The hunt is on for conference regular season titles, playoff seeding and teams building to their best hockey when it matters most. Lots of great conference battles this week with the prerequisite number of surprises and some new teams positioning themselves in the fray for the top of league standings.
Here’s a look at some of excitement that transpired on the ice over the weekend:
Rams move to the top of the CNE standings
Following weekend splits by the perennial top three (Curry, Endicott and UNE), the Suffolk Rams have ascended to the top of the CNE standings with their weekend sweep over Wentworth.
Building off last weekend’s split series with UNE, the Rams played a two-game series with Wentworth and won both contests in convincing fashion. On Friday, forward Aidan O’Connell dominated the Leopards scoring four goals while goaltender Austin McNicholas stopped all 23 shots he faced in a 5-0 shutout win. On Saturday, Marko Giourof scored a pair of goals, assisted by O’Connell as the Rams raced to a 4-0 advantage before WIT’s Ian Worthley broke McNicholas’ bid for back-to-back shutouts with a shorthanded goal in the third period. The Rams completed the weekend sweep with a 4-1 win.
At the end of weekend’s action Suffolk is atop the table with 25 points followed by UNE and Curry with 24 and Endicott with 23 setting up a great race to the end of the regular season.
Utica remains unbeaten in UCHC
Following Geneseo’s weekend split of games with Manhattanville and Utica’s impressive road victory over Nazareth, the Pioneers have put themselves in great position in the standings. Geneseo still heads the table by just one point over Utica but the Pioneers have two games in hand heading down the stretch run.
Utica continued their winning ways in the conference with a runaway 9-1 win over the Golden Flyers on Saturday night. After taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, Utica exploded for seven goals in the second period including three on the power play to blow out Nazareth for their sixth consecutive UCHC win while extending their win streak to five games. Gabriel Lundberg paced the Pioneers attack with two goals and an assist while Aydin Parekh and Nick Ahern each added a goal and two assists in the rout. Goaltender Frank Murphy made fifteen saves to earn the win for Utica.
NCHA race is heating up with four teams in the mix
Adrian has moved into the top spot in the ultra-competitive NCHA race and holds a three-point advantage over Aurora, Trine and St. Norbert as the conference battles heat up in the second half. While St. Norbert split two hard fought games with Concordia, Aurora, Trine and Adrian all swept their weekend series as the battles for points becomes more intense.
The Bulldogs had lost four games in a row including three non-conference games with Aurora and Trine before an exhibition loss to the USNDP team last weekend. Returning to conference action against Lake Forest, Adrian needed the wins and points to get some momentum going their way and found their game with 6-1 and 6-2 wins.
On Friday, six different goal scorers chipped in for the Bulldogs while forward Bradley Somers recorded four assists in the comfortable win. Saturday’s return match saw the home Bulldogs continue their offensive prowess with five first period goals on the way to a 6-2 win. Thirteen different players recorded a point as Adrian showcased depth scoring and back-to-back contests with six different goal scorers.
Neumann takes big sweep; Alvernia moving up in MAC
Following a series split with Stevenson, Neumann played a two-game series with Wilkes and took a pair of wins to extend their point lead in the MAC to four points.
On Friday night, the Knights and Colonels were deadlocked at 1-1 until late in the third period where Shawn Eliav scored a power play goal for the visitors which stood as the game-winner in a 2-1 win for Neumann. Goaltender Christian Green was outstanding for Neumann making 32 saves in the one-goal win. Saturday also saw a one-goal game as the Colonels rallied from a 2-1 deficit to tie the game before on the second intermission on a Matt Carlson goal. In the third period Dustin Patterson gave the visitors the 3-2 lead and Green made the goal stand up in a 3-2 victory for the weekend sweep.
Alvernia has very quietly moved into the hunt for the top spot in the standings with a weekend sweep of Arcadia that moved the Golden wolves into third place, just one point behind Stevenson and five points behind league-leaders, Neumann.
On Friday night it was the Anthony Piccininno show as the Alvernia forward provided all the scoring for the Golden Wolves with a hat trick in a 3-1 win over Arcadia. On Sunday, Alvernia needed a comeback win as they trailed the Knights 2-0 entering the third period. Edvin Robertsson cut the deficit in half in the opening minute of play in the final period and Gabriel Flammia and Leo Cabulis scored later in the period to give the home team a 3-2 win which extended their win streak to five games.
Southern Maine in position to battle Norwich, Babson in Little East
While it is not surprising to see Norwich and Babson atop the league standings, Southern Maine has moved into third place with the three teams separated by just two points following this past weekend’s action.
While Norwich swept opponents Keene State and Western Connecticut State and Babson defeated Massachusetts-Dartmouth and UMass-Boston (in overtime), Southern Maine split their weekend with the Beacons and Corsairs to stay in the hunt.
After dropping a tough 4-3 loss on Friday to the Beacons who scored in the final three minutes of regulation to take the win, the Huskies bounced back with a 3-1 win over UMD on Saturday. Ben Aucoin, Owen Drummey and Kayde Kinaschuk gave USM a 3-0 advantage and goaltender Loic Morin surrendered just one goal while making 43 saves in the win.
Hamilton and Bowdoin separating from pack in NESCAC
The Continentals and Polar Bears took advantage of important weekend sweeps to extend their point advantages over the rest of the league in the always congested NESCAC standings.
Hamilton remained unbeaten in conference play with wins over Tufts and Connecticut College that extended their points margin to five over second place Bowdoin. A shorthanded goal, a power play goal and an empty-net goal constituted the scoring for Hamilton in their 3-1 win over Tufts on Friday night. Saturday saw the offense ramp up for six goals in a 6-0 shutout of the Camels. Special teams paced the attack as the Continentals scored three times on the power play and added a shorthanded goal from Carson Hall in the comfortable win.
Bowdoin rebounded from last weekend’s pair of losses with wins over Trinity and Wesleyan. The Polar Bears ended the Bantams win streak with a 4-2 win, breaking a 2-2 tie in the third period to take the win on Friday night. On Saturday, two goals from Gabe Shipper and a 23-save shutout performance from Jacob Osborne gave Bowdoin a 3-0 win and extended their points advantage over third place Colby to five.
USCHO Game Pucks
Blake Hazelton – Concordia (WI) – made a first minute goal for the Falcons stand up in a 1-0 win over No. 3 ranked St Norbert on Friday night. Hazelton recorded a career high 43 saves to earn the shutout win.
Aidan O’Connell – Suffolk – scored four goals in a 5-0 win over Wentworth on Friday night. O’Connell scored on the power play, shorthanded (empty-net) and even-strength to pace the Rams attack.
Anthony Piccininno – Alvernia – produced all the offense for the Golden Wolves in a 3-1 win over Arcadia on Friday night. Piccininno recorded his hat trick goal in the final minute to ice the win.
With just another four to five weeks remaining on the schedule, the conference games are going to be all-important for every team looking to secure their place in the playoffs, seeking a home-ice berth or take the regular season title. Lots to play for so look for the intensity to ramp up, if that is even possible!