2022-23 NEWHA Preseason Coaches’ Poll Announced

WINTHROP, Mass. – Franklin Pierce University, the reigning New England Women's Hockey Alliance postseason champion, has been voted by the league's coaches as the preseason favorite in advance of the 2022-23 women's ice hockey season, according to a poll of the league's head coaches.

 

 

The NEWHA postseason champion in 2022-23 will receive an automatic qualifying bid to the 2023 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship, earning that privilege via the expansion of the overall tournament field from eight to 11 teams. This season also features seven NEWHA programs competing, with the addition of Stonehill College officially taking the ice later this month.

 

Franklin Pierce (22-9-1 in 2021-22), the recipient of 33 points and five first-place votes, became the fourth different league champion in 2022 by defeating Saint Anselm (16-13-3 in 2021-22) in the championship game. LIU (17-15-3 in 2021-22) collected 29 points and the remaining two first-place votes, finishing just two points ahead of third-ranked Sacred Heart (16-15-2 in 2021-22).

 

Saint Anselm is projected to finish fourth in the NEWHA, racking up 24 points, while Stonehill, who takes the ice for the first time in 2022-23, is slotted fifth in the league's preseason coaches' poll. Post (6-26-0 in 2021-22) and Saint Michael's (3-23-1 in 2021-22) round out the seven-team poll with nine and eight points, respectively.

 

The Ravens ended last season under Head Coach David Stockdale, the league's reigning Coach of the Year and a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors from the American Hockey Coaches' Association, by winning 14 of their final 15 games on the way to their first postseason championship. Franklin Pierce, who returns NEWHA Goaltender of the Year Suzette Faucher, also won a program-record 22 games and logged the team's fourth 20-win campaign in just nine full seasons of competition.

 

LIU will take to the ice under a new coach in 2022-23 as Kelly Nash, a two-time National Champion at Wisconsin, joins the program after a stint as an Associate Head Coach with the Premier Hockey Federation's Metropolitan Riveters. The Sharks racked up a 15-3-2 overall record last season versus NEWHA teams, tying Franklin Pierce with 32 points, but bowed out of the league's postseason in the Semifinals after falling to Saint Anselm, 3-1.

 

Sacred Heart is projected to finish third in the NEWHA for the upcoming season. Head Coach Tom O'Malley coached both the NEWHA Player (Anna Klein) and Defensive Player of the Year (Kelly Solak, who returns for the 2022-23 season as a graduate student) as the team earned the No. 4 seed in last season's NEWHA postseason. The Pioneers will move into the Martire Family Arena, a state-of-the-art on-campus facility, in early 2023.

 

Saint Anselm, led by Head Coach Jen Kindret, played its first season exclusively against National Collegiate-level competition in 2021-22 and posted wins over teams in three leagues (Hockey East, ECAC Hockey, NEWHA). The Hawks made it to the NEWHA championship game for the fourth time in the league's four-year history before falling to Franklin Pierce. Saint Anselm returns netminder Allie Kelley, who averaged 34.67 saves per game last season, and Tyra Turner, the NEWHA Rookie of the Year and a National Rookie of the Year finalist from the Hockey Commissioners' Association.

 

Stonehill, who announced a varsity ice hockey program in December 2019, will finally take the ice as a NEWHA member in 2022-23. The institution selected Tara Watchorn, a 2014 Olympic Gold Medalist, to lead the program in May 2021 and the Skyhawks recently announced the roster for its inaugural season that features student-athletes from all over the country as far as Washington, and internationally as far as Sweden.

 

Post will start the season under the direction of first-year Head Coach Gretchen Silverman, a part of the United States Women's Hockey Team that won the 1998 gold medal in the Nagano Winter Olympics. Saint Michael's is led by Head Coach Chris Donovan and recently introduced his five-member class of newcomers on Tuesday.

 

The complete preseason coaches' poll reads as follows.