MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's ice hockey team earned the No. 3 seed in the New England Women's Hockey Alliance Tournament, and will play host to sixth-seeded Sacred Heart University in the quarterfinals beginning Friday, Feb. 27 at 7:00 p.m.
The opening round format is a best-of-three series, all of which will take place at Sullivan Arena. Game two is set for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop on Saturday, Feb. 28 while a third game is scheduled for Sunday, March 1 at 3:00 p.m., if needed.
The Hawks, led by second year head coach Sam Ftorek '98, the Hawks posted a 16-11-1 NEWHA record to earn hosting rights in the opening round of the league tournament for the first time since the 2023-24 campaign. In Ftorek's first season as the bench boss in 2024-25, he led the Hawks to a semifinal appearance after taking down Stonehill College in the quarterfinals.
Historically, Saint Anselm owns the most championship game appearances in NEWHA history, having reached the title game five times (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2021-22, 2022-23), including a tournament championship in 2018-19. The Hawks are 14-9 all-time in NEWHA postseason play and 34-14-1 overall in postseason competition. Since the program's founding in 2004-05, Saint Anselm also captured seven ECAC East women's championships prior to its transition to the National Collegiate level.
This season, Saint Anselm began its slate with a weekend sweep of NEWHA foe Saint Michael's College over the final weekend of September to start with a 2-0-0 record for the first time since the 2019-20 season. From there, the Hawks suffered a pair of defeats at the hands of two Hockey East opponents, falling 4-1 on home ice to Boston College on Oct. 4 before dropping a 3-0 decision at the University of Maine on Oct. 10.
The Hawks bounced back with a 3-1 win over Stonehill College at Sullivan Arena on Oct. 11 to improve to 3-0-0 in league play.
The Ice Breaker Tournament, hosted by College Hockey Inc. at Union College's M&T Bank Center, was next on the schedule for Saint Anselm. In the opening game of the tournament (Oct. 17), Union fended off a five-goal third period comeback bid by the Hawks to hold on for a 7-5 victory. The following day, the Hawks were handed a loss by the University of Vermont, 3-1, as they fell below .500.
Following a 4-3 overtime loss at Stonehill on Oct. 24, Saint Anselm earned a sweep of Sacred Heart on home ice, winning 4-1 on Oct. 31 before a 3-1 victory on Nov. 1.
Saint Anselm's second-to-last non-league challenge came at home against No. 12/13 Yale University on Nov. 4, with the Hawks narrowly falling by a final score of 2-0.
The Hawks then went on a six-game winning streak from Nov. 7 to Nov. 22, with sweeps over Post University, LIU, and Assumption University. The streak was snapped by the eventual regular-season champions, Franklin Pierce University, as the Hawks picked up just one point on the weekend with a shootout loss on Dec. 4 following a regulation loss the day prior.
The Hawks wrapped up their first semester action with a 4-2 loss to Dartmouth College on Dec. 13 at Thompson Arena.
After a split with Stonehill (Jan. 9-10) to begin the second-semester slate, the Hawks were successful in both games in a road trip to Vermont against Saint Michael's, winning both games 5-0 and 4-0, respectively (Jan. 16-17).
The Hawks went back on the road the following weekend, this time to the Nutmeg State to take on Sacred Heart (Jan. 23-24). The Pioneers avenged the opening series of the season by sweeping the Hawks with 5-2 and 3-1 victories at the Martire Family Arena.
Saint Anselm bounced back by completing the season series sweep of Post (Jan. 30-31), erupting for 11 total goals over both games to get back in the win column.
The Hawks then had a five-game skid from Feb. 6 to Feb. 20, dropping a pair of contests to LIU and Assumption, with one loss to Franklin Pierce in that span. Saint Anselm ended the regular season on a high note, snapping its losing streak with a convincing 6-2 victory over the Ravens on Feb. 21.
Entering tournament play, senior captain Brooklyn Schneiderhan leads the NEWHA in goals (22), goals per game (0.65), shots (205), shots per game (6.03), points (45), points per game (1.32), shorthanded goals (5), and multi-point games (12). Her nine career shorthanded goals are the most among active skaters at any level of NCAA play.
Schneiderhan reached the 100-point milestone in early December against Franklin Pierce and has since totaled 121 points (65 goals, 56 assists) in 131 career games. She ranks fourth all-time in program history in both goals and points, and her plus-40 on-ice rating is second among active NEWHA skaters. Schneiderhan is also the only active NEWHA skater with multiple career hat tricks.
In the National Collegiate era of Saint Anselm women's ice hockey, beginning with the 2017-18 season, Schneiderhan is tied with Kelly Golini '22 M'23 for the program record in points (121) while holding the outright record in goals (65).
In her first 30 games in a Saint Anselm uniform, freshman netminder Kayla Czukoski leads the NEWHA with 1,128 saves and ranks 14th nationally with a .934 save percentage. Her 66-save effort against Boston College on Oct. 4 is tied for the second-highest single-game total by a NEWHA goaltender over the past three seasons.
Sophomore forward Lucy DeCoteau ranks second nationally with 472 faceoff victories and second in the NEWHA with seven power play goals. She also ranks fourth in the league in shot percentage (14.8%) and fifth in goals (11).
Saint Anselm holds a 32-16-5 all-time record against Sacred Heart, dating back to their first meeting on Nov. 12, 2004. DeCoteau paces Saint Anselm with four goals against Sacred Heart this season, three on the power play, while Czukoski has stopped 134-of-140 shots (.950) in net. 15 Hawks have recorded at least one point against the Pioneers this season, including seven with a goal and shorthanded tallies from Schneiderhan and sophomore Kismet Dogan.
The winner of this weekend's series will advance to the NEWHA Semifinals, set to take place on Wednesday, March 4.
