Columns, excluding “This Week” columns
Note: This interview took place in March 2022. When Mel Ruzzi took over as head coach of the Brown Bears before last season, the team had not finished above 11th in the ECAC since 2012. As mentioned in the ECAC season preview, it has been 13 years since the last time this team managed six … Read more
Every coach has a different philosophy for how to fill out their non-conference schedule. In larger conferences, there are fewer slots that need to be filled. In a conference like the CHA, with only six teams, there are more. Add in that last season and this one, the CHA is playing with just five teams, … Read more
Geneseo forward Peter Morgan has earned the All-USCHO Rookie of the Year award this season. The freshman forward led the Knights in scoring with 19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points while contributing five power play goals and five game-winning goals for the SUNYAC champions and NCAA Championship finalists. Playing in his first Frozen … Read more
Thirteen schools are represented in this year’s All-USCHO teams for D-III men’s ice hockey led by the new national champions from Adrian and the UCHC champions from Utica who have three representatives each. Peter Bates (28G – 30A – 58 Pts) from St. Norbert, the Sid Watson Award winner leads the first team forwards along … Read more
It’s down to the final day of the season and the national championship is on the line. Adrian downed Augsburg 5-1 to move on to the championship game while Geneseo dispatched the University of New England 8-3 to move on and play for the national championship. The battle between the two USCHO writers finds the … Read more
It’s down to the final weekend of the season and the national championship is on the line. Three of the top four seeds survived the quarterfinal round to advance to Lake Placid where east and west-based semifinals shape up for some exciting hockey to settle the season on the ice. In the battle between the … Read more
Greg May took a walk around the campus of Augsburg the day of an NCAA Division III quarterfinal game against St. Norbert last weekend, reflecting on memories of his own time here as a student-athlete while also soaking in the moment of having the program he once played for on the cusp of the Frozen … Read more
Following Saturday’s NCAA quarterfinal win over Utica, 2-0, the University of New England is heading to their first ever Frozen Four in Lake Placid this weekend. Key in the win was sophomore goaltender Billy Girard IV who made 38 saves in shutting out the high-powered offense of the nation’s No. 2 ranked team. Girard and … Read more
Ranked No. 1 in the country most of the season, Adrian moved one step closer to finishing the season on top after putting away Hobart 7-4 Saturday night in an NCAA Division III quarterfinal game at home. The Bulldogs scored four goals in the second period to take control and punch their ticket to the … Read more
The top four seeds finally got to host the quarterfinal round this past weekend. While Hobart traveled west to face the No. 1 seed from Adrian, No. 2 Geneseo and No. 3 Utica hosted Babson and the University of New England respectively in two exciting contests that determined half of the Frozen Four field headed … Read more
For Geneseo’s senior forward and captain Dan Bosio, this season has been one filled with a number of new accomplishments including a 20-goal season and being the first player in program history to win four SUNYAC titles in his career at Geneseo. With all that success Bosio and his teammates are now focused on the … Read more
Sam Ruffin has been waiting his entire college career for the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament. His first year at Adrian after transferring in from Alaska ended with a tourney opportunity being taken away by the COVID-19 pandemic. And last season there was no tournament because of the ongoing pandemic. The wait is … Read more
Last week saw some great hockey including an overtime game at St. Norbert and a double-overtime thriller at the University of New England. All of the home teams won setting up a quarterfinal round with the top eight seeds remaining in the tournament. In the battle between the two USCHO writers, the east has a … Read more
This overtime thing isn’t anything new for St. Norbert. Which is why the Green Knights responded to the pressure of an OT game in the NCAA tournament Saturday night. Instead, the sixth-ranked team in the nation in the DCU/USCHO NCAA Division III men’s poll remained poised, needing less than a minute of extra hockey seal … Read more
The action of the first-round games in the NCAA tournament did not disappoint in any way shape or form in the first D-III national tournament played in three years. If you were a wise predictor, and went with all of the home teams, you went 4-0 on the weekend as the higher seeds managed to … Read more
Two years ago this week hope for an NCAA tournament in NCAA Division III hockey was dashed as the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up and shut down the sports world. We wondered when sports would return and when life would get back to normal. Last season we saw some normalcy. Sort of. Hockey teams in Division … Read more
It is finally here! After an absence of two seasons, the D-III NCAA Tournament is back and what a great field of 12 teams that will contend for the title. The bracket did seem pretty straight forward this time around and the Selection Committee did a great job in keeping the integrity of the top … Read more
It was a long time coming but the Utica Pioneers celebrated their UCHC championship win with over 3000 excited fans that filled the Utica Memorial Auditorium for the first time in a very long time. In a season where the program has matched or set a new standard with statistics like wins, there is just … Read more
With Geneseo’s fourth consecutive SUNYAC title wrapped up with a 6-1 win over Oswego last weekend, senior forward Dan Bosio became the first Knight in program history to win titles in all four of his seasons as a player. While his play on the ice has spoken volumes for the Knights all season long, Bosio … Read more
While the body of work included wins over other NCAA tournament teams like Geneseo and Babson, Elmira finds a very familiar opponent from their current conference and dating back to the days of the old ECAC West in Saturday’s first round NCAA matchup. It’s their biggest and oldest rival, Hobart on the schedule and the … Read more