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.

Two Division III teams were in action this past weekend in South Burlington, Vt. to kick off 2012 at the St. Michael’s Holiday Classic. Division I Sacred Heart stole the tournament title however with a 5-2 win over Nichols and then a 3-1 victory over the host Purple Knights. Colby split the weekend with a 3-1 loss to St. Michael’s, but rebounded with 2-1 win over Nichols to finish in third place.

Three games are on tap today including the opening round of the Codfish Bowl hosted by UMass-Boston. Sacred Heart will look to steal another tourney title as they take on the host Beacons at 2 p.m. Bowdoin and Wesleyan are currently playing in the other first round game. Southern Maine meets Trinity in non-conference action as well to wrap up their two-game series. The Bantams won 3-1 last night in the first game.

Plenty of teams are taking advantage of the break from classes to get in midweek games. There are games on almost every night of the week for the next two weeks including a full slate of games this Friday and Saturday to really get things cranking on the D-III 2012 schedule.

However, before we get too far into 2012, I’d like to hand out some midseason awards from the first half, take an early look at the frontrunners for the Laura Hurd Award (D-III Player of the Year award), as well as make my popular 20 bold predictions.

 Midseason All-Americans

1st Team East:

F. Kourtney Kunichika, RIT
F. Julie Fortier, Norwich
F. Chelsea VanGlahn, Plattsburgh
D. Geneva Lloyd, Amherst
D. Madison Styrbicki, Middlebury
G. Laura Chamberlain, RIT

2nd Team East:

F. Kolbee McCrea, RIT
F. Melissa Rundlett, Norwich
F. Tori Charron, Elmira
D. Ashley Salerno, Amherst
D. Sarianne Lynn, Norwich
G. Annabelle Jones, Middlebury

1st Team West:

F. Nina Waidacher, St. Scholastica
F. Allie Schwab, Gustavus Adolphus
F. Katelyn Dold, Concordia (Minn.)
D. Anna Carlson, Bethel
D. Lindsey Hjelm, Gustavus Adolphus
G. Danielle Justice, Gustavus Adolphus

2nd Team West:

F. Kim Herring, Lake Forest
F. Kasey Evans, St. Catherine
F. Mollie Carroll, Gustavus Adolphus
D. Allie Olson, Wis.-River Falls
D. Kelly Salis, Adrian
G. Ashley Kuechle, Wis.-River Falls

 Laura Hurd Award Outlook

As always when I talk about the Hurd Award, I preface the fact that this National Player of the Year award presented by the American Hockey Coaches Association is normally a senior award rewarding a career rather than just an individual season.

Only one non-senior has ever won the trophy and that came in 2008 with Plattsburgh’s Danielle Blanchard winning it as a junior after leading the Cardinals to their second straight National Championship.

Last year, RIT’s Sarah Dagg became the first Tiger to win the award. In the 12 years the award has been given out, Middlebury has four winners, while Gustavus Adolphus and Elmira have two each. The NESCAC has accounted for half of the winners while no player from the ECAC East or NCHA has ever won the award.

Here are the five players that I see in the running right now.

Forward – (Sr.) Julie Fortier, Norwich

Fortier has been in the shadow of Sophie Leclerc for her first three seasons at Norwich. However, this year as the go to goal scorer, Fortier has been brilliant with 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points. Her goal and point tallies tie for the nation lead in both categories. So far in her career, Fortier has 75 goals and 67 assists for 142 points, which is just 22 points away from breaking the Norwich program record.

Forward – (Sr.) Allie Schwab, Gustavus Adolphus

Schwab is off to a terrific start in her senior year with a team-leading 19 points in 10 games. She’s been a big factor in GAC still being unbeaten as we enter 2012 with eight goals and 11 assists. In her career, Schwab has played in 98 games and has exactly 98 points with 54 goals and 44 assists.

Forward – (So.) Kourtney Kunichika, RIT

Kunichika has picked up right where she left off last year after a sensational freshman campaign where she led RIT in scoring on a team that featured three All-Americans and she wasn’t one of them. She has nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points so far to tie her with Fortier and St. Scholastica’s Nina Waidacher for the nation lead. Kunichika is already at 65 career points and has only played in 41 games. The only thing working against her for this award is she isn’t a senior.

Forward – (Sr.) Kim Herring, Lake Forest

Herring currently has 11 goals and six assists for 17 points so far. She has scored 61 goals and 39 assists for 100 points in 78 career games. Last year she missed the whole first half of the season with mono and was only able to play in 15 games and tallied just 10 points. It was certainly a let down after she scored 28 goals and has 25 assists for 53 points as a sophomore with the Forresters. Healthy again this year she has started to produce at a similar rate to her outstanding sophomore year when she led the country in scoring.

 Defense – (Jr.) Geneva Lloyd, Amherst

 Lloyd doesn’t get as much press as the four names mentioned above because she plays defense but for anyone that has seen her play, you quickly realize most nights she’s the best player on the ice and can control the game at both the defensive end and on offense. She has three goals and seven assists so far for a team-leading 10 points. She has led the Lord Jeffs in points in every season she has played for Amherst. So far in her career she has 24 goals and 49 assists for 73 points in 63 games.

20 Predictions

1. Gustavus Adolphus finishes regular season unbeaten.

2. St. Scholastica freshman Nina Waidacher leads nation in points at end of regular season.

3. RIT announces they are going to Division I next year before the end of the season.

4. Amherst sweeps River Falls and St. Thomas on western road trip.

5. Norwich finishes unbeaten in ECAC East play for second straight year.

6. Julie Fortier, Kourtney Kunichika, Allie Schwab, Kim Herring and Geneva Lloyd are the five Hurd Award finalists. 

7. Norwich’s Julie Fortier wins Laura Hurd Award.

8. Gustavus Adolphus’ senior goalie Danielle Justice leads nation in shutouts. 

9. RIT’s Kolbee McCrea leads nation in goals.

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).

11.  RIT loses two games this season (playoffs and NCAA’s included). One to Elmira and one to Plattsburgh.

12. Manhattanville makes ECAC East finals.

13. One of River Falls, Middlebury, or RIT doesn’t make their conference championship.

14. St. Scholastica makes NCHA finals.

15. Castleton makes ECAC East final four.

16. Elmira wins ECAC West Tournament.

17. Amherst wins NESCAC Tournament.

18. RIT, Norwich, Amherst, River Falls make the Frozen Four.

19. RIT hosts the Frozen Four

20. RIT wins National Championship

The first half of the 2011-12 Division III women’s hockey season officially comes to a close tomorrow night when Wis.-Superior travels to Gustavus Adolphus and wraps up an interesting last seven days that featured plenty of top 10 teams in action in tough games.

RIT wrapped up a perfect first half with two one-goal road wins against Trinity and Amherst. The Tigers are 12-0-0 in D-III play but they also won four other exhibition contests in Canada over the Thanksgiving holiday break. RIT got outshot for the first time this season in the game against Amherst on Sunday. However, the Tigers escaped with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Ali Hills and a 32-save performance from sophomore goalie Laura Chamberlain.

Norwich faced a stern test on Wednesday by hosting No. 8 Plattsburgh State. The Cadets trailed 2-1 late in the third period but freshman Tyne Gove scored the game-tying goal with around seven minutes to go.  Classmate Kaycie Anderson scored the game-winning goal 2:27 into overtime to lift the Cadets to a big 3-2 comeback win over the Cardinals and prevent what would have brought a whole new meaning to the common tie-game phrase of ”kissing your sister”. Wednesday’s game had a little extra meaning for Tyne Gove, who was playing against her older sister Teal, who is a junior assistant captain for Plattsburgh. All three local TV stations were at Wednesday’s game to cover the story, here is WCAX’s take on the sister vs. sister matchup: http://www.wcax.com/story/16223337/sister-sister

Middlebury stayed unbeaten on the season, but the Panthers did suffer another blemish as they skated to a 2-2 tie with Manhattanville on Friday. While teams like RIT, Norwich, Gustavus Adolphus and Elmira have dominated the headlines so far this season, Middlebury is quietly sitting at 5-0-2 so far and is one of just three teams, along with RIT and Gustavus Adolphus who have yet to lose this year.

Gustavus Adolphus skated to 1 -1 tie with Wis.-River Falls last Tuesday in a battle of the western powers. River Falls took the lead on a goal from Kait Mason in the second period, but GAC rallied to tie it in the third period with a goal from Melissa Doyle.

Elmira wrapped up the first half of the season with a 5-1 win and the Soaring Eagles extended their unbeaten streak to 10 straight games. EC has continued to look strong this season and it appears the Soaring Eagles are back after a sub-par season for their standards last season. Elmira won the Panther-Cardinal Classic and its lone loss is to Norwich in the first game of the season. The biggest difference I see so far this season is Elmira has a lot more balanced scoring. The Soaring Eagles have five players with 11 points or more points right now and their leading scorer has 13. Alex Bresler, Lindsay Mitchell, Tanis Lamoureux and Ashley Ryan have stepped up to help shoulder the scoring load this season and take some attention away from Tori Charron.

Two more teams that are currently flying under the radar that I feel people should keep an eye on in the second half are Concordia-Moorhead and St. Scholastica. Concordia is 7-1-1 currently and might be the No. 1 contender to try and finally knock Gustavus Adolphus from the top of the MIAC perch that they have held for nearly a decade now. The Cobbers open 2012 with 10 straight home games and right in the middle of that stretch are two home dates with the Gusties that could determine the MIAC regular season champion and who gets hosting rights for the tournament.

St. Scholastica is a team I touched on earlier this season with a feature story I did on the Waidacher sisters who have continued to tear it up for Jackie MacMillan’s squad. Nina Waidacher is currently in a three-way tie for the national scoring lead with RIT’s Kourtney Kunichika and Norwich’s Julie Fortier. Nina and Fortier each have 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points, while Kunichika has nine goals and 13 assists. Monika, who is Nina’s older sister by a year has exploded this season playing alongside her sister to the tune of seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points after scoring just three goals all last season.

Earlier today the Saints tied Adrian to secure a three-point weekend against the defending NCHA Tournament champions.

CSS is 7-2-1 right now and their lone losses came at the hands of Wis.-River Falls. The second half will prove to a bit more trying for St. Scholastica though as the Saints play just four of their remaining 15 games at home in the friendly confines of Mars-Lakeview Arena. After opening the 2012 portion of its schedule with a home game against St. Olaf, CSS will trek East to take on Saint Anselm and Salve Regina in a rare East/West region crossover matchup. If not for having to stat the Norwich men’s Northfield Savings Bank Tournament on Friday, Jan. 6, I’d head down to Manchester, N.H. to take in the St. Scholastica/Saint Anselm game.

 Here is the story I did on the Waidacher sisters earlier this year if you missed it the first time: http://www.uscho.com/2011/11/10/swiss-sisters-lead-st-scholastica/

Coming later this week will be a first half wrap-up, mid-season All-American selections and an early handicap of the 2012 Laura Hurd Award race.

Two top-10 teams had slip ups in the road this past weekend with Wis.-River Falls falling for the first time this year with a loss to Wis.-Superior and Norwich tying Salve Regina 1-1 for the second straight year.

Wis.-River Falls got the monkey off its back a lot earlier this season after the Falcons finished last year undefeated during the regular season before losing two straight playoff games in the NCHA finals and the NCAA Tournament First Round. Coach Cranston’s Falcons will get a chance to get back on track real quickly though as they take on undefeated Gustavus Adolphus tonight in a matchup between the West Region’s two colossal titans that have separated themselves a bit over the past few years from the rest of the region.

For those interested in watching, you can view tonight’s western showdown here: http://athletics.blog.gustavus.edu/2011/12/06/no-6-womens-hockey-squares-off-against-no-7-uw-river-falls-tonight/

There are links to game notes, as well as live stats and live video at that link.

Wis.-River Falls will be motivated coming into tonight’s matchups for not only dropping a game to Superior this past weekend, but the Falcons will also be looking to avenge NCAA Tournament First Round losses to Gustavus Adolphus the last two seasons. The Gusties dropped the Falcons 4-1 last year at Hunt Arena and took the 2010 meeting 2-0 at the Don Roberts Ice Arena.

Gustavus Adolphus has been rolling along so far this season with Allie Schwab, Mollie Carroll, Carolyn Draayer and Lindsey Hjelm all with 10 or more points. Danielle Justice has been her usual self between the pipes with a perfect 6-0-0 record to go along with a .922 save percentage and a 1.40 goals against average.

Historically Gustavus Adolphus has been known to have a couple of hiccups in the first semester before going on a second half tear. I think UWRF takes their frustration out on Gustavus Adolphus tonight from the weekend and having their season ended the last two seasons by the Gusties with a close 3-2 win.

The other interesting result from this past weekend came from the Norwich/Salve Regina game where for the second straight season the Seahawks stymied the Cadets and forced a 1-1 tie despite being outshot 57-8. The Cadets are unbeaten in 29 straight ECAC East regular season games with a 27-0-2 record. The only team that has been able to halt their path has been Salve Regina with both of the ties coming to the Seahawks at St. George’s Rink in Middletown, R.I.

Norwich followed up the next afternoon however with a 5-0 dominating win over previously unbeaten Holy Cross to cement its hold atop the ECAC East standings. In Sunda’s game, NU senior forward Julie Fortier broke the school record for career goals by tallying the 73rd of her career in the first period to surpass Sophie Leclerc. Fortier also has a good shot at breaking the all-time points record as she now sits just 24 points shy of tying Leclerc’s all-time mark of 163.

You can view the Norwich athletics release here: http://www.norwichathletics.com/sports/wice/2011-12/releases/Holy_Cross_12-4-11

Tomorrow night we’ll have another top-10 showdown between No. 2 Norwich and No. 7 Plattsburgh. The game will be video streamed live at www.nsnsports.net/norwich and is free to anyone who wants to watch.

Now that all the dust has settled from this past weekend’s four colossal matchups at the Cardinal-Panther Classic, what have we learned?

Well truthfully…not all that much.

While these early season tournaments like the East/West Hockey Classic and the Panther-Cardinal Classic are important games, it’s tough to completely predict who is necessarily better than who considering Middlebury and Amherst are just in their second week of games and the Panthers were still missing their leading scorer from a year ago.

Clearly Elmira helped their NCAA Tournament profile should they need a Pool C bid come March with a tie against Middlebury and a win over Amherst while Plattsburgh is a bit behind the 8-ball early now. However, there is still is plenty of hockey left to be played and Plattsburgh not only have league games left with RIT (2), Elmira (2), but they’ve also got non-conference tilts with Norwich (2) and Middlebury left.

Middlebury also didn’t hurt their profile even though they finished in third place. The Panthers wrapped up the weekend with what goes down in the NCAA record book as a tie against Elmira (shootouts aren’t considered) and a win over Plattsburgh. I’d be willing to bet Midd coach Bill Mandigo would take a 3-0-1 start so far while missing his top scorer (Lauren Greer) from last year as well as graduating a First Team All-American (Alexi Bloom) between the pipes.

What I do find ironic is that the one team that didn’t have goaltending questions coming into the Cardinal-Panther Classic that I outlined in my preview for my column last week, ended up not only winning the tournament, but Elmira’s goalie Lauren Sullivan was named the tournament MVP. Sullivan pitched a 15-save shutout against No. 3 Middlebury and then followed up by stopping 26 of 27 shots to help lift the Soaring Eagles past Amherst and claim their second Cardinal-Panther Classic title in the last three years.

RIT was also in action with four exhibition games during Thanksgiving week against Ontario Canadian university clubs. The Tigers impressively won all four games, including a 3-2 win over undefeated and No. 3-ranked Wilfred Laurier. RIT once again seems to have established itself at a different level early this season. The Tigers return to the States this week to host Chatham for a pair of games and then they’ll hit their next stretch of tough games with a roadtrip out to Trinity on Dec. 10 followed by Amherst the next day. RIT then kicks off the second semester by hosting Adrian twice on Jan. 6 and 7 and then travel up to Plattsburgh on Jan. 13 and 14 for a showdown with the Cardinals.

This past weekend marked the first time that all 49 Division III women’s hockey teams had played a game in the 2011-12 season, with the NESCAC schools finally getting underway. Middlebury and Amherst both held serve with two sweeps, and Bowdoin had a tough loss at Plattsburgh State.

We are now on to Thanksgiving week, and what is usually a relatively quieter week on the D-III women’s front is packed full of interesting games this year.

First up, top-ranked RIT is using the Thanksgiving break to get four extra games in, with a tour through the province of Ontario, Canada to play four Canadian University teams, starting today at 2:30 p.m. when the Tigers take on Western Ontario. RIT is using this road trip as it’s international trip that the NCAA allows college athletic teams to take once every four years.

Plattsburgh is one team off the top of my head that I know has done a trip like this before. The Cardinals did it twice that I found, with one coming during the 2004-05 season and then again in 2007-08. Both years Plattsburgh made the Frozen Four, and in 2008 they went all the way and won their second straight national championship.

The competition RIT will face should be on par with some of the top Division III teams, as Plattsburgh went 2-4 in its six games they played during those two trips. The Tigers will get their stiffest test in their third game when they take on unbeaten Wilfred Laurier (11-0-1), which is currently the second-ranked team in all of Canada. RIT will also play Brock and York as well.

Secondly, it would be remiss to not mention Wis.-River Falls coach Joe Cranston recording his 200th career win on Saturday with a 7-2 win over Wis.-Stevens Point. Cranston has been the only coach in the program’s 13-year history, and he has helped establish the Falcons as one of the premier programs in all of D-III women’s hockey. Cranston is just the third Division III coach to reach the 200-career win milestone, and trails only Gustavus Adolphus’ Mike Carroll and Middlebury’s Bill Mandigo.

Wis.-River Falls Sports Information Directer Jim Thies wrote an outstanding piece highlighting Cranston’s legendary career at UWRF. You can view the story here

Lastly, I got the opportunity to get back home to New York for the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. I lucked out that Elmira was playing the back end of its two-game series with Utica yesterday at the Murray Athletic Center, so I headed over to Pine Valley to take in the tilt. The Pioneers are a team that have been a thorn in Elmira’s side lately, after they knocked EC out of the ECAC West playoffs in the first round last season. They gave them fits again on Saturday, but Elmira escaped with a 2-1 win.

Sunday’s game wasn’t going much better for Elmira, as Utica got two second period goals to take a 2-0 lead heading into the final 20 minutes. However, Elmira scored five third-period goals, including two from the relentless work ethic of Tanis Lamoreuax, en route to a 5-2 comeback victory.

The thing I’d like to make mention about the game though is something that I’ve never seen before pertaining to Utica’s jerseys. Every single player had the word “Pioneers” on the back of their jersey where you would normally see the player’s name on the name plate. I thought this was something pretty unique that Utica head coach Dave Clausen had, and whether it be a coaches’ decision or a players’ decision, hats off to all involved. Very cool concept indeed, and I wonder if there are more teams that might do something of this nature in the future.

As Kurt Russell portraying Herb Brooks in the movie Miracle said, “On my team, the name of the front of the jersey is a hell of a lot more important on the back.” Utica has taken this to the next level, and now has the team name on the back.