Season previews for leagues
Last Year’s Champion: Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The Pointers won the championship for the 10th time in program history and for the first time since 2000. Favorites: Stevens Point, Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Wisconsin-River Falls are the top three favorites in the five-team conference. Dark Horse: Wisconsin-Superior could end up being the surprise team in the conference as … Read more
Jimmy Vesey, Rob O’Gara and Alex Lyon could be playing in the pros this season but chose to return to school.
Only Minnesota made the NCAA tournament last season, and the Gophers’ stay lasted one game.
Hockey East’s number of teams increases to eight with the addition of Merrimack, but the number of slots in the league’s tournament remains at eight, so after three years where everyone made the postseason, one team will be on the sidelines when the playoffs commence. The venue for the tourney shifts. The site moves from … Read more
Whether it was heartbreak at the national tournament, triple overtime in the conference playoffs or by a matter of percentage points in the PairWise Rankings, 2014-15 came to an abrupt ending for several of the league’s teams.
For the first time in three seasons, the league has no new members and no new playoff system.
Perennial league champ Mercyhurst should be on top again come February.
The league sent six of its eight teams to the NCAA tournament in its second season and the competition level figures to be similar this year.
The league’s western teams have been in command in recent seasons; will that continue in 2015-16?
Though Wisconsin will mount a stiff challenge, the WCHA still looks to belong to the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Expect powerhouse squads Clarkson and Harvard to battle for the ECAC crown once again, with Quinnipiac and Cornell fighting but falling short.
Jackson Brewer – and his NESCAC-leading 33 assists – is coming back. So, too, are John Hawkrigg and Sean Orlando, with their 17 goals apiece in tow. And who can forget Ryan Cole, a freshman like Orlando, and his 16 league tallies. All of that is great news for Trinity, not so great for the … Read more
Framingham State’s T.J. Brown thinks so. John Rolli, an institution at Massachusetts-Dartmouth, does too. It is the opinion many, including those two MASCAC bench bosses, that conference title chase will boil down to two squads, Salem State and Plymouth State. Just like last year when they shared the regular-season crown. “I think the league should … Read more
Still young, still hungry, and until proven otherwise, the best of the bunch in the ECAC Northeast. Such as it is for Nichols, which won both the regular-season and conference tournament titles last year on the way to their second-ever NCAA appearance. The Bison did so with a cast of talented novices – including … Read more
Babson and Norwich. Norwich and Babson. It’s been that way in the ECAC East for just about forever, or so it seems. Between them, the two powers have captured a whopping 13 of the last 15 conference tournament titles, with Norwich going on to win the national title three times (2000, 2003, 2010). What’s more, … Read more
The team to beat in the ECAC West is … Elmira. That notion wouldn’t have put you out on a limb not too many seasons ago. For half a decade, from 2008 to 2012, the Soaring Eagles owned the spot at the top of the league at the end of the regular season. Each of … Read more
Somebody’s bound to say it. “Ours is the toughest conference in Division III hockey.” The thing is, the SUNYAC can make the claim as well as anybody, at least if the gauge is Frozen Four appearances. Last year’s Frozen Four featured two SUNYAC schools, Geneseo and Oswego, and although they both bowed out in the … Read more
As defending ECAC East champions, Norwich is within hours of forging into uncharted territory. Without question, the Cadets are clearly overwhelming favorites to return as league champs; a recurring cycle of 20-plus win seasons vividly tell us such. For the Cadets, it isn’t about when, it’s about how. What will be the plan as the … Read more
St. Norbert won the national championship last year, its fourth in program history, but Green Knights’ coach Dan Coghlin doesn’t see his team as the defending champs. “We don’t look at it as defending a title,” Coghlin said. “It’s a brand new season and every team wants to be a champion. We want another shot … Read more
St. Thomas head coach Jeff Boeser wanted his top assistant, Parker Burgess, to do the inteview about the season ahead. As far as the Tommies are concerned, it really doesn’t matter who does the talking. The resutls speak for themselves. St. Thomas enters the year as the favorite to win the MIAC. The Tommies have … Read more