NEWHA Roundup: October 4-5, 2024

Seven of the eight teams in the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance were in action this past weekend, with four truly getting their season underway. It might not have been the most productive set of games for some schools, but others had highlight reel moments to open their season. Let’s take a look at a win and a tie and everything else that went down. 

SHU Starts 2024-25 with Thrilling Win in OT 

Friday: Sacred Heart 2, RPI 1 – overtime
Saturday: RPI 4, Sacred Heart 0

Sacred Heart got a slightly later start than some of the other teams in the conference, finally opening the season at home on Friday. The Pioneers hit the ice at the Martire Family Arena against a visiting RPI Engineers squad, and squeaked out their first win against a non-NEWHA opponent since Jan. 15, 2023. 

In our season preview, we highlighted the pickups out of the transfer portal that could have an immediate impact on the team moving into 2024-25 – which, it turns out, was exactly the case. 

The Pioneers’ first goal of the season was a tally from junior Sami Bowlby, who moved from Quinnipiac in the offseason. Some great work in front of the net while SHU was on the power play allowed the forward to tap the puck between netminder Reese Keating’s pads and into the back of the net. Then it was Savannah Popick, the pick up from Saint Anselm, who gave the Pioneers the win with a nasty backhanded score in OT, assisted by Isabella Chaput, last season’s leading scorer from the Pioneers, and Alyssa Antonakis, another transfer (Northeastern).

There is some not-so-great news for the Pioneers, unfortunately: After being limited to just five shots on goal in the first period, the Engineers rebounded with 33 in the 40+ minutes following. That carried over into Saturday, where Sacred Heart got outshot 42 to 11, and lost 4-0. 

However, after getting swept in their first non-conference series last season by Minnesota State Mankato (and getting outscored 16-1), a split with RPI is a great opening weekend for the Pioneers. They won’t see another opponent from out-of-conference until the end of November, but this momentum from the OT winner should carry over into NEWHA action. 

Assumption loses… then ties??! at New Hampshire 

Friday: UNH 6, Assumption 0
Saturday: UNH 1, Assumption 1

Last season, Assumption dropped their first three games before working their first tie in program history in their fourth. In 2024-25, the same breakdown occurred, with the Greyhounds losing Friday to UNH, before turning around and tying them at the Whittemore Center Saturday night.

The tie was the first time the team had not outright lost to a non-conference opponent – and the 2-1 win makes it their first win out-of-conference ever. The kicker was they were stonewalling the Wildcats for nearly 30 minutes, before a game tying goal from Andi Calderone with under 2:30 to play found the back of the net after UNH had pulled their goalie. 

Lauryn Broecker scored her first – and the team’s first – goal of the season 11 minutes into the second period. Then, even though the game didn’t matter for the conference standings, the teams opted to go for the shootout, which was won in the seventh round by Assumption sophomore Kayla McGaffigan. 

Netminder Jadyn Weiser made 54 saves en route to the tie, a nice rebound after five goals against in her start against RPI on Sept. 28. To get outshot 55 to 23, and still sneak out a tie against a UNH team that’s supposed to be towards the top of Hockey East is a great feat for the Greyhounds, even if they would have liked that win a little bit more. 

Everyone else – a lot of zeros 

While not every team got shut out over the weekend, it was a hard battle to find the back of the cage for the majority of the other programs playing. 

LIU, facing off against the Minnesota State Mankato, dropped their first two games of the year 4-0 and 4-1. Junior forward Anya Weilandt scored their lone goal of the weekend, while graduate student Abbie Thompson made 78 saves across the two games. 

The Skyhawks of Stonehill traveled up to Syracuse to take on the Orange, and dropped games 4-0 on both Friday and Saturday. I thought the extra game play against BC would help the visiting team, but clearly Syracuse did not need any time to get their feet back underneath them after the summer. Stonehill was outshot 78-40 over the two games, with Alexsa Caron once again getting the start in net for both. 

Providence easily handled Saint Michael’s in both contests of their weekend series, winning 8-0 on Friday before dropping another six in a second shutout on Saturday. 

Post saw similar struggles against St. Thomas (Minn.), who dropped seven goals on their opponents Friday. The Eagles were able to find the back of the net thanks to sophomore Macy Peterson in the Saturday matchup, before falling 7-1. 

Saint Anselm was the only team who did not get shut out at all across the weekend, but did drop both games to Holy Cross. Junior Brooklyn Schneiderhan picked up where she left off last season, notching a goal and an assist in Saturday’s loss. Additionally, all three goaltenders saw action, with both Annabella Lalande and Ava Hills logging minutes in the first game (where the Hawks were outshot 61-24).

Next Week’s Matchup of the Week: 

LIU at Stonehill – 2 PM Friday, 1 PM Saturday

The conference will be back in full action against one another starting Friday the 11th, and the series I’d keep my eye on is the matchup of No. 1’s: The conference regular season champ vs the tournament champ. 

Stonehill and LIU did not meet in last season’s NEWHA tournament, but the Sharks defeated the Skyhawks in all four of their regular season matchups in 2023-24. It’ll be interesting to see if that changes this season, especially with a new goaltender in net for LIU. Of the four games last season, three were one goal victories for the Sharks – something that very well could change in their first meeting this season. 

I think there’s a decent chance for Stonehill to get their first win of the year, and their first outright win over LIU in program history this weekend. Would I be shocked if that doesn’t happen? No, not entirely, but on home ice with the sting of back-t0-back shutouts over their shoulder, I think some fire power against LIU isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. 

Full Upcoming Schedule:

Stream Details Available Here

LIU at Stonehill – Friday at 2 PM, Saturday at 1 PM 

Saint Anselm at Sacred Heart – Friday at 7 PM, Saturday at 2 PM

Post at Saint Michael’s – Friday at 7 PM, Saturday at 3 PM

Franklin Pierce at Assumption – Friday at 7:10 PM, Saturday at 7 PM