By Warren Kozireski —
The latest chapter of Danielle Serdachny’s hockey career finished as she helped Colgate reach the women’s hockey Frozen Four for just the second time in program history.
Next, she hopes, is being selected in June’s PWHL draft to continue her career professionally. But she is taking a brief detour to Utica, NY as part of Team Canada at the IIHF Women’s World Championships.
“Obviously we have a great group of girls here, a great coaching staff so it’s an honor to be here and be a part of this group,” Serdachny said. “Pretty fortunate to put the jersey on and play here especially being so close to where I spent the last five years at Colgate. Pretty exciting time.”
Serdachny’s father, Steven, was the Edmonton Oilers skating/skills coach for nine seasons and her brother, Noah, is a sophomore playing at Colorado College.
In the early games of the World Championships, she was slotted on the fourth line on a deep Team Canada, but in a round-robin game against Team USA, was called upon to take a defensive zone draw in a 0-0 tie in overtime and ended up blocking a shot later in the sequence.
“Big play there; I was doing my best to try to keep the puck out of our net so anytime you get put on (the ice) in overtime it’s a big responsibility.”
Among a long laundry list of accolades during her collegiate career with the Raiders, Serdachny this season was named on the CCM Hockey and American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) second-team All-American squad—her third after earning First Team spots the last two seasons. In 2020-21, Serdachny became the first Colgate All-American in the Division I era.
She ends her career holding the top two slots for most points scored in a season by a Raider skater. Last season, she set the program record with 71 and nearly broke her record with 61 this year.
Her 239 career points are 54 tallies ahead of second place in the career scoring category, and she also owns the highest assists per game average in school history with .88 apples per outing.
She was also named as a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, becoming the first student-athlete in Colgate history to be recognized as a finalist twice.
“Kind of hard to pick one moment after spending five years in a place, but obviously making the Frozen Four this year is pretty incredible, but spending every day with some of my best friends and people that I will remember for the rest of my life.
“Pretty fortunate to meet some pretty amazing people there, so that has been probably my favorite thing that’s come from these past five years.”
(Photos provided by Colgate University Athletics/Women’s Hockey)
