birthday, Rhode Island saw its hegemony at the top of the league challenged. The 2008–09 season featured a team besides URI win an ECWHL regular season or playoff title for the first time ever in the form of Massachusetts, which finished in first place during the regular season. Northeastern, fresh off of a 2010 national championship in ACHA Division II, joined Division I and the ECWHL and were a strong contender during their first years in the league. In 2010–11, the Huskies became the first team other than the Rams to win the ECWHL's playoff championship with a 6–5 win over URI at Boss Arena, while also taking the regular season crown by a single point over Rhode Island to shut the Ocean Staters out of both ECWHL titles for the first time ever. NU added insult to injury the next season by claiming the ACHA national championship that had long eluded the Rams in just its second Division I campaign. Despite the heightened competition within the league, URI more than held their own by winning four playoff and two regular season ECWHL titles over six years from 2008–09 through 2013–14, a combined total doubling that of UMass, the next highest team. All the while, the Rams continued running off ACHA National Tournament appearances, compiling a streak of 11 consecutive bids through 2013–14 - a number that has only been surpassed in ACHA history by UMass (14, 2005–18) and Michigan State (13, 2002–14). The national title-related frustration continued as well though, as Rhode Island continued to run into teams of destiny at the tourney. In 2009–10, the Lindenwood dynasty again presented a wall too high in the semifinals, while ascending Northeastern posed the same problem the following year and 2012–13 champion Minnesota blocked URI in the pool stage that time around. Following disappointingly short ACHA tournament runs in the springs of 2012 and 2013, McCann assembled one of her strongest teams in 2013–14. That squad featured a Zoë M. Harris Player of the Year Award winner (Cassie Catlow in 2012–13), four players picked for World University Games teams (Catlow in both 2013 and 2015, Alisha DiFilippo in 2013, Lauren Hillberg in 2013 and Kristen Levesque in 2015) and six players who would be picked as first or second team All-Americans at some point during their careers (Catlow, DiFilippo, Hillberg, Brenna Callahan, Sydney Collins and Kayla DiLorenzo). With the talent cupboards