Polar Bear was an eye-opener for East Coast teams and us

The Connecticut Polar Bear Tournament is the nation’s largest girls and youth invitation ice hockey tournament, and with more than 3,700 female players from 225 teams it is very competitive. In lesser tournaments, you might end up playing a team that you have previously faced and want to either get revenge if you lost or keep the victory if you won.

Playing girls is fun and challenging; especially after all of the games our team plays against boys in SCAHA. Meeting girls from all over the country is awesome because everyone at the tournament shares at least one common interest – playing hockey.

JSerra varsity goes 4-0 on B.C. trip

The JSerra High School Ice Lions varsity went 4-0 on a recent trip to British Columbia. JSerra's varsity and JV teams competed against Canadian high school academies in the Okanagan Valley.

The junior varsity, experiencing BC for the first time, played extremely well against regional competition finishing with three close losses and a tie. The Ice Lions have played major programs in Canada over the past two years that have included The Okanagan Hockey Academy (Penticton BC), Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy (of Kelowna BC), The Edge Hockey Academy (of Calgary AB) plus other regional Tier programs.

Californians help Northeastern to Beanpot victory

Two California-born players helped lift the Northeastern University women's hockey team to a shootout victory against Boston University to advance to the Beanpot final for the first time since 2004.

Junior Alyssa Wohlfeiler's (Saugus) goal sealed the shootout win after the teams were locked at 4-4 after regulation. Freshman Rachel Llanes (San Jose) also scored in the shootout.

Garden Grove's Rasmussen sets UMD durability record

Defenseman Jaime Rasmussen of Garden Grove became the University of Minnesota Duluth's all-time leader in games played on Friday night, when she played in her 145th game. The No. 5 Bulldogs defeated top-ranked Minnesota, 3-1.

A second-team all-WCHA pick last season, Rasmussen has 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in 29 games this season. Rasmussen has missed just one game in four seasons - a year ago today, which broke her program record of 106 consecutive games.