WOMEN'S HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
The six-seed Vermont Catamounts will face the three-seed New Hampshire for the second consecutive season in a Hockey East Quarterfinal matchup Saturday. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. in Durham, New Hampshire. Catch all the action live on ESPN+.
  
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MLYNKOVA CROWNED AS HEA SCORING CHAMPION
Following an impressive final stretch, Natalie Mlýnková finished with 26 points (15 goals, 11 assists) in conference play to earn a share of the scoring title. For the first time ever, Hockey East has two players atop the scoring charts with Mlýnková sharing the title with Maine's Ida Kuoppala. Mlýnková becomes just the second Catamount to ever lead Hockey East in scoring, after Theresa Schafzahl's 2021-22 season.
 
McPHERSON NAMED HEA GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK
Jessie McPherson delivered 60 saves against 12th-ranked Northeastern to boost Vermont to a win 2-0 win and a 1-1 tie last weekend. With her performances, McPherson took home Goaltender of the Week for Hockey East. In her last three outings, McPherson has posted a 0.32 goals against average and a .989 save percentage.
 
LEWIS NAMED TO ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
Kaylee Lewis earned recognition as one of eight members selected to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team. In conference play, Lewis ranked tied for third among rookie goal scorers with nine goals on the season. Lewis also finished second in conference play in points among rookies (16) and tied for fifth in assists (7).
 
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
UNH finished the regular season in third place in Hockey East with 50 points. Last weekend, the Wildcats defeated Boston College twice by the scores of 3-1 and 6-4. Annie Berry produced six points on the weekend (3 goals, 3 assists) including the game-winning tally in Friday's victory to lift UNH past BC and into the third spot in Hockey East.

Junior forward Kira Juodikis leads the Wildcats in scoring with 15 goals and 25 points. New Hampshire's goaltender, Sedona Blair, was recently named to the All-Rookie Team, producing a .917 save percentage while allowing just 2.36 goals per contest.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Catamounts are 21-31-8 in the all-time series with the Wildcats as the conference foes square off for the 61st time this weekend. Vermont is 2-1 against UNH this season, and 6-2-2 in their last 10 meetings. Vermont's only matchup with New Hampshire in the playoffs came last year, with UVM edging out the Wildcats in overtime of the Hockey East Quarterfinals. Mlýnková scored the equalizing goal midway through the second period, before Theresa Schafzahl netted the game-winning goal to lift the Cats to a 2-1 overtime victory.
 
SEASON SERIES WITH THE WILDCATS
Two of the three matchups between the teams this season were one-goal games. With UVM topping the Wildcats 2-1 in overtime on October 28 and UNH besting the Catamounts 1-0 at home on December 2. The outlier was a 6-3 Vermont win on October 27. Natalie Mlýnková was the Catamounts leading scorer against UNH posting four goals and one assist for five points. Jessie McPherson started all three games for Vermont posting a 1.64 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.

PLAYOFF HISTORY
For the first since 2020, Vermont will be on the road for their quarterfinal matchup. UVM is 3-12 in quarterfinal contests played on the road. The Catamounts are 6-17 in their Division I program history in the playoffs. All 13 appearances have come consecutively under Head Coach Jim Plumer.
 
SIX-SEED IN HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT HISTORY
In Hockey East Tournament history on the women's side the six-seed is 6-20 overall and has only advanced to the semifinals once. In 2020 the six-seed UNH swept a best-of-three series at Providence before falling to UConn in the semis. No team seeded lower than three has ever won the women's title.
 
In the men's tournament, the six-seed has advanced to the championship game on three occasions – Providence (1995), Maine (1998) and Northeastern (2016). The Huskies defeated UMass Lowell 3-1 to claim the Hockey East title, that group is the lowest seed – men's or women's to win a Hockey East Championship.

CATAMOUNTS LEADERSHIP GROUP 
Head Coach Jim Plumer has selected five student-athletes to lead the Catamounts during the 2023-24 campaign. 2023 World Championship bronze medalist Natalie Mlýnková will serve as captain for Vermont. The Catamounts will have four alternates this season with Hailey Burns, Sara Levesque, Maddy Skelton and Alaina Tanski. Skelton served as an alternate captain last season as well. 
  
ATTENDANCE RECORD RESET
Vermont broke the Hockey East home attendance record for the second straight year on November 10, smashing the previous record of 2,210. A whopping 2,705 fans attended Saturday's Pack the Gut Challenge game presented by the Windjammer against 15th ranked Boston College.

The Windjammer Inn and Conference Center is the presenting sponsor of the UVM women's hockey program