Still Climbing Neumann continues its climb up the league standings and national rankings. The Knights are currently tied for second in the league with Manhattanville, although the Valiants have two games in hand. Neumann also edged closer to making the cut in this week’s USCHO.com national poll, coming in second in the “Others Receiving Votes” … Read more
Finally Progress It’s no secret that Elmira has been struggling all season. The Soaring Eagles only managed to win one of five league games in the first half of the season, and despite two early wins against Plattsburgh and Oswego lost six of their next nine games. But there are signs that Elmira is turning … Read more
Alternating Current In an unusual quirk of scheduling, Utica and Neumann played three straight games against each other over the last two weekends. The string began in the championship game of the St. Michael’s Tournament over the holidays and culminated with a pair of league games at the Utica Aud this past weekend. But despite … Read more
Still Rolling Neumann continued its roll from the first half of the season into the second, posting its first-ever tournament championship at the Saint Michael’s Tournament over New Year’s weekend. The Knights started out on Friday putting a hurt on host St. Michael’s right from the opening faceoff. Neumann tallied six goals in the first … Read more
Turnaround As the saying goes, “Who’d of thunk it?” If Las Vegas took bets on college hockey, how many people would have plunked down their hard-earned money to wager that Neumann would be 8-4 at the mid-season break? Or have conference wins over Utica at home and Elmira on the road? Or have non-conference sweeps of … Read more
Tossing Teddys Utica head coach Gary Heenan believes that an essential ingredient to a successful hockey program is building ties with its surrounding community. Last season, while on the road recruiting, he watched as local fans threw teddy bears and other stuffed animals onto the ice following the team’s first goal, all meant to benefit a … Read more
Hats Galore There is something special about a hat trick in college hockey. First of all, they aren’t all that common in Division III, unless the game is a blowout where one team puts up a double digit score. Second, the diffusion of talent across all of Division III has also resulted in scoring being … Read more
A Different Team Since joining the ECAC West four seasons ago, it is no secret that Neumann has struggled. Over that time span, the Knights have a combined total of 10 wins and haven’t been competitive in many of the other games. However, with an infusion of new blood, this year might represent the tipping … Read more
Hobart’s (lack of) Power Play Last weekend wasn’t quite what Hobart coach Mark Taylor was hoping for. The Statesmen hit the road for games at Utica and Manhattanville, and Hobart was swept. “The games weren’t what we wanted outcome-wise,” said Taylor. “We wanted to come out of there with some points, and didn’t. So we … Read more
Several teams around the ECAC West are flooded with new players this season. As seen in my season preview last week, the coaches are cautiously optimistic about the season but realize that getting the freshmen up to speed may take a while. If the start that Elmira and Utica have gotten off to is any … Read more
Chris Lerch counts down the second half of the USCHO.com/CSTV D-III men’s preseason poll, looks at some overlooked teams, and adds his salute to the no-longer-long-suffering fans in Beantown.
The ECAC West will switch to a three-game format for its regular season beginning as soon as 2005-06, and is considering expanding its conference playoffs. The schedule change was agreed to during a conference call on Monday. Under the new format, each team would play each other team in the conference three times, with two … Read more
Last season’s national runner-up, St. Norbert, and a team that narrowly missed the NCAA playoffs, St. John’s, each placed three players on the men’s preseason D-III All-USCHO team as announced Monday by USCHO.com. St. Norbert first-team All-Americans Jason Deitsch and Ryan Tew were selected for the All-USCHO first team, with second-team All-American Spencer Carburry joining … Read more
Adding depth is the name of the game this year for Hobart. The Statesmen played all of last season with only 14 forwards and six defensemen. Luckily for Hobart, the team didn’t suffer a lot of injuries during the season, and made it through without the bench shrinking too much. Head coach Mark Taylor is … Read more
“How to Rebuild a Team in 15 Easy Steps.” That’s the title of the book that Hobart head coach Mark Taylor is going to write in a couple of years if he is successful at getting the Statesmen to the top of the ECAC West. Hobart lost fifteen players to graduation from last year’s team, … Read more
Mark Taylor, a long-time Division I assistant at Mass.-Lowell and Cornell, has been named the new head coach at Division-III Hobart. Taylor moves to Division III Hobart after spending the last four seasons as the top assistant at Lowell. “It is a tough time to leave UMass-Lowell,” Taylor said. “I was really looking forward to … Read more