More Significant Moments After only the second weekend of SUNYAC play, significant moments continue to pile up in the young season: – Only two teams remain undefeated, Oswego and Morrisville. Not Plattsburgh. Not Geneseo. Not Fredonia. – Oswego defeated Plattsburgh, 5-3, for the fourth time in a row, tying their longest winning streak against their … Read more
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is on a four-game roll, but a season-opening loss to Lawrence lit the pilot light for the hot start, coach Wil Nichol said. The Pointers’ fourth consecutive victory came Saturday in a 5-1 thumping of No. 15 Hamline in St. Paul, Minn. The team opened the winning weekend with a 2-0 … Read more
Welcome to the first week of ECAC Northeast and MASCAC picks. There’s only a few games this weekend, but here are those selections. Friday, Nov. 5 Franklin Pierce at Johnson & Wales The Wildcats opened their season with a loss to a Northeast-10 opponent, but I don’t think it happens here. Franklin Pierce is 0-2 … Read more
I’ll post a link to the pretty bracket when it’s put up, but for now, here’s the pairings: First Round: Adrian at St. Norbert St. Thomas at Gustavus Curry at Elmira Quarterfinals: Curry/Elmira winner at Norwich Bowdoin at Oswego Plattsburgh at Middlebury St. Thomas/Gustavus vs. Adrian/St. Norbert Reaction: – The good news for the West … Read more
The Big Day is here, which means it’s time for the final version of Division III Bracketology. As I write this, Bowdoin and Middlebury are about to drop the puck, so there’s still some things up in the air. But since I think both teams get in, I think the result of the game might … Read more
As Selection Sunday approaches, it’s time for version 2.0 of Division III Bracketology. We’ll do one again on Sunday prior to the NCAA announcement, and then a “what the heck happened) postmortem. Again this week, the NCAA has produced rankings based on the process it will use to select the Division III field. Using those … Read more
The conference playoffs are in full swing, which can mean only one thing: It’s time to play Bracketology. As was the case last year, we know the criteria used by the NCAA Division III Men’s Committee to select and seed the teams, but not the weighting used in their evaluation. Starting last week, the NCAA … Read more
Some intriguing matchups this weekend: #9 Adrian at #1 Oswego (1/8) – The Bulldogs come in for a single game. This would have been an even more anticipated game before last weekend, when Adrian was swept by Hamline for its first two losses of the season. The Bulldogs dropped from No. 4 to No. 9 … Read more
Thanks to Dave Moody, former color analyst for Norwich, for sharing this. It really captures the excitement of Division III Hockey. Look for former cadet and current Neumann coach Dominik Dawes, who coached his team to the national title in his first year behind the bench. Norwich Hockey 100 Years
The end of the year and the beginning of the next means another round of Division III holiday tournaments. All the action takes place in the East, with MSOE and St. Mary’s making the trip for a couple of out-of-region games. Here’s a look at the various tournaments, including a rating of the strength of … Read more
Some random D-III observations: East Meets West Thanksgiving tournaments saw three teams crossing the “border” to play some out-of-region games. UW-Stout bussed 1,300 miles to Northfield, VT to play in the Primelink Tournament, while Salem State and Buffalo State went West. The Vikings were in Duluth participating in the St. Scholastica tournament while the Bengals … Read more
If you like college hockey tournaments, there’s much to be thankful for this weekend. One of the many cool things about D-III hockey is the large number of holiday tournaments taking place (Division I has just three tourneys this weekend). Here’s a rundown of the action, which includes a pair of Western Tourneys. Pack the … Read more
We’re underway with the 2009-2010 season (at least most of the teams are by now). It’s going to be tough to top last season. Neumann College, the last team into the NCAA tournament, a team that finished fourth in the ECAC West and had to play a play-in game to get into its conference playoffs, … Read more
I’ve been covering Division III hockey before any of the guys on your national champion Neumann Knights were born. And I have never seen anything like what transpired this post season. Starting with the ECAC East playoffs, it was a wild an unpredictable ride that saw two unheralded teams playing in the national title game. … Read more
The picks and pairings have been announced. My thoughts: Looks like they went strictly by seedings: E1. Plattsburgh E2. Amherst E3. Hobart E4. Elmira E5. Neumann E6. Nichols E7. Babson W1. UW-Superior W2. UW-Stout W3. St. Scholastica W4. Gustavus Adolphus It looks like St. Norbert was 4.3 seconds away from being about to defend its … Read more
…and the NCAA selection committee is meeting as I write this final version of Bracketlology. We’ll be doing an analysis of the picks once they are announced, but for now the waiting game is on. If you’re just joining us, we know the criteria used by the NCAA Division III Men’s Committee to select and … Read more
The Crystal Ball got as little clearer thanks to last week’s results. The ECAC East was, ahem, interesting, with three of the top four seeds going down. That means someone other than Norwich (that would be New England College) will host the semifinals and final for the first time ever. The ECAC West also saw … Read more
It’s that most wonderful time of the year again. The end of the regular season and the conference tournament scramble to qualify for the Big Dance. It’s time to play Bracketology. As was the case last year, we know the criteria used by the NCAA Division III Men’s Committee to select and seed the teams, … Read more
The NCAA revealed its first public edition of its Regional Rankings today. These will be issued every Tuesday leading up to the announcement of the NCAA field on March 8. The criteria used to rank the teams are: • Win-loss percentage against regional opponents; • Strength-of-schedule (only contests versus regional competition) to include: Opponents’ Average … Read more
It seems like I just took my Christmas tree down and yet there’s only a few weeks left in the regular season. The NCHA and MCHA regular seasons conclude next weekend, with the rest of the leagues following shortly after. We’ll crown a national champion 40 days from today. Here’s a breakdown of where we … Read more