The W: Colgate crashed the top 10 the hard way

Colgate was ranked 14th on Friday morning with a goalie question and a roster full of kids who hadn't scored a college goal. By Saturday night the Raiders had swept the No. 8 team in the country, and the poll had no choice. Ninth, and climbing.

That's the story of the week in women's college hockey, and the most important result of the first month. Not because St. Cloud State is a fraud; a 4-2 record with a sweep of Minnesota State says it isn't. Because Colgate did it the hard way, with two goalies and three first-career goals, while nobody outside Hamilton was watching.

The week in college

Friday was 4-2. Madeline Palumbo scored six minutes in, Keira Owen and Linda Vocetková scored their first college goals, and Chloe Goofers hit the empty net. Brooke Davis stopped 27 of 29. Saturday was 2-1, Goofers scored both, and Farah Walker made 30 saves, her first 30-save night since December.

Two goalies, two wins, one weekend. Coaches hate goalie questions, and I get it. But a team that can win with either one in October has a weapon in March, when the starter has a bad week and the season doesn't wait. It was Colgate's first sweep of a ranked opponent since No. 8 Cornell in 2023-24.

By our count, Colgate's five-spot jump was the biggest climb by any team that was ranked last week. The W read: the ECAC's top end isn't two deep anymore, and Quinnipiac and Princeton should treat Colgate as a threat rather than a feel-good story.

The other upset came in Syracuse, where Penn State outshot the Orange 44-18 and lost 5-4 in overtime. Ava Drabyk made 40 saves, 23 of them in a second period where Penn State fired 25 shots and Syracuse managed three.

Jocelyn Fiala, a senior defender with no goals since 2024-25, scored twice, the winner 86 seconds into 3-on-3. Penn State answered with a 4-0 shutout on Saturday and still dropped to fifth. A 3-3 record was always going to catch up with a ranking built on last season.

Up top, Ohio State takes over the No. 1 spot at 6-0 after sweeping Wisconsin, and the Buckeyes don't get a breather. They're at No. 3 Minnesota on Friday and Saturday.

The Hockey East weekend

Northeastern took the early lead in the league table with two regulation wins, and that was Monday's column. The team I want to talk about is Providence.

The Friars got shut out 2-0 by Northeastern on Friday. Twenty-four hours later they went into Conte Forum, built a 2-0 lead on Josie Lang's first career goal and an Emma Hofbauer deflection, gave it all back, and won it anyway. Hannah Clarke scored the overtime winner at 2:45 off an Audrey Knapp feed.

Mallory Hartl stopped 31 of 33, and 61 of 65 across the weekend. The league gave Clarke and Hartl its defender and goaltender of the week, and both were the right call.

Boston College is 2-1-0 and fine. But that's the kind of night that decides a home-ice race in February, and the Eagles gave away a point they'd earned. BC won the faceoff battle 42-22 and lost. That's the wrong way to lose.

BU tied 4-4 at New Hampshire and took the shootout, then beat Holy Cross 2-1 in Worcester on a Lo Lachapelle tying goal and a Neely Nicholson power-play winner, with Sydney Fogu making 34 saves. That's five points from a 1-0-1 league start, second behind Northeastern's six, and Tara Watchorn's 50th win as BU's coach.

Standings after one league weekend: Northeastern 6, BU 5, Boston College 4, Providence 2, New Hampshire 1, Holy Cross 0. Maine, Merrimack, UConn and Vermont haven't opened league play.

This weekend is mostly nonconference, and it's a good one. Northeastern goes to No. 4 Quinnipiac on Friday and Saturday, the best series on the schedule. The Bobcats are 5-0 and swept Providence 3-1 and 6-1 two weeks ago.

Colgate's reward for the sweep is a trip to Walter Brown Arena, where BU plays its first home games of the season. UConn opens Princeton's season, Vermont opens Cornell's, and Harvard and Holy Cross play a home-and-home.

The PWHL

Boston's camp doesn't open until Nov. 18, after the Worlds, which means every roster story until then is paperwork. Some paperwork matters.

New York extended Denisa Křížová for a year, through 2027-28, and Maja Nylén Persson through 2028-29. Nylén Persson played all 30 games last season and led the Sirens' defenders with 11 points. She's now one of two players on that roster signed three seasons out, with Makenna Webster.

The W read: the Sirens are building from the blue line in, and locking in a 25-year-old Swedish defender before camp is exactly how a team without a Walter Cup should think. New York opens at home on Dec. 6.

The national-team note

The Americans get their last look before Denmark in two weeks. USA Hockey's second camp runs Oct. 23-30 in Plymouth, Michigan, with Canada in Windsor on Oct. 28 and in Plymouth on Oct. 30.

All 23 Olympic gold medalists were invited to the first camp in September, plus eight others, and the Worlds roster for Herning and Esbjerg, Nov. 6-16, comes out of this one. Two games against Canada in three nights is the only preseason that counts.

One thing I'm watching

Ohio State at Minnesota. The Buckeyes are 6-0 and just took Wisconsin's number. The Gophers are 4-0, and their last two wins came against Maine and Bemidji State. One of those records gets tested. We find out Friday which one.