Utah W1 lands third seed for WWCHL Championships

February 17, 2025
Salt Lake City, Utah

It’s official, the University of Utah Women’s Division 1 Hockey team has qualified for the 2025 WWCHL Championship in Phoenix, Arizona from February 21-23, 2025.

Utah secured the 3rd seed with the 6-3 and 4-0 wins over Grand Canyon University this last weekend. They also finished their conference schedule with an excellent record of 10-4-0-2.

Their first game of the tournament will be against #2 seed Colorado State on Friday, February 21st at 5:45PM MST. Utah is 1-1 against the Rams this season.

The second game will be against #1 Seed University of Colorado, with the Utes going 0-4 versus the Buffs this season.

Of note, Utah has now qualified for every WWCHL tournament since it began play in 2019.

“The whole team is excited for the WWCHL playoffs. We are coming in as an underdog but that’s exactly where we want to be. We see the path we need to take to make nationals and are willing to do whatever it takes.” said Utah Women’s Head Coach Rodney Stedt.

Utah has been strong as of late going 3-1 since the holiday break, and finishing the regular season with a record of 13-11. Offense has been a power house with 96 goals scored with only 50 goals allowed.

Utah Captain Halle Hansen said after hearing the news, “We’re incredibly excited for playoffs but not surprised. We’ve worked hard to secure our spot this year and with the depth of talent we have, I’m very confident in what we will accomplish.”

The WWCHL was founded in 2014 and currently has 7 member programs, residing in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. It also has the privilege of an annual auto-bid to the 2025 American Collegiate Hockey Association Women’s Division 1 National Championship Tournament, which occurs in St Louis, Missouri 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.

Venue

AZ Ice Gilbert (2305 E Knox Rd Gilbert, Az 85296)

AZ ice gilbert is a two-sheet facility with a Pure hockey Ice Shop in one building bringing together figure skating, hockey, pro shop, restaurant, bar, ice events and so much more.

Seeding

Complete Schedule

Friday, Feb 21, 2025:
Game 1 (2:30 PM): #4 Grand Canyon vs #1 Colorado (Home)
Game 2 (5:45 PM): #3 Utah vs #2 Colorado State (Home)

Saturday, Feb 22, 2025:
Game 3 (1:15 PM): #3 Utah vs #1 Colorado (Home)
Game 4 (4:30 PM): #4 Grand Canyon vs #2 Colorado State (Home)

Sunday, Feb 23, 2025:
Game 5 (12:00 PM): 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