In late Spring 2025, a friend of the podcast who was in the transfer portal asked me for my thoughts about transferring to “St. John” for their inaugural season. After the quickest and laziest research I’ve done in my life, I asked , “Isn’t that an elementary school down the street from my house?” Before receiving clarification that he meant St. John Fisher. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the program in men’s or women’s hockey, but seeing they would play Utica and Elmira, respectfully, I made a mental note that they would be a team to watch. Fast forward to a few weeks before the season, and as I was working on my MCLA season primer, I noticed a friend of the brand, Addam Brunner, had joined the Cardinals, making their opening day for both programs must watch events. As impressive as the men’s team upset victory over Buffalo State was, the women’s team’s play in their 2-1 victory over Neumann, and their overwhelming exuberance for growing the game captured my attention to commit to covering their entire season.

After their opening day victory, the women’s team (who will be referred to as SJF and/or the Cardinals from here on out) truly began the season of Brynn Bacak, as her 17 save shutout was the first in program history, and a sign of things to come. Their second series of the season served up the Cardinals’ first learning curve as a program. Five penalties and being outshot 49-25 against William Smith led to their first loss, and first shutout loss in program history. However, as a well coached team with talent, the Cardinals responded well in their 3-2 (OT) loss the following day. They took zero penalties in the rematch and closed the SOG gap down to 29-26, showcasing that after a small adjustment period, they could compete against good teams.

The scheduling was not gentle with SJF, deciding they would play the two best teams in the UCHC to start their existence. A week later, they challenged a UCHC favorite in Elmira. A 3-1 loss on Friday where the shots were 35-11 bench marked the Cardinals against a national tournament-caliber team. However, in the Saturday game, Brynn Bacak and Keira Reckley rose to the occasion, leading the Cardinals to a tie in a game where they were outshot 42 to 15. Despite the lopsided chance generation, SJF has established that they had the talent to compete against almost anyone in the conference.

They continued this upward momentum into an incredibly hard fought game against Nazareth, a legitimate national championship contender, the following Friday. At times, their discipline faltered, taking six penalties in the game, but their mission was undeterred. With some high level finishing from Nicole Doeringer and Cameran Evans, the Cardinals took a 2-2 draw into the third, before eventually surrendering the game winner to Amy Laskowski. Despite the loss, Bacak’s 51 saves against this Nazareth team felt like a Magnum Opus performance in her young NCAA career. The rematch was not as kind to SJF, as Nazareth flexed how and why they earned a first round bye in the national tournament. A 6-0 victory followed, as the Golden Flyers adjusted their play to prevent SJF from having the same type of PDO bending that occurred the day before.

Getting a breather from UCHC play, the Cardinals split a series against Wesleyan and Trinity the following weekend, 2-1 (W) and 4-0 (L), respectively. The Cardinals were outshot again in the game against Wesleyan, but Bacak, Reckley, and Sophie Grant did enough to pick up the victory. The Trinity game felt more like their rematch with Nazareth, where they were unable to solve Madeline Carter, and as much as they tried, Bacak and the defense just couldn’t quite contain the Trinity attack.

And just like that, we were at the December break. The Cardinals were locked into a SUNYAC run to tune up with before finishing the UCHC gauntlet in the New Year. A Tuesday affair saw them collect a 3-1 victory over Buffalo State. With two assists in this contest, Cordie Wemyss started her ascent as one of the team’s most impactful blueliners.

The following weekend would be the first time all season that the Cardinals suffered back-to-back multi-goal losses. On a Friday night, they dropped a contest 3-1 to SUNY Morrisville where they were marginally outshot 30-22–a game where both teams had 9 power plays each. The rematch had half as many penalties (literally), but the scoreboard was the same. Elizabeth Pool stopped 28 of 30 in her Cardinals debut, doing more than enough to win, but in 35 SOG, they were only able to beat Gabrielle Brazeau once.

The following Thursday saw the Cardinals extend their losing streak to three games after a crushing, tight defeat against SUNY Canton. At 4-9-1 following that game, SJF had the trajectory of most first year programs in NCAA III, an optimistic start, strong performances against excellent teams, and then the crash when the bounces and the games didn’t break in their direction. However, something changed for that team on January 17th before their rematch with the Roos. Bacak was solid as always, stopping 42 in a shutout where they were heavily outshot, but Grant (2) and Evans (1) cashed in for the Cardinals to secure a 3-0 victory.

Returning to UCHC play, SJF swept Manhattanville, 3-1 and 1-0, the following weekend. Grant and Erin Lantry stayed hot on offense in the first game, and the offense outchanced their opponent. Reckley delivered early in the third period of a scoreless tie in the rematch, where Bacak was perfect again, stopping 26 shots. The Cardinals carried their momentum into the following weekend with two large margin victories over Chatham. Reckley and Lantry both scored 2 goals in the first match of the weekend, a 5-1 victor, while four different players (Reckley, Knox, Grant, and Prantner) found the back of the net in the 4-1 rematch.

They weren’t able to ride this wave forever though. The following Friday, they suffered a crushing defeat to Utica by a margin of 5-1. This was objectively the only bad game they played all season. Taking a five minute major within the opening minutes of the game, not striking on six power plays, and not being able to stop the Utica attack was the low point in the season. The Cardinals were much better in the rematch the following day, keeping the penalty sheet empty and generating 29 SOG. They just ran into a hot goalie in Alex Venning in the 2-0 loss. I was anxious to see which Cardinals team we were going to see the following weekend against Albertus Magnus.

Luckily, it was the one from the rematch. Bacak outdueled Christmas Johnson stopping 29 of 30 (Johnson was 18 of 20) in a 2-1 win where Reckley always felt inevitable. Albertus recalibrated their offense in the rematch, finding ways to beat the Cardinals defense, propelling them to a 4-1 win that would ensure any potential postseason matchup would be played in New Haven.

The Cardinals ended their regular season on a high note, recovering from their loss against Albertus with two substantial victories against Hilbert. Bacak recorded her final shutout of the season (2 saves) in an 8-0 win where seven players had at least two points. The regular season finale where six players had multiple points. This took the Cardinals into the playoffs as the UCHC’s 5th seed, where they would once again face Albertus in New Haven.

This game was the most intense contest of SJF’s inaugural season. The first period saw them throw the kitchen sink at Albertus, something they hadn’t successfully done in the first two meetings. Reckley cashed in on the attack, but the experienced Albertus team bit back on a goal from Yetman. Prantner answered back, giving the Cardinals a lead after one, but Albertus closed the game early in the second. The rest of regulation saw momentum shift back-and-forth, but slowly churn in favor of an Albertus team that had been here before. In the first overtime period, both teams had their chances to finish the game, but were unable. Less than two minutes into the second overtime of the longest game in SJF program history, Kalyn Reynolds ended their season, and I was frankly devastated, sitting in my twelve year old, decrepit office chair in my apartment as my three month old daughter slept in the background.

I hemmed back-and-forth for a while about the outcome, and decided I would come back to their season at least a week later. I didn’t want the emotions to influence my recap of their season, but I didn’t want to wait too long before writing this, and then just never giving this team the appreciation that they earned. This team deserved more than just a weekly Instagram graphic.

The entire team exceeded the expectations of the casual observer, myself included, this season, and showcased the foundation for a team who could be built to dethrone Elmira and Nazareth in the next three years. In our production model, Keira Reckley broke into our Superstar tier as a freshman, while Grant and Pratner had Star caliber seasons in their own right. Despite landing in our Average tier, Cordie Wemyss’ 0.35 PPG genuinely placed her on a trajectory to burst into the Star tier next year. And this is just the tip of the iceberg for this group offensively. With the youth, coaching, and chemistry this team has, I wouldn’t be surprised if they develop into a team with 6+ stars in the next two years. Meanwhile, Bacak’s GSAA this year was 9.75, placing her in the 86th percentile of all goalies in the Nation. With this many young, core pieces, the future is bright in Rochester, NY.