The national landscape of NCAA women's hockey remains centered in the WCHA, but the rest of the nation is looking to make moves, and on the first full season of competition, there were standouts among non-WCHA programs.
The NCAA women's hockey season is now in full swing with teams from every conference in action this weekend.
Epic Contest Between Penn State And Ohio State Show's National Landscape Changing
Penn State lost more players than any other NCAA team to the PWHL at the 2026 Draft with seven players, including captain Tessa Janecke, starting goalie Katie DeSa, defenders Leah Stecker and Kendall Butze, and forwards Maddy Christian, Katelyn Roberts, and Mya Vaslet. Penn State head coach Jeff Kampersal expected his team to have some growing pains before hitting their stride in time for their Atlantic Hockey America opening series next week against Robert Morris, but the Nittany Lions looked like they were ready from puck drop against Ohio State.
Ohio State entered as the preseason WCHA favorite based on a coaches poll, and were ranked second nationally, while Penn State entered their season as the fifth ranked team in the nation. In their opening game, Penn State and Ohio State fought to a 2-1 Ohio State overtime win. Kaia Malachino opened the scoring for the Buckeyes before Grace Outwater scored to tie the game in the third. Buckeyes senior Joy Dunne, who many see as an early Patty Kazmaier favorite, scored the overtime winner. It was a spectacular start in net for Penn State rookie Morgan Stickney who made 44 saves in the loss.
In the second game of their series, Penn State got on the board first with Outwater opening the scoring, but the Buckeyes fought back with goals from Hilda Svensson and transfer Rylee Bartz recording her first with the program to give OSU a 2-1 lead, which they would hold onto for a second consecutive one-goal win. With Penn State looking young, there's real potential for the Nittany Lions to this season upset the national landscape and knock off a ranked WCHA team in the Frozen Four.
Wisconsin Wins But Loses McNaughton
There were question marks for the reigning back-to-back national champion Wisconsin Badgers. After falling behind 2-0 in their opener, Wisconsin fought back to score six unanswered and beat St. Lawrence 6-2.
While that was the result, the bigger story was Wisconsin watching Olympic gold medal winning netminder Ava McNaughton forced from the game with an apparent lower body injury midway through the second period with the game tied 2-2. Sophomore Rhyah Stewart stepped in and made 11 saves in more than 33 minutes of action to earn the win, but the loss of McNaughton, a former NCAA Goaltender of the Year, could be significant for the Badgers.
Team USA is also preparing for the 2026 World Championships which get underway November 6 in Denmark, and which will see the United States play Canada in a two-game series on October 28 and October 30.
Standout Rookies Make Their Mark
Across the NCAA women's hockey games that were scheduled in the opening week, several of the nation's top recruits got on the board. Rosalie Tremblay, considered one of the top recruits in the nation after starring for Canada's national development team and U-18 national team, and being named Canadian U-18 national championship MVP scored a goal and an assist in her NCAA debut with Wisconsin.
In her first game in the Penn State crease, rookie netminder Morgan Stickney stopped 44 shots in a 2-1 overtime loss to Ohio State. Other rookie netminders including Rowan Houweling, who made 11 stops in a 2-1 win over Penn State for Ohio State in the second game of their series, and Providence College's Bianca Birrittieri who made 16 saves in her debut win over Sacred Heart.
Birrittieri's efforts were bolstered by fellow Providence rookie Grace Van Volsen who scored a pair in her first ever NCAA game.
Defender Kenleigh Fischer, who played for USA's U-18 gold medal winning national team had a goal and two assists in her NCAA debut for St. Thomas.
For Clarkson, the rookie impact was significant with Kennedy Sisson and Ciara Lang both scoring a goal and an assist, while Layla Matthew scored twice in her debut for the Golden Knights as they beat RIT 6-3.
Chelsea Tiller, a former Canadian U-18 defender also scored in her debut on Friday for UConn as they fell to St. Cloud State. Russian defender Anna Sviridova had two assists for St. Cloud in her debut.
