A couple of questions many folks have are:
- What’s the difference in level of play between NCAA DI and U Sports (Canadian University) hockey?
- How different is NCAA DI women’s hockey from top U22 Canadians (or U19 in the States) girls hockey?
Well, the NCAA DI pre-season provides an opportunity to do a little triangulation to compare these different leagues. This month several Canadian U Sports and U22 Girls teams play exhibition games against DI women’s hockey teams. Here are the results:
| 2023-24 Rank | NCAA DI Team | Non-DI Team | 2023-24 Rank | ||
| 25 | Boston University | 4 | 1 | Concordia (U Sports) | 1 |
| 27 | Merrimack | 2 | 3 | Concordia (U Sports) | 1 |
| 26 | Vermont | 1 | 3 | Concordia (U Sports) | 1 |
| 18 | Mercyhurst | 4 | 0 | Stoney Creek (U22) | 12 |
| 36 | Syracuse | 6 | 0 | Windsor (U Sports) | 4th in Ontario West |
| 16 | Northeastern | 4 | 0 | Durham West (U22) | 4 |
| 8 | St Cloud State | 4 | 1 | U of Manitoba (U Sports) | 6th in CanWest |
| 12 | Minnesota State | 6 | 2 | U of Manitoba (U Sports) | 6th in CanWest |
| 20 | St Thomas | 9 | 1 | U of Manitoba (U Sports) | 6th in CanWest |
| 11 | Yale | 5 | 1 | McGill (U Sports) | Last in RSEQ |
| 17 | Brown | 6 | 0 | McGill (U Sports) | Last in RSEQ |
A few notes to keep in mind – since the data may not be exactly comparable to real games:
- Keep in mind that these are the first games for the NCAA DI teams, while all the U Sports teams have already played at least a couple of games beforehand. So , the NCAA teams might be still adjusting to each other and new systems
- These may or may not be the regular season line-ups for the NCAA DI teams, because this is the first time to watch their freshmen in action. So the NCAA line-ups may be below their regular season quality
- Games vs U22 teams may not be a full 60-minutes – so the goal differential may be less than a normal game
- U of Manitoba played St Thomas 15 hours after their game vs. MSU. Their 3rd game in 43 hours.
The data is only directional, but a couple of trends:
- Given how strong Concordia has been the last few years, it seems the top U Sports teams would be in the middle of the pack (15-25) if they played a DI NCAA schedule
- There is still a pretty big gap between a good DI team and a top U22 Canadian girls junior team
As more games are played, the final scores will be added to this post.
Updated 09-29-2024