Every conference but the MIAC wrapped up its respective regular season schedules this past weekend. RIT (ECAC West), Norwich (ECAC East), Wis.-River Falls (NCHA) and Middlebury (NESCAC) reigned surpeme as the conference regular season champions for the second straight season. Gustavus Adolphus has already clinched the MIAC as well giving us the same exact five regular season champions as last year.

The biggest surprise from this past weekend for me was seeing Gustavus Adolphus lose 5-2 to St. Olaf. The Gusties have absolutely dominated the MIAC this past decade, rarely losing a game in MIAC play and especially not giving up five goals. Not sure what happened in that one other than judging from the box score Gustavus forgot there was a third period to play as St. Olaf scored five straight goals, including four in the final frame.

Even though Gustavus already has the MIAC regular season title locked up, a loss like that could end up coming back to bite them in the NCAA selection process should GAC get upset in the MIAC Tournament.

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, let’s see how its stacking up currently.

The first public NCAA rankings were released last week by the Committee and they went as follows:

Now let’s try and do a little Bracketology. We know there will be eight teams that make the NCAA Tournament this year, up one this year from seven last year.

There are five automatic bids given to each of the conference tournament champions. For argument’s sake, we’ll take the regular season champion and assume they win the conference tournament as well to see how the field is shaping up currently.

ECAC East - Norwich
ECAC West – RIT
NESCAC – Middlebury
MIAC – Gustavus Adolphus
NCHA – River Falls

The rest of the field will be determined by three Pool C or at-large bids which are given to the next three best teams that don’t win their conference tournament as judged by the NCAA’s primary criteria of in-region winning percentage, strength of schedule, head to head, common opponents, and record vs. NCAA ranked teams. Secondary criteria can also be used when teams are close which includes overall winning percentage and record in last 25% of your games played in the season.

The East committee and the West committee each take their three best next teams and throw them into the pot to be considered for the three at-large spots. Amherst, Elmira, and Plattsburgh would be the East’s three teams up against Concordia (Minn.), Superior and St. Thomas.

 Amherst is first compared to Concordia (Minn.)

The comparison is:

The ECAC West power struggle has taken more twists and turns this year than Patrick Kane dangling through a crowd of goons.

First, Plattsburgh started behind the eight ball with an early-season tie to Neumann, then RIT was in the position of playing catch up after Plattsburgh took three of four points at home against the Tigers. Elmira put itself in prime position to take the crown after splitting with Plattsburgh a few weeks ago. However, now with just one week remaining in the season, we finally have a pretty clear picture of how things are going to shake out after RIT swept all four points from Elmira this weekend.

The only way the Tigers could clinch the regular season crown was a sweep, and they did just that, blasting Elmira 5-1 on Friday night at the Ritter and then following up with a hard-fought 2-1 victory on Saturday at the Domes, despite being outshot.

RIT is now in the clear driver’s seat to repeat as the ECAC West regular season champion, pending a sweep of Cortland this weekend. Plattsburgh has assured itself of the no. 2 spot no matter what Elmira does in its final two games at Oswego. The Soaring Eagles took a hard fall from grace, from needing just one win this past weekend to lock up the top spot and home ice throughout the playoffs to dropping all the way down to the no. 3 spot and have to play a play-in game, as well as meet Plattsburgh, pending a victory in the semifinal round.

Plattsburgh’s tie against Neumann also comes back to bite the Cards, as it now looks like they’ll finish one point behind RIT in the standings. Had Plattsburgh beat Neumann, the Cardinals would win the tiebreaker with RIT, having a 1-0-1 record against the Tigers in head-to-head meetings this year.

With only one week left to play in the regular season for every conference except the MIAC, let’s take a look at how the conference races are shaping up.

In the ECAC East, Norwich has already clinched home ice for the duration of the league playoffs, as it is 10 points clear of the next closest D-III team in Manhattanville. The Cadets however, need one more point to clinch the overall ECAC East title with Division I Holy Cross sitting four points back in second. NU will play Holy Cross on Saturday at 1 p.m. in both teams’ regular season finale. Third through six remains a cluster, with just three points separating four teams, and just one separating three of them.

Castleton currently holds a slim lead for the third spot with 17 points, while New England College and Salve Regina have 16 points. Southern Maine is in sixth with 14. None of the four teams play each other in head-to-head matchups, but NEC and Castleton each play St. Anselm and Massachusetts-Boston, which is one of the toughest swings in the ECAC East.

In the MIAC, Gustavus Adolphus continues its impressive domination of the conference, as the Gusties have already clinched their eighth straight MIAC regular season title. They have already won eight straight MIAC tournament titles, and will be looking for their ninth in a couple of weeks.

The NCHA regular season champion is a clear runaway for Wisconsin-River Falls, as the Falcons have 35 points and cannot be caught. After that though, things get very interesting, with a huge bottleneck fight for second to fifth. Wisconsin-Superior holds a slim one-point lead on Lake Forest for the no. 2 spot, but the Yellowjackets have a big home-and-home series with fourth place St. Scholastica this weekend. The Saints sit just three points back of Superior as well. Adrian is fifth with 22 points, and it hosts third-place Lake Forest for a pair of games. You couldn’t ask for better drama than what the NCHA has on tap this weekend, with all four of those teams playing each other and plenty left to be decided.

In the NESCAC, Middlebury has the inside track to host the NESCAC tournament after Amherst slipped up and lost 3-2 to Trinity over the weekend. Had Amherst won, the Lord Jeffs would be hosting in the friendly confines of Orr Rink. Bowdoin has emerged as a solid third place, while Trinity, Hamilton, Connecticut College and Williams are left to fend for the final quarterfinal host spot down to seventh place.

It’s hard to believe it that we’re already to the final weeks of the regular season, but buckle up, as we’re in for another great run to the finish this season!

The focal point of D-III women’s hockey this weekend will be the home-and-home series between RIT and Elmira.

RIT hosts round one tonight at the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena, while Elmira hosts tomorrow at the Murray Athletic Center in Pine Valley. N.Y.

Elmira comes into the series needing just one win to put itself in the driver’s seat to take the crown, while on the other hand, RIT needs to take all four points in order to in essence clinch its second straight ECAC West regular season crown.

Last year, RIT swept the season series from Elmira. However, in the eight meetings prior, Elmira was 5-1-2 against the Tigers. The Soaring Eagles will need to get back to their winning ways if they want to avoid finishing third for the second straight year.

RIT has missed two key forwards lately in Kolbee McCrea and Celeste Brown. Having them back in the lineup would certainly bolster their offense and their chances to take multiple points this weekend.

Elmira has quietly stayed under the radar all season after last year was one of the most disappointing they have had in program history. Two or more points this weekend could change all that in a heartbeat, as Elmira would have the inside track to the regular season title pending a sweep of all four points next weekend against Oswego.

My gut says we’re going to see a split this weekend, which would work in favor of Elmira. Goaltending and special teams as always will be the key when teams of this caliber get together. I’ll take each team winning its respective home game. RIT 3-1 tonight and then Elmira 2-1 Saturday night.

Last Tuesday, we lost our lone remaining unbeatean team in Division III women’s hockey, as the Gustavus Adolphus Gusties fell, 5-1, to Wisconsin-Superior. That started a string of surprising results out west this week, as Superior went and tied Marian 3-3 in its very next game. Gustavus also struggled in its next two games, but GAC did survive with one-goal victories to stay unbeaten in MIAC play on the year.

St. Catherine also split with Concordia (Minn.), which could be considered a minor upset on the surface. Out East, all the traditional powers held serve, as RIT went 3-0 on the week. The Tigers weren’t flashy though, as they beat a scrappy Hamilton team, 3-1, then downed Oswego by scores of 4-0 and 2-1 to keep their hopes for an ECAC West regular season title alive. Amherst, Elmira, Plattsburgh and Middlebury took care of business with no problems as well.

The biggest surprise to me in the East this week was Norwich’s struggles with Southern Maine on Friday. The Cadets beat USM 10-0 earlier this year, but on Friday, Norwich trailed the Huskies 2-0 after 20 minutes, and if not for a Kaycie Anderson goal with 45 seconds left in the second period would have trailed 3-2 at the end of 40 minutes. NU scored four goals in the third to pull away for the 7-3 win, but USM nearly doubled the amount of goals Norwich has given up in league play this year. Coming into Friday’s game, Norwich had outscored its league opponents by an astounding 100-4. The Huskies scored three goals on seven shots to put a scare in the Maroon and Gold. Norwich senior defenseman Amanda Wilks became the fourth player in program history and the first defenseman to score 100 points during Saturday’s 14-0 win over Plymouth State. She scored a short-handed goal in the second period as part of a two-goal and two-assist game for the Cadets.

20 Predictions

1. Gustavus Adolphus finishes regular season unbeaten. (Superior beat GAC 5-1 on Jan. 31)

2. St. Scholastica freshman Nina Waidacher leads nation in points at end of regular season. (Not looking good after missing five games and Fortier’s pace right now.)

3. RIT announces it is going to Division I next year before the end of the season. (No official announcement from the college yet, but the president has sent a letter out saying all intentions are to move up and word has it RIT has only scheduled D-I teams for next year so far…we’ll see.)

4. Amherst sweeps Wis.-River Falls and St. Thomas on western road trip. (Got one finally here!)

5. Norwich finishes unbeaten in ECAC East play for second straight year. (Looking good right now…two games left at home against Holy Cross and Salve Regina. The Cadets have a score to settle with Salve after the Seahawks tied NU for the second straight year earlier this season.)

6. Julie Fortier, Kourtney Kunichika, Allie Schwab, Kim Herring and Geneva Lloyd are the five Hurd Award finalists. (I think Fortier, Kunichika, Schawb and Lloyd are looking good…Herring will be a close call.)

7. Norwich’s Julie Fortier wins Laura Hurd Award. (I don’t see how she doesn’t at this point…leading nation in goals and points…will most likely break program record for points in a career.)

8. Gustavus Adolphus’ senior goalie Danielle Justice leads nation in shutouts. (Not likely at all…what a turnaround by Sydney Aveson at Plattsburgh. Impressive improvement since earlier in the season has Plattsburgh right in the mix again.)

9. RIT’s Kolbee McCrea leads nation in goals. (Fortier setting too quick a pace right now…not likely.)

10. Two more schools announce they are adding D-III women’s hockey before end of the season (Franklin Pierce and Stevenson have already announced). (shot in the dark that isn’t looking good at all.)

11.  RIT loses two games this season (playoffs and NCAAs included), one to Elmira and one to Plattsburgh. (halfway right so far…home-and-home series coming up with Elmira.)

12. Manhattanville makes ECAC East finals. (Clearly the No. 2 in the ECAC East on paper, but in a one-and-one situation anything can happen. Salve, New England College, Castleton, and Massachusetts-Boston could all pull the upset with the right bounce of the puck.)

13. One of Wis.-River Falls, Middlebury, or RIT doesn’t make their conference championship. (I really like the possibility of one of these happening.)

14. St. Scholastica makes NCHA finals. (Backing down a little bit on the Scholastica bandwagon….Wis.-Superior has clearly established itself as the No. 2 threat to Wis.-River Falls right now.)

15. Castleton makes ECAC East final four. (Looked great earlier this year…now starting to wonder. Coach Bowes might be one more season out. But he’s still got this team going in the right direction in my opinion.)

16. Elmira wins ECAC West Tournament. (Who knows…as good of a shot as Plattsburgh and RIT…could go a long way toward making its road easier by splitting with RIT and earning the No. 1 seed for tournament and hosting rights to playoffs.)

17. Amherst wins NESCAC Tournament. (I think they are the best team in the NESCAC, but plenty of teams have shown they can play with the Jeffs and Middlebury this year…)

18. RIT, Norwich, Amherst, and Wis.-River Falls make the Frozen Four. (Honestly the only team I’m confident will make it is Amherst. The other three could easily be out and just as easily be in too. It’s so wide open this year between the top 8 or 9 teams.)

19. RIT hosts the Frozen Four (Still ranked No. 1 right now and would probably be No. 1 in the first NCAA rankings as we stand currently. Big series with Elmira coming up. Tigers need a sweep to host the ECACW Tournament again.)

20. RIT wins national championship (See 18.)

Weekend picks are back this week after a far too long absence!

Although there are no games between two top-10 ranked teams this weekend, there are some interesting matchups that should lead to some good games and some tough games to predict.

Friday, Feb. 2nd -

Salve Regina/UMass-Boston
Here’s an interesting game between two ECAC East schools jockeying for playoff position as we enter the home stretch of the regular season. Salve currently sits in third place once we take out the non-D-III schools from the standings, while UMB is in seventh just four points back creating quite the logjam in the middle of the ECAC East standings. UMass-Boston won the earlier meeting this season 5-2 and I’ll take the Beacons again this time. UMass-Boston:4 Salve Regina: 3

RIT/Oswego
Oswego will have their hands full this weekend with the top-ranked Tigers coming to town for a pair of games at the Campus Center. The Lakers have solidly emerged as the No. 4 team in the ECAC West this year behind the triumverant three of Elmira, RIT and Plattsburgh. The Lakers were the only team to knock off RIT last year before the national championship game so the Tigers will be looking for a little revenge. Oswego might keep it close one night but I see RIT winning comfortably once and then by two or three in the other game. RIT: 6 Oswego: 1 and RIT: 4 Oswego: 2

Trinity/Bowdoin
Personally, I feel this two-game series is right up there for the most intriguing of the week with St. Scholastica and Lake Forest. Both teams are tied for the No. 3 slot in the NESCAC right now which was for the most part expected. However, the unexpected part to some degree is the fact Conn. College and Williams are just one and two points behind respectively. This weekend’s pair of games at Bowdoin’s Watson Arena could go a long way toward settling the No. 3 spot if one of the teams can take three of more points. Trinity’s Alexa Pujol is one of the best in between the pipes for the Bantams and she’ll lead them to one win this weekend. However, Bowdoin also gets a win as well and the two teams remain tied coming out of the weekend. Bowdoin: 2 Trinity: 1 and Trinity: 3 Bowdoin: 1

Potsdam/Neumann
These two clubs are currently duking it out for the all important fifth place in the ECAC West, which would avoid a first round meeting with one of Elmira, Plattsburgh and RIT. Neumann is currently a point ahead of the Bears and I think they’ll take both of these games to firmly entrench themselves in the fifth spot. With the NCAA sanction behind them and an official statement from the league saying the Knights are eligible for the ECAC West playoffs, they’ll be ready and motivated this weekend. Neumann: 4 Potsdam : 1 and Neumann: 3 Potsdam: 0

Adrian/UW-Stevens Point
The Pointers currently lead Adrian by three points for fifth place in the NCHA. This weekend is their chance to solidify their hold on the spot and start to challenge Scholastica for the 4th spot. After starting off 6-2-1, the Pointers are just 3-6 in their last nine. Adrian has won three in a row and I think the Bulldogs pull off three points this weekend on the road to tie things up for fifth. Adrian: 3 Point: 2, Adrian: 2 Point: 2

St. Scholastica/Lake Forest
This is the most intriguing matchup of the week for me. You have St. Scholastica who is having a breakout year led by the Waidacher sisters against Lake Forest who features one of the top players in D-III in Kim Herring. After a strong start, CSS has had a little bit tougher road in the second half of the season. Part of it came due to the Waidachers missing a combined eight games. With the Waidachers back teamed with captain Michelle Fischer, the Saints regain their mojo and take three points from Lake Forest to pull ahead of the Foresters for third place. St. Scholastica: 4 Lake Forest: 3, St. Scholastica: 2 Lake Forest: 2

Drop the puck!

Another week down, and based on the results, the point continues to be hammered down that the difference between the top eight or nine teams this year in D-III women’s hockey is only the slimmest of margins.

On Tuesday, No. 7 Amherst handed top-ranked Norwich its first loss since Oct. 29 with a 2-0 shutout over the defending national champions. The Lord Jeffs have played more ranked teams than anybody else in Division III this season, and their only three losses have come to Elmira, Middlebury and RIT. They also own wins over Norwich, Wisconsin-River Falls, Middlebury and Plattsburgh.

No one else at this point can claim a tougher schedule than Amherst, and with their recent results I expect them to shoot up the USCHO.com poll today. Personally, I voted them second behind RIT.

The other two matchups of national interest this weekend provided more results to prove the parity that is running rampant amongst the fraternal order of D-III women’s hockey.

Elmira and Plattsburgh split their series over the weekend. Plattsburgh scored a 4-1 win with an empty-netter on Saturday afternoon, but Elmira rallied to down the Cardinals 2-1 on Sunday behind two goals from freshman Ashley Ryan and kept their chances alive for the ECAC West regular season title.

If RIT, Plattsburgh and Elmira all hold serve and win every game against teams outside of the powerhouse trio, the ECAC West regular season title will come down to the big RIT/Elmira home-and-home series in two weeks.

If Elmira takes three or more points from RIT and wins its remaining games, it’ll win the regular season.  A split between the two will hand the title to Plattsburgh, and an RIT sweep will clinch the Tigers the regular season crown for the second straight season.

Out West, Gustavus Adolphus emerged triumphant from its showdown with Concordia (Minn.) The Gusties won 4-1 on Friday and then skated to a 3-3 tie on Saturday to put a virtual death grip on another MIAC regular season title.

Gustavus Adolphus is the lone Division III team without a loss this season, and the Gusties have their toughest remaining hurdle tomorrow night that stands in their way of an unbeaten regular season. Gustavus travels to No. 10 Wisconsin-Superior for their final nonconference tilt. Face off is set for 7 p.m. at Superior’s Wessman Arena.

RIT held another overwhelmingly successful charity weekend on Friday and Saturday night against Buffalo State at the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena.

After holding the “Tigers Black Out Heart Disease” weekend against Plattsburgh, which included a sellout crowd of 2100 the first night, the Tigers held a “Salute the Troops” and a tribute to the US Armed Forces this year by wearing special camoflauge jerseys.

RIT picked up the two wins over the weekend and they also generated a total of $8,609.33 from just the jersey bid auctions, including an astounding $3,000 from Kristina Moss’ #4 jersey.

Kudos to RIT for another successful event this season and its no wonder they are able to do such a great job with the website they have set up for the jersey auctions.

Across Division III there weren’t a whole lot of unexpected results this past weekend. Bowdoin gave Middlebury fits but couldn’t quite get over the hump against the Panthers, dropping both games by a goal each. It was an encouraging sign though from the Polar Bears that maybe they still are pushing toward the NESCAC elite level after a promising season last year where they finished with their best record in years.

Norwich continued its dominant ways in the ECAC East as the Cadets rolled past Manhattanville 6-1 on Friday night at Kreitzberg Arena. Although Manhattanville scored first, Norwich scored six unanswered to cruise to the win and up its streak to 33 straight unbeaten in ECAC East regular season play. Friday’s win was only the third all-time for the Cadets against Manhattanville as the Valiants have been a thorn in Norwich’s side ever since NU started up its women’s hockey program five years ago.

Nichols is now in its fourth year as a varsity women’s hockey program and the Bison have been through a lot in just four short years. They have had three different coaches already, including a change in the middle of this season with Guy Angers stepping down and Kyle Daly stepping up into the head coaching role. Even with the coaching change, this has been a season of improvement and small victories for the program.

Mandy Manopla became the first player in progam history to surpass 50 career points and with Nichols’ 3-2 overtime win at St. Michael’s on Friday night, the Bison set a new single-season high for wins with five.

Another interesting tidbit on Nichols this year is the Bison have one of the weirdest schedules I’ve ever seen in my 20 years of following college hockey. Nichols started off the season with eight straight road games and didn’t play its first home game until Dec. 6 against Wesleyan. The Bison have played just three home games so far this season and 13 on the road. However, the good news is Nichols has played its final road game of the regular season and now the Bison will have eight straight at home to close out the regular season and try and reach double digit wins for the first time in program history. It all starts this weekend against St. Anselm and UMass-Boston.

This weekend has some big matchups on tap with Gustavus Adolphus and Concordia (Minn.) finally meeting to decide the MIAC’s best. Also, Elmira hosts Plattsburgh for the first time since the 2008-09 season and a lot will be on the line as the Soaring Eagles will try to stay perfect in ECAC West play against their arch-rivals. If Plattsburgh takes three points or more, the Cardinals will be in the driver’s seat for the ECAC West regular season crown after they took three from RIT two weeks ago.

USCHO has broke out the Pairwise Comparison Rankings once again this year. These are important to keep tabs on as they show you how the top teams rank up against each other when it comes to some of the primary criteria for the NCAA Tournament including winning percentage, strength of schedule, opponent’s winning percentage, opponents’ opponents winning percentage, common opponents, and head to head.

The only factor we’re missing is the NCAA ranked teams and those rankings haven’t come out yet. The NCAA normally starts releasing those in early February so we can start gauging how the teams are stacking up with each other and who will be in and out as well as who will be playing who come NCAA Tournament time.

It’s hard to believe but we’re already closing in on the home stretch with the final month of the regular season almost upon us. Buckle up, it’s sure to be another great ride!

Just when you think you’re about to figure it all out, this past weekend happens.

Plattsburgh looked like it might be a step behind the perennial powers this season and then the Cardinals go and take three points from previously unbeaten and top-ranked RIT.

That’s the beauty of college sports though and that’s why we love this sport so much and follow it religiously.

What we do know and what we probably already could have assumed is that on any given night, any one of the top eight teams in the country can beat each other.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a season where we have had eight teams completely move to the forefront and be that far ahead of everyone else. Barring a major upset, I think you could almost pencil in the top eight teams in the USCHO.com Poll as the eight teams that will be in the NCAA Tournament this year.

RIT, Elmira, Plattsburgh, Middlebury, Amherst, Norwich, Wis.-River Falls and Gustavus Adolphus are your elite eight currently and with the NCAA Tournament expanding to eight teams this year, all eight can get in if there are no major upsets in the conference tournaments IE, someone other River Falls winning the NCHA, someone other than Gustavus winning the MIAC, and someone other than Norwich winning the ECAC East.

Middlebury and Amherst split their series this past weekend, which gets us nowhere closer to figuring out who has in the inside track to finishing atop the NESCAC standings this year. It will either come down to a team losing or tying to someone else or tiebreakers at the end of the season.

With RIT’s slip up, the ECAC West is wide open right now. Plattsburgh has actually moved ahead RIT conference wise and they’ll have a big two-game series showdown with Elmira on Jan. 28 and 29. Elmira is the lone team perfect in the ECAC West, but the Soaring Eagles haven’t played RIT or Plattsburgh yet. Elmira will get to host Plattsburgh for the first time since the 2008-09 season after they went to Plattsburgh two years in a row for ECAC West games to try and offset the three power teams from having to play all four games on the road at the other two schools.

Speaking of RIT, this weekend the Tigers aren once again hosting a pair of charity games. RIT is hosting Buffalo State and they will once again be wearing special edition jerseys. This time the Tigers are paying tribue to the US Armed Forces with special camoflauge jerseys that will be auctioned off.

RIT continues to set the gold standard with this auction website that they have now used two years in a row.

http://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/supportveterans/

Check out the above link for all the information. When you go to the bidding page, you’ll get a glimpse of each girl’s personality a little bit with a posed photo.

http://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/supportveterans/bidding.php

January and February have become common months for college hockey squads to hold benefit games and once again this year two perennial powers will be holding awareness nights.

For the fourth straight year Norwich will be holding a pink night at Krietzberg Arena. The Cadets will done special edition pink jerseys that were purchased last year and will be sold off for auction after next year’s game. This year, Norwich will be raising money for the Carol Stephens Scholarshhip fund. Stephens was a professor at Norwich and this past summer passed away from a battle with cancer. The event will take place on Saturday, Jan. 28 against New England College.

You can view the full release on the Norwich athletics website: http://norwichathletics.com/sports/wice/2011-12/releases/Pink_Night_12-21-11

(picture from last year’s “Cadets Skate for the Cure” night against St. Michael’s. Frank Vanecek/Norwich University)

Elmira will also be holding a pink the rink event this Saturday against Neumann at the Murray Athletic Center.

release courtesy of the Elmira Sports Information Department

EC Women’s Hockey Sponsors Pink in the Rink to Support Breast Cancer Awarenes

Elmira, NY – The #3 nationally-ranked Elmira College Women’s Hockey team will hold a special “Pink in the Rink” event Friday, January 14^th at 7:00 p.m. in conjunction with their ECAC West contest with the Neumann University Knights.  For this game only, the Elmira College Women’s team will trade in its gold jerseys to wear special pink jerseys, which will be sold to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

 The event will feature various opportunities for fans to support Breast Cancer Awareness, including purchasing raffle tickets for themed gift baskets and purchasing game-worn Elmira College jerseys. There will also be a free public skate and opportunity for all fans in attendance who wish to skate with the EC Women’s Hockey team, have their pictures taken and receive autographs from players.

Fan donations will be greatly appreciated in support of breast cancer awareness at this game. In addition, there will be an admission charge for this home contest of $5 for adults and $3 for students and children.  All proceeds for this game will benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Anyone interested in purchasing the special event Elmira College hockey jerseys may contact Coach Greg Fargo at (607) 735-1837 or gfargo@elmira.edu. Please come out to the Murray Athletics Centerto enjoy great hockey and support a great cause. Fans are encouraged to wear pink and join Elmira College Women’s Hockey in support of Pink in the Rink. 

RIT: 6 Adrian: 2

RIT too tough for Adrian in rematch of last year’s NCAA Quarterfinals.
Elmira: 4 Manhattanville: 1

Lots of history between these two schools including back-to-back appearances against each other in the 2002 and 2003 national championship games with Elmira taking both. EC keeps rolling in this one.

Gustavus Adolphus: 5 Stevens Point: 1

The Gusties stay unbeaten. Stevens Point hasn’t played much of the meat of their schedule yet and they drop this one to a tough GAC squad.