Brittany Howard (ice hockey)


Brittany Howard is a Canadian ice hockey player. She is from St. Thomas, Ontario. Howard currently plays for the Robert Morris University Colonials women's ice hockey team. She was drafted in the third round of the 2017 NWHL draft by the Buffalo Beauts after being named the top prospect in the nation.

Junior

Howard attended Parkside Collegiate Institute in Saint Thomas, Ontario, where she was named MVP of her basketball team, received the Award of Excellence, and was a three-time honor student. Howard played four seasons of junior hockey in London, Ontario with the London Devilettes of the Provincial Women's Hockey League. On October 21, 2012, Howard scored seven points to tie the league single-game record in a 7–3 win against the Kitchener-Waterloo Rangers. Howard was an alternate captain and led the Devilettes in scoring in her final season. Along with other Devilettes Jessica Dodds and Tia Kipfer, Howard earned a place at Robert Morris in 2013, joining former Devilettes Anneline Lauziere and Erin Staniewski. All eleven graduating players from the Devilettes 2012–13 squad would move on to play for NCAA or CIS schools.

NCAA

Howard first played for Robert Morris University in the 2013–14 season. During the 2013–14 season, she made an immediate impact, being named the CHA Player of the month in her first month of play. The addition of Howard was credited with improving the tenth-ranked team's overall offense and making it harder to defend. That season, she led all rookies in the country in assists and points. She was named to the USCHO All-Rookie Team, the CHA All-Rookie Team and the CHA All-Star Second Team.
Howard played only two games in 2014–15 due to a knee injury. The injury gives her an extra year of NCAA eligibility. The team missed her point total of 41 in 2013–14 which led the team, while in 2014–15 the team leader had 21 points. Howard returned in September 2015 to bolster their offence. In the 2015–16 season, she was a CHA First Team All-Star, leading the conference in points. She finished the season being named ASN Women's Player of the Week after back-to-back three-point games and led the team in goals and points.
The 2016–17 season was Howard's best year to date, as she was named the CHA Player of the Year, with multiple Player of the month accolades, on the strength of 20 goals and 30 assists. Her 50 points were the tenth best in the nation, as she was the offensive leader during Robert Morris' first season in which they won the CHA conference championship and played in the NCAA Tournament. Number 8-ranked RMU would lose in the first round to the no. 1-ranked University of Wisconsin. During the season, Howard surpassed Rebecca Vint as the all-time leading scorer for the RMU program.
The NWHL named Howard the top available prospect in the nation. As she committed to completing her senior year at Robert Morris, she was drafted 10th overall by the Buffalo Beauts, the first CHA Conference member to be drafted by the league. Howard, along with Jaycee Gebhard and Amber Rennie who contributed 42% of RMU's points, are returning and Robert Morris is the favorite to win the CHA again in 2017–18.

Career statistics

NCAA

Source: USCHO.

Awards and honours