This Week

This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division

Continentals playing it fast and hard

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Sometimes, it’s all about staying true to your core values. For the Hamilton Continentals, who have lost 75 man games to injury in their 20 games this season, playing fast, disciplined, physical, and being hard to play against, is a mantra that is carrying the core group and 10 freshmen toward the end of the … Read more

Daniels keeps Beacons flying high

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As my plane taxied out from the gate at Houston’s George Bush International airport this afternoon, I almost found it ironic that we were destined to take off from Runway 9 on my flight to Milwaukee; ironic, because just that morning in a conversation with Massachusetts-Boston coach Peter Belisle, the discussion revolved around a certain … Read more

Arnold and Potsdam

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A cruel bit of irony, perhaps. Potsdam, a team that has known nothing but the road this year, may have run out of road, or at least as it concerns the Bears’ playoff chances. With just four games remaining in the regular season, Potsdam finds itself in a really tough spot. Namely, the SUNYAC cellar. … Read more

Parity in the NESCAC

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In a year where it seemed like things would be pretty cut and dry on which teams would be contending for the league and national titles, the NESCAC has been the outlier. Three weeks ago, the conference looked like a pretty straightforward two-horse race between Middlebury and Bowdoin. Fast forward to the present and the … Read more

Olson helping power Hobart toward another title

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For a freshman, Hobart College forward Mac Olson has been pretty well-traveled. A native of Grosse Pointe, Mich., Olson got his start at the high school level by tallying 43 goals and 76 points in 48 games for the University of Detroit Jesuit, while twice earning All-State accolades for the Cubs. He spent the next … Read more

Women’s Beanpot no longer has only Crimson in clover

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I’ll admit it; it wasn’t that long ago that I thought the Beanpot was kind of silly. Silly is the wrong word. Uncompelling? Wait, that’s not even a word. A decade ago, the field was: Harvard, a recent national champion amid a string of success that carried it to the NCAA Championship game in three … Read more

Williams makes most of opportunity

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The SUNYAC is arguably one of the top conferences in all of NCAA D-III. Each year, the conference produces not only perennial powerhouses, but also national champions. To play in that league, to some, may be the pinnacle of their career. For Massachusetts-Dartmouth senior goaltender Ryan Williams, he was able to strap on the pads … Read more

Western New England chases one night of perfection

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You can talk to coaches at all levels of this game for years and not find many who witness the perfect game by their teams, that rare time when everything just comes together, the offense clicks, the defense dominates, and the goaltending backs it all up en route to an ultra-satisfying victory. You can count … Read more

St. Thomas looks for offense

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It’s been an up-and-down month for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team. The Tommies have played nine games since the start of 2013 and are 4-4-1 during that stretch, including a 5-1 win over Bethel last Saturday that snapped a three-game losing streak. Yet despite all of the madness that comes with playing in the … Read more

Upon further review, schedule hasn’t slowed Merrimack’s surge to third place

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So much for that idea of Merrimack sinking under the weight of a brutal stretch-run schedule. A couple weeks ago, I described the thunderhead on the Warriors’ horizon: one nationally ranked foe after another. I didn’t come right out and say it, but I thought they’d mostly take their lumps and finish in sixth place, … Read more