Five Things to Know: Women's Hockey Season starts Friday
The Concordia University Wisconsin Women's Hockey team is set to begin its 2017-18 season with a pair of non-conference games against St. Benedict and UW-Superior. The Falcons are coming off a 10-win 2016-17 campaign and are ready to drop the puck Friday.
The Falcons will play UW-Superior Friday in a neutral site game and then will battle Saint Benedict on Saturday. CUWFalcons.com gets you ready for the 2017-18 season with five things to know.
1) The Captain Returns: Lexi Holman will be wearing the "C" on her jersey for the second straight season and Holman certainly is a player to watch this winter. She enters her final year already 10th on the Falcons career points list (57). She will surely move up that list as the season progresses, but how far she can climb up the list will be something to watch for the Falcons captain. Senior Chloe Bachman and junior Christina Pattengale will be assistant captains this year.
2) Experienced Goaltending: CUW has two goalies who saw plenty of playing time last year. Christina Pattengale, a 2016-17 All-NCHA selection, is back after starting 16 games a year ago and posting a 2.50 GAA and a .911 save percentage. Pattengale has won six games in each of her first two years and is second on the Falcons career wins list. Breanna Thomson played in nine games as a freshman and went 4-4-1 with a 2.11 GAA and a .924 save percentage.
3) New Faces: The Falcons will enter the year with a roster of 20 players and of those 20, eight of those are freshmen. Those new faces will have a chance to make an immediate impact on the 2017-18 Falcons.
4) Season Openers: The Falcons are 4-5-1 in season openers. CUW has never opened against UW-Superior and, in fact, hasn't played the Yellowjackets since the 2012-13 season. The Falcons are 1-11-2 against UW-Superior all time. CUW is 4-4 all-time against Saint Benedict, splitting four weekend series against the Blazers.
5) New Look NCHA: While the Falcons are playing non-conference games this weekend, fans should be aware of the new look NCHA for 2017-18. Three new teams join the conference on the women's side in Aurora, Northland, and Trine. The addition means the league will go back to a six-team playoff format, rather than the four-team format from the last two seasons.
