Utah W1 lands second seed for WWCHL Championships

February 13, 2023
Salt Lake City, Utah

It’s official, the University of Utah Women’s Division 1 Hockey team has qualified for the 2023 WWCHL Championship in Boulder, Colorado from February 17-19, 2023.

Utah secured the 2nd seed in the tournament by going 7 and 4 in conference play this season. Their first game of the tournament will be against Colorado State on Friday, February 17th at 3:30PM MST. Utah is 2-0 against the Rams this season. The second game will be against Grand Canyon University, with the Utes going 1-1 versus the Lopes back in the Fall. Utah has qualified for every WWCHL tournament since it began play in 2019.

“This team has demonstrated an incredible amount of heart and work ethic this past year in order to become not only a group that can make playoffs, but one that can be successful at them. Our coaching staff has been proud to watch the way this team has grown, unified, and built confidence over the course of the season, and we have the utmost belief in each player’s ability to reach even higher heights at the WWCHL tournament,” said Utah Women’s Head Coach Braeden Yeo.

Utah has been strong as of late going 8-2 in the last 10 games, and finishing the regular season with a record of 17-7. Offense has been a power house with 152 goals scored with only 45 goals allowed.

Utah Captain Grace Cruikshank said after hearing the news, “Our team is very excited about qualifying for the WWCHL Championships. We have been working very hard throughout the season and we’re ready to battle for the title.”

The WWCHL was founded in 2014 and currently has 6 member programs, all residing in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. It also has the privilege of an annual auto-bid to the 2023 American Collegiate Hockey Association Women’s Division 1 National Championship Tournament, which occurs in Marlborough, Massachusetts in March.

Format

The WWCHL Tournament will consist of the top 4 teams from regular season rankings. Teams seeded #1 through #4 will receive an invitation to the conference tournament. The top two seeds will play the bottom two seeds, with the two teams with the most wins playing for the Championship game on day 3.

Seeding

Complete Schedule

Friday, Feb 17th, 2023:
Game 1 (3:30 PM): #4 Colorado State vs #1 Arizona State (Home)
Game 2 (7:00 PM): #3 Grand Canyon vs #2 Utah (Home)

Saturday, Feb 18th, 2023:
Game 3 (3:30 PM): #3 Grand Canyon vs #1 Arizona State (Home)
Game 4 (7:00 PM): #4 Colorado State vs #2 Utah (Home)

Sunday, Feb 19th, 2023:
Game 5 (11:00 AM): Championship Game Rank 2 (Away– 2^nd most wins) vs Rank 1 (Home – most wins) 
WWCHL All-Star Team will be announced at the Championship Game

WWCHL Conference Tournament Rules

The WWCHL Conference rules and regulations are as follows:

1. All teams will follow official ACHA and WWCHL rules and regulations.
2. All teams will follow official ACHA game protocol for each game.
3. In the event of a tie at the end of regulation in a pool play game, there will be one (1) 3v3 overtime period for the duration of five (5) minutes. Goalies switch ends.
4. If there is no goal in overtime, the pool play game will end in a tie.
5. In the event of a tie at the end of regulation in a semifinal or championship game, there will be one (1) 3v3 overtime period for the duration of five (5) minutes.
6. Goalies switch ends. If there is no goal in overtime, there will continue to be 3v3 overtime periods for the duration of five (5) minutes until a goal is scored.

In the event of ties in records in tournament competition, the higher standings will be determined by comparing the tied teams in the following order:

1. Head to head competition
2. Number of tournament wins
3. Goals against in all tournament games
4. Goal differential in all tournament games
5. Fewest number of penalties in all tournament games
6. Fewest total penalty minutes in all tournament games
7. Coin flip, called in the air by the higher-seeded team