Tim Costello
After a scintillating Saturday of first-round action, we now move to the quarterfinals where three of the four games are an east vs. west affair that will determine not only the participants for the Frozen Four to close out the season at the end of March but also the location for the semifinal and championship … Read more
The sole representative from the west that will be hosting a quarterfinal game is Aurora who earned the right with a 3-2 win over Wisconsin Eau-Claire in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Their opponent from the east is the newly crowned champions of the UCHC, Geneseo, who punched their ticket to the quarterfinals … Read more
The only quarterfinal game that does note feature an east v. west matchup will be played on Saturday when top-seed Curry hosts Hamilton. The Colonels received a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in the tournament while Hamilton traveled to Maine where they defeated UNE by a 4-2 score to advance to the quarterfinal … Read more
In another powerhouse east vs. west matchup, last year’s Frozen Four participant Utica plays host to five-time national champion St. Norbert with the winner advancing to the final weekend of play. The Pioneers are coming off a comfortable 5-1 first-round win over Fitchburg State while the Green Knights advanced with a 3-1 win over the … Read more
Following last weekend’s first-round bye, Hobart will begin defense of their national championship with a first ever matchup with Trine on Saturday night in Geneva, NY. The Statesmen are unbeaten on home ice this season and look to extend that streak against a strong challenger in a Thunder team that knocked off Oswego in the … Read more
The first round of the 2024-25 NCAA D-III men’s ice hockey championship tournament is in the books with six teams joining Curry and Hobart in the quarterfinal round set for Saturday, March 22. The first round saw six games with three set between teams from the east, two from teams from the west and one … Read more
Here we are at the final three weeks of game action that will determine the 2024-25 national champions. Fourteen teams have made the cut for this year’s tournament and not without some surprises in the mix. Kudos to the NCAA (don’t say that often) for opening up the checkbook and spending some money to set … Read more
It’s a good thing the games are played on the ice because a look at paper with statistics and rankings such as national rank, NPI and tournament seeding has the NESCAC champions from Hamilton and CNE semifinal round losing UNE almost in a dead-heat in a head-to-head comparison. While the Nor’easters have been away from … Read more
In a battle featuring the UCHC champions from Geneseo hosting the MAC winners from Stevenson, the game showcases teams built for playoff hockey led by coaches who have winning reputations when it comes to the post-season in Geneseo’s Chris Schultz and Stevenson’s Dominick Dawes. Both teams secured their conference titles by defeating the no. 1 … Read more
The somewhat surprising Fitchburg State Falcons, winners of the MASCAC tournament will travel to play Utica on Saturday in the first round of the national tournament with both teams coming into the game in very different places. The Falcons are on a five-game win streak including three conference tournament victories that claimed their fist MASCAC … Read more
The newly crowned SUNYAC champion Oswego State Lakers will travel to Indiana to face nationally-ranked Trine on Saturday in the opening round of the NCAA D-III National Championship tournament. The Thunder received an at-large bid following an excellent regular season and semifinal loss to St. Norbert in the NCHA conference tournament back on March 1. … Read more
It was quite the championship weekend across the region with titles being claimed by Curry (CNE), Stevenson (MAC), Fitchburg State (MASCAC), Hobart (NEHC), Hamilton (NESCAC), Oswego (SUNYAC), and Geneseo (UCHC). While the Cinderella stories of MCLA and Plattsburgh came to an end, all the winning teams fought through hard and competitive opponents seeking to take … Read more
Here we are at the final weekend with everything on the line for conference titles and berths in the NCAA tournament. While some top seeds survived last week’s playoff carnage, no team can possibly be looking past any opponent regardless of their seeding. At this point the stakes are too high not to bring your … Read more
If ever there were two teams that showed that the regular season was not necessarily an indicator of playoff performance, look no further than MASCAC’s Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) and SUNYAC’s Plattsburgh. Both teams struggled in the regular season to qualify for the playoffs but have found the magic formula in their game … Read more
Since the regular season was not enough of a roller coaster ride for results, upsets and drama, enter the conference playoffs where form fell apart over the weekend in many areas including seven overtime games, top seeds bowing out in MASCAC (Plymouth State) and SUNYAC (Cortland), and No. 2 seeds exiting in the CNE (UNE), … Read more
Here is Part II of this week’s two-part game predictions with a smorgasbord of quarterfinals (NEHC & NESCAC); semifinal action (CNE, MAC, MASCAC, SUNYAC & UCHC) and one title game in the NE-10. The upset bug hit big with MCLA’s win as an No. 8 seed on Thursday and now the remaining teams are all … Read more
With tonight’s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference tournament game for the first time since 2017 – ironically the last year they won the MASCAC title. The Vikings have found a winning formula that has led to an 18-6-0 record and a … Read more
Here is Part I of this week’s two-part game prognostications with several conferences playing quarterfinal round action before semis on the weekend. Playoff hockey is here and surely there will be some upsets along the way as teams battle for conference glory and an opportunity to play on a national stage in March. Not much … Read more
Well, wasn’t that some playoff-style hockey to finish out the regular season! Everyone had to be scoreboard watching and calibrated on what the tiebreaker formulas looked like with shootout points, head-to-head and regulation wins coming into play across the conferences. There was great drama in the NE-10 playoffs where St. Anselm had to rally back … Read more
While there are many things yet to be resolved in the conferences across the east in D-III, only NESCAC finds the final weekend where every team is still alive with playoff hopes and positions among the ten teams are pretty much all up for grabs with the exception of Hamilton’s first place perch. Just two … Read more