NEWHA Roundup: Nov. 8-12, 2024

Much like last week, there’s a lot happening in the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance, although the majority of noise was generated by two teams in the weekly awards. In this roundup, we take a look at Post’s weekend against Saint Anselm, before a brief pause on LIU and Sacred Heart, who dominate those weekly awards. Then we’ll look ahead – we’ve got a highly contested semi final rematch on deck for Friday and Saturday. Here we go, on another weekly roundup. 

Series of the Week: Post plays Saint Anselm tight, snags a point in shootout

While the scoresheet shows two ‘wins’ for Saint Anselm, in actuality it was a win and a tie, and the Eagles played the Hawks a lot closer than that over the two games. For Post, goaltender Hannah Saunders was a big part of that alongside the Eagles’ defense. 

While the Hawks jumped out early in both games, starting with 16 and 18 shots on goal respectively in each of the first periods, Saunders turned away all but one of those combined 34 shots. In the second period that followed each night, it was time for the Post lineup to thrive, as they notched 24 (!!) SOG on Friday, and had another 13 on Saturday. All three goals the team scored this weekend were in the middle frame as well, courtesy of Dani Ammons on the power play Friday, and Macy Peterson who scored twice in 21 seconds Saturday. 

Peterson now has four goals on the season, the highest out of any skater for Post, and good for a tie for fifth in the conference. She’s also second on the team in points with five, and is well on her way of passing her career high in goals set last season as a freshman (5). 

Saint Anselm had the response though, and it was Tyra Turner who was the hero both games – in regulation, and in the shootout to secure the extra point. 

The forward had the game-winning goal Friday, and the game tying goal with 12:33 remaining in regulation on Saturday. She is now the leader in goals scored in NEWHA overall, with seven in 13 games played this season. She’s also third in total points with 10. 

The other leading scorer for Saint Anselm is Audrey Jackson, who also had two goals in regulation this weekend, with the opening goals in both games. Friday’s goal was on the power play, with goaltender Ava Hills adding an assist (the first in her career). On the note of Hills, Friday’s 2-1 win was the first win in the NCAA for the junior, who transferred from UNH in the offseason. It was Hills’ fourth appearance so far in 2024-25, and the lowest goals against of the season for her, as she made 42 of 43 saves. 

The penalty kill for both teams was the same, with the PK’s going 5-for-6 over the two contests. Overall in NEWHA, Post is fourth overall with an 83.7% success rate, though Saint Anselm is one slot below them, at 83.3%. 

Up next for these teams is interesting, with Post scheduled to play Stonehill, who has had some success recently but got off to a rocky start to the year. For Saint Anselm, they take on Assumption, who has the second-lowest goals per game at 1.17, but has third best goals against average in NEWHA (2.71). 

Series of the Week, PT 2?

The other option here wasn’t a series of the week, but more of a team, since LIU had three games between Friday and Tuesday this week. The Shark’s had back-to-back shutouts over Saint Michael’s over the weekend, and followed it up with a close-scoring contest against Quinnipiac. While the Bobcats outshot LIU over the course of the game, the Shark’s limited QU to just one goal. They had a fairly productive weekend overall, and hopefully will carry that momentum into their matchups against Franklin Pierce this weekend. 

Keep an Eye On: 

Sacred Heart, with their sweep over Assumption, jumped six points in the standings and are now tied for first in the conference with Franklin Pierce. FPI has the harder weekend approaching with a two game set against LIU, while SHU has the chance to overtake the Ravens if they’re able to sweep Saint Michael’s and the Ravens struggle against the Sharks. Should be an interesting weekend regardless.

Weekly Awards: 

Player of the Week: Grace Babington, F, LIU – Sophomore

Coming into the weekend, Babington had not registered a goal to start the 2024-25 campaign. By the end of the set against Saint Michael’s, the forward had two goals, including the game-winner, and the only goal, in the Sharks 1-0 Saturday win. Across the two games, the sophomore also had a combined 15 shots, won 15 of 22 faceoffs, and blocked two shots. 

Defensive Player of the Week: Peyton Bennetts, D, SHU – Sophomore 

In Sacred Heart’s 1-0 win Friday, Bennetts helped generate the game-winner with under 30 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Pioneers over the Greyhounds. The defender also tied for the team-lead in blocks on Saturday, with four. Bennetts played a key role in limiting Assumption to just 37 SOG on the weekend, and helped her team to back-to-back shutout wins. 

Goaltender of the Week: Jillian Petruno, G, SHU – Junior

Another key element in those shutout wins was Petruno, who stopped all 37 shots she faced this weekend. The junior, appearing in back-to-back starts for the first time since Oct. 4th & 5th, has now gone three straight games without allowing a single goal. In that span she’s made 67 saves, and has been key to SHU’s continued success in the goaltender position this season. 

Rookie of the Week: Drew Dyczkowski, F, LIU – Freshman

With two assists, one on Friday and one on Saturday, Dyczkowski now has the first points in her young NCAA career. Her first came on the eventual game-winner on Friday, with the lone helper on the opening tally. She also was one of just three Sharks who had a point Saturday, in the team’s 1-0 win. 

Weekly Scoreboard: 

Friday: 

LIU 5 vs. Saint Michael’s 0 

Saint Anselm 2 vs. Post 1

Stonehill 2 at Franklin Pierce 1 

Sacred Heart 1 at Assumption 0 

Saturday: 

Franklin Pierce 3 at Stonehill 2 

LIU 1 vs. Saint Michael’s 0 

Post 2 at Saint Anselm 2 – Saint Anselm wins shootout 2-0

Sacred Heart 4 vs. Assumption 0

Tuesday: 

Quinnipiac (ECAC) 1 at LIU 0

What to Watch: LIU at Franklin Pierce

Friday at 6 PM & Saturday at 4 PM 

Back-to-back weeks highlighting Franklin Pierce, and for good reason. This is arguably their toughest matchup yet in conference, and they’re coming off a decent weekend against Stonehill. 

The Sharks have the second-lowest team GAA in the conference, with just 1.69. Franklin Pierce isn’t far behind, in fourth with a 2.98 – a big difference, but the numbers are skewed thanks to their non-conference matchups against Brown in October. 

Similarly to this week’s Hockey East What to Watch, the biggest difference between these two teams is the penalty kill, in which Franklin Pierce has the severe edge. The Ravens have a PK percentage of 85.7, but they’ve also taken 14 more penalties than the Sharks have, and LIU has a PK percentage lower than FPI at 82.1%. 

Offensively, overall, I’d give a slight edge to the Ravens – although their two top scorers are arguably a step ahead of their depth scoring. Mikayla Kelley, who led the team in scoring a season ago, is up to 11 points in 2024-25, leading NEWHA. Her teammate Maggie Korneta is the only other player she’s tied with, although Kelly has more goals overall (six to Korneta’s three). 

LIU’s leading scorer is Grace Babington, who was highlighted above after her NEWHA player of the week honors. After Babington however, it’s a long way down to LIU’s next highest scorer, Bri Eid (tied for 15th in the conference with five total points). 

The Ravens beat LIU twice last season, although only once in the regular season. The biggest win came in overtime in the tournament semifinals, where FPI was victorious 4-3. It’s the first time the two have seen each other since, which makes the matchup even more interesting as they get set for puck drop. 

Prediction: I’m going with another split. I think LIU has had a bounce back couple of weeks after their rough start, but at the same time FPI is still a challenging matchup. Especially considering both teams have already split with Stonehill this season, which I’d argue is an indicator of how they’ll fare against one another. The one fun thing is FPI has been better on the road than at home this season (honestly, kinda surprising), but LIU has been abysmal on the road (1-4-0 overall). It’ll be fun to see how that matches up with the two games at FPI upcoming. 

Full Upcoming Schedule:

All times in EST, full details available here 

Friday: 

Stonehill at Post – 1 PM

Assumption at Saint Anselm – 6 PM

Sacred Heart at Saint Michael’s – 7 PM 

LIU at Franklin Pierce – 7 PM 

Saturday: 

Post at Stonehill – 1 PM 

Sacred Heart at Saint Michael’s – 3 PM 

LIU at Franklin Pierce – 4 PM 

Saint Anselm at Assumption – 7:30 PM