Gone is the Commonwealth Coast Conference as this season a re-brand re-names the 40-year old league to the Conference of New England or the CNE. While the eight-team league for hockey maintains the same number of competitors, two Rhode Island schools have swapped leagues for the 2024-25 season with Salve Regina moving to the NEHC while Johnson & Wales move to the CNE for the season.
Over the past few seasons, the top four teams (now minus Salve Regina) have been battling for the league title with multiple teams enjoying a championship and others with at-large berths in the NCAA tournament. With the number of at-large bids decreasing due to the addition of the MAC conference this year and Little East next year, the impetus to win the CNE is a must for any team with national championship aspirations.
The Favorites
Curry very nearly de-railed Hobart’s national championship run falling on the road in the quarterfinals in quadruple overtime, 4-3. The game saw freshman goaltender Shane Soderwall make 98 saves and the now sophomore netminder is back to help the Colonels in pursuit of an elusive conference title and national title run. There is a great supporting cast including Matt Connor on the blueline and Gage Dill bringing some dynamic skill at forward. The first four games may say a lot about Curry’s aspirations as they face Massachusetts-Boston and Norwich before opening the CNE schedule with a pair of games against rival Endicott.
Endicott returns to play as the two-time defending conference champions but without key offensive pieces who have graduated including Jackson Sterrett, but conference player-of-the-year, Andrew Kurapov returns to lead the attack. The strength of the Gulls is their goaltending tandem of Atticus Kelly and Ryan Wilson who enter their third season paired together having alternated games during each of the past two seasons. RJ Tolan teams have always been fast and deep so look for the Gulls to find some new names to be frequent contributors on the scoresheet.
The Dark Horses
UNE has lost a big contributor to their recent success in goaltender Billy Girard IV who has moved on to Boston University so look for a battle among Joey Stanizzi, Stefan Carney and Stefan Kulhanek as the main man in the crease for the Nor’easters. Leadership and skill upfront is still strong for coach Kevin Swallow’s squad with Ryan Kuzmich, Anthony Sciucco and Dylan Schuett expected to help bring this year’s edition of UNE hockey to success on the ice. Chip Hamlett and Jacob Pellerin lead an aggressive defensive group. If the goaltending steps up, look for the Nor’easters to be among the teams battling at the top of the standings.
Coach Alex Gacek has re-tooled the Nichols roster adding ten freshman to a roster dominated by sophomores (10) with a season under their belt. Leadership will come from senior forwards nathan Carl and Luke Harvie along with graduate student Joey Allegrini on defense. If the Bison gel quickly, they could be a very relevant dark horse come the playoffs.
Players to watch:
Curry: Matt Connor – defense; Gage Dill – forward
Endicott: Atticus Kelly – goaltender; Ryan Wilson – goaltender
Johnson & Wales: Declan Dennehy – forward; Brendan Shandley – forward
Nichols: Nathan Carl – forward; Kaiden Scott – forward
Suffolk: Devin Lowe – forward; Kyle Valiquette – forward
University of New England: Chip Hamlett – defense; Ryan Kuzmich- forward
Wentworth: Nolan Lowe – forward; Mitch McGinn – forward
Western New England: Sam Mitchell – forward; Justin Sullivan – forward
USCHO Predicted finish
- Curry
- Endicott
- University of New England
- Nichols
- Johnson & Wales
- Suffolk
- Wentworth
- Western New England
There are some interesting non-conference matchups slated for the opening weekend including Plymouth State visiting the University of New England, Norwich traveling to Curry and Endicott hosting Southern Maine. Nichols will play in the Worcester City Cup tournament looking for some early season hardware against a strong field of teams including Assumption, Anna Maria and Worcester State.
