Matthew WebbFor the past nine seasons, the NCHA has been a modicum of stability. It has been a highly competitive eight team league with a balanced 14 game league schedule and a nice symmetrical playoff bracket. Though there is no question the league will remain as competitive as ever this season, it’s time to throw everything … Read more
St. Norbert College has announced that Mark Mazzoleni will be joining the staff of head coach Tim Coghlin for the upcoming season. A Green Bay, Wis. native, Mazzoleni was a four-year letter winning goaltender at Michigan State from 1977-80. Mazzoleni is no stranger to the Division III and the NCHA, having coached UW-Stevens Point to … Read more
Westfield State recently announced the hiring of Bob Miele as the new head coach of it’s men’s hockey program. Miele served as an assistant with the college for the past two seasons and replaces former head coach Jerry Keefe who earlier this off-season accepted a position as an assistant with Division I Brown University. He … Read more
In late July, Framingham State introduced 28-year-old T.J. Brown as its new head coach. Brown spent the last two seasons as an assistant for the Rams and replaces former head coach Jeff Pellegrini, who resigned after being named in the spring, before even coaching one game. He had replaced Chris Heaney. Brown, a 2002 graduate … Read more
On Monday, the University of Minnesota at Crookston announced that it will be discontinuing its varsity men’s hockey program. Division II UM-Crookston is the first Division II or III institution to do so since the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts folded its program at the end of the 2002-03 season. The Golden Eagles had participated … Read more
All-Tournament Team Returns For the first time since 1987 the Division III championships announced an all-tournament team. Neumann freshman goaltender Ross MacKinnon was named most outstanding player and was joined on the team by three of his teammates. The all-tournament team was: F, Jesse Cole, sr., Neumann F, Matt Ward, jr., Neumann F, Patrick Dynan, … Read more
All-Tournament Team Returns For the first time since 1987 the Division III championships announced an all-tournament team. Neumann freshman goaltender Ross MacKinnon was named most outstanding player and was joined on the all-tournament team by three of his teammates. The all-tournament team was: F, Jesse Cole, sr., Neumann F, Matt Ward, jr., Neumann F, Patrick … Read more
Fresh off a 33 save performance in Gustavus Adolphus’ 2-0 NCAA quarterfinal win over the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Gusties senior goaltender Matthew Lopes will lead his team into the Division III final four. Lopes’ route to Lake Placid has been anything but conventional; however, as two years ago he would have been about the last … Read more
The national semifinal contest between Hobart and Neumann turned into a goalie duel between Hobart’s senior All-American Keith Longo and Neumann’s Ross MacKinnon, a freshman. When all was said and done, it was MacKinnon and the Neumann Knights who came out on top of a thrilling 2-0 victory at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, … Read more
As many expected, the NCHA quarterfinal battle between NCHA rivals Stout and St. Scholastica ended up being decided by a single goal. With the game deadlocked 1-1 in the final minute, Stout senior defenseman Jack Wolgemuth teed one up from the right point with 37 seconds to play. The shot beat St. Scholastica goaltender Steve … Read more
University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils (22-5-2 overall, 10-2-2 in NCHA) This weekend marks only the second appearance ever for UW-Stout in the NCAA tournament. The first came last season. Though the Blue Devils have strung together a couple tremendous seasons, the road to this end was not a short one. The Blue Devils failed to … Read more
For the second year in a row, there will be a new NCAA champion in men’s D-III hockey. Defending champion St. Norbert, along with perennial tournament participants Middlebury and Norwich, all lost in their respective conference tournaments and each failed to receive an at-large bid. They are the three winningest D-III programs this decade. The … Read more
It’s been a long road marked with steady improvement for Stout, but it finally crested the mountain as the Blue Devils hung on for a 4-3 Peters Cup finals victory over Superior in front of a raucous Wessman Arena crowd. The win was the first Peters Cup title in school history for Stout, and also … Read more
And now we’re down to two. Between the NCHA and MCHA, only Superior and Stout remain in the conference playoffs. As many expected heading into the playoffs, the top two seeds will meet this Saturday in Superior for the Peters Cup. The MCHA wrapped its season up last weekend with its own final four in … Read more
One down, 10 to go. Gustavus Adolphus became the first team to punch its ticket to the NCAA Division III men’s tournament as the Golden Gusties used a suffocating forecheck and five unanswered goals to down Hamline, 5-2, in the MIAC championship game. The win earned the Gusties the MIAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA’s. … Read more
The opening round of the playoffs is in the books in both the MCHA and NCHA and surprisingly there was nothing … too surprising. The higher seeds advanced in all eight quarterfinal series, and MCHA three seed MSOE was the only favorite who needed the mini-game to advance. In other MCHA action Adrian swept Northland, … Read more
The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are finally falling into place. Last week’s action solidified playoff positions in the NCHA and MCHA, and the end result is a host of interesting first round match-ups in both leagues. In the NCHA, nothing is more intriguing than the 4/5 tilt between the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and … Read more
Only a week of conference action remains in both the MCHA and NCHA, and amazingly the playoff picture has shaped into one that is rather clear. Before taking a quick look at that, however, it’s time to examine the USCHO.com Division III Men’s Poll for the final time this season. St. Scholastica dropped down a … Read more
Another week in the books and yet another week of shuffling for NCHA and MCHA teams in the latest USCHO.com Division III poll. No longer do six NCHA teams grace the top 15, as winless weekends by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and UW-Stevens Point dropped both from the realm of the ranked. Though those … Read more
A famous man named James Angleton once said something along the lines of, “Reality is not handed to us on a silver platter. Rather, we have to tease it with excruciating attention to minutiae. It takes the patience of a saint.†Though he was talking about counterintelligence operations, he might as well have been describing … Read more