Aerin Frankel

From Chappaqua, New York, Aerin Frankel built one of the most decorated careers in women's college hockey before becoming a central figure in the PWHL and on the United States national team. She wears number 31 for the Boston Fleet and catches left.

Frankel spent four seasons at Northeastern University (2017–21), where she set program records for save percentage, goals-against average, wins, and shutouts, and led the Huskies to the 2021 NCAA championship game. As a freshman, she led all NCAA rookies with a .934 save percentage. As a sophomore, she shut out Boston University — the first goaltender to do so since Florence Schelling in 2011. By her senior year, she had won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in women's college hockey, earned the inaugural WHCA National Goalie of the Year award, and been named a top-10 Kazmaier finalist the year prior. She won the WHCA award a second time in 2022, after her college career had concluded.

At the international level, Frankel has earned five IIHF Women's World Championship medals for the United States: gold in 2023 and 2025, and silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024. During the 2023 tournament she served as the primary goaltender and became the first U.S. women's goaltender to start five consecutive games at the national team level in 26 years. She also posted a shutout victory over Germany in that tournament to advance the U.S. to the semi-finals.

In the PWHL's inaugural season, Frankel helped carry the Boston Fleet to the Walter Cup Finals. During the semi-final series against Montréal, she made 109 saves on 111 shots across the first two games, including 56 saves in a triple-overtime win in Game 2. She was a top-three finalist for PWHL Goaltender of the Year in both 2024 and 2025.

In the 2025–26 season, Frankel recorded seven shutouts in 22 starts — a PWHL record — including three consecutive shutouts, also a PWHL record, with a scoreless streak of 236 minutes and 45 seconds. She added three shutouts in five Olympic games at Milano-Cortina, where she won gold with Team USA. She was named the PWHL's Billie Jean King MVP and Goaltender of the Year for the 2025–26 season.

On episode 346 of the InGoal Radio Podcast, recorded shortly after Frankel returned from the Olympic Games, she spoke about managing pressure and staying focused as the lights got brighter ^[1]. "I think for me, just being able to stay present and focus on what I can control, which is only myself and my preparation and not everything that's going on," she said. On her adjustment to professional crowds, she added: "At first, I was nervous playing in front of bigger crowds. I think now I've just kind of learned to just focus on my own game." She also described her goals for the rest of that season: "It's been awesome. I had so much fun playing in my first Olympics with my team and being able to bring home gold was incredible. And now I'm really excited to be back with the Fleet and the PWHL and being back in our season. [We] have our goal set on the Walter Cup. So that's where we've all shifted our focus to."

Those podcast quotes form the backbone of a Colin Hodd piece for InGoal members that examines how Frankel approaches her record-setting shutout pace — available to InGoal subscribers ^[2]. Frankel also appeared on episode 372 of InGoal Radio, where Boston Fleet goaltending coach Lenny Mosca discussed the work behind coaching her through the PWHL season ^[3]. A 2026 InGoal news roundup noted her inclusion among four goalies invited to a USA Hockey women's national team camp in Plymouth, Michigan ^[4].

InGoal Magazine has covered Aerin Frankel in two podcast appearances and two InGoal articles.