The USA women’s hockey team has been dominating at the Winter Olympics. The team went undefeated in the preliminary games and has followed it up with back-to-back thrashings of Italy and Sweden to advance to the gold medal game. The team has scored 31 goals in six games and has allowed only one. The backbone of this team’s success has been the goaltender Aerin Frankel, who was born in Chappaqua, NY, and attended Horace Greeley High School her freshman year! Frankel has already broken the record for most shutouts in an Olympic tournament and was the first goaltender in history to shut out Canada in the Olympics.
Following Frankel’s one year at Greeley, she transferred to Shattuck Saint Mary’s in Minnesota, a prestigious preparatory school known for having one of the best high school hockey programs in the world. Frankel posted absurd stats at Shattuck, allowing just a 1.10 goals against average, a .945 save percentage, and 39 shutouts in her Shattuck career.
Following high school, Frankel moved on to college hockey and attended Northeastern University, where she played five seasons. She had a 1.10 goals against average and a .949 save percentage in college, and won WCHA goalie of the year in both her fourth and fifth seasons in college, and also won the Bob Allen Women’s player of the year award in her fourth season in 2021.
Following college, Frankel joined the newly founded PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League), where she has starred as the goalie of the Boston Fleet. Frankel has played for three seasons and is one of the league’s most well-known and celebrated players. Frankel is the all-time leader in saves in the PWHL (founded in 2023) and has become feared for her quickness in the net.
Boston Fleet fans and media have nicknamed Frankel “The Green Monster” after the iconic 37-foot left field wall in Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The nickname has gained popularity due to her ability to be a wall in the net despite standing at five feet five inches tall.
The USA-Canada gold medal game is scheduled for Thursday at 1:10 PM EST. It will be a shock if the USA loses, given they beat Canada 5-0 earlier in the tournament! Aerin Frankel will have the opportunity to continue her dominant run, and we here in Chappaqua will be cheering hard and wish her the best of luck!
