It’s that time of year again – Thanksgiving Tournaments! It’s a little disappointing that there are no tournaments in the West this year (Augsburg and MSOE hosted ones last season). Oldtimers like me miss the MIAC tournament that used to kick off their season. Let’s take a look at the seven tourneys on tap: Primelink … Read more
Finally, finally finally, everyone is in the game as the NESCAC and ECAC East begin play. Some intriguing matchups are on the docket: Middlebury at Conn College – The first time in four seasons that the Panthers don’t start the season as the defending champs, but look at the poll – they’re Number One right … Read more
A new season brings new changes. New programs, new coaches, new chances for every team and player. Like last season, this blog will complement the excellent job done by our league correspondents. Over the summer, on the D-III section of the Fan Forum, a user wanted to know what people could change about D-III hockey. … Read more
I regret not being able to make it to Superior – what an amazing three games. All one goal games, with two needing overtime to settle things. Here’s the winning moment, courtesy of Oswego’s Sports Information Department: A big congratulations to Ed Gosek and his team. He’s one of the classiest guys in college hockey … Read more
I’ve only missed one D-III Frozen Four in the past 10 years (back to when they weren’t even called “Frozen Fours”) but I unfortunately not be in Superior this weekend. Duty calls as the Atlantic Hockey Finals are taking place, and I am covering them for USCHO as well as providing analysis for the B2 … Read more
Here’s the latest on the UMass-Dartmouth saga. Interesting comments from Louise Goodrum, Athletic Director at UMD: “It’s an oversight on my part,” Goodrum said, “We went through the bid process and it covered the first round. I didn’t put down for the quarterfinals, because I didn’t suspect we’d be in position to host at the … Read more
I talked with Vincent Eurizone, chair of the NCAA Division III Selection Committee today, and he took me though the process. Interesting stuff: Read it here.
I’ve updated this blog entry three times now as the story develops – see below. ORIGINAL POST: According to sources, if Middlebury defeats Fredonia on Wednesday, the Panthers will HOST Mass-Dartmouth, the top seed, this weekend. However, if Fredonia wins, the Corsairs will be allowed to host. This is beyond dumb – it’s not about … Read more
So who could see it coming? I bet more than a few Norwich fans went to bed last night with no clue that their Cadets would be lacing up the skates again after bowing out in the ECAC East semifinals. I had them out of the running as well, thinking Neumann and UW-Stout had a … Read more
I’ve been doing a pre-NCAA selection version of Bracketlolgy for several years now. I have more uncertainty this season than any other about what the committee will do. A few years back, when USCHO created the Pairwise Rankings, they did an accurate job of predicting the NCAA field, because the committee basically did the same … Read more
In this fourth edition of Bracketology, we’ll look at percentages and possibilities. In what has become a chicken and egg scenario, one needs not only to speculate on the teams that will make the NCAA Division III tournament, but on the balance of teams in the East and West regions. Because Division III looks at … Read more
We can add the following teams to the list of squads who have finished their seasons: Gustavus Adolphus St. Olaf Augsburg Fitchburg State Curry Now let’s turn our attention to the 22 Division III teams that are still playing, and the four teams on the bench, hoping for an at-large bid (plus a tip of … Read more
As of Tuesday night (prior to the MIAC play-in game), we’re down to just 27 D-III teams and 4 D-II squads. Hats off to the seniors from the following teams, who finished out their colllege careers last week: Southern Maine Salem State UMass-Boston Skidmore Elmira Utica Plymouth State Johnson & Wales Nichols Salve Regina St. … Read more
Things are a little tricky with this week’s version We’re again using the NCAA rankings, but they’re a little out of whack because Castleton is out of the rankings this week as a penalty for not reporting its scores to the NCAA on time. This not only affects the Spartans, but teams that have played … Read more
Is it really almost over? Only the MIAC still has regular season games left, and the following teams have ended their season: Lebanon Valley Suffolk Worcester State Western New England Framingham State UW-Stevens Point UW-Eau Claire Lake Forest Hamilton Tufts Buffalo State Brockport Cortland Potsdam Hat’s off to the seniors on those squads. UW-Superior and … Read more
All set for version 2.0? We’ll be using the NCAA rankings for this one rather than USCHO PWR. See my previous blog post for the details, but to summarize – we can’t figure out some of the reasoning behind the NCAA rankings, but they’re the official ones, so that’s what we’ll use. AS some point … Read more
And here they are. Check back for the latest Bracketology tomorrow. In the meantime, an observation: We know that the NCAA does not apply the selection/ranking criteria equally. You can see this by comparing USCHO’s PWR with the rankings. I’m having a hard time figuring this out. Looking at Mass-Dartmouth, you’d think that the NCAA … Read more
Last year I waited for the NCAA to release its first rankings of the season before attempting to sort out the great cluster-you-know-what that is the selection process. We at USCHO attempt to mimic the process via our Pairwise Rankings. I’m going to use these for the initial attempt and then probably switch to the … Read more
Just wanted to do a brief analysis of the Big Game on Sunday. The way I see it, you have two teams that have had their ups and downs so far this year. Both have shown explosive offenses and stingy defenses at times, but both have struggled as well. It should be a good game … Read more
I’ll make a case for the Cardinals: 9-4-4 record; 8-1-3 in their last 12 games. Beat 11th-ranked Norwich 4-1; first win over the Cadets ever. Beat Williams 3-2; first win over the Ephs since 1982. Tied 12th-ranked Middlebury. Tied 8th-ranked Mass-Dartmouth Is 10th in the Eastern PWR, ahead of Skidmore and Middlebhury, which are both … Read more