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.

This past weekend didn’t really feature any marquee matchups across the country. There were no top 10 matchups and every single one of the top 10 teams in the latest USCHO.com Poll rolled to victories.

Since it was a rather predictable weekend, let’s take a look at the early returns on conference races.

ECAC East: Defending national champion Norwich is off to a blistering start in conference play as the Cadets are 4-0-0 and have outscored their opponents 36-1 in legaue games so far this year. Manhattanville is the odds on favorite to be Norwich’s chief competitor for the ECAC East title and the Valiants have already fallen a game behind as they dropped a game to Saint Anselm two weeks ago. Saint Anselm will take a crack at Norwich on Saturday in the Cadets’ toughest ECAC East test to date on Saturday afternoon.

ECAC West: Once again the race figures to come down to Elmira, RIT, and Plattsburgh this year. Elmira took a one-year hiatus from the powerhouse trio but the Soaring Eagles look to have rebounded early this season and should be right back in the thick of things with Plattsburgh and RIT. The one shocking result so far in the ECAC West was Neumann tying Plattsburgh two weeks ago. Neumann led 5-1 but a ferocious third period comeback helped Plattsburgh salvage a point. That tie could come back to haunt Plattsburgh in the long run if Elmira and RIT both sweep the Knights. Plattsburgh is the de-facto leader currently since they’ve played five leagues games and are 4-0-1. RIT has swept Potsdam and Utica so far while Elmira is coming off two convincing wins against Cortland this past weekend in its only two league games to date.

MIAC: The question coming into every season when it comes to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is who can finally be the one to dethrone Gustavus Adolphus? The bad news for the conference so far is the Gusties haven’t shown any signs of slowing down so far this season having outscored their opponents 26-6 in four games. Coach Carroll’s squad once again looks to be the class of the league and the legendary coach currently sits just 23 wins shy of 300 wins in his career. GAC will face its old nemeis St. Thomas this weekend in a home and home series. The Tommies and Gusties split their regular season matchup last season and if one team can be a thorn in Gustavus’ side this year, UST is most likely the team to do it.

NCHA: The most interesting conference top to bottom almost every year turns out to the NCHA. This year shouldn’t be too much different. Wis.-River Falls has once again asserted itself early as the team to beat with a perfect 4-0-0 record and sweeps over Adrian and St. Scholastica. The Falcons are still stacked once again this season and they’ll be looking to avenge last season’s disappointing end after running the gauntlett in the regular season undefeated and then losing in the NCHA finals to Adrian and the NCAA Tournament First Round to Gustavus Adolphus. After UWRF, I expect things to be extremely tight all season from second to ninth place. At this point its a crap shoot to try and predict who will emerge. Wis.-Stevens Point is 3-0-1 so far but they’ll get UWRF this weekend in the toughest two games they’ll face all season. My sleeper in this league this year is St. Scholastica. The Saints are coming off two losses to UWRF but a 5-2 and 6-2 loss with the shot counts relatively close is nothing to hang your head about. CSS has four straight games against the the two teams at the bottom of the conference to get back to their winning ways and establish a foothold in the top four of the NCHA.

This weekend the NESCAC teams finally hit the ice for their first games of 2011-12 which will finally give us all 49 D-III teams in action.

Next week I’ll be getting back to the Player, Rookie, and Goalie of the Week selections I used in this blog last season. I’ll also be getting back to my weekly predictions in Friday.

Two weeks of the Division III women’s hockey season are already in the books for some schools and once again RIT is off to a fast start in 2011-12. The Tigers unofficially won the East/West Hockey Classic for the second straight year, besting Manhattanville and Norwich and then kept rolling this past weekend with two convincing wins over Utica.

The Tigers’ offense continues to roll despite the loss of Laura Hurd Award winner Sarah Dagg and two other All-Americans in Katie Stack and Traci Galbraith.

Even though Dagg and Stack got much of the press and accolades last season, neither of them were RIT’s top scorer in 2010-11. That honor belonged to now sophomore Kourtney Kunichika who is flourishing in the limelight. Kunichika was named to the East/West Classic All-Tournament team and currently leads the country with four goals and six assists for 10 points in four games played.

Kunichika’s brilliance is just a small sampling of the large youth movement that has swept D-III women’s hockey at the start of this season. The top four scorers (points-per-game average) in the country are all freshmen currently. St. Scholastica’s Nina Waidacher leads the nation right now averaging 3.00 points per game (2-4-6). Augsburg’s dynamic freshmen tandem of Sara Rajewsky (1-4-5) and Rachel Hennessy (4-1-5) each are averaging 2.50 points per game. Gustavus Adolphus’ Carolyn Draayer has four goals and one assist as well to complete top four.

On top of that, Marian freshman Amanda Waigand leads the country with seven tallies already in just four games this season for the Sabres. Defending national champion Norwich is even seeing a significant impact from a freshman with Kaycie Anderson leading the way in the early going with five goals and one assist for the Cadets.

After having four top-10 matchups the first weekend at Norwich’s Kreitzberg Arena for the second annual East/West Hockey Classic it was pretty tough for this past weekend to try and stack up as far as marquee matchups.

River Falls enacted a bit of revenge on Adrian after the Bulldogs ended the Falcons’ undefeated season last year in the NCHA finals. UWRF took a pair of league contests from Adrian to make an early statement to the rest of the NCHA that once again River Falls will be a force to be reckoned with.

Earlier today the new USCHO.com Division III poll was released and to no surprise on my end, RIT reclaimed the top spot in the poll after defeating previous No. 1 Norwich two weeks ago in a rematch of the 2011 National Championship game. The Tigers spent 11 weeks at No. 1 last year.

Norwich followed up at No. 2, followed by Middlebury, Plattsburgh and River Falls to complete the top five. Gustavus Adolphus, Amherst, Elmira, Trinity and Manhattanville rounded out the top 10.

One of the biggest headlines from this past weekend came from Plattsburgh after the Cardinals needed a furious four-goal third period comeback to rally to tie Neumann 5-5 after the Knights led 5-1 early. Neumann has always been a team knocking on the door and trying to break up the ECAC West powerhouse trio. The Knights came oh so close to shocking the world but an extra-attacker goal by Teal Gove with 14 seconds to play saved face for the Cardinals and they were able to salvage a point.

Manhattanville has also found a rough go of it so far in 2011-12 after the Valiants won the ECAC East Tournament for the first time since 2008 last March and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. They lost their head coach in the offseason to their men’s program and now are off to a 1-3 start so far. Granted, the two losses to RIT and Elmira are certainly nothing to shake your fist at but this past weekend dropping a game to St. Anselm makes a little bit of a cause for concern in Valiant Country.

The D-III women’s season opens up with a bang in just under an hour as No. 8 Manhattanville and No. 2 R.I.T. collide in the first game of the 2011 East/West Hockey Classic at Norwich’s Kreitzberg Arena.

But before I get to the picks for this weekend’s matchups, it’s time to publicly announce that the NCAA Tournament field will be expanding from seven teams to eight this season. The addition of St. Norbert and St. Scholastica has pushed the number of D-III teams up to 49, which when rounded up qualifies for the 6.5 access ratio that the NCAA uses to determine the number of teams for the NCAA Tournament.

Now there will be three Pool C bids intead of two like there has been in previous years. Plattsburgh more than likely would have been the benefactor of this change to the format last year as the eighth team into the tournament. Now there will also be no more byes and everyone will have to play their way into the Frozen Four.

Also on the same front, the NCAA announced that next season we will be going to a predetermined site for the host of the D-III Frozen Four on a one-year trial basis. This marks the first time that there could be a chance that a school will host the Frozen Four without a team in it.

Picks for this weekend-

Friday, October 28:

RIT: 4 Manhattanville: 1
Norwich: 3 Elmira: 2
Adrian: 5 Oswego: 1
Utica: 3  New England College: 1

Saturday, October 29:

Elmira: 4 Manhattanville: 2
RIT: 3 Norwich: 2
Oswego: 3 Adrian: 2

The 2011 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey National Champion Norwich University Cadets will be featured on national television Saturday April 30.

The Cadets’ memorable run to their first national championship in just the program’s fourth season was one of the stories chosen to feature in CBS Sports’ annual NCAA Championships Winter Highlights show which will air tomorrow on your local CBS affiliate at 2 p.m. EST.

NU (25-4-1) upset top-ranked Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) 5-2 on March 19 in Rochester, N.Y. to claim the first women’s team championship in school history.

The Cadets came full circle after reaching the national championship game last year and falling 7-2 to defending national champion Amherst.

The 2 1/2 minute segment will feature semifinal and championship game footage as well as player and coach interviews from the championship weekend.

Let’s see how far we’ve come…..

On Oct. 29, 2010 RIT and Norwich met at Kreitzberg Arena to open up each other’s respective seasons at Norwich’s inaugural East/West Hockey Classic.

Little did we know at the the time that the Tigers’ 3-1 victory would be a prequel to the eventual 2011 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey National Championship game, which will be played tonight at 7 p.m., this time at RIT’s Frank Ritter Memorial Arena.

I mentioned to a few of my colleagues at the time that RIT looked like they may have finally added the goaltending aspect that they had been lacking over the previous few seasons, which prevented them from taking the next step and jumping over Elmira and Plattsburgh in the ECAC West.

Laura Chamberlain has certainly helped solidify the pipes as the freshman carries a 0.96 goals against average and a .952 save percentage into tonight’s championship game.

The Tigers have also benefited from having three very strong lines with the additions of Kourtney Kunichika (14-27-41) and Kolbee McCrea (20-6-26) to help bolster an offense that already featured two All-American forwards in Katie Stack (20-20-40) and the Laura Hurd Award winner Sarah Dagg (18-24-42).

All in all, the Tigers have three players over 40 points, two more over 30, and three more with at least 25 points.

Norwich doesn’t stack up too shabby offensively either boasting the nation’s top two points scorers with Laura Hurd runner up Sophie Leclerc’s nation-leading 24 goals and 27 assists for 51 points and junior forward Julie Fortier who has 23 goals and 21 assists for 44 points.

Fortier tallied a natural hat trick in Norwich’s 5-4 NCAA semifinal win over Gustavus Adolphus and added an assist as well to lead the Cadets to a berth in the national championship game for the second straight year.

On paper when the brackets were drawn up, this is probably the matchup the majority of people expected to see.

Just take a look at some of the storylines heading into tonight’s game:

• The nation’s top two offenses with RIT scoring 5.17 gpg and Norwich right behind with 4.97 gpg.
• Four combined All-Americans with RIT’s Sarah Dagg, Katie Stack, and Traci Galbrait, as well as Norwich’s Sophie Leclerc.
•  The top two Laura Hurd Award finalists in Dagg and Leclerc.
• A superb rookie goaltender with RIT’s Chamberlain vs. a seasoned senior veteran in Norwich’s Cindy Fortin who also has a chance to win her 50th career game.
•  The best penalty kill with RIT killing penalties at 95.5 percent vs. Norwich’s second best power play clicking off at 27.1 percent.
• Then the ultimate storyline, one of these schools is going to win its first ever NCAA D-III Women’s Ice Hockey National Championship.

The American Hockey Coaches Association has released its five finalists for the 2011 Laura Hurd Award, given annually to the Division III Women’s Player of the Year.

The award was named after former Elmira College ’05 standout and NCAA Division III career points leader Laura Hurd, who passed away in an automobile accident a year after graduating in the summer of 2006.

Hurd accumulated a remarkable 120 goals and 117 assists for 237 career points over her four-year career in the purple and gold to put her nine points clear of Plattsburgh’s Elizabeth Gibson’s 226 points. Her all-time career points record will likely never be touched.

This year’s five finalists vying for the prestigous award are RIT’s Sarah Dagg, Norwich’s Sophie Leclerc, Wis. Eau Claire’s Kristin Faber, St. Catherine’s Michaela Michaelson, and Trinity’s Kim Weiss. The winner will be announced on Thursday at the NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championship banquet at RIT.

All five players were named their respective conference’s player of the year and all are seniors. The award has traditionally been given to seniors honoring a career rather than a single-season acheivement. The only non-senior to win the award was Plattsburgh’s Danielle Blanchard in 2008 when she led the Cardinals to back-to-back national championships.

Forward – Sarah Dagg, RIT

Dagg (St. George, Ontario) has been a standout two-way player for the Tigers for the last four seasons, while being a team captain for three of them. She has been an All-American in each of her last two seasons and will likey add another this season after leading RIT’s top-ranked offense with 18 goals and 23 assists for 41 points. She has 63 goals and 90 assists for 153 career points in 103 games played, which ties her for 15th all-time in D-III and the RIT career points record holder Alysia Park.

Forward – Sophie Leclerc, Norwich

Leclerc (Barre, Vt.) has been the Cadets’ captain for the last three seasons and continues to raise the bar as the Norwich all-time career points leader with every game she plays. This season has been Leclerc’s finest yet as she has tallied an even 24 goals and 24 assists for a nation-leading 48 points to help get Norwich back to the NCAA semifinals for the second straight season. She has 70 goals and 87 points for 157 points in 110 career games and is one of only two players in NU women’s hockey history record 100 career points. She is currently tied with UMass-Boston’s Melissa Belmonte for 12th on the all-time scoring list.

Forward – Michaela Michaelson, St. Catherine

Michaelson (Inner Grove Heights, Minn.) is the only repeat finalist from last year as she was named the MIAC Player of the Year for the second straight season. Last year, Michaelson helped put St. Catherine women’s hockey on the map by leading the Wildcats to a program-record 18 wins and a MIAC Championship game appearance before falling to Gustavus Adolphus. Michaelson tallied 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points this season and has totaled 61 goals and 51 assists for 112 career points in 98 games. She holds numerous school records including most game-winning goals, most power-play goals, and most shorthanded goals.

Forward – Kristin Faber, Wis. Eau Claire

Faber (Austin, Minn.) was named the NCHA Player of the Year after closing her career with an impressive senior campaign, leading the conference with 22 goals. She has also tallied 10 assists for 32 points to bring her career total to 67 goals and 46 assists in 113 games. She was named a First Team West All-American last season and will likely earn that honor again this season. Faber has been the driving force behind the Blugolds’ offense the last four seasons, leading the team in scoring every year and totaling 22.6 percent of the goals Wis. Eau Claire has scored in the last four years.

Forward – Kim Weiss, Trinity

Weiss (Potomac, Md.) has the opportunity to keep the Hurd Award at Trinity for the second consecutive season after former teammate and Trinity standout goaltender Isabel Iwachiw won the award last season for helping put Bantams’ women’s hockey on the map. Weiss was named the NESCAC Player of the Year after totaling 22 goals and nine assists for 31 points. In her career she has 62 goals and 46 assists for 108 points in 101 games played. She concluded her career as the all-time Trinity scoring leader and the only player in program history to ever top 100 points while being a complete two-way player for the Bantams. She was the captain the last two seasons and was named All-NESCAC in each of her four seasons, including first team the last three seasons.

Past Winners of the Laura Hurd Award

2000 - Sylvia Ryan, Middlebury College
2001 – Michelle Labbe, Middlebury College
2002 – Sarah Moe, Gustavus Adolphus
2003 – Angela Kapus, Middlebury College
2004 – Molly Wasserman, Williams College
2005 – Laura Hurd, Elmira College
2006 – Emily Quizon, Middlebury College
2007 – Andrea Peterson, Gustavus Adolphus
2008 - Danielle Blanchard, Plattsburgh State
2009 - Kayla Coady, Elmira College
2010 – Isabel Iwachiw, Trinity College

Six days later, all seems right in the world.

After the NCAA selection show last Monday set the D-III women’s hockey world off with how everything ended up shaking out, one week later we’re in the exact scenario we expected would happen and rightfully did happen.

Today, the NCAA announced that RIT and the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena will be the host of the 2011 Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championships on March 18 and 19.

The Tigers gained the hosting rights after trouncing NCHA champion Adrian 10-1 in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.

NESCAC champion Middlebury downed the ECAC East champion Manhattanville Valiants 1-0 as well to punch its ticket to the semifinals for the sixth time and first since 2009 where the Panthers hosted the event at the Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena.

Gustavus Adolphus was the first team to join Norwich in the semifinals after the Gusties avenged an earlier season defeat to Wis. River Falls with a 4-1 win over the Falcons on Friday night at Hunt Arena.

Norwich received a bye to the semifinal round despite losing in the ECAC East Championship game to Manhattanville.

Norwich will face Gustavus Adolphus in the first semifinal at 3:30 p.m., followed by RIT hosting Middlebury in the nightcap at 7 p.m. The winners will advance to Saturday’s NCAA Division III National Championship with faceoff set for 7 p.m. The losers of the two semifinal games will face-off in the Third Place Game at 3:30 p.m.

RIT makes its first appearance in the semifinals in what has been a record-setting season for the program. The Tigers have already established a new program-best for wins with 25 and won their first ECAC West Tournament and regular season titles since joining the conference in 2007.

Senior Katie Stack became the program’s all-time leader in goals during the win over Adrian and earlier this season, fellow senior Sarah Dagg set the new all-time record for career assists in a Tiger uniform.

Norwich returns to the semfinal/championship weekend for the second straight year and is making its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance in just the program’s fourth year as a varsity team.

The Cadets fell 7-2 to Amherst in last year’s final after they defeated Elmira 3-2 to move on to the championship.

Norwich has also set a new program-record for wins in a season with 23 already this season. The Cadets also won their first ECAC East regular season title and hosted the ECAC East Tournament at Kreitzberg Arena for the first time.

Middlebury returns as the only team that has won the whole thing before as the Panthers won three straight from 2004-2006. Middlebury wrapped up its fifth NESCAC Tournament title and in the process qualified for its ninth NCAA Tournament, which ties for the lead with Gustavus Adolphus for most NCAA appearances in the 10-year history of sponsoring a D-III championship.

The Panthers downed Manhattanville 1-0 on the strength of a Maggie Woodward third period goal at the 13:59 mark to advance to the next round. Alexi Bloom also picked up her remarkable 11th shutout of the season. She is only two away from Wis. Stevens Point’s Amy Statz’s record of 13 shutouts in a single season.

Gustavus Adolphus won its eighth straight MIAC Tournament title and scored three first period goals to run away from Wis. River Falls early in its NCAA Quarterfinal game to punch its ticket to Rochester.

The Gusties have held a stranglehold on the Minnesota schools over the last decade and they continued their dominace this year with another regular season title as well.

Gustavus Adolphus makes its fifth appearance in the NCAA semifinals, but the Gusties are still looking for their first win in the semifinal round and thus have never made an appearance in the national championship game.

With Friday’s 4-1 win over River Falls, the Gusties clinched their eighth straight season of 22 or more wins. No team has even come close to touching that record in the NCAA era. Plattsburgh is the closest with a current streak of eight straight years of 20 or more wins. Manhattanville had five consecutive seasons with 22 or more wins and Middlebury had four.

The American Hockey Coaches Association 2011 All-American Teams will be announced next Thursday at the NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championship banquet the night before the semifinals.

The 2011 Laura Hurd Award winner, given to the Division III National Player of the Year, will also be announced that night.

With the addition of St. Scholastica and St. Norbert to the NCHA this year, for the first time, the West Region will have two teams instead of just one.

To hold you over until then, here at the 2011 All-USCHO Team selections.

1st Team East

2nd Team East

1st Team West

2nd Team West

* Denotes 2010 All-USCHO selection

Coming later this week, I’ll have previews for all three NCAA First Round matchups this weekend as the road to crown the 2011 Division III Women’s Hockey national champion begins!