Aerin Frankel

Aerin Frankel grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and by the time she arrived at Northeastern University in 2017, she was already posting numbers that would define her college career. As a freshman, she led all NCAA rookies in save percentage with a .934 mark. As a sophomore, she recorded a 28-save shutout over Boston University — the first goaltender to shut out BU since Florence Schelling accomplished the feat in 2011. By the time she left Northeastern after four seasons of NCAA Division I hockey, she had earned the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2021 as the top player in women's college hockey, had been a top-10 finalist for the same award in 2020, and had collected six Hockey East honors in her final season alone: Army ROTC Player of the Week, Goaltending Champion, First-Team All-Star, All-Tournament Team, Championship MVP, and the PNC Bank Three Stars Award.

She was also the inaugural winner of the WHCA National Goalie of the Year award in 2021 — a distinction she repeated the following year in 2022, making her a two-time recipient of that honor.

On the international stage, Frankel has accumulated five IIHF Women's World Championship medals representing the United States: gold in 2023 and 2025, and silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024. During the 2023 World Championship, she served as the primary goaltender and recorded a 3-0 shutout victory over Germany to advance the U.S. to the semi-finals. That tournament also marked a historic distinction: Frankel became the first U.S. women's goaltender to start five consecutive games at the national team level in 26 years.

In the PWHL's inaugural season, Frankel entered all eight playoff games for the Boston Fleet, logging 580 minutes and 58 seconds between the pipes. She finished first among all goaltenders in playoff minutes played and in saves made, with 286. The semi-final series against Montréal produced one of the more documented goaltending performances in the league's early history: Frankel made 109 saves on 111 shots across the first two games of that series, including 56 saves in a 2-1 triple-overtime win in Game 2. She was a PWHL Goaltender of the Year finalist that season, and again the following year.

In her second year as Boston's starter, Frankel appeared in 23 games and finished 12-8-3-1, ranking first in the PWHL in games played and minutes (1,342:18), and second in save percentage among starting goaltenders at .921. She recorded a shutout on February 12, 2025, against New York, helping the Fleet defeat the Sirens 4-0. On August 4, 2025, she signed a two-year contract extension with Boston through the 2027-28 season.

On Episode 346 of the InGoal Radio Podcast, Frankel spoke with Kevin Woodley about the mental side of playing at the highest level, the adjustment to larger crowds in the PWHL, and where her focus sits heading into the postseason ^[1]. "At first, I was nervous playing in front of bigger crowds," she said. "I think now I've just kind of learned to just focus on my own game. And I think staying present helps a lot with that." On the subject of her preparation, she described skating as central to her approach: "I rely a lot on my skating. It's really important for me to be a good skater. It's something I still work on and I think you can never be good enough of a skater."

Colin Hodd's piece for InGoal Magazine examined what sits behind Frankel's shutout production and her focus on fundamentals, with Frankel's own words from that podcast appearance threading through the analysis — available now to InGoal subscribers ^[2].

InGoal Magazine has covered Aerin Frankel in one podcast appearance and one InGoal article.