Associated Press

As accustomed as Matt Desrosiers was to seeing defenseman Haley Winn take one attempt after another at the RapidShot machine inside Clarkson’s training facility during her freshman season four years ago, the Golden Knights coach was stunned upon learning the final tally.

How does 35,000 shots sound?

“We actually had people from RapidShot grab us at the coaches’ convention and tell us they hadn’t seen anything like it,” Desrosiers said. “And that’s not including the pucks she went on the ice and shot extra, too. She’s just the most dedicated athlete we’ve been fortunate enough to have.”

The 21-year-old Winn laughed at the memory.

“Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate,” she said. “I could stay at the rink all day just because that’s what I enjoy doing. I don’t have to force myself to do it.”

The relentless work translated into Winn completing her college career ranking second among Clarkson defensemen with 130 career points (37 goals, 93 assists), seven behind Erin Ambrose at the school in upstate New York. It helped Winn, at 19, land a spot on the U.S. national team, with her already winning two gold medals in three world championship appearances.

And she’s considered a top-three pick entering the eight-team, six-round PWHL draft in Ottawa on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t even feel real that my name should be up there,” said Winn, who got her start at 3 on her father’s backyard rink in Rochester, New York.

“When I was that young, really, all I wanted to do was go to the Olympics,” added Winn, who has an opportunity to achieve that dream at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in February. “As I grew older, I realized the steps to get there and what it was going to take. So yeah, it’s just awesome.”

Sirens have No. 1 pick

The New York Sirens hold the No. 1 pick for a second straight year, followed by the Boston Fleet and Toronto Sceptres. Next year’s expansion teams, Vancouver and Seattle, pick seventh and eighth, respectively..

Rounding out the top prospects are Colgate forward Kristyna Kaltounkova, who is from the Czech Republic and could be the first European chosen first; and Wisconsin forward Casey O’Brien, this season’s Patty Kazmaier Award winner as women’s college hockey’s MVP.

The prevailing consensus has the Sirens looking for a forward to complement last year’s No. 1 pick, Sarah Fillier, who finished tied for the PWHL lead with 29 points.

New York’s offense took a hit in the PWHL’s expansion process by losing forwards Alex Carpenter and Jessie Eldridge. They combined for 20 of the team’s PWHL-low 71 goals last season. Meantime, New York is deep at defense with the return of Ella Shelton, Maja Nylan Persson and Micah Zandee-Hart.

Not ruling out D

New York GM Pascal Daoust acknowledged a need at forward, while refusing to rule out targeting a defenseman at No. 1.

“Thinking that it automatically means we go forward is probably not covering all the angles, knowing me,” Daoust said, referring to potential trade opportunities. “There’s still a lot that can still be done between June and November.”

Sirens coach Greg Fargo previously coached Kaltounkova at Colgate, where he also faced Winn in ECAC competition.

At 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, the 23-year-old Kaltounkova brings a physical style with offensive flair. She finished her five-year college career with 233 points (111 goals, 122 assists) and 218 penalty minutes in 171 games.

The only potential blemish was the ECAC assessing Kaltounkova a two-game suspension for an undisclosed reason in February 2024, after which she missed two more games to, as the school put it, “step away from the team.”

Kaltounkova staying grounded

Kaltounkova told the Rinkside Rundown podcast last week she’s doing her best to stay grounded in approaching the draft.

“There’s moments where I’m like, `Oh my god, what if this and what if that?′ And then I pause and just like, `I can’t think about that.′ Like, that would just bring me down a rabbit hole,” she said. “It kind of fuels me because it’s either people hyping you up and cheering you on, or it’s people criticizing you. And both things motivate me so much.”

Kaltounkova had four goals and six points in her world championship tournament debut on home ice in April.

“She’s coming with speed, she’s coming with physicality, she’s coming with a great shot — a PWHL shot-level quality,” Daoust said of Kaltounkova.

As for Winn, Daoust noted her puck-moving ability and defensive presence. “Great person, great leader, so a lot of positives under her name,” he said.

Winn reflected on her younger days in joining her three older brothers on the family’s rink.

“They never wanted me to play because I was the little sister. But I think I’ve earned my spot now,” Winn said. “Obviously, they were pretty tough on me. But that’s what made me who I am today.”

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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

MEDFORD, MA (June 23, 2025) — The Tufts University athletic communications office was recently honored with the release of the 2024-25 College Sports Communicators Creative & Digital Design contest, as released on the CSC website. 

College Sports Communicators sponsors a variety of media guide/publication and digital design contests and an annual writing contest for its members, with every current member at every level having the opportunity to receive recognition for his/her work. It’s no small honor to earn an award since the judging is done by news media/communications professionals who use those publications in their work. 

Jumbo sophomore videographer Nick Goldberg and his full-season recap of the Tufts Field Hockey season was named as the top Long Form Video/Recap/Feature category in the College Division. The video was also tops in all of Division III. 

In the short form videos (“reels”), Tufts earned a pair of honors as junior videographer John Mulvihill and his recap of the Tufts’ football win over Hamilton College was ranked No. 3 in the College Division. Furthermore, Goldberg was ranked No. 14 out of hundreds of videos in the same category after his recap of the Tufts’ men’s basketball victory over Connecticut College. 

 

Mulvihill’s video was No. 2 in all of Division III, while Goldberg’s ranked No. 5. Tufts was the only college in the nation with two “reels” in the top five in Division III. 
 

For the full list of honorees, click HERE. 

–JUMBOS–

Associated Press

Princeton made it official on Monday in announcing Courtney Kessel’s hiring as coach of the women’s hockey team, a week after the two sides were finalizing the agreement.

Kessel spent the past two years coaching the PWHL Boston Fleet and returns to Princeton where she spent four seasons, from 2019-23, as an assistant under Cara Gardner Morey. She now succeeds Gardner Morey, who left the Tigers in May upon being hired as general manager of the PWHL’s expansion team in Vancouver.

The 35-year-old Kessel had a 27-19-8 record in Boston, including a Walter Cup Finals appearance in 2024, which the team lost to Minnesota in a decisive Game 5.

“It is bittersweet to move on from the Boston Fleet and the amazing people building that organization and the PWHL as a whole,” Kessel said. “This opportunity was the only one that could draw me away from where I was.”

From Toronto, Kessel played at New Hampshire, where she was a 2010 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, given to the MVP of women’s college hockey. She also represented Canada at three world championships, including a gold-medal win in 2012.

She also has Hockey Canada coaching experience, serving as a senior team assistant in 2024 and head coach of the 2023 gold-medal winning Under-18 team.

The Fleet have undergone major changes this offseason. Star forward Hilary Knight left Boston to sign with the PWHL’s expansion team in Seattle. The Fleet also have an opening at assistant general manager after Meghan Turner was hired as Seattle’s GM.

“Courtney set the tone from Day 1 and elevated our group with her competitiveness, preparation, and care,” Fleet GM Danielle Marmer said. “She’s already established herself as an elite coach early in her career, and I know she’ll continue to raise the bar as the next head coach at Princeton.”

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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

The NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Rules Committee recommended rules changes to simplify the penalty structure and improve the pace of play, beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.

The proposals must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel before becoming official. The panel is scheduled to discuss the women’s lacrosse recommendations Aug. 13.

Committee members, who met last week in Indianapolis, approved the following measures: 

• Expanding one-minute releasable penalties in the midfield to all over the field, except in the critical scoring area.
• Using an advantage signal for one-minute releasable penalties, when applicable, which would allow teams the opportunity to play on. The one-minute penalty could be negated if a goal is scored during the advantage or administered at the conclusion of the advantage period.
• Running the clock on 8-meter free positions, except for the last minute of each quarter or overtime.
• Setting up 8-meter free positions only at the two adjacent hashes on both sides of the center hash.
• Upgrading dangerous contact penalties to a nonreleasable yellow card. 
• Flagging shooting space fouls in the critical scoring area.

Committee members said they received feedback from officials, players and coaches that the penalty structure is complex and needed an overhaul. 

“Addressing the penalty structure and penalty administration is inherently also directly related to consideration of duration of games,” said Amy Foster, committee chair and senior deputy athletics director for the student-athlete experience at Cornell. “At the Division I level in particular, there was concern about games consistently extending well beyond two hours. For media purposes, that window is important, but it is also important for just the enjoyment of the game. Changes in the penalty structure and penalty and game administration could positively impact both.”

Stick checks and draws

The committee proposed ending stick checks after goals are scored. 

Currently, officials check the pocket depth of the stick of each goal scorer to see whether the stick is legal. 

Also, teams would have 30 seconds after a goal is scored to be ready for the ensuing draw at midfield. If a team isn’t ready for the draw by the end of the 30 seconds, possession would be awarded to the other team.

Overall, draws would occur only at the start of the game, at the start of overtime and after goals are scored. 

The team having possession of the ball at the end of the first, second and third quarters would maintain possession when the next quarter starts. 

“There would be a decrease in the numbers of draws, but the change is consistent with what we were doing with power plays, where we award possession at the start of the next quarter,” Foster said. “The committee felt that there should be a draw to start overtime. You want everyone to have an equitable chance to gain possession there.”

Video review challenges

Committee members proposed a change to the way video challenges would be handled next season. 

If a team has a successful video review challenge in which the original call on the field is overturned, it would maintain its challenge.

However, if the call on the field is not overturned, the team making the challenge would lose a timeout. Teams would have to have a timeout to make video review challenges.

At the request of teams, committee members also proposed expanding the categories of plays eligible for video review. Teams would be permitted to request video reviews for several areas that, in the past, were reviewable only at the officials’ discretion.

Under the new approach, officials no longer would have discretion over whether to initiate reviews, ensuring greater consistency in officiating nationwide. Officials would be required to review: 

• Clock errors.
• Whether a shot is released before the possession clock or game clock expired.
• Fouls that cause ejection.

For every video review, whether requested or required, officials would review for clock errors and cardable fouls.