While many of the conferences are setup in a No. 1 v. No 2 scenario for the conference title this upcoming weekend, how the conferences got there certainly was some captivating hockey with several surprises and overtimes aplenty.
The semifinal round for almost all the leagues is in the books. Here is how things played out on the ice over the weekend:
CNE
After Suffolk routed Johnson & Wales, 8-1 and Nichols stunned Curry, 4-1, the semifinal round was set for Saturday as UNE and Endicott were ready to play hosts.
Top-seed UNE may have started a bit slow against the Bison but a four-goal second period and five-goal third period put the exclamation point on a 10-0 rout for the Nor’easters. Forward Drew Olivieri paced the attack with four goals on his only four shots of the game.
Endicott and Suffolk played in the other semifinal and were deadlocked at 1-1 after two periods of play. Midway through the third period, Michael Casey broke the tie with a shorthanded goal and less than two minutes later, Collin Kleiser scored an unassisted goal to pad the Gulls advantage to two goals. Noah Gibbs sealed the 4-1 win with an empty-net goal late and goaltender Peter Sterling earned his 20th win of the season stopping 27 of 28 shots.
Endicott will face UNE for the CNE title on Saturday, March 7.
Little East
Massachusetts-Boston downed Southern Maine in first round action while Plymouth State took out VTSU-Castleton to set up the first ever Little East semifinals with Norwich and Babson ready for the mid-week winners.
No 1 Norwich matched goal outputs to period numbers as the Cadets scored one in the first, two in the second and three in the third to seal a comfortable 6-0 win over Massachusetts-Boston in the semifinal round. Zach Ophoven scored a pair of goals while goaltender Sami Molu picked up the shutout with 30 saves.
Babson also pitched a shutout in their game against PSU winning by a 4-0 score in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate. Egan Schmitt scored a pair of goals and added an assist while Evan Brown chipped in with a goal and two assists as the Beavers broke open a 1-0 game with three goals in the third period. Goaltender Nate Mueller earned the shutout stopping all 30 shot he faced from the Panthers.
Norwich will host Babson for the first ever Little East championship on Saturday evening in Kreitzberg Arena.
MAC
After a full week off, the top four teams in the MAC faced-off on Saturday to determine the two teams that will play for the title this weekend. Like many other leagues, the No 1 and No 2 seeded teams won on home ice to earn their place in the title game.
No 1 Neumann hosted Alvernia on Saturday and the Knights started fast with a three-goal first period on the way to a 5-0 shutout win. Jared Coccimiglio, Max Donohoe, and Nikolai Tishkevich each recorded a goal and assist in the win while goaltender Christian Green was solid in net making 29 saves to post the shutout.
Stevenson took the home-ice advantage via a tie-breaker over Wilkes and used that to their advantage on Saturday. The Mustangs scored a pair of goals in each period with six different players scoring in a 6-2 win over the Colonels. Ford DeLoss made thirty saves while Greg Spitznagel and John Musella each scored a goal and added an assist in the win.
Stevenson will travel to face Neumann on Saturday as the Mustangs seek to defend their MAC championship won in the conference’s inaugural season last year.
MASCAC
Westfield State and MCLA took first round victories on Thursday setting up Saturday’s semifinal round with Fitchburg State and Anna Maria playing host.
The Owls and Falcons played a thrilling game that saw the visitors take an early lead only to see the Falcons rally to tie the game in the final minute of regulation on a goal by first-year phenom Devin Niles. The late goal didn’t deter the Owls as Cooper Board scored an unassisted goal just over four minutes into the extra period to send Westfield State to a 4-3 OT win and spot in the title game. Goaltender Aiden Winslow was sensational making 41 saves to earn the win as FSU outshot the Owls by a 44-30 margin.
A re-match of last year’s semifinal round saw MCLA seeking another upset of host Anna Maria. Like last year the Trailblazers scored first and held a 1-0 lead until the third period when Pearce Baker tied the score for the AmCats in the opening minute of the period. Quinn Murphy netted a power play goal for MCLA to restore the one-goal advantage but Nolan Ring tied the score with less than eight minutes remaining which meant overtime was needed to determine a winner. It was Ring who played the hero for AMC scoring the overtime winner to send Anna Maria to their first ever MASCAC championship game with a 3-2 OT win.
The AmCats will host the Owls for the MASCAC title on Saturday at Horgan Arena where AMC is unbeaten so far this season.
MIAC
After Bethel downed St. Olaf in the first-round game on Wednesday night, the semifinal round was set with St. John’s hosting Bethel and Gustavus hosting St. Mary’s.
The Johnnies broke open a 1-1 game in the second period as Chris Kernan scored his first of two goals to give the home team a 2-1 lead after forty minutes of play. Kernan doubled the advantage with his second of the game midway through the third period and Jackson Borst iced the 4-1 win with a late goal to send the top-seeded Johnnies to the title game.
Gustavus was looking to punch their ticket to the championship and used a strong third period to pull away from St. Mary’s in a 6-1 win. A four-goal third period, including two goals from Riku Brown helped Gustavus ease to a comfortable win that sealed their spot in the championship game.
Gustavus will travel to face St. John’s in the MIAC title game on Saturday.
NCHA
The semifinal gauntlet in the NCHA saw four nationally ranked teams face-off for a shot at this week’s championship game and auto-bid to the NCAA tournament.
Top seed Adrian hosted Aurora and the Spartans wasted no time in putting the Bulldogs on their back foot with two goals in the opening three minutes of play. Jakson Kirk completed his hat trick to extend the Spartans advantage to 4-1 as Aurora cruised to an impressive 6-2 road win over Adrian.
St. Nobert hosted Trine in the other semifinal contest and the Green Knights took advantage of a strong third period to pull away from the Thunder in a 5-1 win. Braydon Beahm’s late third period goal extended SNC’s advantage to 3-1 and a pair of empty-net goals from Cooper Morris and Blake Ulve provided the final margin of victory.
St. Norbert will host Aurora for the NCHA championship on Saturday night.
NE-10
Following St. Anselm and Post wins in the first round over SNHU and Franklin Pierce respectively, the semifinal round saw the Hawks traveling to St. Michael’s and the Eagles playing top-seed Assumption.
St. A’s started fast with two goals in the first period only to see the Purple Knights tie the score with a goal in the second period and SJ Lecomte’s game-tying goal in the third period. Tied at the end of regulation, it took three overtime periods to decide the winner as Alec O’Connor finally found a way to get the puck behind goaltender Evan Plunkett who made 64 saves in the game and give the visitors a stunning 3-2 3OT victory.
In a game that featured tremendous goaltending from Post’s Benjamin Cunneen (51 saves) and Assumption’s Michael Salvatore (40 saves), overtime was needed to decide a winner as regulation ended with the two teams deadlocked at 1-1. Early in the extra session, Thomas McGaffigan netted the overtime winner to send Assumption to the NE-10 championship game.
Assumption will host St. Anselm on Saturday for the only D-II title contested.
NESCAC
The quarterfinals had two games go to overtime and an upset winner as the competitiveness of NESCAC hockey was on full display on Saturday.
Top seed Hamilton had its hands full with Conn College as the Continentals needed a late third period goal from Max Bulawka to tie the score at 4-4 and an overtime winning goal from Noah Leibl to escape with a 5-4 OT win.
No. 2 seed Bowdoin scored one goal in each period with Louie Marcellino scoring once and adding an assist in a 3-1 win over Amherst. Bryce Bollman also chipped in with a pair of assists to help the Polar Bears advance to the semifinals.
No. 3 seed Tufts faced a resurgent Williams squad on Saturday and held a 1-0 lead after the first period of play. The Ephs scored three unanswered goals to skate off with a 3-1 upset win backstopped by netminder Harrison Fogel’s 31 saves.
The always interesting No. 4 v. No. 5 game featured Wesleyan playing at Middlebury and for 58 minutes it appeared the visiting Cardinals were going to pull the upset. Trailing 2-0 Middlebury pulled the goalie twice and scored two extra-attacker goals to send the game to overtime. Wesleyan goaltender Patrick McDevitt was standing on his head making a tournament record 73 saves but surrendered the game-deciding goal to Middlebury’s Tyler Wishart in double overtime for the 3-2 final score.
On Saturday Hamilton will host the final four teams as Saturday’s semifinals will see the host school play Williams and Bowdoin play against Middlebury.
SUNYAC
The top four teams all advanced through the mid-week quarterfinal round setting up the semifinal round games hosted by Hobart and Oswego.
The No. 1 seed Hobart has yet to surrender a goal in the post season as the Statesmen blanked Cortland 4-0 on Saturday. Four different players scored goals while goaltender Damon Beaver picked up the shutout making 19 saves against the Red Dragons.
Oswego hosted Skidmore and the Lakers jumped out to a 3-0 lead quickly in the first period on their way to a 6-3 win over the Thoroughbreds. Justin Ryan scored two goals and added an assist while Colin Vassallo chipped in with three assists in the decisive win.
Hobart will host Oswego on Saturday in their first ever SUNYAC title game as new conference members this season.
UCHC
Both first round games needed overtime to help Chatham and Nazareth advance to semifinal round action against Geneseo and Utica respectively.
Aiden Hughes opened and closed the scoring for Utica as the Pioneers also scored a pair of power play goals from Andrew Della Rovere and John Gutt to down the Golden Flyers by a 4-1 score.
Chatham didn’t have much time to recover from the three-overtime thriller when they traveled to face Geneseo and both teams put their offense on display. Alex Dameski scored a pair of goals while Robert Gatewood added three assists in a 7-5 win for the Knights over the Cougars.
On Saturday, Utica will host the defending champions from Geneseo in re-match of last year’s UCHC title game.
WIAC
Noah Tyrrell scored in the third period and that was the only goal that netminder Sebastien Monaco would need in Wisconsin-Stout’s 1-0 semifinal win over UW-Stevens Point on Saturday in semifinal WIAC action. Monaco made 25 saves to earn the shutout win.
Wisconsin – River Falls took advantage of three goals in the second period to defeat UW- Eau Claire by a 4-1 margin. Keenan Ingram paced the offense with a goal and an assist to help UWRF return to the WIAC title game.
Top seed Wisconsin – Stout will host UWRF on Saturday for the WIAC title.
USCHO Game Pucks
Jakson Kirk – Aurora – recorded a hat trick to lead the Spartans to a 6-2 semifinal road win over Adrian on Saturday in NCHA playoff action.
Alec O’Connor – St. Anselm – netted the triple overtime game-winner as the Hawks defeated defending champion St Michael’s 3-2 in NE-10 semifinal action on Saturday.
Nolan Ring – Anna Maria – netted both the game-tying and overtime winning goal in the AmCats thrilling come-from-behind win over upset minded MCLA on Saturday in MASCAC tournament action.
Conference titles and NCAA tournament bids are up for grabs this coming weekend. It all comes down to the one game remaining for the teams that have survived to play for hardware!