Well, that’s a wrap!! Leagues playing their final weekends saw battles for the top spot as well as tiebreakers invoked to determine who plays in post-season tournament action. Just goes to show that every point matters right to the bitter end. Oh, and there were some playoff games contested as well that set up semifinals among the Big 4 in the NCHA and set the semifinals for the WIAC as well.
League by league, here is the recap for what happened to shape the playoff picture this weekend across the D-II/III landscape:
CNE
The University of New England clinched the top spot over the weekend by virtue of their win over Nichols on Saturday night. Endicott’s tie with Johnson & Wales combined with Suffolk and Curry splitting their two-game series meant the Gulls secured the second seed with the Rams and Colonels following in third and fourth place respectively.
That means the Nor’easters and Gulls have first round byes and await the outcome of Wednesday night’s first round games. No. 4 seed Curry will host No. 5 Nichols while No. 3 Suffolk will host No. 6 Johnson & Wales with the winners advancing to the semifinals on Saturday night. UNE awaits the winner of the Nichols v Curry contest while Endicott awaits the winner from the J&W v Suffolk game.
Congratulations to Curry head coach Peter Roundy on earning his 100th win in Saturday’s victory over Suffolk.
Little East
A 1-1 overtime tie with cross-state rival VTSU-Castleton was all Norwich needed to secure the regular season title in the first season for the Little East Conference. Babson split a pair of games with New England College and Plymouth State securing the second-place position and first round bye in the inaugural Little East conference tournament.
On Wednesday night, No. 3 seed Plymouth State will host No. 6 VTSU-Castleton while No. 4 seed Southern Maine will host No. 5 Massachusetts-Boston. The winners will advance to the semifinals on Saturday where the Cadets and Beavers will play host to the winners of first round games.
MAC
Neumann secured the regular season title in the MAC while Stevenson and Wilkes fought it out for the second spot in the standings. With both teams securing 4-1 wins to close out the regular season schedule, both teams were deadlocked on 41 points. It was the Mustangs who held the tiebreaker over the Colonels and therefore take the No. 2 seed while Wilkes is the No. 3 seed. Alvernia rounds out the four-team playoff field that will play semifinal action on Saturday, February 28.
No. 1 Neumann will host No. 4 Alvernia while No. 2 Stevenson looks to take advantage of home -ice that the tiebreaker gave them in the match-up with No. 3 Wilkes. The winners will meet in the championship game on Saturday, March 7.
MASCAC
The Anna Maria AmCats secured their first regular season title in their second season in the MASCAC. AMC went on a heater at the right time of the season closing out the regular season campaign with a ten-game win streak and finishing unbeaten on home ice. They secured a first- round bye in the MASCAC tournament and will host a semifinal opponent on Saturday, February 28 pending quarterfinal action results earlier in the week.
Fitchburg State, who struggled in the final couple of weeks secured the second seed by tiebreaker over Westfield State, despite losing to the Owls in the season finale and Salem State rallied with a strong second half to secure the No. 4 seed in the upcoming tournament.
MIAC
In a conference that saw new leaders almost every weekend in the second half, it was the St. John’s Johnnies who captured the regular season title on the final weekend of play with wins over Concordia (MN) that kept them just ahead of Gustavus and St. Mary’s.
The final weekend determined the final seeding as Gustavus took the No. 2 seed on a tiebreaker with St. Mary’s while Bethel (despite an overtime loss to St. Olaf) secured the No. 4 seed with the Oles earning the fifth and final playoff position.
Wednesday night’s quarterfinal round will see Bethel hosting St Olaf in a quick turnaround from the regular season finale. The two teams played three times during the season including one non-conference game going 1-1-1 setting up the win-or-go-home matchup in Blaine, MN on Wednesday.
Saturday’s semifinal round will see No. 2 Gustavus host No. 3 St. Mary’s while top seed, St. John’s will play the winner of Wednesday’s opening round game.
NCHA
The quarterfinal round of the conference tournament took place this past weekend and no surprise, the top four seeded teams advanced setting up a monumental semifinal round this weekend amongst the four nationally ranked teams.
Top seed Adrian had no trouble with Lake Forest in their two-game series winning both games comfortably 6-2 and 10-1 to advance. The Bulldogs will host No. 4 seed Aurora who dispatched MSOE in convincing fashion by outscoring the Raiders by a 14-2 margin in the two wins. Jakson Kirk netted three goals in the two games for the Spartans.
No. 2 seed St. Norbert also advanced to the semifinal round with 5-2 and 8-1 wins over Concordia (WI) setting up a semifinal matchup with Trine. The Thunder won 4-1 on Friday but needed Brody Simko’s overtime goal on Saturday to oust Marian with a 3-2 OT win.
NE-10
Assumption with Jonathan Surrette’s 61 points (32G – 29 A) cruised to the regular season title and earned a first-round bye along with No.2 seed and defending champions, St, Michael’s.
They will both await the outcomes from Tuesday’s first round action that finds No. 3 St. Anselm hosting cross-town rival, No. 6 Southern New Hampshire while No. 4 Post hosts No. 5 Franklin Pierce. The winners advance to the semifinal round scheduled for Saturday, February 28.
NESCAC
The Hamilton Continentals secured their second consecutive regular season title despite losing both games of the weekend to Williams and Middlebury. Bowdoin had also locked down the No. 2 seed but everywhere else there was drama playing out on the ice as the remaining eight teams were battling to secure either home-ice or a playoff berth in the closely contested conference.
After Saturday’s final regular season action, Colby, Conn College and Trinity were all tied on 21 points with the Camels taking the tiebreaker on regulation wins to take the eighth and final playoff position eliminating the Bantams (cannot remember the last time a Trinity team was not in the tournament) and Mules from post-season play.
Saturday’s quarterfinal round shapes up this way – No. 1 seed Hamilton will host No. 8 Conn College; No. 2 Bowdoin will play No. 7 Amherst; No. 3 Tufts will play No. 6 Williams and No. 4 Middlebury will face-off with No. 5 Wesleyan.
Added congratulations to Cardinals head coach Chris Potter who earned his 200th career win in Friday’s pivotal win over Trinity.
SUNYAC
There has not been much doubt about who the top seed would be in the SUNYAC as Hobart steamrolled the league schedule going 18-0-0 on the way to a perfect 25-0-0 regular season. The Statesmen have been dominant surrendering just 25 goals in their 25 games (recorded 11 shutouts) while scoring 140 to date. The No. 1 seed will host No. 8 Fredonia in a re-match from Saturday’s 7-0 win in Wednesday’s quarterfinal action.
No. 2 Oswego will host No. 7 Buffalo State; No. 3 Skidmore will face-off with No. 6 Plattsburgh while No. 4 Cortland will play No. 5 Canton. The winners will advance to Saturday’s semifinal round.
UCHC
Utica rebounded from a tough weekend against Geneseo and downed Chatham in both games of a two-game series to secure the regular season title. In Saturday’s 10-3 rout, Drake Morse scored four goals and added an assist in the Pioneers runaway victory. Despite splitting with Brockport in the final two games of the regular season, Geneseo finished second and secured their first-round bye.
Wednesday’s first-round action will see No. 3 Chatham hosting No. 6 SUNY-Brockport while No. 4 Nazareth will play No. 5 Albertus Magnus. The lowest remaining seed will face Utica on Saturday while the highest remaining seed will travel to Geneseo in Saturday’s semifinal round.
WIAC
In an exciting first-round matchup, Wisconsin – Stevens Point went on the road and took a dramatic 2-1 win from Wisconsin – Superior to advance to the semifinal round of the WIAC tournament. Alec Hamady gave the visitors the early lead just 39 seconds into the opening period but Ikki Kogawa leveled the score at 1-1 in the second period. Alex Johnson scored the game-winner for the Pointers with less than six minutes remaining in regulation and Alex proctor made it stand up for the win as he made 40 saves on the night for UWSP.
USCHO Game Pucks
David Filak – Brockport – recorded 55 saves in leading the Golden Eagles to a stunning 3-2 upset over Geneseo on Friday night. Filak was saved his best for the third period where he made 21 saves to preserve the one-goal win
Brody Simko – Trine – netted the overtime game winner for the Thunder in Saturday’s decisive series winner over Marian to advance Trine to the NCHA semifinal round.
Andrew Palena – Amherst – the Mammoth goaltender recorded back-to-back shutouts in a pair of much needed wins to secure playoff eligibility. Palena stopped 28 shots in Friday’s 3-0 win over Middlebury and 26 shots in Saturday’s playoff-clinching 6-0 win over Williams.
It is all on the line now with conference hardware on the line over the next two weekends. Doesn’t matter how you got there, it does matter what you do with the opportunity. As world-famous hockey commentator “Doc” Emrich has said, “A goaltender can steal a game, a period or a season.” For everyone who watched that drama play out in the Canada v. USA gold medal game yesterday, Connor Hellebucyk did just that and there is abundant opportunity for college netminders to do the same for their teams starting this week in playoff competition.