How UConn will replace Tia Chan in goal

Chris MacKenzie freely admits he’s worried about his goaltender position.

For five of the last six seasons, UConn women’s hockey leaned on Tia Chan between the pipes. In that time, she established herself as the best goalie in program history, backstopping the Huskies to their first four Hockey East titles and first two NCAA Tournament appearances while setting program records for career save percentage (.946), wins (70) and shutouts (27).

Now, she’s off to the PWHL as a third-round pick of the San Jose franchise, leaving UConn without an established option to replace her.

The good news? This is nothing new for the Huskies.

“We were worried when Elaine Chuli left,” MacKenzie said. “We were worried when Morgan Fisher left. We were worried when Annie Belanger left. We were concerned when Tia Chan was leaving, but I just think there is going to be someone who steps up. It has happened enough over the 13 years that we have been here.”

UConn has plenty of questions to answer before the 2026-27 season kicks off on Friday at St. Cloud State. Along with Chan, the Huskies lost their two top goal-scorers, thee others forwards with at least 15 points each and two key defenders. But none loom larger than the goaltender position.

“We have a little experience in net, so that will be our biggest question,” MacKenzie said. “We are going to need one of the three we have in there now to step up. We will see what happens.”

UConn has three candidates: Senior Shannon Moran, sophomore Taylor Belchetz and freshman Amelia Wilkinson.

While Moran is entering her fourth season with the Huskies, she doesn’t have much on-ice experience. She’s yet to start a game in her collegiate career and has played a grand total of 17:12 across two appearances. Moran started the second period of UConn’s exhibition with Quinnipiac last Saturday and stopped six of seven shots (an .875 save percentage).

Meanwhile, Belchetz is the only goalie on the Huskies’ roster with a start under her belt. She came in last year as a highly-touted prospect out of Ontario but only started a pair of games behind Chan. Belchetz got the nod against Quinnipiac and allowed a pair of goals on 13 shots (an .867 save percentage).

Wilkinson, a freshman, has already built an impressive resume. She won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2025 U18 World Championships, then claimed back-to-back national championships with Team Ontario in 2023 and 2024. Wilkinson brought home MVP honors both times. In the exhibition, she pitched a 14-save shutout in the third period.

MacKenzie won’t make a decision solely based on shot-stopping ability, though.

“I think who is looking confident,” he said when asked how he evaluates the position in practice. “Not only is it just stopping the puck, which all of us can see, it is more of: How are you working with the defensemen? How are you looking in breakouts? Are you managing the puck to get it out of our zone? Are you going to be able to come up with those 1-2 huge saves we are going to need at any point in time?”

There’s always some uncertainty that comes with a new goalie, especially when replacing a program legend like Chan. Still, UConn has a strong track record of developing elite net-minders. Since MacKenzie took over in 2013-14, the team’s primary goalie has posted a save percentage of .920 or better in all but two seasons.

The Huskies always figure it out between the pipes. This year should be no different.