Chris LerchNot that anyone would bet on Division III hockey, but if they did, then the USCHO.com Preseason Poll has been more accurate than many of those 800-number betting lines. The first edition of the poll has correctly picked the national champion in three of the past five seasons. It was incorrect in 1999 (RIT was … Read more
Preseason coaches’ polls were released for the ECAC East, ECAC West, SUNYAC and NCHA, and in all cases the coaches don’t see a lot changing at the top in their respective leagues. Defending NCAA Division III champion Norwich is a near unanimous choice to repeat as league champs in the 2003-04 ECAC East Coaches’ Poll. … Read more
From TV commercials to jerseys in the crowd, the Frozen Four had plenty of minutiae.
The Gophers’ lone senior went out with a bang … two titles and a goal in the final game.
Peter Sejna made history, becoming the first European to win the Hobey Baker Award.
A disallowed goal in the first period of the NCAA semifinal cost Cornell the momentum.
In last Saturday’s NCAA quarterfinal game, the Norwich Cadets found themselves trailing Trinity 4-1 after two periods. Coach Mike McShane told his team, “If you come back and win this game, I guarantee that you’ll win the national championship.” “I went out on a bit of a limb,” he acknowledged. Norwich captains Marshall Lee, Toza … Read more
Teams that won the early semifinal have won more D-III championships. Is the late game a disadvantage?
For the second year in a row, the second year under the current NCAA Division III hockey selection/seeding process, the West Region will battle down to a single team before the semifinals. Even though there were three NCHA teams in the top five all season long, a 6-3 East-West split resulted in the play-in game … Read more
The NCAA has released the pairings for the 2003 Division III Men’s Hockey Championships. (Full Bracket) Oswego (23-6-1), which won the SUNYAC title by defeating Plattsburgh two games to one in the SUNYAC finals, will host ECAC East champion Wentworth (21-4-3) on Saturday, March 15. The teams met twice this season, with Oswego winning both … Read more
Answers to your nagging selection criteria questions.
St. Norbert and St. John’s know they’re in the NCAAs. A few other teams have a pretty good feeling, but for the rest it’ll be a nailbiting weekend.
West is West and East is East, and never the twain shall meet — well, until finishing conference postseason play.
Several top teams get an unaccustomed break; two more leagues open postseason play; and the last weekend in the ECAC East and NESCAC is required to settle a lot of questions.
With the postseason lurking — and in some places, already starting — Chris Lerch outlines playoff scenarios across the nation.
A determined Chris Lerch shrugs off a bout of pneumonia to bring you the playoff picture across Division III, not to mention an update on his television viewing.
Division III will see some changes, thanks to the recently-concluded NCAA Convention; and Middlebury battles without Bill Beaney.
The annual NCAA Convention recently wrapped up, with little implication for hockey. However, two proposals did impact Division III. (This item is discussed in further detail in Chris Lerch’s Division III column. ed.). Proposition 41 would have reduced the length of Division III winter sports, including hockey, from 21 weeks to 19 weeks. It was … Read more
By The Numbers Since I’m a stats geek, I love USCHO’s PairWise Rankings (PWR) and Rating Percentage Index (RPI). The PWR attempts to mimic the Division III selection committee’s criteria for picking at-large teams and seeding the field, while the RPI is used by many Division I sports as a key indicator of a team’s … Read more
It’s Crunching Time Whip out your slide rules. The coming of a New Year also means that its time for USCHO to release its PairWise Rankings (PWR) and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) for the current season. The PWR for each region approximates the Division III selection committee’s process for picking at-large teams and seeding the … Read more