Staturday: CWHL season wrap-up

The CWHL playoffs are about to begin, so this week our focus will be on some of the enlightening numbers and trends from the 2016-17 CWHL regular season.

CWHL

  • Last year Les Canadiennes de Montreal had the top-four scorers in the CWHL. This year they had three of the top-five scorers. Montreal’s Marie Philip-Poulin and Brampton’ Jess Jones both finished the season with 37 points, but Poulin hit her mark in one less game than Jones.
  • Jones had the most power play points in the league this year (12). She quadrupled her power play production from the 2015-16 season. Jones also eclipsed her point production from last season by 13 points./
  • Calgary’s Jacquie Pierri led the league with 48 PIM this year. Pierri’s penalty minute count is the most since Kelsey Webster’s 48 PIM in the 2013-14 season, but Pierri hit her mark in one less game.
  • Last year 13 different players in the CWHL scored shorthanded goals for a total of 17 shorties. This season nine different players scored shorthanded goals for a total of 14 goals on the PK. Montreal’s Ann-Sophie Bettez led the league this year with three goals scored while her team was a man down.
  • Blades’ rookies Kate Leary and Meghan Grieves combined for 15 goals this year. The entire Boston Blades team scored just 17 goals last season. Leary finished 11th in the CWHL in goal scoring with her 10 goals, last year Boston’s top goal scorer, Megan Myers, finished tied for 28th in goals. Leary also finished tied for third in the CWHL in power play goals (4).
  • The Blades were the only CWHL team to not record a shutout this season.
  • The Calgary Inferno were the only team to have three different goalies post a shutout this season.
  • Last year Christina Kessler posted a .902 sv% and a 3.34 GAA with the Furies. This season she posted a .920 sv% and a 2.20 GAA. It’s safe to say that Toronto’s improved blue line was key to their better play this year.
  • Bettez and Inferno captain Brianne Jenner shared the league lead in primary assists this season. Jenner picked up 11 of her 12 primary assists at even strength, Bettez picked up four of her 12 on the power play. /

NWHL

  • Amanda Kessel leads the NWHL in primary assists on the power play and is tied with Buffalo’s Corrine Buie in total power play points. /
  • Alex Carpenter needs 10 points in her next four games to match Hilary Knight’s high-water mark of 33 points from the 2015-16 season. The Pride play the Riveters twice and the Whale and Beauts one before the close of their 17-game regular season.
  • In her first game with the Whale former Pride forward Zoe Hickel scored a goal on her first shift and on her first shot. She finished her debut with two goals and six shots./

NCAA Division I

  • Since the beginning of the New Year Clarkson’s Cayley Mercer leads the nation in goals (14) and points (25). Mercer also leads the nation in shots per game (6.25) since January 1st.
  • Wisconsin’s Annie Pankowski leads women’s college hockey in insurance goals. She has scored 15 of her 20 goals this year while the Badgers have had the lead.
  • Swiss national team player and UMD Bulldog Lara Stalder has 25 points in 15 games this season played on weekdays and 25 points in 16 games played on Saturdays and Sundays. No player has more points during the work week than Stalder.
  • UNH forward Jonna Curtis has already eclipsed her point total from her junior year. She has 39 points this season with New Hampshire in 32 games, last year she had 32 points in 36 games. She’s one of just ten women in the nation with 20 or more goals in the 2016-17 season./
  • Ann-Renée Desbiens has 23 victories this season and 13 of those have been shutouts. She is the only goaltender in the nation to have one loss while playing in at least 15 games this year./