Season previews for leagues
And finally, the last of the conference previews… For some reason the gap from the start of the regular season to NESCAC initiating play seems shorter this year with play commencing on Friday, November 14 – I am sure that is just me but it will be great to have all the conferences in … Read more
Last season, Gustavus Adolphus won the regular season title and then battled a determined St Olaf squad to win the MIAC championship and NCAA berth before losing a one-goal game to St Norbert in the national tournament. No surprise, the Gusties appear to be a contender again this year in the typically unpredictable and … Read more
The CNE will have something old and something new as part of the conference for the 2025-2026 season. Former member of the CCC, Johnson & Wales returns to the league along with the new NCAA program started by Roger Williams College in Rhode Island. That brings the total to nine teams for this season … Read more
Last season saw the Stevenson Mustangs earn the first ever MAC hockey championship and auto-bid to the NCAA tournament. Following the season, the only coach the program had known, Dominick Dawes made the decision to return to his alma mater at Norwich leaving an opportunity for a new bench boss in Maryland. Matt … Read more
MASCAC will change from a ten-team league this season to the traditional and more familiar eight-team conference following the departure of Plymouth State and Massachusetts-Dartmouth to the new Little East conference (LEC). That does change the landscape somewhat based upon PSU’s recent dominance in the league, but many see the conference as wide open … Read more
The newest conference starting in 2025-2026 is the Little East which adds a deep ten-team conference that merges the Little East athletic conference schools with some associate members from the former NEHC. The league also features Keene State in first season affiliated with a conference as well as the introduction of Western Connecticut State … Read more
If only the hockey gods and maybe a friendly bounce or two had gone the right way for three teams from the west in last year’s NCAA tournament, the Frozen Four would have looked very different. All of those teams from the NCHA (Aurora, St. Norbert & Trine) are back and looking forward to … Read more
The NE-10 never lacks for excitement as very few teams have been successful in translating regular season success into the D-II conference championship. Assumption is one of the few teams in recent years to do so. St Anselm and St. Michael’s seem to find themselves playing for the big prize frequently and often against … Read more
SUNYAC has seen its own fair share of changes over the past couple of seasons. First, Brockport and Geneseo departed to join the ranks of the UCHC. Two familiar rivals in Oswego and Plattsburgh battled for the conference title with the Lakers earning their fist SUNYAC title in many years. Now this season, the … Read more
The UCHC, like virtually every other conference, will have a new look this season with the additions of Albertus Magnus and Elmira from the now defunct NEHC along with St John Fisher which commences NCAA play this season. The new nine-team league will certainly add more excitement to the pursuit of the conference title … Read more
New looks, there are a lot of them this year across the D-III hockey landscape. OK, you might even say why is the guy from the east covering the WIAC? Well, like the hockey landscape so too has the coverage changed. I will only hope to be able to come close to all Brian … Read more
Much of the attention at the start of a college hockey season is rightly on the teams from the previous year’s Frozen Four. Conversations about the powerhouses and blue bloods, the traditional powers and new banner holders, all center on a team’s ability to produce the proverbial “next one” to an insatiable group of fans … Read more
We remain in a period of intense change in college hockey, and Atlantic Hockey America is no exception. Besides the changing landscape of college athletics in general and college hockey in particular, the AHA also has some new faces and a new(ish) playoff format. Last things first With the departure of American International, Atlantic Hockey … Read more
It’s a pattern that seems to repeat itself every winter — Hockey East and the NCHC battle all year for the proverbial “best conference” label, both leagues making their case with numerous teams hogging the top spots in the USCHO men’s D-I poll. Then the NCAA tournament plays out and the NCHC is the one … Read more
It’s almost a cliche at this point to point out the parity that exists in the CCHA. Sure, Minnesota State last season won their third MacNaughton Cup in the four seasons since the league was re-formed in 2022, but every year we’ve seen close races for the league title and for home ice in the … Read more
Year-in and year-out, ever since their conference held its first games in 2013, coaches and players from NCHC member schools have talked about the meat-grinder that is their league. It might be even tougher now, and it’s certainly as difficult as ever to predict who will end up where. The conference boasts the defending national … Read more
Let’s go to Vegas, baby. The 2026 Frozen Four will be played in T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, and wouldn’t any team from the Big Ten love to ride a streak all the way to the final buzzer of the national championship game next April? Because, of course, not one of … Read more
This feels like the most wide-open this conference has been in several seasons. While I’m really high on the returning rosters of Sacred Heart and Stonehill, I know better than to count out LIU, and Franklin Pierce has shown themselves to be incredibly resilient and pesky the past few seasons. And while LIU has dominated … Read more
The inevitable chaos of this season seems like it will have the most impact in the WCHA, where several teams will be missing more than one or two players as part of the Olympics and pre-Olympic prep. The altered rosters also leave room for teams not in the top half of the standings to score … Read more
Last season was a fun one in Hockey East, at least for fans of unpredictability and chaos. It might not have been fun for the teams, but it truly felt like any team could win on any given weekend and the winner wasn’t decided until the final game. It seems unlikely that too much of … Read more