They say to be the best you have to beat the best and no coach exemplifies that more than Hamilton head coach Rob Haberbusch whose team overcame some late season challenges to win four consecutive games in the NCAA tournament and win their first-ever national championship after defeating previously unbeaten and three-time defending champions, Hobart, in the title game. With all due and major respect to Hobart head coach Mark Taylor whose team broke many long-time records and played dominant hockey this season, Haberbusch’s Hamilton squad rebounded from consecutive losses to close out the regular season as well as a loss in the NESCAC conference tournament to re-establish their brand of hockey on the national stage where they survived two overtime battles in the quarterfinal round and national championship game.
Hamilton finished the season at 23-5-2 overall and had strong success early in the season that featured key non-conference wins over Utica and Plymouth State as well as dominant play in the always super-competitive NESCAC conference. Entering the month of February, the Continentals had only one regulation loss on their record and then stumbled a bit in the final stretch of the regular season including back-to-back losses on home ice to Williams and Middlebury to close out the regular season.
Hamilton eked out an overtime win over Connecticut College in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC tournament but again lost to Williams in overtime in the semifinal round meaning they would need an at-large berth for the national tournament. NPI and body of work overall gave the Continentals a high seed in the tournament and with a fully healthy roster, they tackled the tournament with a great and fast brand of hockey that led to a first round win over Neumann (6-2); an overtime win over Norwich (2-1) in the quarterfinal round that earned Hamilton their first Frozen Four appearance; a crazy semifinal round game against Aurora that saw a potential tying goal for the Spartans reviewed for a No-goal call before a couple of empty-net goals put some breathing room in a 6-3 win and finally the overtime epic against Hobart where Luke Tchor set-up first-year forward Curtiss Sturgeon for the winning goal late in the first overtime period. Overall, Hamilton played five overtime games in their final seven contests this season winning two of the three that mattered most in the NCAA tournament.
Haberbusch has continuously improved the Continentals results including moving from last year’s NESCAC title and quarterfinal round game in the NCAA tournament to this year’s championship title. He has 186 wins in his fourteen seasons at Hamilton and is 85-40-7 in the past five seasons with two NCAA appearances (three overall).