What a weekend that was with a lot of league action taking place across the country. There are still some unbeatens across the D-III landscape with some expected (Hobart and Aurora) and some surprise teams (Chatham, UNE, Oswego, Endicott and Salve Regina) keeping goose-eggs in the loss column at the very unofficial quarter pole of the season. We also some teams rebound from poor starts (Utica) as well as some critical head-to-head matchups that produced significant weekend sweeps for Aurora over Adrian, Geneseo over Albertus Magnus, St Olaf over Gustavus and Babson and UNE staying undefeated in the Little East and CNE respectively. NESCAC kicked off with Hamilton starting strong and Trinity dropping a pair of games to conn College and Tufts.
Here’s this week’s thrilling wrap-up of the game action around the country:
New league, same result for No. 1 Hobart
The Statesmen entered their first weekend of SUNYAC play with a 4-0 record and sent a clear message to the conference that they are there to win. On Friday, Hobart downed fellow NEHC contender Skidmore 6-1 as Khalil Fontana netted four goals for the home team to pace the comfortable win.
On Saturday, a determined Plattsburgh team played the Statesmen close as Chris Duclair’s goal was the only tally in the first two periods. Fontana netted his fifth of the weekend to extend the lead before Easton Ryan sealed the 3-0 shutout win with an empty-net goal to move Hobart to 6-0-0 overall and 2-0-0 in SUNYAC play. Damon Beaver stopped 22 shots to earn the shutout.
Physical battle in NCHA goes to aurora with sweep over Adrian
The battle between the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams in the nation produced some high-intensity hockey as Aurora took advantage of home-ice and swept previously unbeaten Adrian for two big conference wins.
Friday saw the Aurora jump to a 3-0 advantage with Adrian knotting the contest with three in the second period. Aurora recovered their advantage in the third period with Adrian closing the gap to just one goal in the final two minutes of regulation time. An empty-net goal by Jackson Kirk sealed the 6-4 win in a physical game that saw sixty minutes in penalties.
Saturday saw goals at a premium as spartan netminder Matt O’Donnell stop all 28 Bulldog attempts on goal and Ryan Piros keeping pace for Adrian. In a game that again saw its fair share of penalties, one in overtime would cost Adrian as Jaden Davis netted the overtime winner for the Spartans on the power-play for a 1-0 win and weekend sweep.
Independent Seahawks flourishing in the early going
When the conference re-alignment merry-go-round stopped last season, Salve Regina found themselves as the singular odd-man out and is playing an independent schedule this season before joining the CNE (Pre-NEHC stomping grounds) for the 2026-2027 season. With an off-season coaching change and ambiguity around even the full schedule, the Seahawks could have used a lot of excuses for maybe some limited achievement. Nothing could be further from that as first-year coach Jay Punsky has the Seahawks unbeaten through their first four games.
On Tuesday, the high-powered SRU offense dominated Rivier in a 9-3 win. Evan Grabanopoulos scored two goals, and Cade DeStefani scored two goals and added two assists in the runaway win. Through their first four games, Salve Regina has outscored their opponents by a 26-6 margin.
Unbeaten number is dwindling; remaining teams showing strong play
Babson moved to 6-0 on the season with a weekend sweep of games with Norwich and VTSU- Castleton by 4-3 scores in Little East Action.
Friday saw forward Jimmy Fallon (not the Tonight Show host) net a hat trick and the game-winning goal in a one-goal victory over the Cadets. Saturday saw the Beavers rally from a 3-1 deficit with three goals in the third period including the game-winner by Fallon for a 4-3 win over the Spartans.
Oswego moved to 4-0 on the season in dramatic fashion over the weekend as a re-match of last season’s SUNYAC title game delivered a thriller. Plattsburgh took an early 1-0 lead only to see the Lakers respond with a pair of goals for a 2-1 lead in the first four minutes of the third period. Plattsburgh tied the game at 2-2 and it looked like overtime was a likely outcome. Travis Baker had other ideas as he netted the game winner in the final two seconds of regulation to thrill the home crowd in a 3-2 Lakers win over the Cardinals.
Saturday saw another defensive battle with Skidmore that again found the Lakers rallying in the third period from a 1-0 deficit to earn a 3-1 win with goals from Drake Semrad, Josh Simpson and Tommy Bannister.
The Chatham Cougars are off to a hot start in the UCHC as they moved to 6-0-0 on the season with a weekend sweep over Nazareth in conference play. Five different players scored goals in the 5-1 win over the Golden Flyers on Friday night before Kyle Contessa and Michael Roby scored third period goals to rally the Cougars from a 2-1 deficit for the 3-2 win. Goaltender Cameron Kuntar stopped 33 shots to earn the comeback win.
The University of New England moved to 5-0-0 with weekend wins over Roger Williams and Western New England in CNE play where the Nor’easters have yet to surrender more than one goal in a game to any opponent. In Friday’s 7-1 win, Dominic Murphy recorded one goal and two assists while Drew Olivieri scored two goals and added an assist in the lopsided win. Against the golden Bears, two power play goals from Elias Juraj and Olivieri helped UNE recover from being one-goal behind in a 3-1 win to remain unbeaten.
Oles take a big weekend sweep over Gustavus Adolphus in MIAC play
St Olaf picked up a couple of early season statement wins in conference with a weekend sweep over Gustavus Adolphus.
Four first period goals including two off the stick of Tyler Green gave the visiting Oles a big lead as they cruised to a 5-2 win on the road on Friday.
Back on home ice on Saturday, St Olaf scored twice in the opening period for a 2-1 lead that goaltender Ryan Nolan made standup for the win. Nolan made 34 saves with 28 over the final two periods to back St Olaf to the two-game series win.
USCHO Game Pucks
Jimmy Fallon – Babson – scored a hat trick, including the game-winning goal in Friday’s 4-3 win over Norwich before netting the game-winner on Saturday in a 4-3 win over VTSU-Castleton that kept the Beavers inbeaten on the season.
Khalil Fontana – Hobart – scored four goals in Hobart’s SUNYAC opening season win over Skidmore on Friday night. Fontana totaled five goals on the weekend as he added one in the 3-0 win over Plattsburgh on Saturday.
Patrick DiMarinis – St Anselm – the Hawks’ forward helped St Anselm pick up their first win of the season by scoring a hat trick in a 9-3 rout of southern New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon.
The upsets continued across the D-II/III landscape with ranked Trinity dropping a pair of games to open NESCAC play as well as previously unbeaten SUNY-Canton dropping games to Potsdam and Hamilton after a 4-0 start. Utica found the win column with a two-game sweep of Brockport and Endicott remains unbeaten with a sweep of Wentworth. St Norbert took two games over the weekend setting up a great two-game series with Aurora this weekend. Great action is clearly not difficult to find so get out to watch some great hockey wherever you have a team nearby – it will be worth the trip!!