WOMEN'S HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
After two close losses, the Catamounts return home to close out the season series with Merrimack. Game time is set for 2 p.m. on Friday at Gutterson Fieldhouse. Catch the action live on ESPN+ and Rob Ryan on the call and on TSN+ for our neighbors up north in Canada.

RELATED LINKS
CatamounTV Weekly Press Conference: Coach Plumer | McPherson
Live Stats
ESPN+ Broadcast
International Streaming ($)
Tickets


TD BANK TEDDY BEAR TOSS
Friday's game is the Catamounts' annual TD Bank Teddy Bear toss game presented by TD Bank. We are asking all fans to bring in a new stuffed animal to throw onto the ice during the second intermission. These stuffed animals will directly benefit Lund, UVM Children's Hospital, and the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington.

CATAMOUNTS REMAIN RANKED
Vermont holds the title as the 15th-ranked team in the country, as per the USA Hockey Poll. Impressively, the Cats have consistently maintained a spot in the top 15 teams in the nation throughout the entire season thus far.

STARTING WITH POSSESSION
The Catamounts have continued to dominate the faceoff circle this season, leading the Hockey East in faceoff percentage with a 56.3% success rate. Last season, Vermont's 54.7% faceoff win percentage also ranked first in the conference. Natálie Mlýnková is at the forefront of these wins for UVM with 296 on the season while Evelyne Blais-Savoie follows close behind with 280 faceoff wins on the year.

PRECISION PUCKS 
With a shooting percentage of 11.3%, Vermont is first among Hockey East teams and sixth in all of Division I. Despite being outshot by 47 shots, the Cats have maximized their opportunities, scoring 41 goals on just 363 shots. 
 
DEFENSIVE STOPPERS
Vermont stands out as the leader in blocked shots within Hockey East, tallying an impressive total of 244. This places them third nationwide in this category. Sara Levesque holds the second spot in Division I with an outstanding 46 blocks for the season, while Krista Parkkonen secures the seventh spot nationally with 35 blocked shots this year.

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.
 
CATAMOUNTS ON-AIR IN CANADA
Friday's contest against Merrimack will be broadcast live on TSN+ for our neighbors in the north. TSN+ is available as a standalone package at https://www.tsn.ca/tsnplus.  
    
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS
Merrimack enters Friday's game standing at 3-7-2 on the season following an overtime loss to UConn last weekend. Sophomore forward Sophie McKinley netted the Warriors' lone goal in the contest with Celine Tedenby recording the assist on the play. Calli Hogarth tallied 10-plus stops in each of the regulation periods to backstop Merrimack and ended the night with a total of 35 saves.
 
Fifth-Year Senior Forward Tedenby leads the Warriors in both goals and assists this season with seven in each category. Mary Edmonds has also notched double digit points on the year posting four goals and six assists. Hogarth is the main netminder for Merrimack, starting 16 of their 17 games so far and averaging a .916 save percentage while allowing 2.27 goals per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Vermont leads the all-time series against Merrimack 13-8-2 entering Friday's game, having won nine consecutive matchups. The Catamounts look to sweep the season series against the Warriors after defeating them in their previous two encouners this season by the same score of 4-2. Blais-Savoie had an impressive first game against Merrimack posting two goals and adding an assist as well. It was the rookies that shined in game two as both Kaylee Lewis and Rose-Marie Brochu scored their first career goals to lift the cats to back-to-back wins.

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 Natálie 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. 
  
CZECH CAPTAIN IS BACK FOR MORE 
Senior captain Mlýnková is the top returning scorer in Hockey East this season. She set new career highs in goals (23), assists (19) and points (42) last year. 
  
OFFENSIVE TOUCH KEY TO HISTORIC CAMPAIGNS 
Vermont scored over 100 goals in each of the last two years for the first time in program history on their way to back-to-back second place finishes in Hockey East with a program record of 22 wins in each campaign. Vermont returns 56.1% of its scoring from a year ago. 

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