydney McKibbon (NYR), North Dakota's Halli Krzyzaniak (BOS), Menke and Host sites; top four seeds Stalder. March 4-5 2017 WCHA Final Face-Off • 395: Career wins for Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson, who enters the 2016-17 season (his 14th behind the bench) third Ridder Arena all-time among Division I women's coaches. Only two others have reached the 400-win plateau at the D-I level (Harvard's Minneapolis, MN Katey Stone with 446 and Mercyhurst's Michael Sisti with 429). March 10-12 2017 NCAA Quarterfinals HE EEK HEAD Host sites; top four seeds T W A • No. 1 Wisconsin at St. Cloud State: The Badgers and Huskies open the 2016-17 campaign with a WCHA league series this March 17-19 2017 NCAA Frozen Four weekend. St. Cloud State's 13 victories in 2015-16 under Eric Rud (now entering his third year) were the Huskies' most since Family Arena the 2009-10 campaign. Wisconsin, the nation's preseason No. 1, opens its quest to repeat as WCHA regular season champs. St. Charles, MO • Whitecaps Exhibitions: Minnesota (Friday night) and Minnesota Duluth (Saturday) will host exhibitions with the Minnesota Whitecaps, a professional team that features 20 former WCHA players. THIS WEEK IN THE WCHA FINAL 2015-16 WCHA STANDINGS Friday, Sept. 23 Conference Overall No. 1 Wisconsin at St. Cloud State, 6:07 p.m. CT* Rk (Natl Rank) Team Pts GP W L T SW % GF GA GP W L T % GF GA Minnesota Whitecaps at No. 2 Minnesota^, 1 (3/3) Wisconsin 74 28 24 3 1 1 .875 100 22 40 35 4 1 .888 154 29 6:07 p.m. CT 2 (1/1) Minnesota 73 28 24 3 1 0 .875 139 39 40 35 4 1 .888 187 51 3 (10/9) Bemidji State 54 28 17 9 2 1 .643 56 51 36 22 11 3 .653 77 68 Saturday, Sept. 24 4 (9/10) North Dakota 47 28 13 10 5 3 .554 54 49 35 18 12 5 .586 79 62 No. 1 Wisconsin at St. Cloud State, 3:07 p.m. CT* Minnesota Whitecaps at Minnesota Duluth^, 5 St. Cloud State 34 28 9 15 4 3 .393 44 88 35 13 18 4 .429 63 115 4:07 p.m. CT 6 Minnesota Duluth 31 28 10 17 1 0 .375 67 84 37 15 21 1 .419 90 109 7 Ohio State 20 28 6 21 1 1 .232 58 110 36 10 25 1 .292 80 134 * - WCHA game 8 Minnesota State 3 28 0 25 3 0 .054 41 116 36 3 29 4 .139 55 137 ^ - exhibition game (shootout win = 1 additional point; rankings listed by USCHO.com first, followed by USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine) HOME TO A RECORD 16 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 •2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2015 • 2016 TRADITION STARTS HERE 2016-17 WCHA COACHES' POLL #WCHA WISCONSIN TABBED AS PRESEASON FAVORITE BY TRADITION STARTS HERE WCHA COACHES With 16 national championship in its 17 years of existence - including 15 of a possible Defending league regular season and back-to-back playoff champion Wisconsin 16 NCAA crowns - along with six Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Winners, 86 All- is the preseason pick of conference coaches to finish atop the women’s Western Americans, hundreds of Olympic and international team members, and countless women inspired, the WCHA has become the nation's premier college hockey Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) standings in 2016-17. The Badgers edged conference. out defending national champion Minnesota in the poll of the eight WCHA head coaches. Wisconsin ended Minnesota’s three-year reign atop the WCHA standings last season with the fifth regular season crown in program history, and league NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, coaches believe Mark Johnson’s team will repeat in 2016-17. The Badgers, who advanced to the Frozen Four last year and won 35 games – the fourth-most in 2000-2016 school annals – collected six first-place votes and 48 points overall. The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Women's Minnesota is coming off a campaign which saw the Golden Gophers win their League began play in the 1999-2000 season, before the fourth national championship in five seasons, the seventh in school history and sport was officially sanctioned by the NCAA. At the end of the 16th in 17 seasons for the WCHA. The Gophers placed second in the coaches’ that season, competing under the United States Olympic poll with 44 points and two first-place votes. Committee-financed American Women's College Hockey A pair of 2016 Final Face-Off participants, North Dakota (36 points) and Alliance (AWCHA), Minnesota won its first of a record seven Minnesota Duluth (30) finished third and fourth, respectively. national championships. Beginning with the inaugural National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey championship at the close of Bemidji State, which set a program record with 22 wins last year, was selected to finish in fifth place with 27 points. St. Cloud State (16 points), coming off its best the 2000-01 campaign, teams representing the WCHA have campaign since 2009-10, was tabbed for sixth.