The UCHC was among the most impacted D-III hockey conferences moving from an 11-team league in 2023-24 to just a six-team conference in 2024-25 before further planned re-alignment for the 2025-26 campaign. Misericordia, with head coach Kevin Cole, will field its inaugural D-III hockey squad this season that enables an eight-team MAC league creating their own conference away from the UCHC with an auto-bid to the national tournament. Brockport and Geneseo have departed the SUNYAC to join the UCHC this season and the end result is a six-team UCHC featuring defending champion Utica, Chatham, Nazareth, and Manhattanville.
The Favorites
Utica reached the Frozen Four last season where they fell to eventual national champion Hobart. This season, coach Gary Heenan has a deep team that is expected to win the UCHC and pursue another opportunity at a national championship. The goaltending tandem of Bryan Landesberger and Ethan Roberts returns with All-American Brian Scoville leading the defense. An abundance of riches at forward includes Eric Vitale, Shane Murphy, John Gutt, Jakob Breault, Andrew Della Rovere and Matt Wood who showed productivity and versatility last season with different lines. Added firepower comes with the addition of transfer Johnny Mulera from Salve Regina who has proven to be a prolific point producer in his time with the Seahawks. Utica is the defending champion and will look to maintain their dominance in the newly configured UCHC.
Geneseo brings a championship pedigree to the UCHC as a direct challenger to Utica’s recent dominance. Coach Chris Schultz has seen his Knights’ teams dominate the SUNYAC in stretches and have success in reaching the Frozen Four. This year’s Geneseo squad will rely on some significant leadership in all facets of the game. The goaltending tandem of Adam Harris and Jacob Torgner is outstanding while the forward group features Peter Morgan, Stefan Miklakos, Alex Zameski, Cooper Fensterstock, and Zach Purcell. The defense is led by Diarmad DiMurro and Dakota Zarudny. A new league brings new challenges but Geneseo is familiar with most of these teams in prior non-conference battles that will have more meaning and points attached this year.
The Dark Horses
Manhattanville will rely heavily on the goaltending of Sebastien Woods and leadership and scoring of senior Artem Matiechenko. The majority of the roster (17 players) is made up of sophomores and freshmen which will need some gelling as a group for the Valiants to realize their full potential. Coach David Turco always has his team ready to go for a full sixty minutes of more so there will be no easy points taken from games against Manhattanville who will be looking to establish some dominant play at the their home rink in Rye, NY and the Playland Ice Casino.
Nazareth will be playing this season as a send-off to long-time coach and national championship coach, George Roll who has enjoyed an outstanding career with the game he loves so much. Coach-in-waiting, James McDonald will be a crucial element in how the Golden Flyers go this season noting that while the top three scorers from last season return (Anthony Quinlivan, Blake Frost and Logan Tobias) the team did not have a 20-point player nor a ten-goal scorer. Jump starting the offense will be essential to the team’s compete level in conference so look for some of the younger players to contribute where it matters most, on the scoreboard.
Players to watch
Brockport: Josh Grund – forward; Chase Maxwell – forward
Chatham: Nick Cyprian – forward; Bekk McClaine – forward
Geneseo: Peter Morgan – forward; Adam Harris – goaltender
Manhattanville: Artem Mateichenko – forward; Sebastien Woods – goaltender
Nazareth: Blake Frost – forward; Logan Tobias – forward
Utica: Johnny Mulera – forward; Brian Scoville – defense
USCHO predicted finish
- Utica
- Geneseo
- Nazareth
- Manhattanville
- Brockport
- Chatham
The start of the season brings the annual east-west rivalry of Utica traveling to face Adrian along with Nazareth traveling to Elmira, Geneseo hosting Wilkes and Brockport playing St. Anselm in the opening round of the Buffalo State tournament.
