These largely out-of-conference early weekends are basically confusing and brilliant and #sports, and this weekend was no exception. Our top two teams, House of Seven Gabels and Mokas Gals, stay on top, but some managers have risen by up to eight places, and Grant Salzano other managers have gone down by as much as nine. All the standings are on the Summary tab of the results spreadsheet, and all the current rosters are on the Teams tab. As last week, the best way to find your own roster is probably to click on your team’s name on the Summary tab, then click on the little thing that pops up when you do that.

Remember — there’s actually one game left this week before the trade deadline: BC is playing St. Lawrence on Thursday. So the final standings for this week may change. (BC is also playing St. Lawrence on Friday, right after the trade deadline, which will be an interesting test for how quickly I can turn around end-of-week spreadsheet updates).

What happened this weekend?

Northeastern pounded BU 5-0, before having to come from two goals down to hold a 3-3 tie. Minnesota topped Minnesota-Duluth 5-2, before having to come from two goals down to hold a 2-2 tie. (In the WCHA, tie games go to a shootout for an extra point that counts for conference but not national rankings; if you guessed that the shootout was won by the team with Maddie Rooney in net, well done you).

Wisconsin beat Mercyhurst 6-1, before beating them again (but not quite so hard) 5-3. Clarkson emerged victorious over Robert Morris 4-2 in the first game before letting a 3-0 lead turn into a 4-3 victory in the second game. Ohio State and Colgate split a highly anticipated matchup, with the first game going 4-3 OSU and the second going 5-2 Colgate. Boston College pounded Syracuse 5-1 (I was at that game, and the creativity on the power play was delightful) and then ... well, and then did nothing because they only had one game this weekend.

Outside the top tier, Providence beat Bemidji 4-1 and then came back from 3-0 down to win the second game 4-3, the year’s best comeback to date. Maine beat Quinnipiac twice: once in overtime, once comfortably. Holy Cross got a tie against RPI, Lindenwood and Union split, and New Hampshire and St. Lawrence had two low-scoring overtime games with the first staying a tie and the second going to the Saints. Connecticut turned a 2-2 game into a 4-2 victory over Vermont in the dying minutes. And in two of the most interesting matchups, Colgate’s one-game-out-of-two conquerors Penn State, with nine players more on their bench than last weekend, struggled to find a rhythm against Merrimack and came away with a 1-1 tie and a 2-1 loss; while St. Cloud led RIT 6-2 after the first period, which was a school record for first period goals, and ended up with a 7-3 and a 3-2 victory, which to be honest is like five times as many goals as I’d expected St. Cloud’s elite-on-paper goalies to allow against RIT (the “I” stands for “In the other team’s goal? No it usually isn’t”), though you still have to respect scoring that many goals at the other end.

Related

SB Nation’s Women’s College Hockey Division I Poll: Tiered Titans

Weekly awards

Here are the Weekly Awards!

• Most points: Ella Shelton (Clarkson, 4.8 points this week (WP), 10.6 points this season (SP)), from Mekenzie Steffen (4.8 WP) and Julia Tylke (4.7 WP)
• Most overlooked (highest-scoring player that no one picked): Kendall Cornine (RIT, 4.2 WP, 6.6 SP)
• Biggest boost (highest-scoring player that only one manager picked): Julia Tylke (St. Cloud, 4.7 WP, 6.8 SP)
• Biggest contribution (highest value of points this week * number of teams they’re on): Loren Gabel (Clarkson, 3.3 points * 16 picks = 52.8 total contribution)
• Best Freshman: Jenniina Nylund (St Cloud, 4.1 WP, 4.3 SP)
• Best Sophomore: Maureen Murphy (Providence, 4.2 WP, 4.2 SP)
• Best Junior: Ella Shelton (Clarkson, 4.8 WP, 10.6 SP)
• Best Senior: Julia Tylke (St Cloud, 4.7 WP, 6.8 SP)
• Best D: Ella Shelton (Clarkson, 4.8 WP, 10.6 SP)
• Best F: Julia Tylke (St Cloud, 4.7 WP, 6.8 SP)
• Best Goalie: Kassidy Sauvé (Clarkson, 4.5 WP, 7.65 SP)/

As the saying goes, a complete and bloody massacre of RIT lifts all boats, and so it’s no surprise to see two St. Cloud players on this list. Maybe more of a surprise is to see Kendall Cornine of RIT on the awards list as well; turns out that she’s had points in every one of RIT’s four games to date and figured in four of RIT’s five goals over the weekend. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see her again for a while as RIT have next weekend off; meanwhile, St. Cloud’s goalies will probably need to up their game for next weekend’s series against Minnesota.

Up in the stratosphere, Ella Shelton kept her belt on and leads the national scoring for the second week running, though at a slightly reduced pace compared to last week, and has pushed her cost up from $43.20 at the start of the season to $49.60 today. Clarkson are off next week, but then play St. Lawrence, Syracuse, Union, and RPI, so there’s no real reason to expect Shelton to slow down. I should note that Shelton’s lead is an artifact of the way the sheet works — her 4.8 points are in fact equal to Wisconsin’s also-junior also-D Mekenzie Steffen, who should really share this award, and Wisconsin have the opposite of next weekend off as they take on Minnesota-Duluth.

Maureen Murphy’s 4.2 points in two games for Providence satisfyingly advance the rivalry narrative between her and Natalie Snodgrass (4.6 points for UConn in three games) that perhaps only I am aware of. Snodgrass is back where she belongs as top scorer for Connecticut, though last weekend’s breakout star Morgan Wabick picked up a point this weekend too.

Season stats

The points stats tab in the results sheet has been updated to give rankings for points scored this season (columns H-L), points per game (columns N-R), and points scored this week (columns U-AA), as well as the highest scorer both this week and this season for each school (starting in cell AC17).

Players who have scored two or more fantasy points per game are: Ella Shelton (Clarkson, $46.90, 2.65 PPG), Tereza Vanišová (Maine, $35.70, 2.30 PPG) Maureen Murphy (Providence, $34.60, 2.10 PPG), Aerin Frankel (Northeastern, $30.00, 2.08 PPG), Veronika Pettey (Northeastern $27.90, 2.00 PPG), and Lilly Holmes (Vermont, $16.60, 2.00 PPG). As a reference, last season only Daryl Watts and Victoria Bach ended the season with two or more points per game, so this is an impressive start by these players.

As we know, starting goalies score most points, so here are the goalies who have started every game for each team that’s played three or more games:

• Kassidy Sauvé (Clarkson, $56.1, 7.65 SP),
• Samantha Ridgewell (Merrimack, $33.4, 6.2 SP),
• Maddie Rooney (Minnesota Duluth, $41.4, 5.95 SP),
• Terra Lanteigne (RIT, $31.2, 5.65 SP),
• Lauren Bailey (Robert Morris, $8.1, 5.05 SP),
• Morgan Fisher (UConn, $15.2, 4.2 SP),
• Jenna Brenneman (Penn State, $6.6, 4.2 SP),
• Lovisa Selander (Rensselaer, $40.2, 3.8 SP),
• Maddy McArthur (Boston College, $26.3, 3.25 SP),
• Kristen Campbell (Wisconsin, $44.2, 3.1 SP)/

So Jenna “Jenna Brenneman” Brenneman seems to have locked down the starting job at Penn State. Interestingly, Aerin Frankel split Northeastern’s series with Brittany Bugalski; Bugalski struggled in the early part of her game against BU but pulled it together for the tie, and I think we have to assume the Northeastern goalie situation is up in the air. The BC goalie situation, on the other hand, seems settled, with Maddy McArthur getting the start against tough opposition in Minnesota-Duluth and against somewhat easier opposition in Syracuse.

If you’re wondering why Kristen Campbell is so low despite Wisconsin being 4-0, it’s for two reasons: not many shots and too many goals. (Also because she’s had no goals or assists — assists have helped both Sauvé and Bailey, but as fantasy managers don’t go planning on goalie assists as part of your strategy). She may well move up the charts as Wisconsin’s opposition gets either weaker (more shutouts against the bottom of the WCHA) or stronger (more saves against the top).

Housekeeping

• Players who aren’t playing this year: Morgan Crane is not playing for Northeastern. More importantly, Madeleine Wethington is not playing for Minnesota, because she’s still a senior in high school. If you had picked Wethington I’ll let you trade her for free this week in addition to your normal trade, because this is partly my fault for including her in the cost sheet. Sorry for the mixup.
• Players that weren’t included on the cost sheet: As I did last week, for players who had no scoring record last year I’ve started them at a cost of $15. This week several freshmen have shown up on rosters who I hadn’t previously seen. New players are:
  — Sammy Davis (BU, JR, $16) — redshirted last year.
  — Joo Hyung Kwak (BU, FR, $14.20) — newly appearing freshman
  — Katherine Beaumier (Clarkson, FR, $13.50) — newly appearing freshman
  — Leah Klassen (Mercyhurst, R-FR, $14.70) — redshirt freshman backup goalie; played the the whole of Mercyhurst’s 5-3 loss to Wisconsin, which was at least better than their 6-0 loss
  — Sandra Abstreiter (Providence, R-FR, $14.80) — redshirt freshman goalie and world U18 D-I runner up, from Germany; split the weekend’s starts against Bemidji with the presumed starter Madison Myers, let in three goals in seven minutes in the second period, but was kept in net and pulled out the 4-3 win.
  — Gabby Vitelli (Quinnipiac, FR, $13.30) — newly appearing freshman
  — Brooke Avery (Syracuse, SR, $14.60) — sat her sophomore season due to a transfer from New Hampshire, scored 14.4 fantasy points last year, now a grad student, scored Syracuse’s lone goal against BC this week.
  — Dakota Derrer (Syracuse, SR, $0.60) — had to stop playing because of an injury after three games in her senior season but is back as a grad student. Since her preseason cost of $0.25 is based on only playing three games she may have some upside, and is in fact already demonstrating some.
• Name changes on the cost sheet: Liga Miljone (Maine) -> Līga Miljone, so all of us who were saying it “Liga” look pretty dumb now; Ali Johnson (Maine) -> Ally Johnson; Elice Murphy (Vermont) -> Ellice Murphy; Andrea Braendli (OSU) -> Andrea Brändli; and, yes, it’s the day we’ve all been dreading when we have to admit that Alina Mueller (Northeastern) is officially spelled “Alina Müller.” [And Chloe Aurard (Northeastern) is in fact Chloé Aurard.] Those of you who wish to revise your team names in light of this information may do so.
• Transfers not previously recorded: Abby Cleary (Quinnipiac->Vermont); Anonda Hoppner (Colgate->Syracuse).
• Players whose names have been changed on the stats sheet due to a mistake made by a computer: Still poor “Emiy” Oden./

Trade deadline is Thursday, Oct. 4, 11:59 p.m. Eastern

I’ll do a separate trade tips post on Thursday (this post is long enough already), but everyone please note that the following teams are not playing this coming weekend: the Ivies (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale), Bemidji, Lindenwood, RIT. Additionally, Clarkson is playing an exhibition match vs. Montreal which shouldn’t count but is down in the USCHO composite schedule as Non-Conference rather than Exhibition. I’ll make sure no Clarkson points come up in the next week. Maine are playing two games against Sacred Heart; Sacred Heart players can’t be picked in this league, but this series is a legitimate series for fantasy points for Maine players.

You can make one trade every week (or, this week only, one trade plus a free trade of Madeleine Wethington if you have her) by letting me know via email at tigFantasyHockey@gmail.com. To trade, let me know who you’re selling and who you’re buying. Sales and purchases are made at that player’s current cost, which is on column K of the cost tab. Any spare dollars you have are noted in row 4 of your team’s entry on the teams tab and can be used for your trades. Note that since BC and St. Lawrence are playing on Thursday, costs for players on those teams may be slightly different on Thursday night from the costs shown now.