See photos from this year’s game here and here
They move as one. A swarm of pink hats surrounding the lion at 3 p.m. on Friday, the afternoon before the game. At 10:30 a.m Saturday morning (Jan. 24), walking from the rink, where they’d been decorating, to brunch, as a team. At 2:40, game day, stretching beside the rink. At 2:50, breaking into group dance parties. Always together, in pink.
And they were together on the ice too, beating Kent 6-0. But the game was almost beside the point. The point was the pink.
Saturday was the team’s annual “Pink in the Rink” game. A yearly tradition now celebrating its 16th anniversary, the game raises awareness and money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and features an elaborate bake sale and extensive raffle before and throughout the game. Last year, the Wildcats and their devoted parents, many of whom drive hours to volunteer and support their daughters and the cause, raised more than $10,000. This year’s game raised $7,144.
Addie Eakin, decked out in a full pink, including pink plastic sunglasses, filled water bottles before the puck drop.
“I am so excited, it’s so amazing to see the thoughtfulness of the teammates, coaches, and parents,” she said. “It’s so empowering.”
“I love it,” she added. “It’s just so much fun. In times like this we need fun.”
Senior Yasmine McKenzie said the game “was about more than just hockey,” and that it brought the athletes together “because we all recognize that there are things more important in life than just a game.”
That awareness and togetherness, Yaz said, “brings us closer off the ice, which translates to how we play on the ice.”
It obviously showed on the scoreboard, but, again, what the women on the team remember won’t be the score. That’s clear to senior Catie Putt, whose mom, Jen, was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2024. After chemotherapy last January, Putt, who lives in Norfolk, Mass., with her husband, Jeff, is on the way to recovery.
Saturday’s game, Putt said, was “a way for me to play for her on a deeper level then I already do. To me it is her day—not mine.”
A yearly tradition involves players handing out flowers out to cancer survivors within the team and the greater Williston community. Putt said that “the feeling when I gave my mom those flowers will never leave me.”
Putt appreciated the rink and stands decked out in pink and the support the community provided. “Everyone plays just a bit harder for all the people we love who have been affected by breast cancer,” she said. “We all know that we are playing for something bigger than ourselves and truly become selfless as a team. We know we must play for them and give all our effort because our hard is way less than their hard.”
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S., except for skin cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. In 2026, the American Cancer Society estimates 321,910 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women, and 42,140 women will die from breast cancer. The average risk of a woman in the U.S. developing breast cancer sometime in her life is about 13%, meaning there is a chance one in eight women will develop breast cancer. There are more than four million breast cancer survivors in the United States, including women who have completed or who are undergoing treatment.
Natalie Stott ’22 fondly remembers her participation in Williston’s annual tradition, and, like Putt, is also now carrying the tradition close to her heart.
“I remember it always being a very special game, playing for something bigger than yourself,” Stott, the goalie of the Amherst College women’s team, said. “Our team was always really excited to be involved with it.”
Stott appreciates that it was, as she remembers, always a well-anticipated game. Though it’s been four years since she played at Lossone, Stott and her fellow Mammoths also play their own “Pink in the Rink” game each year. For the past three years, she’s gone out with her teammates to solicit donations from local Amherst businesses. All proceeds from the Amherst game go to the Cancer Connection in Northampton. This year’s game is Feb. 13
“It’s been really exciting, there’s the same kind of hype around it, we’re all really excited to get to play and raise awareness,” said Stott, who holds the Amherst career shutout record, and has three times been named All-NESCAC and 1st team All-American.
The game, and the cause, has become more personal; in her first year at Amherst, Stott’s mother, Jennifer, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s shaped the way Stott sees her role on the ice. “Having that experience and still being able to play that game for four years was really important to me. It kind of meant something a little more.”