NCAA 2024-25 Preview: ECAC Hockey

We’ve all heard of the WCHA’s prowess by now in women’s hockey circles. However, there’s another conference you should become equally as familiar with, at least when it comes to their top six teams. 

The Eastern College Athletic Conference – ECAC for short – has produced some serious contenders for national tournament appearances in recent years, including Colgate and Clarkson, with other teams like St. Lawrence and Cornell gearing up for lengthier runs. Princeton, Yale, and Quinnipiac have also made their marks with some excellent individual talent. As a result, some of the top names in this year’s PWHL draft have come out of the ECAC, including top pick Sarah Fillier, Worlds golden girl Danielle Serdachny, and Patty Kazmaier winner Izzy Daniel. Let’s take a look at what we can expect from the conference this year.

Preseason Rankings:

1. Clarkson
2. Colgate
3. Cornell
4. St. Lawrence
5. Quinnipiac
6. Yale
7. Princeton
8. Brown
9. RPI
10. Harvard
11. Dartmouth
12. Union

Clarkson 

Last Season: 18-3-1 ECAC, 33-5-2 overall; lost in Frozen Four semis to Ohio State 4-1

The Golden Knights were in top mid-2010s form with another Frozen Four appearance and a regular season record with just one fewer regulation loss in-conference than Colgate’s, good for a No. 1 ranking in the preseason poll. True, they didn’t get as far as they hoped to, instead losing to eventual champions Ohio State in a 4-1 score that doesn’t reflect how close it really was until the third period. Still, it was an effort that reminded a lot of people just how strong ECAC Hockey is becoming, and the pedigree the Knights boast is proof. 

The big question will be if they can maintain or top last year’s performance. The good news is that three of their top five scorers – Nicole Gosling, Haley Winn, and Anne Cherkowski – are all back for another season, meaning we can expect a great amount of scoring from the back end. Winn in particular is coming off of a strong showing at Worlds for Team USA, which doubtlessly played into her unanimous All-ECAC preseason nod from USCHO and should add a nice jolt of confidence heading into her fourth year with the Golden Knights.

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Darcie Lappan (in the SDHL with MoDo) and Dominique Petrie (recently drafted by the Minnesota Frost) have moved on, but the Knights picked up a depth scorer in Caroline Goffredo from Boston College and have a good number of returners (Keira Hurry, Sena Catterall) mixed in with a hungry young crop (Hayley Kelleher, Raedyn Spademan). 

In net, meanwhile, Michelle Pasiechnyk’s skates are going to prove tough to fill. The 2024 Goalie of the Year has been a stalwart for so long that it’ll be strange to see anyone else taking the reins – but Alexa Madrid and Julia Minotti are in a decent enough position with the blueline corps in front of them. 

Colgate Raiders

Last Season: 18-4-0 ECAC, 32-7-1 overall; lost in Frozen Four semis to Wisconsin 3-1

The other major powerhouse in this conference, the Colgate Raiders have been ECAC darlings for a while with captain Danielle Serdachny and head coach Greg Fargo at the helm. As a result, they have enjoyed four straight tournament appearances, plus their second Frozen Four appearance in six years just this past season.

Now, with Serdachny off to Ottawa and Fargo behind the bench for the New York Sirens, the focus is on who’s left – not that the current roster is anything to sneeze at. Kristýna Kaltounková, one of the NCAA’s leading scorers last year, is back for her fifth year of eligibility. It’s safe to say Kalty will pick up right where she’s left off – with incredible special teams skills and dynamic scoring ability, plus a physical edge (that said, she could do well to rein that in a bit). 

Neena Brick, Emma Pais, and Elyssa Biederman provided some great secondary scoring last year, and will look to do that again in 2024-25. Sydney Morrow, meanwhile, is a loss to the WCHA, having transferred to the University of Minnesota – but the Raiders also scored a good one out of NEWHA, with junior Alexis Petford joining them from Stonehill where she led in goals, assists, and points during each of her first two seasons played. 

In net is senior Hannah Murphy, who is looking for a stellar follow-up to what was statistically her best season to date in 2023-24 (1.22 GAA, .946%, 6 SO). Behind her, Averill McCorkle (10 GP) doesn’t have a ton of experience, but likely won’t need a lot to back up Murphy. 

The biggest amount of movement looks to be on the blueline. Ally Simpson and Sydney Bard have graduated and are trying their hands at PWHL roster spots, so it’s down to Gwen Eichfeld and Ava Svejkovsky as a couple of the most tenured defenders on the roster. One thing’s true for the Raiders’ blueline: it’s got an upside where size is concerned. If new bench boss Stefan Decosse and his assistants can get the Raiders off to a good start, which shouldn’t be difficult outside of potentially the matchup with Minnesota Duluth at the beginning of October, they should be in a great spot to repeat for the conference. 

Cornell

Last Season: 17-5-0 ECAC, 25-8-1 overall; lost in NCAA second round to Colgate 3-1

The Big Red landed in the top 3 in the preseason rankings on the strength of not just their top scorer, Izzy Daniel, but one of the stingiest bluelines in the conference (1.9 goals against per game, second only to the top two on the poll who were tied at 1.3). A well-rounded team, they were able to make it to a tournament for the first time in five years, which bodes well for their future.

With Daniel now headed off to Toronto, the rest of the squad will have to make up for her production – and to be frank, they’re in a better position than the other team that’s lost a major part of their offensive output (more on Princeton in a moment). Lily Delianedis, Kaitlin Jockims, and Karel Prefontaine are all returning off 20-30 point seasons, and much of the rest of the Big Red’s depth scoring is intact, meaning while they likely won’t be pulling double-digit wins, they’re healthy enough on the front end of things to get the wins they need. 

In net, they’ve retained Annelies Bergmann, now a sophomore who played big numbers over the course of her first 29 college games – and on the blueline, Grace Dwyer and Rory Guilday are holding down the fort. Simply put, I think Cornell will remain the strongest Ivy in this conference. 

St. Lawrence Saints 

Last Season: 18-4-0 ECAC, 28-11-0 overall; lost NCAA second round to Wisconsin 4-0

The Saints couldn’t quite get past the humps that were Colgate and Clarkson, but they had a strong season that ended with USCHO Coach of the Year honors for bench boss Chris Wells and their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2017. Their in-conference record actually matched Colgate's beat-for-beat, which is highly impressive. They were also fun to watch, with good special teams and a strong netminder in Emma-Sofie Nordström. All of that was good for a No. 4 ranking on the preseason poll. 

Now, the name of the game is to build off of what was by all accounts a successful season. The Saints are doing it with a couple of names missing, mainly Julia Gosling and Mae Batherson, but with Abby Hustler and Sarah Marchand entering their senior seasons, I think they’ll be in a good position. 

The Saints’ schedule has been mostly against the Ivies and the major ECAC players, but interestingly, they also have a couple of matchups against Ohio State, same as last year. Their strength of schedule is really intriguing to me, especially out-of-conference as it looks like they're doing as much as possible to play different teams (which I am begging for more of, please, from all of these schools! Parity is important!), but that's a topic for a different piece.

Quinnipiac

Last Season: 13-9-0 ECAC, 25-11-1 overall; did not make NCAA tournament

The Bobcats were strong in the first half of the year, but struggled in some key matchups, including against Colgate, St. Lawrence, and Cornell. The latter of that group swept them in the ECAC quarters by scores of 3-2 (OT) and 5-0, so it’s not a shock that they ended up a little further down in the preseason rankings than their regular season conference record would suggest. 

Fifth years Kendall Cooper, Maddy Samoskevich, and Sophie Urban are heading the lineup this season, flanked by a host of upperclassmen and grad students electing for a fifth year. It’s Kahlen Lamarche who intrigues me, though, as she was in the top three in scoring as a freshman and will likely look to top that effort in her sophomore campaign. It does look as though roughly half of their double-digit goal scorers have since moved on from the program, so a big question will be whom amongst the rest will step up. In addition is a question of who takes over in goal, as Logan Angers has since been signed by the Ottawa Charge. Tatum Blacker is technically the incumbent, but she’s played all of one game her entire college career (it was a win, though!) and graduate transfer Kaley Doyle has some decent stats behind her from her time at Brown, so we’ll see. 

Yale

Last Season: 12-9-1 ECAC, 17-14-1 overall; did not make NCAA tournament

Man, the Bulldogs really had their moment in 2022-23, didn’t they? Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that sustainable, as despite a valiant effort they really didn’t have the scoring power (2 goals forced per game) nor the special teams prowess (just 12.2 percent efficiency on the power play) that they needed. 

Pia Dukarič was her usual stellar self in net, posting a .917% and 1.81 GAA over 30 starts, but aside from that bright spot, it wasn’t a lot going right for them, and they went from an impressive second in 2023 to sixth in 2024’s preseason rankings. Unfortunately, as of this writing, I really am not sure where they stand, as neither the schedule nor the roster have been updated from last season. Based on that roster and those stats, though, there’s a lot of youth to consider on this squad. We’ll see how that shakes out this year. 

Yale does have a new (yet familiar) face behind its bench; as of Tuesday, Laura Brennan has been tapped to provide assistant coach duties for the Bulldogs. Brennan is no stranger to coaching, as she assisted the PHF’s Connecticut Whale once her playing days were done, and then moved over to the PWHL last season to help out New York alongside then-head coach Howie Draper, as well as former Whale head coach Colton Orr. (Side note, the day one of these teams calls on Colton Orr again would be an excellent one, just saying.)

The Best of the Rest… kind of 

The rest of this conference is comprised mainly of the other Ivies, with Union and RPI also in the midst. 

Princeton is going to need a lot from its young offense after losing Sarah Fillier to graduation and, subsequently, the PWHL (at least we expect that, though she hasn’t yet been signed… New York, what are you doing?). The only one who even came close to Fillier’s goalscoring output last year was Sarah Paul, who could only manage 16 goals to Fillier’s 30, so they’ll need a huge collaborative effort. 

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Brown and RPI each had some strong games against the top teams in this conference, as well as bit of luck outside of the conference. Rensselaer in particular found some luck in the transfer portal this offseason, picking up a couple of graduate students in former Badgers defender Sophie Helgeson and Saint Anselm standout Natalie Tulchinsky. Meanwhile, Brown will look for another strong year from Jade Iginla, who was invited to her second stint on the Canadian national Development Team this past summer and will be one to watch as she gets closer to draft age. 

Harvard is still rebuilding, adding a new duo of assistant coaches – Joakim Flygh, who returns to Boston after a brief stint at Yale, and Boston Fleet netminder Cami Kronish, who unsurprisingly will take over the goalie coach duties. Kronish was a huge part of the Badgers’ NCAA championship win in 2023 and already has some experience under her belt coaching at NAHA. That said, the Crimson’s big issue was generating offense last year (just 1.3 goals forced per game) so a big part of their rebuild will have to include a good transition game and figuring out how to create some quality chances out of the 20-ish shots per game they generated.

Dartmouth has a new influx of freshmen including a stellar pair of netminders – Czech goalie Michaela Hesová out of Bishop Kearney, and Chinese goalie Jiahui (Grace) Zhan (who put up an incredible performance at this spring’s Worlds while touting arguably the heaviest workload of any goaltender in that tournament). Zhan has been one of my young goalies to watch ever since Worlds, and I’m excited to see what she can do to help out the Big Green. At the very least, she’ll be able to handle the onslaught of rubber coming her way, should she see ice time to start.

Union, meanwhile, came in second-last in the conference last year and as such is last in the preseason rankings. They’ve done decently against fellow bottom-six teams, though not spectacularly, and as is mostly the case with these lower teams, the issue is scoring as most of their losses were within three goals or less, proving they can stick with these teams – they just can’t really top them. This is another team with some coaching changes, but Emma Sullivan will have a rundown on just how many teams changed over behind the bench and I already feel like I stole some of her thunder earlier with Harvard, so I’ll keep it general. 

Let me just put it this way: for any of these lower six teams, it’ll prove to be a tall order to run – er, skate – with the other half. While there’s always a chance for an upset, I’m not expecting any of these guys to really give Clarkson or even Cornell a run for their money. 

Exhibition games for these teams start the weekend of Sept. 21, with games available to stream via ESPN+.