MCLA’s Matthew Gover has been spectacular in the playoffs and will need to backstop the Trailblazers again on Saturday in search of the program’s first men’s hockey title (Photo by MCLA Athletics)
If ever there were two teams that showed that the regular season was not necessarily an indicator of playoff performance, look no further than MASCAC’s Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) and SUNYAC’s Plattsburgh. Both teams struggled in the regular season to qualify for the playoffs but have found the magic formula in their game at the right time producing wins to carry them to their respective conference championship games on Saturday. While the roads both teams have taken to their surprising playoff run have some differences, the fact remains that both teams are playing their best hockey right now and are looking for that magic to continue for at least one more game.
MCLA
To find a championship game in the annals of the program, one must go back to 2001 and before that,1982. Then the school then known as North Adams State qualified for the then D-II ECAC West playoffs in 1982. The Mohawks, as they were known then defeated Williams, 5-3 in the quarterfinals and RIT, 5-3 in the semifinals before losing in the championship game to Plattsburgh, 14-3. In 2001, the final championship game appearance saw the Mohawks lose to Norwich 11-1. Those records are a long time ago and no longer reflect the current institution, mascot or players that have given MCLA a re-birth in the past couple of years with their membership in MASCAC.
As the No. 8 seed, MCLA has knocked the No.1 seed and six-time defending conference champions, Plymouth State and followed that up by defeating No. 2 seed Anna Maria – both games ending with 2-1 scores for the visitors. With timely scoring, sensational goaltending from Matthew Gover and a commitment to do all the little things, the Trailblazers will face No. 4 Fitchburg State on Saturday in search of their first championship in hockey.
“We have been very committed to the process and doing all the little things right this playoff run,” said head coach Jeremiah Ketts. “Matthew [Gover] has been great in goal and we are making sure he is seeing pucks; we are blocking a lot of shots; we are getting the puck out of our zone to relieve pressure and change territory; we are playing with the lead and we are getting the hustle plays like beating the opposition to pucks to eliminate potential icing calls that take away defensive zone face-offs late in games. Everyone is bought in to what we need to do to be successful and while they are still on Cloud Nine with the two big wins, I think we need to stay there a little bit to keep the momentum going into Saturday.”
The Trailblazers and Falcons split two regular season games with each team winning on home ice in overtime setting up what should be a highly entertaining championship game.
“I told the kids we haven’t played with adversity yet,” noted Ketts. “We have played with the lead in both playoff games and extended it in both contests, so we do not know what it is like to play from behind. I think scoring first will be a big boost but am confident that if we stick with our process we can compete and win on Saturday regardless of which teams scores first. While I am hoping special teams do not decide the game, I think they will be a factor and so far, we have won those special teams battles in our two playoff games. It is going to be my first championship game behind the bench, and I am as excited as the team is to have this opportunity. No one expected us to do anything, so I think the pressure has been on the other teams – this is a big step for our players and our program.”
The MASCAC championship game will be played at the Wallace Civic Center on Saturday, March 8 at 4 PM with Fitchburg State playing host.
Plattsburgh
Just over a month ago, the Cardinals were sitting in seventh place in SUNYAC on the outside of the playoffs. The season had been challenging with a variety of injuries and illnesses that has many times left the team with limited options for who dresses to play. Additional changes on the roster at the semester break also meant some different adjustments but through it all the team focused on just playing and competing and managed to earn a playoff spot that has led to two dramatic comeback victories over No. 5 Potsdam in the quarterfinals and No. 1 seed Cortland in the semifinals.
“I really have not seen anything like the last two games,” stated head coach Steve Moffatt. “We have gone through a lot this year and the message all season has been – just keep playing! We did not panic and we just kept playing looking for the next shift to be better than the last. We certainly got some good or lucky bounces on face-offs like the goal that tied Cortland before we won it in overtime. These guys have never quit and everyone who has stepped into the lineup out of necessity has worked hard and helped us improve in the second half. A month ago, I am not sure I would have believed we would be here but now it comes down to one game against a really good Oswego team. You really can’t ask for a better opportunity than a one-game championship opportunity against one of our biggest rivals.”
The Cardinal fell behind Potsdam 3-0 in the first period in the quarterfinals before scoring five unanswered goals to win 5-3. At Cortland on Saturday, the Cardinals trailed 3-0 with only eighteen minutes remaining in regulation time. Three goals in the final ten minutes including the game-tying goal with under five seconds remaining tied the score before Jake Sacratini won the contest with an overtime goal just twenty seconds into the extra session for a huge 4-3 comeback win over the defending champion Red Dragons.
The Cardinals and Lakers played twice in the regular season with Oswego taking both games by 5-1 and 5-3 scores. The Cardinals are on a season-long five game win streak and are looking to extend it on Saturday.
“They are a very good hockey team,” said Moffatt. “They are young, but they did not miss on any of this recruiting class, and you can see that on the ice now. They are probably more physical than us and maybe a little faster, but we will have to keep playing like we have been and take advantage of the opportunities they give to us, or we can create. Knowing how much this team has gone through, it would be great to get another big win on Saturday as a reward for the effort the guys are putting out on the ice.”
The SUNYAC championship game will be played at the Deborah F Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall on Saturday, March 8 at 7 PM hosted by Oswego.
Ohio State and Minnesota met in a competitive series in Minneapolis back on Feb. 21-22 (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Congratulations to Michigan State and Minnesota on their shared regular-season title.
Each finished the season with 50 points, marking the first time in Big Ten hockey history that two teams have topped the standings together when all was said and done.
The end was quite dramatic, too, with Minnesota securing its portion of the title in literally the last five minutes played for all of the Big Ten regular season.
On the road against Penn State and with the game tied at 3-3 late in the third, Mike Koster scored a power-play goal from Jimmy Clark and Connor Kurth at 16:56.
Oliver Moore hit the empty net at 19:35 to give Minnesota a 5-3 and after losing Friday’s game, those three points were enough for the Gophers to catch the Spartans, who had completed a sweep of Notre Dame earlier in the evening.
After the cinematic ending to the Gophers’ season, coach Bob Motzko praised his team for having “no quit” in them.
“We’ve only got four losses in regulation,” said Motzko, “but we needed to find a way to win that because we have earned and deserved the right to be Big Ten champs.
“You know, we’ll share it with Michigan State, but we’ve earned that and we’re awful proud of that.”
The Golden Gophers have now won seven regular-season Big Ten titles, an astonishing feat given that there have been only 12 seasons of B1G Hockey play.
The Spartans now won consecutive regular-season titles, having taken their first last season – another astonishing feat, given that until the 2023-24 campaign, Michigan State had never finished higher than fifth in Big Ten play.
Coach Adam Nightingale said that his Spartans don’t take winning the regular-season title for granted.
“We have a ton of respect for it,” said Nightingale. “It was special, a special group of guys, and obviously, hopefully we’ve got a lot more hockey ahead of us.”
The Spartans will wait a week before their season continues. Michigan State earns a bye in the quarterfinals by way of a tiebreaker, which in this case was regulation wins. The Spartans will host the lowest surviving seed from this weekend’s series. That game will be played in Munn Ice Arena March 15.
The remaining six teams play in three quarterfinal series this weekend. All series are best-of-three and hosted by the higher seed. The winners will advance to next weekend’s single-elimination semifinal round.
The last two teams standing will play for the Big Ten crown Saturday, March 22. The highest remaining seed will host that game.
Here’s how the teams in quarterfinal play compare in overall numbers.
The Golden Gophers were 3-1-0 against the Fighting Irish in this season, outscoring Notre Dame 16-8 in the wins. The single Minnesota loss in the series came Jan. 18 in Mariucci Arena, a 4-3 overtime game in which Blake Biondi scored the winning goal for Notre Dame.
The Buckeyes swept the Badgers 4-0-0 during the regular season, outscoring Wisconsin 12-5 with the first game of the series ending in overtime. The teams last met Feb. 14-15 in Columbus, where Ohio State netted four goals in each game.
No. 5 Penn State at No. 4 Michigan
Scoring offense: Penn State, 3.41 goals per game (t-ninth); Michigan, 3.09 (23rd)
Scoring defense: Penn State, 3.03 goals per game (t-38th); Michigan, 3.15 (46th)
Power play: Penn State, 21.4% (24th); Michigan, 25.0% (11th)
Penalty kill: Penn State, 7.4% (36th); Michigan, 78.7% (38th)
Points leader: Penn State, Aiden Fink (23-24-47); Michigan, T.J. Hughes (15-21-36)
Top goal scorer: Penn State, Fink (23); Michigan, Hughes (15)
Goaltender: Penn State, Arsenii Sergeev (2.57 GAA, .918 SV%); Michigan, Logan Stein (2.99 GAA, .899 SV%) and Cameron Korpi (3.08 GAA, .904 SV%)
Michigan is 3-1-0 against Penn State in this season’s series, and what a series it’s been: the Wolverines and Nittany Lions have combined for 46 goals in their four meetings, with the highest-scoring contest a 10-6 road win for the Wolverines Nov. 23. The teams split when they met at Yost a month ago when Penn State won a 5-4 game Jan. 31.
It should be noted that if the NCAA season were to stop this week, five Big Ten teams would make it into the NCAA tournament, and two would earn the top seed in a regional. Michigan State is No. 2 in the PairWise Rankings with Minnesota No. 3, followed by Ohio State (9), Michigan (11) and Penn State (14).
Only Wisconsin and Notre Dame are on the outside of the PairWise Rankings looking in, but at No. 14, Penn State is the very definition of a bubble team, given that both the 15th and 16th spots in the NCAA tournament will go to the CCHA and Atlantic Hockey America playoff champions.
And while each team in the playoffs is undoubtedly thinking at least a little bit about the bigger prize that a trip to St. Louis offers in April, a national crown may prove elusive – again – for B1G teams for one simple reason: defense.
The Big Ten teams playing this weekend who are currently among the top 14 teams in the PWR collectively are allowing 2.76 goals per game. That average would put them, collectively, at about No. 30 in the NCAA. Only Michigan State with its 2.06 goals per game allowed on average is among the top 10 teams nationally in defense.
Season-long averages don’t account for recent defensive play, which has been strong in stretches for a few teams, most notably Penn State, and in a one-and-done format, anything can happen.
But let’s not get ahead of things. As Motzko would say, there’s only the next game.
All three quarterfinal series are played in the higher seed’s home arena and each is Friday-Saturday with a Sunday game if necessary. All games begin at 7 p.m. local time except for the possible Sunday game between Notre Dame and Minnesota, which would begin at 6 p.m. CT.
None of the games will be televised by the Big Ten Network. They are available streaming on Big Ten Plus.
We’ve reached the conference championship weekend in NCAA women’s hockey, with nine games left to play before league playoff champions are decided and the NCAA tournament bracket gets filled out. Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski from USCHO.com start this week’s episode of the PodKaz with a look at Wednesday night’s action, including a double-overtime victory for Boston University in Hockey East to set up a championship game against Northeastern.Long Island and Sacred Heart earned semifinal wins in NEWHA to advance to Saturday’s final. The WCHA and ECAC Hockey have semifinals Friday to determine their championship games. And it’s down to Penn State and Mercyhurst in Atlantic Hockey.
Nicole gives her thoughts on the U.S. roster for the World Championship, which includes nine players from NCAA teams this season.
The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for our mailbag? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [email protected].
Taylor Makar is having a stellar 2024-25 season with Maine (photo: Anthony DelMonaco).
By any account, Taylor Makar had a solid three-year stint as a forward for Massachusetts.
In three seasons with Minutemen, Makar played in 85 games, including all 36 in 2023-24, putting up nine points in four goals and five assists with one game-winning goal. The previous year, Makar led the Minutemen with 10 goals.
But one look at the stat sheet shows that Makar’s transfer to Maine this season has done the senior a world of good. Makar enters the final weekend of the regular season as the Black Bears’ second leading scorer with 16 goals and 11 assists, including his first career hat trick in a 4-1 win vs. Vermont last Friday. The performance helped earn Makar both Hockey East Player of the Week and Player of the Month honors.
“We got the best version of him right now,” Maine coach Ben Barr said. “It’s been great for him and great for us.”
This weekend, Makar returns to the rink where his brother Cale’s name hangs in the rafters as the Hobey Baker Award winner in 2019. The two-game series between Maine and UMass starts Friday.
Though he expressed no bitterness toward his former school during a recent media availability, Taylor said he was happy in his new surroundings.
“I kind of just thought I needed change, try a different avenue, something like that,” Taylor said. “But I’m happy to be helping the team out. (If) I could grow my game, as well as helping the team, that’s really what I wanted to do — grow as a hockey player and kind of make my identity.”
With 10 games on the Hockey East slate this weekend to close out the regular season, all of which will affect the final tournament seedings in some form, the Maine-UMass series stands out as pivotal. The Black Bears enter with an outside shot at the regular-season championship and the top seed in the conference tournament should they accumulate at least five of six possible points in the series and Boston College loses in regulation to Merrimack on Saturday.
With so much on the line for both Maine and UMass, Taylor Makar said he’s expecting a playoff-like atmosphere this weekend at the Mullins Center.
“That’s exactly how we’re going into this week,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be exciting and fun to play.”
If Maine takes all six points vs. UMass, BC will need to win in regulation or a shootout/overtime to be champs and the No. 1 seed.
UMass currently sits in sixth place in the Hockey East standings and is very much alive for a shot at a fifth seed or higher, which would give the Minutemen a bye into the tournament quarterfinals. Currently, UMass trails Providence by three points entering the weekend. Only the top five seeds receive a bye.
“I wouldn’t call it a ‘must win’ but they’re all huge,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We all know what we’re fighting for. We all know what’s at hand. At this point of the year, coaching’s fun, because you don’t need to worry about desperation or motivation. It’s usually there. In every direction, players are feeling it.”
The Minutemen are 4-1-2 since the start of February and while they don’t need to win out, they can’t afford much of a slip either. Though firmly on the PairWise bubble, where UMass sits 12th, the Minutemen have a 78 percent chance of making the NCAA tournament according to playoffstatus.com.
“It’s no different than the last six, eight games we played,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “Huge implications. Should be nice to win Friday. I think that would put us in a good spot and keep our momentum going.”
Annelies Bergmann has stood on her head this season in the blue paint for Cornell (photo: Evan Volkman/Cornell Athletics).
ECAC Hockey has named Cornell’s Annelies Bergmann as the recipient of the 2024-25 women’s goaltender of the year award, presented by MAC Goaltending.
The finalists for the award were Hannah Murphy (Colgate) and Emma Sofie Nordström (St. Lawrence).
Bergmann had a stellar sophomore year, posting a 16-2-4 record for the nationally ranked Big Red. In 22 games played, the netminder tallied six shutouts (leads ECAC), 471 total saves, and a .946 save percentage (2nd in ECAC). The Detroit native also finished the regular season with a league-leading 1.22 goals-against average.
Bergmann claimed two MAC Goaltending Goaltender of the Week and one MAC Goaltending Goaltender of the Month honors throughout the season. In addition to league awards, the sophomore was named a semifinalist for the Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association goalie of the year and was the HCA’s national goalie of the month in January.
*Please note that all statistics correspond to the final regular season statistics in ECAC Hockey play only.
St. Lawrence’s Mason Waite was recognized as ECAC Hockey’s top scholar Feb. 28 at Appleton Arena by VP of the university and dean of academic affairs Alison Del Rossi, and director of athletics Franco Bari in front of 1,200 fans (photo: C A Hill Photo).
St. Lawrence men’s hockey senior captain Mason Waite has been named the 2025 ECAC Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The award is presented annually to an ECAC Hockey student-athlete who best embodies excellence and leadership on the ice, in the classroom, and throughout their community.
Waite, a three-time member of the ECAC All-Academic team as a finance major, is the first Skating Saint to earn the distinction of the league’s top scholar.
The senior celebrated the accomplishment with a goal in the Feb. 28 contest, his 142nd game with the Scarlet and Brown, and was honored before the March 1 contest as a part of the Skating Saints senior day festivities.
Waite has been an integral part of the team’s defensive unit and overall roster in his four years in Canton, N.Y., posting 13 goals and 48 assists in 61 points in 142 games.
Reichen Kirchmair has posted 19 goals and 37 points this season for Providence (photo: Brian Foley for Foley-Photograph).
Hockey East announced Wednesday that Providence junior forward Reichen Kirchmair has been awarded the 2025 Cammi Granato Award as Hockey East player of the year as voted by the league’s head coaches.
Alongside Kirchmair, UConn head coach Chris MacKenzie was named Hockey East coach of the year by his peers for the second consecutive season and is the only Husky bench boss to be so honored.
UConn forward Claire Murdoch was unanimously selected Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Year.
Kirchmair becomes just the second Friar to win the Cammi Granato Award, named after the legendary Providence pioneer, and the first to do so outright after Karen Thatcher shared the award with New Hampshire’s Stephanie Jones in 2004-05. Kirchmair led Hockey East in goals (15) and points (30), the first Providence player to win the scoring crown since 2002-03, the league’s inaugural season. Her plus-17 rating was second-best among all league skaters in 27 games, while her three game-winning goals were third-most in conference play.
In 35 overall games, no league player had more than Kirchmair’s 19 goals and 37 points while four of her tallies stood as the game-winning strike, second-most of any skater in Hockey East. Her plus-20 rating was the best in the conference and the junior compiled all those statistics while taking just two penalties. She was the lone unanimous selection to the all-Hockey East first team
Murdoch was unanimously voted rookie of the year after leading all Hockey East first-years in goals (12), points (24), shots (91), game-winning goals (3), and power-play goals (3). Her plus-20 rating was the best of any league skater and her 12 assists were second-most among rookies. Among all league players, she was fifth in goals, points, and shots on net in 27 league contests. Overall, Murdoch has posted 13 goals and 29 points, both seventh in Hockey East while her 102 shots on net is tied for eighth and her plus-19 rating is good for second. Murdoch has not taken a single penalty in 35 games played.
MacKenzie repeats as Hockey East coach of the year after leading the Huskies to their second-consecutive Hockey East regular-season crown. Posting a 19-6-2 record in league play, he tied the program record for wins in Hockey East play (2023-24) and claimed the regular-season title in dramatic fashion, sweeping Boston University in the final weekend to surpass the Terriers by one point in the final standings. MacKenzie’s Huskies allowed the fewest goals in Hockey East play for the second year in a row, just 38 in 27 games played, while 57 in 34 games is sixth in the NCAA.
UConn’s team save percentage of .936 is the sixth-best in the country. In Hockey East play, MacKenzie’s squad led several categories, including goals against average (1.40), save percentage (.944), shots on net (840), power-play opportunities allowed (59), face-offs won (762), and face-off winning percentage (56.7%).
Elise Morphy excels on and off the ice for the Maine women’s hockey team (photo: Maine Athletics).
Hockey East announced Wednesday that Maine’s Elise Morphy has been honored as the 2024-25 Night Shift Academic Champion.
The award was created in 2024 honoring outstanding accomplishments from one men’s and one women’s player both on the ice and in the classroom.
In 2024, Hockey East and Night Shift Brewing partnered to highlight both the academic and athletic success of student-athletes across the league. As a result, Morphy will receive scholarship funds that include a portion of the proceeds of Hockey East Ale, the first-ever collaboration between the conference and a brewery for its own branded beverage.
“Hockey East is proud to honor Elise Morphy as the 2024-25 Hockey East Academic Champion in acknowledgment of her exceptional accomplishments both in the classroom and on the ice,” said Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf in a statement. “We are also thankful to our partners at Night Shift Brewing for providing our student-athletes with scholarships to help make their academic goals a reality.”
Morphy is a two-time captain and has maintained a 4.0 GPA during her five years at Maine while majoring in pre-med biology. She was honored four times by the university as the student with the highest GPA in Maine’s School of Biology and Ecology. She has been named to the Hockey East all-academic team in each of her four years, earning top scholar honors in each of those seasons and distinguished scholar status in 2023-24. Morphy achieved an MCAT score in the top 2% of all results.
On the ice, Morphy has collected numerous accolades, including Hockey East defender of the month in December 2023, is a two-time Hockey East defender of the week, and entered the 2024-25 season as the fourth-highest scoring active defender in Hockey East. She has recorded 12 goals, 36 assists, and 48 points in a Maine-record 157 games played.
Morphy is also an active member of the Orono community, volunteering at the Dirigo Pines assisted living facility since 2023 as part of the UMaine BARD Institute as a research assistant. She also spends time tutoring other student-athletes through the Maine Academic Support Services and volunteers with the Maine Inferno girls hockey program to instruct practices and learn to skate sessions.
Western Michigan captain Tim Washe accepts the Penrose Cup from NCHC commissioner Heather Weems last Friday (photo: Ashley Huss).
Winning its first-ever regular-season conference title in program history last Friday wasn’t just satisfying for Western Michigan on a surface level.
The Broncos were already well aware of what the Penrose Cup looked like ahead of WMU’s 6-4 win Friday against North Dakota, which saw Western lock up the NCHC regular season title with three games to spare.
In the 12 years since NCHC play began, and with WMU a member school all that time, the Broncos had been in the same building several times as that massive silver chalice. Until last week, though, they had never put their mitts on it.
“We’ve been on the other side of it at least two or three times with North Dakota, and once with Denver so we’ve been in the building when it’s been presented many times,” WMU coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “This is the first time it’s been presented to us, and it’s a cooler feeling.
“The numbers were working in our favor as we crept through the back half of the season here, and we’ve been able to get points in every game but one, 21 of 22 games in the league, which in this league is absolutely remarkable.
“It certainly shows a consistency of play and competitiveness of our players, and with two games in hand, we wanted to close it out at home, and I couldn’t be happier for this group of young men,” Ferschweiler continued. “They’re a dream to coach, they love coming to the rink and they love to work real hard.”
Two power-play goals, and six all told from six different players, helped WMU take Friday’s series opener with a North Dakota team firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble. To that end, the Fighting Hawks did themselves a favor in winning Saturday’s game, 4-3 in overtime.
A lot of people were wrong on WMU this season. The Broncos were picked sixth in the NCHC’s preseason poll. Whoops. They opened league play 6-0-1 and, by and large, kept rolling. Two wins this weekend against Miami, plus a good NCHC postseason run, could help the Broncos tie up a No. 1 regional seed for the NCAA tournament. But, first thing’s first.
“We’re approaching Friday’s game as our most important game of the year,” Ferschweiler said of WMU’s road series this weekend with Miami. “We do that every game, and we’ll stick with that.
“We have a stated goal from the start of the year to get better every day, and we’re certainly not a perfect team but we’re working on improving. We’ve had two fantastic days of practice this week, and I’m looking forward to us being on top for our series at Miami.”
And once that series is out of the way, Ferschweiler’s team will turn its attention to the back half of what it wants to accomplish this season.
“We have a chance to play for four championships,” he said. “First was the Great Lakes Invitational, and we lost in the championship game, and the second is the regular season (conference title), and we were able to win that, and that’s great but there’s two more championships to compete for: the (NCHC) Frozen Faceoff and hopefully the NCAA tournament.
“We’re going to take them one by one, we’re going to go one day at a time, and we have a real mature group that doesn’t get ahead of themselves, and they don’t look back. They rip off the rear-view mirror and stare out the windshield.”
Kaden Bohlsen celebrates a goal earlier this season for Minnesota State (photo: Dylan Engel).
Minnesota State’s first goal is complete.
The Mavericks clinched the CCHA’s regular-season title two weeks ago with a sweep of Lake Superior State in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. They celebrated with the MacNaughton Cup in the visitors’ locker room at Taffy Abel Arena, then brought the cup back with them to Mankato, Minn., where they had another celebration, this time on the ice in front of their fans at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center this past Saturday, following a win against instate archrival Bemidji State.
The Mavericks (23-8-3, 18-5-3 CCHA) took four of a possible six points from the Beavers this weekend, despite knowing they had little to play for in the final two games of the regular season aside from pride, and a desire to finish strong before the CCHA’s Mason Cup playoffs begin next week. It didn’t hurt that the Mavericks had to watch the Beavers celebrate with the cup on their own home ice last season in Bemidji, Minn.
“It’s a long week, it’s been a long distracting week,” MSU coach Luke Strand said following Saturday’s 5-1 win. The teams skated to a 1-1 tie on Friday with the Beavers taking an extra point in the shootout. “We took care of it a week ago, and then to a credit to our guys, I thought we found a way to play hard all weekend.
“Even (Friday) night it was just tight, it was intense, it didn’t go the way we wanted at the end but the way we played, I can definitely live with. And then I thought they were able to make a statement a little bit tonight about coming back out and, with really nothing on the line in our regard in so many ways, but the logo. And they did a great job (playing for) the logo.”
Now, MSU’s second season begins, and so does their next step. As the top seed in the CCHA Mason Cup playoffs, they will host eighth-seeded Lake Superior State (12-20-2, 10-15-1 CCHA) in the first-round, best-of-three playoff series beginning Friday. Although the Mavericks still have an outside chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament most projection models gave them a less than one percent chance to do so. So by winning the Mason Cup, that also gives Strand’s team their best shot of their ultimate goal at this point.
“We want to be in St. Louis,” Strand said, referring to the location of this season’s Frozen Four. “We don’t want to skip a day of what we’ve got to do on this journey, but we want to be in St. Louis, and we’ve had a big conversation about it. Are guys really willing to promise to each other they’ll empty the tank? are they really willing to sacrifice, to commit, to drop the ego at the door, be selfless, just love each other to our last moments together? I’ve got to tell you, this group has found ways that they keep showing up for each other every day.”
Last season — Strand’s first behind the bench in Mankato — saw the Mavericks miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016. It was also the first time since 2017 that they’d failed to win a conference championship. Strand said to come back and do it this year following the coaching change and some of the adversity they’ve had this year is validating. And, although of course the Mavericks have had big contributions this year from Hobey Baker candidates in goaltender Alex Tracy and Minnesota transfer forward Rhett Pitlick to help them reach this goal, Strand said what he most appreciated about this team is that they play well as a unit. There are no egos in the group.
“I’m just proud of them because, I got to tell you that everyone that’s been through it, our league is hard, snot-nose, nose-to-nose all the time, competitive, so for the guys to get it done, it’s been a journey,” Strand said. “You’ve seen the roster, the influx of guys in and out of the lineup with health issues and whatnot, but guys stepped up over and over.
“And (we’ve had) some really nice individual performances along the way here. I believe Pit will be the leading scorer in the league, which is a very monumental piece for me. For him to come and join the program, we’re blessed that he joined us. And obviously to have Trace here… but it really hasn’t been about that. It’s just been about our group and the way we go about every day, so it’s good to get that done with and out of the way.”
League is always a pressure-cooker
The Mavericks are certainly the favorites going into the Mason Cup playoffs this time around, but the one thing about this league is that the margins always seem very thin. Aside from second-seeded Augustana (17-11-4, 9-5-2 CCHA), none of the other playoff spots were clinched until this weekend. The final two home ice slots–which ended up going to third-seeded St. Thomas (16-13-5, 13-9-4 CCHA) and fourth-seeded Bowling Green (16-13-4, 12-10-4 CCHA) were clinched until after Saturday’s games went final.
“Everybody’s starting at zero,” St. Thomas head coach Rico Blasi said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “It’s a new year and everybody’s got the same opportunity that we have, and so during the week here you got to be ready to go and focus on the game plan and play the games.”
Blasi’s team comes into the playoffs having won five games in a row–including the final two games of the regular season against Michigan Tech (16-15-3, 12-11-3 CCHA). The Tommies’ sweep of Tech allowed them to leapfrog the Huskies in the standings and earn home ice this weekend, where they will host sixth-seeded Ferris State (13-18-3, 12-13-1 CCHA).
“Their numbers are pretty good the last couple of months too,” Blasi said of Ferris. “We played a couple of really close games against them–although the one was high-scoring, it was really close.”
The Tommies and Bulldogs played a wild series back in January in which St. Thomas won both games by scores of 9-6 and 4-3. Since then, Ferris State has gone 7-4-1 in their last 12.
“They’re well coached, they’re really good offensively, their transition game is top 15 in the country in terms of how they generate their chances. I really love their D-corps, they’re lanky and they jump in the play,” Blasi said. “So it’s going to be another really difficult task to play a CCHA opponent in the playoffs. I respect everything that they’ve been able to do the last couple of months. They’re playing really well.”
The Bulldogs are also playing in what will be head coach Bob Daniels’ final season behind the bench.
Blasi, who played at Miami and then coached against Daniels in the old CCHA, said Daniels is one of the hockey coaches he respects most and is looking forward to seeing him on the bench one last time.
“I have so much respect. He’s been a big mentor for me when I started off as a head coach. I had the opportunity to play against him as a player when he first started, I lived with one of his former players when I was a young assistant, I hired two of his former players as assistants,” Blasi said. “We have a long history. I certainly admire everything that he’s accomplished. He’s an inspiration to all of us. What he’s done for college hockey is incredible. What he’s done for Ferris State is incredible. We’re going to miss him in terms of coaching, but he’s earned the right to relax and play some golf and do the things that he loves to do. He’s been a big part of my coaching career and he’s probably right up there in the top five respected coaches of all time.”
The other two CCHA playoff matchups are just as intriguing. Upstart Augustana will take on last year’s MacNaughton Cup champion Bemidji State in Sioux Falls, S.D., earning home ice for their first season as full conference members. The Vikings took four of six points from the seventh-seeded Beavers (13-16-5, 10-12-4 CCHA) when they met at Midco Arena in November.
And finally, Bowling Green earned the fourth and final home-ice slot with a thrilling split with Lake Superior. The Falcons lost 4-3 Friday then held on Saturday for a 5-3 victory that featured a three-goal LSSU third and near comeback. First-year BGSU head coach Dennis Williams called it a “pressure-cooker.”
“It’s not easy to get home ice,” he said in his postgame comments on Saturday. “You just saw what this last night meant throughout the whole league. I think outside of first and second, teams could have finished anywhere, you know? Three, four, five was up for grabs, and six, seven, eight was up for grabs. So it’s good to see our group get rewarded. It’s a yearlong commitment. It’s just not one weekend, and we put ourselves in a position tonight that if we won the game, it would give us home ice. So real kudos go to our group, and I’m very happy for them.”
Quinnipiac clinched its fifth consecutive Cleary Cup as the ECAC’s regular-season champion, defeating St. Lawrence 4-0 last Saturday night at Appleton Arena (photo: Quinnipiac Athletics).
For all the parity, all the times that teams leapfrogged one another and stumbled into each other over the course of a six-month season, the 2024-25 ECAC Hockey season ended without a single team tied with one another.
A clean Cleary Cup championship race produced minimal drama on the season’s last day, and Quinnipiac added to its growing trophy case with a 4-0 win over St. Lawrence.
The overtime loss to Clarkson added a nice highlight to the season’s final race, but the Golden Knights truthfully needed to win Friday night’s game in regulation to really put pressure on the annual defending top seed in the playoffs. Not vanquishing the Bobcats in the third period with a one-goal lead essentially ended the threat, and the rest of the dominos began falling into place shortly thereafter.
We’re left with a postseason template that begins this week. For reference, let’s take a look at how the coaches voted, how I voted and how the season really turned out:
(Kudos to Chris Lerch for formatting here. The one major benefit to having Atlantic Hockey finish its regular season prior to ECAC was being able to use his postseason format as a template, so thanks to my USCHO big brother – as opposed to my actual big brother, who is also in college hockey… things get weird around here.)
Some quick hits:
-Everybody thought this was Cornell’s year, but nobody accounted for the injury bug. The Big Red finished sixth but rarely had a full roster for the full season, so we’ll never actually know if a healthy Cornell team could have pressured Quinnipiac. Regardless, coaches always talk about moving forward without excuses, so Cornell finishing sixth was probably the hardest thing to take into account.
-I’ve cracked this joke several times: stop picking against Quinnipiac. There’s an annual commentary about the team’s overall lack of postseason ECAC banners, but the Bobcats are always in the NCAA tournament conversation because of their ability to win the league’s regular season. Even this year, they’re right around the bubble despite the conference’s lack of Pairwise strength against the other conferences.
-Dartmouth reasonably delivered on its expectations and was in position to clinch a first round bye during the final weekend of the regular season. Given the immediacy of how the Big Green exploded onto the scene last year, finishing fifth, even without the bye, is a continued step for a team that was 11th and 12th in Reid Cashman’s first two years. In four years as a head coach, the team’s finishes balance each other out pretty well.
-The coaches expected Clarkson to return to form. I apparently did not. The coaches were right and proved, once again, that I know nothing about preseason predictions.
-Brown and Union each overperformed the coaches. I expected better finishes but still undersold their final slots. If this were a poker game, I called and raised the pot, but the modest raise was enough to protect my interests if I was wrong.
-Because of those factors, the rest of the teams finished right around where everyone expected but slotted within a place or two of our own predictions. The lone exception was St. Lawrence, which finished 12th despite producing some positive results. The Saints couldn’t string regulation wins together, but beating Cornell in late January, earning a shootout win over Princeton, and taking two points from an overtime win over Dartmouth stand out as building blocks into the postseason. Also, a bottom-three seed advanced out of the first round in 2020 (right before the world shut down), 2023 and 2024, with the No. 12 seed advancing from last year’s single elimination first round.
On to the first round:
The future
Quarterfinals, held March 14-16 on campus sites (best-of-three series)
Lowest Remaining Seed at No. 1 Quinnipiac
Second-lowest Remaining Seed at No. 2 Clarkson
Second-best Remaining Seed at No. 3 Colgate
Best Remaining Seed at No. 4 Union
Semifinals, held March 21 at Lake Placid’s Herb Brooks Arena (single elimination):
Lowest Remaining Seed vs. Best Remaining Seed
Second-Lowest Remaining Seed vs. Second-Best Remaining Seed
Championship, held March 22 at Lake Placid’s Herb Brooks Arena (single elimination):
Lowest Remaining Seed vs. Best Remaining Seed
First Round Matchups
No. 12 St. Lawrence at No. 5 Dartmouth
Head-to-head result: SLU swept the season series by beating the Big Green with a pair of 3-2 victories. The first was in New Hampshire in December before the return bout in the North Country went to overtime on Valentine’s Day weekend.
Last playoff head-to-head meeting: Fifth-seeded Dartmouth beat No. 12 St. Lawrence in three games during a 2019 first round series featuring an overtime winner by the Saints. The Big Green won an 8-0 third game to clinch a trip to Harvard for the quarterfinals, but the result came after a pair of one-goal games split the first two results in Hanover.
Things to watch: It’s easy to discount any team with the lowest seed in an all-inclusive league tournament, but St. Lawrence twice beat Dartmouth by playing its best hockey in the third period. Their mid-February meeting featured three goals in the first three minutes, but the Saints scored with 30 seconds left in the game to force overtime before scoring the game winner with under two minutes remaining in the 3-on-3 period.
It’s incredibly difficult to beat a team three times, but it’s also weird that we’re saying it about the No. 5 team having lost twice to the No. 12 team in the postseason. That said, expect special teams to play a huge role in this one: SLU’s potency on the power play produced a goal in four of the team’s last seven games, but opponents scored six goals over the last nine games of the season. Dartmouth, meanwhile, broke a nine-game power play drought by scoring against both Brown and Yale, but the Big Green boast a penalty kill ranked sixth in the nation that finished the year with a 5-5-1 record when allowing a power play goal.
No. 11 Yale at No. 6 Cornell
Head-to-head result: The Bulldogs tied the Big Red before winning a shootout in the teams’ first meeting at Lynah Rink, but Cornell answered the bell in the road game by scoring three unanswered goals in a 5-3 win at the Yale Whale.
Last playoff head-to-head meeting: Yale and Cornell haven’t played one another in the postseason in 14 years, which means their last head-to-head matchup in the ECAC Tournament was the 2011 championship game in Atlantic City. They haven’t played a campus site game since the Final Five format from 2002, which was my junior year of high school and two Trumps, two Obamas, a Biden and one-and-a-half Bushes ago.
Things to watch: It’s hard to pinpoint which line of thinking is the better motivational tactic. Cornell’s a candidate for “continuing momentum” after gathering steam with a 5-3-1 clip that produced a shootout win at Clarkson, but Yale can erase a key end-of-season slate that failed to generate a regulation win after January 18. For what it’s worth, the one victory came over Colgate, but dragging Union, Princeton and Harvard into overtime games only leave so many positive roots against a Big Red team angling for its 95th all-time win over its Ancient Eight rival.
No. 10 RPI at No. 7 Harvard
Head-to-head result: Harvard swept the season series when it beat the Engineers on its Senior NIght on February 22, and coupling it with a January 17 win in the Capital District gave the Crimson six points over an RPI team that was one away from ninth place and five points away from hosting a first round game as the No. 8 seed.
Last playoff head-to-head meeting: Third-seeded Harvard returned to the ECAC postseason with a three-game series win over sixth-seeded RPI in 2022. Perhaps most memorable in that series was RPI’s ability to push the series to three games with a double-overtime win after Harvard won the first game with a mirrored 4-3 result, also in overtime.
Things to watch: Harvard’s 3-7-2 record at home included a tie and shootout loss to St. Lawrence and an overtime loss to Princeton, and the regulation win over RPI represented the Crimson’s first win at Bright-Landry Hockey Center since the January 10-11 sweep over Brown and Yale.
Neither team has been great down the stretch, but the three RPI wins over Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth included two offensive breakouts. The goaltending conversation between Ben Charette and Aku Koskenvuo adds a fun layer to the head-to-head matchup against Noah Giesbrecht, who stopped 40 shots against Colgate and Dartmouth with 35 additional saves against Harvard, Princeton, Colgate, Yale and Brown.
No. 9 Princeton at No. 8 Brown
Head-to-head result: Brown scored a shootout win in November at home and won the head-to-head matchup by beating the Tigers, 3-2, in overtime during the second-to-last weekend of the season.
Last head-to-head playoff meeting: Brown swept Princeton in the 2019 first round, a series best remembered for an erstwhile color commentator who must remain nameless (cough cough) proclaiming that the Bears could “make reservations for the second round” after scoring an empty net goal to take a 5-2 lead in the third period. What transpired after that color commentator (it definitely wasn’t me) made that remark was a comeback for the ages, a triple overtime game now ranked 21st on the list of longest college hockey games ever played, and a replay on Alex Brink’s game winner that lasted far longer than anyone anticipated.
My brother and I still talk about broadcasting that game deep into a Providence night, and the stories are alternatively awesome and a bit too close for comfort.
Things to watch: Lawton Zacher’s .920 save percentage puts him second among ECAC goalies, but the sophomore allowed more than two goals in four of his final six appearances during the regular season. Prior to that stretch, he’d only allowed three-or-more goals on five separate occasions while off-setting those games with two shutouts. When he allows two-or-less goals in a game, Brown’s 11-2-3 record puts it on pace to compete with anyone in ECAC.
Princeton, meanwhile, went 6-5-1 away from home and is arguably one of ECAC’s best road warrior programs. Beating Clarkson in overtime in the season finale helped clinch the Cleary Cup for travel partner Quinnipiac, but the previous night’s win over St. Lawrence improved the Tigers to 4-2-0 in their last six road games.
Neither team can afford to take penalties, but Princeton’s power play is at least nudging over 20 percent. Both teams are killing under 80 percent, but Brown’s 17.9 percent power play largely rests its second half on the two goals from the season finale against Harvard and the three goals in the 5-1 win over Yale. Between the two games is a five-game drought that alternatively surrendered five power play goals, including a trifecta against Quinnipiac. Compare that to Princeton’s seven power play goals in five-of-seven games to end the year, though it doesn’t help that the Tigers surrendered eight special teams goals across the final eight-of-10 games.
Taylor Makar posted a hat trick in last Friday’s Maine win over Vermont (photo: Anthony DelMonaco).
Welcome to Week 8 of Bracketology.
Each week from now until Selection Sunday on March 23, I will outline the current 16 teams in the men’s NCAA Division I tournament and attempt to seed a bracket based on the current field.
Last week, we told you about the possibilities that existed for Penn State, the host school in Allentown which entered this past weekend below the PairWise bubble. Well, an overtime win (coupled with a regulation loss) was enough to take the Nittany Lions to the right side of the cutline. That will impact the Allentown Region, as you’ll see below.
At this point, the top five teams have not changed in weeks. Not only are all five teams the same, their exact position has been unchanged. This week, in fact, the top eight teams remain completely unchanged from a week ago.
If there is one team that might be beneficial to attendance if they move down,it’s Maine. We’ll explain that later.
All that said, here are the 16 teams who would qualify for the NCAA tournament if the season ended today:
1. Boston College*
2. Michigan State*
3. Minnesota
4. Maine
5. Western Michigan*
6. Providence
7. Boston University
8. Connecticut
9. Ohio State
10. Denver
11. Michigan
12. Massachusetts
13. Quinnipiac*
14. Penn State
15. Minnesota State*
16. Holy Cross*
* – Indicates team that currently has the top conference winning percentage in their respective conference. While each conference is awarded an autobid for its tournament champion, for the purposes of this exercise we will use the first-place team (based on winning %) to receive the autobid.
With the field of 16 in place, we can now seed the four regions using basic bracket integrity (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14, etc.).
1. Boston College
8. Connecticut
9. Ohio State
16. Holy Cross
2. Michigan State
7. Boston University
10. Denver
15. Minnesota State
3. Minnesota
6. Providence
11. Michigan
14. Penn State
4. Maine
5. Western Michigan
12. Massachusetts
13. Quinnipiac
As a reminder and also for those who aren’t regular readers of Bracketology, there is one thing that the committee seems to avoid at all costs and that is first-round matchups between teams from the same conference. This week, we have just one: 3 Minnesota vs. 14 Penn State. Swapping Penn State with Quinnipiac is a simple shift that takes care of this and, as we’re about to see, it helps the next step.
We now need to assign regions to each four-team bracket. With Penn State as the host team in Allentown, they need to play there. The great news, though, is they are grouped with 4 Maine, the lowest of the number one seeds, and that bracket would have been assigned to Allentown by regardless of the host.
Boston College is the top seed and should play closest to home in Manchester, N.H. Michigan State is the second seed and the closest region is Toledo, Ohio, less than two hours from Lansing. Minnesota is the third overall seed and would head to Fargo, N.D.
That gives us the following:
Manchester Region
1. Boston College
8. Connecticut
9. Ohio State
16. Holy Cross
Toledo Region
2. Michigan State
7. Boston University
10. Denver
15. Minnesota State
Fargo Region
3. Minnesota
6. Providence
11. Michigan
13. Quinnipiac
Allentown Region
4. Maine
5. Western Michigan
12. Massachusetts
14. Penn State
With the four regions set, we now can look at how attendance will be impacted by the participating teams in each region. Regular readers know this is where we often get creative in hopes of creating better atmospheres in each region.
There isn’t much we can do here to improve things. One switch we could make would get Ohio State playing in their home state and the Toledo Region (Bowling Green is the host in Toledo). A swap with Denver would accomplish that, so let’s make that move. But that’s all I can suggest for this week.
Thus, we have this final bracket.
Manchester Region
1. Boston College
2. Connecticut
3. Denver
4. Holy Cross
Toledo Region
1. Michigan State
2. Boston University
3. Ohio State
4. Minnesota State
Fargo Region
1. Minnesota
2. Providence
3. Michigan
4. Quinnipiac
Allentown Region
1. Maine
2. Western Michigan
3. Massachusetts
4. Penn State
Last in: Penn State, Massachusetts First out: UMass Lowell, Arizona State
Keep an eye on: Maine. The Black Bears are the final number one seed, but in a way it feels like the fan base in Orono might be rooting for their team to drop down to 5th in the PairWise. Why, you ask? If Maine remains a number one seed, there is no chance they will play in Manchester, a regional that is significantly closer to campus than any other. But if Maine falls to five or six in the PairWise, there would be the ability to move the Black Bears closer to home.
Penn State could be a tough team to beat should the Nittany Lions make the NCAA tournament (photo: Kylie Barton).
Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Dan: Another week closer to the NCAA tournament, and another chaotic week of Pairwise juggling in the books.
First off, it’s good to get back in the saddle here with good buddy Jim Connelly, and it’s for more than just discussing which pizza topping deserves mentions on our weekly USCHO Edge podcast.
But now that we’ve completed that element of the week, it’s worth diving right back into the stretch run of a college hockey season that’s rapidly approaching its end. In the Big Ten, Minnesota’s four-point weekend included an overtime loss that brought Penn State up to No. 12 in the Pairwise Rankings before a backslide to No. 14, but it opened enough space for the Gophers to pull dead even for the Big Ten title with Michigan State.
In ECAC Hockey, Quinnipiac did what Quinnipiac does and won the Cleary Cup, but an overtime loss to Clarkson made things a little more interesting on Saturday night.
In the NCHC, Western Michigan wrapped up a regular season title that I certainly didn’t predict at the start of the year.
And even out here in our respective Hockey East and Atlantic Hockey races, BC tightened its grip on the No. 1 seed while Canisius, Air Force and AIC advanced through the first round’s chalkboard.
Where do we even begin, even though I kind of did it with Penn State’s continued run to the bubble…
Jim: I think Penn State’s run to now get inside of the PairWise bubble is remarkable. This is a team that on January 16 was 31st in the PairWise. Then, in a span of seven weekends, the Nittany Lions posted a record of 10-2-2 while playing teams like Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State and Minnesota. That catapulted them to the current 14th spot, just inside the PairWise bubble.
The run is remarkable. Add in the fact that Friday’s overtime win against Minnesota was career coaching win No. 400 for Guy Gadowsky, that’s like a cherry on the top.
Gadowsky’s career is an impressive one. He’s never arrived at a school that was on an upswing. He took Alaska from a six-win team in year one to a 22-win club in his best season in 2002. He took Princeton from eight wins in 2005 to a peak of 22-wins in 2009. And of course, at Penn State, he built a program from scratch that has posted 20 wins five times and will reach that 20-win mark again if they can get past Michigan.
Which takes me to what might be the best playoff season that’s on the horizon this weekend and it’s a Big Ten quarterfinal with Michigan hosting Penn State. Michigan can probably survive losing the best-of-three series. Penn State cannot (they are about 5% for an at-large if they are eliminated this weekend). That’s a pretty good heavyweight battle for the first full weekend of playoffs.
Dan: I’m pretty close to guaranteeing that we’ll have one of those lower-seeded upsets occur somewhere along the way, and there are a few dark horses storming around these leagues. Maybe it’s Wisconsin, which really needed to reach the postseason just to reboot the end of its year (play the “fresh start” over the “continue what we’ve been doing” over these past few weeks). Maybe it’s Bemidji State, which is heading to Augustana for the first round of the CCHA tournament.
Or maybe it’s AIC, which isn’t a lower-three seeded team in Atlantic Hockey but stared down extinction by beating RIT in overtime.
Or maybe it’s just a lower-seeded team in Hockey East, which is the one league with a format conducive to anyone beating anyone in a year when everyone is pretty darn good.
You have to hear me out on the reasoning here. The first post-COVID Hockey East tournament sent its four best teams to TD Garden, but each of the last two years sent a team seeded outside of the top four, with the 2023 tournament sending seventh-seeded Providence and fifth-seeded UMass Lowell to its semifinal round.
Last year, UMass advanced past fourth-seeded Providence, and while the championship game featured the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds from the tournament, each year eliminated someone from the quarterfinals. Extrapolating it even further to the pre-COVID years, remember that No. 7 Boston College advanced to the championship game in 2019, though not every team was part of the tournament during those years.
I can’t go through each of the leagues in that way, but there’s always someone capable of winning a weird playoff game. Cornell finishing the year in sixth, for example, should make someone plenty scared in ECAC after many expected the Big Red to contend for a league championship. Augustana is a second-place team based on percentages, but we don’t know what to expect for a playoff run that’s wholly unique to the CCHA right now.
As the playoffs dawn, I’m looking at you for the premier dark horse here. Give me one team that you think might play deep into its postseason, and give me someone that really, really, really needs to watch its back, specifically this week (excluding Hockey East, obviously, which still has to finish its regular season.
Jim: Well, there is one potential series that I am thinking about that isn’t set in stone and that is in the NCHC and the potential for Denver and North Dakota to faceoff in the quarterfinals. There is still a weekend left in the regular season and that matchup could change. But imagine those two heavyweights squaring off in the first round of the playoffs.
As for a dark horse, these are always so difficult to pick. But in Atlantic Hockey, a series near-and-dear to your heart could be ripe for an upset. Canisius will travel to Bentley, but this best-of-three series comes three weeks after the Griffs took four of six points at Bentley in their only regular-season series.
Certainly, this has been a memorable season for Bentley and in two quick years under Andy Jones the Falcons have gone from an also-ran to being in position in the final weekend to win a regular-season trophy. But I always worry that experience is key in the postseason. Andy while Jones himself has plenty from his days as an assistant at UMass Lowell, his lineup lacks players who have had postseason success.
How about you? Do you see a dark horse winning this weekend? I’m guessing you’re not ratifying my Canisius pick.
Dan: You really know how to hurt a guy, sometimes, don’t you.
I don’t mean to keep it in Atlantic Hockey, but there’s a part of me really wondering if Eric Lang has some AIC magic left in his tank. Given everything that’s happened with that team and its eventual removal from the Division I ranks, Atlantic Hockey is wide open enough to let the Yellow Jackets get hot over the last couple of weeks. I like the matchup against Holy Cross because of its recency against the last weekend of the season and the inherent difficulty associated with beating a team – a good team, no less – three different times. I also like that few teams can play for nothing more than today, but AIC… well, there is no tomorrow, quite literally.
Moving away from Atlantic Hockey, I think this is the most wide-open version of ECAC that’s existed for a while. The top two seeds haven’t advanced to face one another in a championship game since Union beat Colgate during the ’14 postseason, but the parity within the league is astounding.
I’m not sure if a double-digit seed gets out of the first round like last year’s RPI win, but the bulk of teams situated between the No. 3 and No. 5 seeds had a chance to finish with a first-round bye before the final day of the regular season. The rest of the teams, especially Harvard, are lurking a bit deeper, and I really think the best goaltender in the league, which sometimes dictates a deep postseason run, is currently at Brown.
Also, no team is more susceptible to upset-addled runs to the semifinal or championship rounds than the Bears, thanks in no small part to Brendan Whittet’s ability to shorten the bench and rely on a fiery hot netminder.
This leads me back to a diverted path: the voted-on poll. It’s usually an indicator of people’s overall viewpoint, but I don’t remember a time when the cut-off between teams was as severe as the drop to Colorado College and Holy Cross. Should that mean there are more dark horses than we’re admitting? Or, more rhetorically, does this mean that people just don’t believe in teams that aren’t already fighting for Pairwise bubble status?
Jim: I think because this season we have three conferences that look to be single-bid conferences (AHA, CCHA and ECAC), I think a lot of voters feel they know which teams belong in the top and which teams don’t.
By the end of the season, after a champion is crowned, you will have a poll likely with all 16 teams that make the tournament and another four that miss. It is where those four teams end up being ranked that often make me sit up and take notice.
A good example currently is Arizona State. The Sun Devils could possibly win three playoff games, lose in the NCHC final and not make the tournament. Right now, the USCHO poll ranks ASU 12th. It’s possible come season’s end that the Sun Devils could be ranked among the top 12 and still miss the tournament.
Boston College is again the No. 1 team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll, getting 42 first-place votes in the latest rankings.
Michigan State moves up one to No. 2, collecting six first-place votes, while Minnesota is down one to No. 3, getting one first-place vote, while Western Michigan earned the last first-place vote and remains fourth this week.
Providence is up one to No. 6, Denver falls one to No. 7, UConn is up one to No. 8, Ohio State is down one spot to sit ninth, and Boston University remains 10th in this week’s poll.
Holy Cross enters the poll this week at No. 20.
In addition to the top 20 teams, eight others received votes in this week’s rankings.
The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 50 voters, including coaches and media professionals from across the country. Media outlets may republish this poll as long as USCHO.com is credited.
Hosts Jim Connelly, Derek Schooley. and Ed Trefzger review games of the weekend and news of the week.
Three more conferences – Big Ten, ECAC, and NCHC – decided their regular season champions over the weekend. Michigan State and Minnesota share the Big Ten regular season title, Quinnipiac wins the ECAC, and Western Michigan clinches its first-ever NCHC league title. They preview upcoming playoffs and analyze key matches, including potential upsets and standout performances.
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Men’s Division I Frozen Four, April 10 and 12 in St. Louis. Get your tickets now at ncaa.com/frozenfour
Times are approximate:
00:15 Introduction and sponsorship
00:38 Big Ten conference championship drama
03:56 ECAC regular season finale
06:57 NCHC title race and playoff implications
13:43 Hockey East regular season showdown
18:23 Atlantic Hockey playoff action
26:00 Big Ten playoff preview
29:51 CCHA and ECAC playoff previews
36:04 Milestones and well wishes
39:43 Conclusion and sign-off
MCLA’s Matthew Gover stood tall between the pipes making 106 saves as MCLA defeated the top two seeds in the MASCAC tournament to advance to the conference championship game.(Photo by MCLA Athletics)
Since the regular season was not enough of a roller coaster ride for results, upsets and drama, enter the conference playoffs where form fell apart over the weekend in many areas including seven overtime games, top seeds bowing out in MASCAC (Plymouth State) and SUNYAC (Cortland), and No. 2 seeds exiting in the CNE (UNE), MASCAC (Anna Maria), NEHC (Babson) and NESCAC (Trinity). Add in the top seed loss in the NE-10 where St. Anselm fell at home to rival St. Michael’s and the plethora of surprise games is pretty astounding overall. Sure, Hobart, Utica, Geneseo, Curry, Wilkes, Stevenson, Oswego, and Hamilton took care of business but there is that sense still that any game’s outcome is up for grabs now when the stakes are highest. For many the season is now over and those on the NPI bubble are rooting for outcomes that are unlikely to change their fate for playing on the national stage. Crazy week for sure – so here is the recap of an extremely exciting week of playoff action in the east:
CNE
Thursday’s quarterfinals saw No. 3 Endicott eke past No. 6 Wentworth, 3-2 in overtime as the Gulls needed Michael Casey’s late third period goal and Cade Baker’s overtime winner to move past the Leopards and earn a date against UNE on Saturday. In a regular season finale re-match, Suffolk left no doubt scoring four goals with Nick Liatino assisting on three and getting forty-six saves from CJ Hapward in goal for a 4-0 win that advanced the Rams to face No. 1 Curry on Saturday.
Curry was ready from the opening puck drop against the Rams on Saturday as Karim Gayfullin scored twice in the first ten minutes of play to give the Colonels and early lead that they extended to 4-1 in the second period. Gayfullin completed his hat trick in the middle stanza and the Colonels cruised to their fifteenth straight win with a 4-2 decision over the Rams. Shane Soderwall stopped sixteen of eighteen shots to earn his twenty-second win of the season.
Endicott traveled to UNE on Saturday and the comeback Gulls did on the road what they had done at home on Thursday. Trailing the Nor’easters 3-1 in the third period, Jackson Sterrett quickly halved the deficit just over a minute after Cam Bergman had given the home team a two-goal advantage. Michael Casey then became the hero for the visitors as he netted the game-tying goal in the final seventy seconds of regulation before scoring the game-winning goal in the opening minute of overtime for a 4-3 Gulls victory.
No. 1 Curry will host No. 3 Endicott on Saturday, March 8 for the CNE championship.
MAC
The MAC playoff semifinals were played on Saturday, March 1 with No. 1 Wilkes hosting No. 4 Alvernia and No. 2 Stevenson playing No. 3 Neumann.
The Colonels were far from gracious hosts as they took advantage of two goals in each period to skate away with a 6-0 win over the Golden Wolves. It was the visitors who came out firing in the first period, peppering Colonels’ netminder Jack Perna with twenty-two first period shots but could not score. Perna finished the game with thirty-nine saves while Cam Lowe scored two goals and Carter Jordan assisted on three goals in the shutout win.
The Mustangs vs. Knights contest was far closer as expected with an overtime session needed to determine the team that would advance to the MAC title game against Wilkes. Blake Benson broke the scoreless deadlock in the final minute of the opening period with a goal for Stevenson and Luke Croucher tied the score for Neumann with a goal early in the third period. Goaltender Cole DeFazio was keeping the Mustangs at bay with Ford DeLoss fending off Neumann’s threats. In the extra session, it was Matt Yeager who solved DeFazio for a 2-1 OT win for Stevenson.
On Saturday, March 8, No. 1 Wilkes will host No. 2 Stevenson for the MAC championship and the conference’s first NCAA auto-bid.
MASCAC
The MASCAC tournament saw a one-through-eight tournament format for the first time and No. 1 Plymouth State looking to capture an eighth straight title in their final season in the league. MCLA had other plans for the Panthers as Thursday’s quarterfinal game saw the Trailblazers stun the top seed, 2-1 with goaltender Matthew Gover and his forty-three saves making goals from Luke Rhoss and Sam Zis stand up to upset the Panthers.
No. 2 seed Anna Maria had no such upset demons in their arena as the AmCats dispatched No. 7 Westfield State by a score of 8-2. Matthew Gilbert, Matthew Byrne and Brandon Della-Paolera each scored two goals with Della-Paolera providing the game’s highlight goal with a “Michigan” tally to help the AmCats to an early 3-0 advantage. Five unanswered goals in the final forty minutes helped put away the Owls and advance Anna Maria to a semifinal with MCLA.
Fitchburg State knocked off Worcester State, 4-1 on Thursday with Max Macchioni making thirty-three saves and Alexandre Bauvais scoring a pair of goals to advance the Falcons to a semifinal matchup with Salem State. The Vikings punched their ticket with a 3-1 win over Massachusetts-Dartmouth with goaltender Will Nepveu stopping thirty-seven Corsair attempts and Landyn Greatorex sealing the win with an empty-net goal just seconds after the Corsairs hit the post trying the tie the score in the final minute of regulation.
On Saturday, the Falcons were looking to end the Vikings’ month-long win streak and advance to the MASCAC championship game. The teams exchanged goals three times leaving the score tied at 3-3 at the end of regulation time. Overtime was required and neither team could score in the first two overtime periods. In the third overtime, Christian Halbig tallied an unassisted goal past Nepveu to give the Falcons a 4-3 3OT win over Salem State. Netminder Macchioni made a total of seventy-six games to help the Falcons advance to the championship game.
In the other semifinal, Anna Maria hosted the upset-minded Trailblazers with a spot in the title game on the line. No. 8 MCLA used the same formula from Thursday’s upset as Cade Herrera and Easton Moore goals in the first two periods helped the Trailblazers to a 2-0 lead. Matthew Byrne cut the lead to one goal for the host AmCats but exceptional shot blocking and sixty-three saves from Matthew Gover gave MCLA a second upset in the playoffs with a 2-1 win to stun Anna Maria.
No. 4 Fitchburg State will host No. 8 MCLA for the MASCAC title on Saturday, March 8.
NE-10
The championship game between St. Michael’s and St. Anselm saw the host Hawks trying to win their fifth game in a row this season against the Purple Knights with the NE-10 title on the line. Two goals and an assist on the game’s opening marker from defender David Ciancio helped pace the Purple Knights to a 3-0 advantage on the way to a 5-1 championship win for the Purple Knights over the No. 1 seeded Hawks which avenged their title game loss to the Hawks two seasons ago by the same 5-1 score. Goaltender Evan Plunkett stopped twenty-seven of twenty-eight shots to backstop St. Michael’s to their sixth NE-10 title.
NEHC
Hobart started their NEHC title defense hosting the team that handed them their only loss of the season, Albertus Magnus. Domenic Schimizzi and NEHC Player-of-the-Year, Tanner Daniels gave the Statesmen an early 2-0 lead in the first period. That was enough for goaltender Damon Beaver who stopped nineteen of twenty shots in a 3-1 win over the Falcons. Shane Shell provided the final margin with an empty-net goal as Hobart outshot AMC by a 43-20 margin.
New England College traveled to No. 2 Babson and first-year sensation Anthony Beaulieu backstopped the Pilgrims to a 2-0 upset win over the Beavers. Beaulieu made thirty-one saves while Gunnar Sibley scored what proved to be the game winner in the second period. Ike Tarazewski iced the game with an ENG late in the third period.
No. 3 Norwich hosted Elmira for the third time in three weeks and the Cadets skated off with a 3-2 win over the Soaring Eagles. Johnny Johnson and Clark Kerner staked the Cadets to a 2-1 lead in the first period with Bryan O’Mara extending the advantage to 3-1 in the middle period. Ryan Reifler scored in the final minute for the final score as goaltender Sami Molu was outstanding making twenty-seven saves and surrendering just two power play goals to Elmira.
No. 4 Skidmore played No. 5 Salve Regina in quarterfinal action and the see-saw affair needed overtime to determine a winner. The Thoroughbreds started fast taking a 2-0 lead only to see the Seahawks rally for a 2-2 tie. Cooper Rice’s second goal of the contest gave Skidmore a 3-2 lead in the third period, but Quinn Tavares tied the game in the final two minutes to send the game to sudden victory. Rice completed his stellar game by scoring the overtime goal that completed his hat trick and sent the Thoroughbreds on to the semifinals with a 4-3 OT win.
Next Saturday, Hobart will host the final four teams. No. 1 Hobart will face No. 7 New England College in one semifinal while No. 3 Norwich will play No. 4 Skidmore. The winners will advance to the title game on Sunday, March 9.
NESCAC
Hamilton played host to Connecticut College and red-hot goaltender Will McEvoy on Saturday in a No. 1 v. No. 8 match-up. The Continentals took advantage of two goals from Jackson Krock to race to a 3-0 lead on the way to a comfortable 5-2 win that means Hamilton will host the final four weekend on March 8-9. McEvoy finished with forty-three saves for the Camels while Charlie Archer stopped twenty-one shot attempts.
No. 2 Trinity played host to No. 7 Middlebury who had played the Bantams tough in their two prior meetings. In what proved to be a very defensive battle with few great offensive chances, the visiting Panthers made a single goal by captain Jin Lee and nineteen saves from Andrew Heinze be enough to take down the defending conference champions, 1-0 in Hartford.
No. 3 Colby was hosting an Amherst team that had discovered their scoring touch in recent games. The Mules took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Matthew MacDonald before the Mammoth answered with two third period goals from Oliver Flynn and Jacob Pohl to lead midway in the final period. Massimo Gentile tied the game at 2-2 for Colby and neither team could find the winning goal in regulation. Maz Abene proved to be the OT hero scoring just over two minutes into the extra session advance Colby to the NESCAC final four weekend.
In a re-match of the final game of the regular season, Bowdoin and Tufts faced off with the Polar Bears playing host this time. In what proved to be another overtime thriller, the Jumbos skated off with the big road win, 2-1. Harrison Bazianos and Luke Wheeler exchanged first period goals but that would be all the scoring in regulation as Gus Bylin (Tufts) and Jacob Osborne (Bowdoin) were stellar in net for their respective teams. In overtime, Trace Norwell with assists from Jon and Brennan Horn gave the Jumbos scored to send Tufts to the final four weekend.
Hamilton will face Middlebury in one semifinal on Saturday, March 8 while Colby and Tufts will play in the other semifinal game. The championship game will take place on Sunday, March 9.
SUNYAC
Thursday’s quarterfinals saw Buffalo State take advantage of three points each from Austin Micale and Vadim Kiriakov help the Bengals to a 6-4 win over Canton. In the other quarterfinal game, Potsdam jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and led 3-1 entering the third period. Four unanswered goals rallied the Cardinals to a 5-3 win with Lonan Bulger scoring two goals and adding two assists in the comeback victory.
No. 2 Oswego played host to Buffalo State on Saturday and after surrendering the opening goal to the Bengals’ Sutton Murray before reeling off four unanswered goals, including two from Brandon Cohen for a 4-1 lead on the way to a comfortable 5-2 win. Brandon Milberg picked up the win in goal making twenty-four saves.
The comeback kids from Plattsburgh traveled to face No. 1 seed Cortland and continued their playoff magic with a stunning 4-3 overtime win over the Red Dragons. Nate Berke scored early in the third period to give the host team a 3-0 lead before Plattsburgh rallied with three goals, including Aaron Catron’s game-tying goal with less than five seconds remaining in regulation. The Cardinals kept the momentum going in overtime taking just twenty seconds to score the game-winner off the stick of Jake Sacratini.
Oswego will host Plattsburgh for the SUNYAC championship on Saturday, March 8.
UCHC
Thursday quarterfinal action saw Manhattanville skate off with a 4-1 win over Brockport. Four different players scored, and goaltender William Billequey stopped twenty shots to advance the Valiants to a semifinal game with Geneseo. In the other quarterfinal game, Chatham hosted Nazareth and after forty scoreless minutes, the Cougars broke through with goals from Tyler Samodral, Nick Cyprian, and Evan Mitchell to post a 3-0 win over the Golden Flyers. Goaltender Geno Pichora was stellar in the crease stopping all forty-eight Nazareth attempts on goal.
Top seed Utica hosted Chatham on Saturday in semifinal action and the Pioneers exploded for nine goals in a 9-0 rout of the Cougars. Tio D’Addario paced the attack with one goal and three assists for Utica while Brian Scoville added three assists and Shane Murphy added two goals. Ryan Piros picked up the shutout making nineteen saves.
No. 2 seed Geneseo played Manhattanville and raced to an early 2-0 lead on goals from Zach Purcell and Peter Morgan. The Valiants answered with two goals of their own off the sticks of Artem Mateichenko and Parker Chadwell. The final three goals of the game belonged to the host team as Morgan added a second goal and Filip Wiberg iced the contest with an ENG in the final two minutes of regulation time for a 5-2 win.
Utica will host Geneseo on Saturday, March 8 for the UCHC championship in one of the most anticipated conference title games next week.
Three Biscuits
Matthew Gover – MCLA – stopped 106 of 108 shots as the Trailblazers eliminated the top two seeds in MASCAC with 2-1 victories over Plymouth State and Anna Maria to earn a spot in the championship game.
Cooper Rice – Skidmore – scored a hat trick including the game-winning goal in overtime as the Thoroughbreds downed Salve Regina, 4-3 in the NEHC quarterfinals.
Jake Sacratini – Plattsburgh – completed a three-goal comeback for the Cardinals with the overtime winning goal in a 4-3 OT victory over top seed Corland on Saturday.
Bonus Biscuits
David Ciancio – St. Michael’s – paced the Purple Knights to a fast start in the NE-10 championship game by assisting on the opening goal and then scoring two of his own in the 5-1 win over St. Anselm on Saturday.
Matt Yeager – Stevenson – scored the overtime winning goal as the Mustangs eked out a 2-1 win over Neumann in the MAC tournament semifinals.
Michael Casey – Endicott – netted the game-tying goal late in the third period before scoring the overtime winner in Endicott’s 4-3 comeback win over UNE on Saturday.
Incredible team effort, sensational goaltending, a never-say-die attitude were all on display across the conference playoff games this week sparking incredible upsets and drama through regulation and overtime sessions that created sudden victory and agonizing defeat. So much more at stake next weekend so look for next-level action and intensity. Seriously, does it get any better than this?
UW-Eau Claire upset UW-Stevens Point to advance to the WIAC championship game. (Photo Credit: Chico La Barbera)
Oh what a wild game it was between UW-Eau Claire and rival UW-Stevens Point in a decisive mini game of a WIAC semifinal series on Saturday night.
The Blugolds had lost 4-1 to the Pointers, ranked ninth in the USCHO.com poll, in Game 2, giving up four goals in the third as their dreams were dashed of closing out the series.
But they refused to fold in the mini game, surviving a three-overtime thriller that ended when Kyle Oleksiuk scored on a penalty shot to lift the Blugolds into the championship game with a 1-0 win.
Max Gutjahr stepped up in goal, stopping several shots late to help secure the win.
The Blugolds won Friday’s game over the Pointers by a 4-3 score, leading 3-0 before having to hold on for the win. Leo Bacallo scored twice in the victory.
Eau Claire will now play for the WIAC title, hoping to lock up its first NCAA tourney bid since 2020. The Blugolds didn’t get to play in the tourney that year, though, as the pandemic canceled it.
Eau Claire is 13-15-1 while Stevens Point is 19-6-2 and will miss the championship game of the conference tournament for the first time since 2014.
Falcons stun top-seeded Yellowjackets
Don’t ever underestimate UW-River Falls. The Falcons proved as much over the weekend, upsetting No. 10 UW-Superior with a 2-1 in a mini game that decided their semifinal series.
They had lost 4-1 on Friday in the opening game but bounced back Saturday with a 2-1 win in Game 2 to force a mini game.
Arsenii Smekhnov and Alex Atwill both scored in Game 2 while Brennan Boynton made 26 saves for his 17th win of the year.
Goals by Dylan Smith and Cole Telecki gave the Falcons the win in the mini game, with Telecki’s tally serving as the game winner.
River Falls is 17-11-1 and is headed to the WIAC final for the first time since 2016.
For Superior, it’s a gut-wrenching end to a stellar year. They were riding high after Friday thanks to a hat trick by Collin Pederdson in the opening game. But they weren’t able to close things out on Saturday.
Superior won only 11 games a year ago but ends this season with a 19-5-3 record.
MIAC
Gusties punch ticket
Gustavus is in the MIAC final for the first time since 2018 after knocking off Concordia 6-2 on Saturday in a semifinal game.
The regular season champion of the conference now takes aim at its first championship since 2012 when it faces reigning champ St. Olaf.
Gustavus scored twice in each period, leading 2-1 after one and 4-2 after two.
Joey Gimberlin and Jack Suchy led the charge for the Gusties, scoring two goals apiece while Colin Androlewicz racked up 32 saves.
The win marks the third time Gustavus has beaten Concordia this season, and the Gusties have scored four or more goals in each game. Gustavus improves to 15-9-2 with the victory and are hoping to add a sixth MIAC title this coming weekend as well as as secure an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
It’s been a turnaround year for Gustavus, which won only 11 games last year and is in the midst of its best season since winning 16 games during the 2013-14 season.
Concordia ends its year at 12-12-3. Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe scored his team-leading 10th goal of the year and he finishes his career with 38. Dane Couture made 24 saves.
Oles return to championship game
St. Olaf will have a chance to go back-to-back as MIAC tournament champs after beating Bethel 3-1 on the road in the semifinal round on Saturday.
The Oles scored all three of their goals in the final period to secure the comeback win and advance to the title game for the third time in four seasons. They’ve won three championships in program history.
They scored all three goals in a span of 10 minutes, getting them from Nicholas Sewecke, Ben Luscko and Jonathan Panisa.
St. Olaf improved to 14-9-3 on the year and is 8-1 in MIAC playoff games over the last four years. It has been road warriors during the stretch as all of those contests have been played on the road.
For Panisa, his goal was his 16th of the year and his ninth in the last seven games. Matthew Malin made 20 saves in the final two periods to earn the win.
Bethel got its lone goal from Tyler Braccini. The Royals finish the year at 13-10-3 after losing in a game that was a rematch of last year’s MIAC final.
NCHA
Green Knights roll into tourney final
A dominant performance propelled St. Norbert toa 6-1 win over Trine in an NCHA semifinal on Saturday.
The fifth-ranked Green Knights scored four goals in the first two periods and never looked back, improving to 22-5-1. Trine drops to 20-6-2.
Hunter Garvey came through with 26 saves while Braden Lindstrom helped lead the way offensively with two goals and an assist. Logan Dombrowsky dished out a pair of assists to go along with his goal while Carter Hottman put the puck in the back of the net twice against the seventh-ranked Thunder.
St. Norbert is unbeaten in its last nine games and finish 2-1 against Trine this season.
Jack Cooper scored the lone goal for the Thunder and now hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Bulldogs bite Spartans
Adrian not only won its NCHA semifinal against Aurora, but the No. 14 Bulldogs held the second-ranked Spartans scoreless, which had not happened at all this season as Aurora features one of the top scoring offenses in the country.
Dershahn Stewart rose to the occasion with 34 saves in a 2-0 win for Adrian, which heads to the conference final. The Bulldogs were playing on the road in an NCHA semifinal tournament game for the first time.
Julien Jacob ended the scoreless tie with a goal in the second period and Ryan Pitoscia added an empty netter.
JaCob Mucitelli made 29 saves for Aurora, which is 23-4-1 and could still make the NCAA tournament.
Providence took both games over the weekend from Merrimack (photo: Providence Athletics).
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
It’s the last full month of the college hockey season, but if its first weekend was any indication, it will be an exciting one. Conference regular-season champions are being crowned and playoff seeding possibilities are endless.
All that and more in this week’s Monday 10…
1. Minnesota and Michigan State are B1G’s co-champs of the regular season
With a 5-2 win at Notre Dame on Saturday night, Michigan State claimed its second consecutive B1G regular-season championship. The Spartans, selected No. 1 in the preseason conference poll, won back-to-back regular-season titles for the first time since the start of the conference in 2013-14, and for the fourth time in program history.
Lest the forgoing needlessly depress Minnesota fans, fear not — the Gophers won a share of the regular-season title too! With a 5-3 win at sold-out Penn State, Minnesota claimed its record seventh B1G regular-season trophy.
The Spartans will be the official No. 1 seed and receive a bye to the tournament semifinals, and will host the lowest remaining seed on March 15 at Munn Ice Arena. The Gophers will host Notre Dame in a best-of-three quarterfinal series starting Friday.
2. Make that five straight for Quinnipiac
The No. 12 Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey program clinched its fifth straight Cleary Cup as ECAC Hockey’s regular-season champ, defeating St. Lawrence 4-0 on Saturday night at Appleton Arena.
It was the fourth Bobcat shutout of the season. Jeremy Wilmer matched his season best with a pair of goals, his third such performance this season. Wilmer, Andon Cerbone and Travis Treloar all extended their points streak to six games.
Quinnipiac is 10-1-1 in its last dozen games at St. Lawrence. For their efforts, the Bobcats earned a week off before hosting best-of-three series in the ECAC quarterfinals beginning March 14.
Clarkson, Union and Colgate are the other ECAC Hockey automatic quarerfinalists.
3. Western Michigan wins first-ever conference title
Western Michigan, having won at least a share of a regular-season conference championship for the first time in program history the previous night, won the NCHC’s Penrose Cup outright and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament with a point in its series finale vs. North Dakota on Saturday. The Broncos fell 4-3 in overtime, but combined with a 6-4 win over the Fighting Hawks Friday night, the point was enough for a four-point weekend.
The Broncos finish the regular season at Miami on March 7-8 in Oxford, Ohio.
4. Puck drops on AHA playoffs with three opening-round games
For fans itching to see some playoff hockey already, Atlantic Hockey America provided a soothing balm with three preliminary games.
American International kept its season — and its existence as a Division I program — alive with a 2-1 overtime win over RIT Friday night in West Point, N.Y. Casey McDonald scored the game winner for the Yellow Jackets.
On Saturday, Canisius was a 2-0 winner over Mercyhurst, and Air Force needed double overtime to eliminate a tenacious Robert Morris team, 4-3. Anthony Yu got the game winner with a power-play goal at 13:30 of the second OT.
The quarterfinals will be a best-of-three affair, featuring the following matchups: No. 8 AIC at top-seeded Holy Cross, No. 7 Air Force at No. 2 Sacred Heart, No. 6 Canisius at No. 3 Bentley and No. 5 Army at No. 4 Niagara.
5. No. 1 BC takes five of six from New Hampshire
Boston College, No. 1 in the USCHO men’s D-I poll as of this writing, had a drama-free time with New Hampshire at home Friday night, a 4-1 win before a crowd of 7,007 at Silvio O. Conte Forum.
The next night was a different story. The Eagles had to rally for a 1-1 tie before earning a shootout win, taking five of six possible Hockey East points.
BC enters the final weekend of the regular season with a 4-point lead over Maine in the Hockey East standings with one game to play, vs. Merrimack Saturday. The Eagles will need to do anything other than lose in regulation to clinch the No. 1 seed in the tournament. For Maine to finish No. 1, it will need to earn at least five of six possible points in a two-game series at Massachusetts, and hope BC goes points-less vs. Merrimack. BC holds the tiebreaker vs. Maine, having swept their only two meetings way back in November.
6. Minnesota State closes out CCHA slate with a bang
After losing a shootout at home vs. rival Bemidji State on Friday, Minnesota State responded resoundingly the next night with a 5-1 win.
The Mavericks will host Lake Superior State in a best-of-three series beginning Friday. Luc Wilson led the Mavericks offense Saturday night with two goals and one assist. Evan Murr chipped in one goal and one assist. Goaltender Eli Pulver stopped 23 of 24 shots for his first career win in goal.
7. Denver, St. Cloud State split
St. Cloud State goalie Isak Posch made 38 saves for a 2-1 win at Denver on Saturday night in NCHC action. It was St. Cloud’s first win vs. Denver in its last seven tries.
For Denver, graduate student Connor Caponi played in his 175th career game on Saturday, becoming the 53rd player in NCAA history to reach that milestone. Kieran Cebrian appeared in his 70th game with Denver. Aidan Thompson stretched his point streak to nine games (four goals/10 assists). Jack Devine (three goals/four assists) and Zeev Buium (goal/four assists) are now both on four-game point streaks.
Denver, which was a 3-1 winner on Friday, closes out the regular season next weekend with a home-and-home series vs. rival Colorado College.
8. Providence sweeps Merrimack
Providence won a pair of nailbiters vs. Merrimack over the weekend — 3-2 at home on Friday and 2-1 the next night in North Andover, Mass. — to improve to 10-3 in one-goal games this season.
Goalie Philip Svedebäck stopped 29 of 31 shots in Friday’s win. net, while Zach Borgiel was in net for Providence on Saturday and made 12 saves vs. his former club.
9. Ohio State, Michigan split
No. 8 Ohio State and No. 11 Michigan split their regular-season-ending B1G series over the weekend, with the Buckeyes tipping the Wolverines 2-1 on Friday and Michigan returning the favor the next night with a 4-3 win.
The Buckeyes finish the regular season at 21-11-2 overall and have a 14-9-1 B1G record, good for No. 3 in both the final standings and the upcoming tournament. Michigan is 18-13-3 with a 12-10-2 B1G mark and a fourth-place finish. Each team had a regulation and an overtime win in the series this season.
Both teams will host a home-and-home quarterfinal series next weekend. Michigan welcomes No. 5 Penn State and Ohio State hosts No. 6 Wisconsin.
10. UConn continues hot streak in Hockey East
Is there a team hotter than Connecticut right now? The Huskies took care of Hockey East’s other Huskies over the weekend (wins of 5-2 and 7-1 over Northeastern) to continue their scintillating 2025, earning their fifth win in a row to extend their current streak to 11-2-2 since the new year.
Looking for their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, UConn is now eighth in the PairWise. The Huskies are currently fourth in Hockey East, three points behind Boston University, and look to lock up a bye in the upcoming Hockey East tournament with one game left, at Vermont on Thursday.
In game one, the Beavers made 36 blocks and Kaitlin Groess made 42 saves to slow down Wisconsin, but the Badgers skated off with a 3-0 win. Kelly Gorbatenko scored with 39 seconds left in the first period to make it 1-0. Claire Enright scored late in the second and Lacey Eden added one a few minutes later to secure the win. On Saturday, the Badgers broke out for 11 goals and Casey O’Brien broke her own record for assists in a season and broke Hilary Knight’s record for career points at Wisconsin. Kirsten Simms scored 15 seconds into the game and that set the tone. She followed up with a second goal minutes later and completed a hat trick with a goal midway through the second. But the night belonged to O’Brien, who had three primary assists in the first five minutes of the game. It was a short-handed goal on a feed from KK Harvey that broke Knight’s record. O’Brien finished the game with a goal and five assists. Finley McCarthy added two goals while Kelly Gorbatenko, Hannah Halverson, Cassie Hall and Sarah Wozniewicz each lit the lamp to lead the Badgers to the weekend sweep. They advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff and will face Minnesota Duluth in the semifinal on Friday.
St. Thomas at (2) Ohio State
Joy Dunne set the tone early in both games for Ohio State as they swept their weekend series with St. Thomas. On Friday, she brought the puck from behind the net before turning and beating Dani Strom to make it 1-0 1:31 into the game. Emma Peschel scored on breakout with Dunne and Joceyln Amos to make it 2-0 at the first break. Defender Mira Jungåker scored from the faceoff circle in the second to extend the lead to 3-0. Amos scored on the power play just :29 into the third frame to make it 4-0. Cara Sajevic broke up the shutout for St. Thomas with a power play goal late in the third, but Jungåker’s short-hander secured the 4-1 win. On Saturday, Dunne scored with the extra attacker just 1:36 into the game. On the ensuing play, Josie St. Martin lit the lamp to extend the lead to 2-0 before two minutes had elapsed. Maddi Wheeler scored before the end of the third to make it 3-0. Makenna Webster found the back of the net in the final minute of the second to make it a 4-0 game. The Tommies were able to spoil the shutout late, this time with a goal from Maddie Jurgensen, but Ohio State took a second 4-1 win and advances to the WCHA Final Faceoff and will face Minnesota in the semifinal on Friday.
Union at (3) Cornell
The Big Red outshot the Garnet Chargers 42-14 and Karel Prefontaine scored twice to lead Cornell to a 3-0 win on Friday. Georgia Schiff scored the other goal while Lily Delianedis and Delaney Fleming each had two assists. On Saturday, the game was much more even. After a scoreless first period, the Big Red took a 1-0 lead thanks to a power play goal from Grace Dwyer. But that seemed to shake things up for Union, who quickly responded. Maddie Leaney scored with a pretty top shelf goal to tie the game and then in the final minute of the second, Maren Friday put the Garnet Chargers up 2-1. In the third, they were able to stifle the Big Red and Cornell had to pull their goalie for an extra attacker with nearly three minutes left on the clock. Sophie Matsoukas made some great saves for Union before Prefontaine took a rebound off the back boards and tied the game with just 1:09 left on the clock. Cornell was energized and with Bermann back in the net, put the pressure on Union. Gabby Rud scored from the slot with just 27.5 left on the clock to take a 3-2 lead and hand the Garnet Chargers a heartbreaking last season loss to end their season. Cornell advances to the ECAC semifinal on Saturday where they will face Clarkson.
Minnesota State at (4) Minnesota
The Gophers’ second line put on a show on Friday as Emma Kreisz had two goals and three assists, Ava Linsday had two goals and an assist and Peyton Hemp had a goal and two assists to lead Minnesota to a 6-1 win over the Mavericks. Ella Huber also scored for Minnesota while Claire Vekich had the goal for Minnesota State in the loss. Things got much more chaotic on Saturday. The Mavericks jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to a goal from MacKenzie Bourgerie in the first and two goals in the first four minutes of the second as Claire Vekich scored on an early power play and Sydney Langseth finished off a play started by JuliAnna and Janessa Gazdik. But Abbey Murphy struck on a breakaway a minute later to get Minnesota on the board and cut the lead to 3-1. Ella Huber scored at the midpoint of the game to make it a one-goal game, but Minnesota State carried a 3-2 advantage into the third. Anyone coming back late from intermission missed out in this game. Alexis Paddington scored 15 seconds into the third to push the lead to 4-2, but the Gophers once again replied as both Murphy and Krista Parkkonen lit the lamp and it was suddenly 4-4 before five minutes had passed. Neither team could find an equalizer and the game went to double overtime. It looked like a third extra frame was on deck, but Madison Mashuga one-timed a shot with 4.7 seconds left on the clock to give Minnesota State the 5-4 win and force a game three. Hailey Hansen broke the MSU school record for saves in a game with 66 saves and her team made 31 blocks in front of her. Final shots were 70-44 in favor of the Gophers. In the deciding game three, Minnesota scored three unanswered goals in the first seven minutes of the second and that put the game out of reach for the Mavericks. Natálie Mlýnková scored on the team’s first power play to make it 1-0 in the first. Then Lindsay, Audrey Wethington and Murphy scored in quick succession to make it 4-0. Jamie Nelson pulled one back for Mankato to make it 4-1, but Murphy quickly grabbed the momentum back and Hemp scored one more before the second ended to make it 6-1. Nelson added one more for the Mavericks before the end of the third, but Minnesota took the 6-2 win and advance to the WCHA semifinals to face Ohio State.
(13) Princeton at (5) Colgate
Elyssa Biederman dominated on Friday, scoring three goals in 4:34 to start the game, giving Colgate a 3-0 lead before eight minutes had elapsed in the first period. Issy Wunder pulled one back for Princeton in the second to make it 3-1, but Kaia Malachino responded to give Colgate a three-goal lead once again. In the third, Brooklyn Nimegeers scored on the power play to cut the lead to 4-2, but the Tigers couldn’t get any closer and Neena Brick’s empty net goal secured the 5-2 win for the Raiders. In the second game, Hannah Murphy made 41 saves while Alexia Aubin and Emma Pais each scored to secure the sweep for Colgate. Rosie Klein ruined the shutout with a late goal, but Princeton ran out of time to complete a comeback. Colgate advances to the ECAC semifinal where they will face St. Lawrence next Friday.
(11) St. Cloud State at (6) Minnesota Duluth
UMD coach Lara Schuler used the coaches challenge impeccably this weekend and it helped propel her team to a weekend sweep and berth in the WCHA Final Faceoff. On Friday, her team scored first on an extended power play that came from Schuler’s challenge for a major penalty. Caitlin Kraemer delivered a one-timer to put the Bulldogs up 1-0. SCSU equalized in the second as Emma Gentry scored just after a penalty expired. Alice Sauriol’s power play goal a few minutes later gave St. Cloud the 2-1 advantage. The Huskies held onto the lead until the waning seconds of the game. The Bulldogs pulled their goalie and then called timeout to draw up a play. Kraemer buried a shot from the slot with under two to play to tie the game 2-2. It looked like overtime was on deck, but Olivia Wallin broke St. Cloud’s heart, turning on a shot with five seconds to go to win the game and give Minnesota Duluth the 3-2 win. On Saturday, Schuler challenged an early St. Cloud goal for offsides. The challenge was successful and instead of being down just three minutes into the game, her team was on even footing and eventually, the Bulldogs would score the opening goal late in the second. Grace Sadura scored from the slot to make it 1-0 UMD. Olivia Mobley’s low shot a few minutes later put Minnesota up 2-0. Despite outshooting their hosts 39-32, St. Cloud could not solve Eve Gascon and Laura Zimmerman’s late goal was not enough as time ran out and UMD took the 2-1 win and series sweep. UMD advances to the WCHA semifinals where they’ll face Wisconsin on Friday.
Yale at (7) St. Lawrence
Sarah Marchand put SLU on the board first just a few minutes into the game, carrying the puck through the zone and beating Pia Dukarich to make it 1-0. But Yale responded quickly as Naomi Boucher forced a turnover and went top shelf to make it a 1-1 game. Abby Hustler put St. Lawrence back on top in the second, picking up her own rebound, cycling behind the net and turning to find the back of the net to make it 2-1. With under four to play, Stephanie Stainton went coast to coast for Yale on the power play to tie the game once more and eventually force overtime. In the extra frame, Yale took a pair of penalties, including a game misconduct and the Saints capitalized on the 5-on-3 with Claire Tyo’s one-timer in the upper corner. In the second game, Abby Hustler scored with a backhander after a turnover midway through the second to put SLU up 1-0. Goalie Emma-Sofie Nordström earned an assist on the play. Yale pulled ahead early in the second with a pair of goals from Avery Peters and Carina DiAntonio before the midpoint. But St. Lawrence pushed back in the later part of the period. Kennedy Wilson scored from near the faceoff dot to tie the game 2-2 before Hustler scored her second to make it 3-2 Saints. Kristina Bahl tipped in a shot form Hillary Sterling early in the third to extend the lead to 4-2. Olivia Munn pulled one back for Yale on the PP, but St. Lawrence was able to tighten up on defense and the Bulldogs could not find an equalizer as the Saints took a 4-3 win and series sweep. St. Lawrence will face Colgate in the ECAC semifinals on Friday.
RIT at (8) Penn State
The Nittany Lions raced out to a 3-0 lead by the midpoint of the second period thanks to two goals by Tessa Janecke and another from Maddi Christian. But RIT started to push back as Athena Vasdani scored before the second intermission to make it a 3-1 game. Nicole Ness found the twine early in the third, but PSU held strong and withstood a push and the Tigers couldn’t find an equalizer as Penn State took a 3-2 win. In the second game, Christian, McKenna Welsh, Abby Stonehouse and Janecke each scored to carry PSU to a 4-0 win and weekend sweep. They advance to play Mercyhurst in the AHA championship game next Saturday.
(10) Quinnipiac at (9) Clarkson
Clarkson outshot the Bobcats 40-26 on Friday, but Quinnipiac skated away with a 3-1 win. Former Golden Knight Laurence Frenette scored twice to lead the Bobcats. Her first goal gave them a 1-0 lead near the end of the first as she tipped in a pass from Maddy Samoskevich on the power play. Just 1:17 into the second, she struck again on the PP, this time taking a pass from Maya Labad at the side of the net and tapping it in. Labad showed off her speed, taking off after loose puck and beating everyone to the zone and potting it to extend the lead to 3-0. Rhea Hicks scored later in the third for Clarkson, but they ran out of time to mount a comeback and Quinnipiac took game one. In game two, the Bobcats came out confident and fired 11 shots on goal, but only lit the lamp once as Zoe Uens sniped a goal in the final minute to make it a 1-0 game. Clarkson pushed back in the second, controlling the puck and tying the game on the power play with Nicole Gosling’s shot off the faceoff. Midway through the third, an odd-player rush didn’t immediately pay off, but Clarkson kept possession and Baylee Kirwan found Caroline Goffredo in the slot and the Golden Knights went up 2-1. Quinnipiac pulled their goalie but were unable to find an equalizer and Clarkson took the win and forced game three. On Sunday, the teams played discipline hockey and shots were limited as they searched for chances without giving up too much on defense. The Golden Knights scored on a forced turnover and breakout with Haley Winn finishing the play to make it 1-0 at the first intermission. Holly Gruber made a number of big saves, but maybe none more so than stopping a breakaway early in the second to maintain her team’s lead. Rhea Hicks added to her team’s lead with a power play goal deflection to make it 2-0 Clarkson. Quinnipiac broke through with a pass from Kahlen Lamarche that deflected in off a skate to make it 2-1. The Bobcats pulled their goalie, but Anne Cherkowski quickly found the empty net to extend the lead and Winn added another a few minutes later to secure the 4-1 win and send Clarkson to the ECAC semifinals where they’ll face Cornell.
Merrimack at (12) Connecticut
Sophie Robinson scored early in the first to put UConn up 1-0 and that lead would last for more than 40 minutes before Jada Habisch scored twice in the third to make it a 3-0 game. Livvy Dewar’s goal as time wound down closed out the 4-0 win for UConn. Tia Chan made 32 saves in the shutout win.
Vermont at (14) Boston University
It looked like the Catamounts might be on a roll, scoring early in the game thanks to Oona Havana, but every time Vermont lit the lamp, Boston University had an answer. Maeve Kelly scored just two minutes after Havana to tie the game 1-1. Rose-Marie Brochu put UVM up again midway through the first, but Lilli Welcke tied the game in the minute before intermission to make it 2-2. Neither team had an answer in the second frame, as they tried to find a goal but not make mistakes. In the third, Maddy Skelton struck on the power play for Vermont. Kelly’s shot from the point was tipped in by Sydney Healey to tie things again and eventually force overtime. The Terriers picked up steam and controlled the puck in the extra frame and were rewarded when Maggie Hanzel’s shot off the faceoff created a rebound that Riley Walsh cleaned up to send Boston University to the Hockey East semifinals on Wednesday, where they’ll face Boston College.
Maine at (15) Boston College
Maine opened the scoring in the first as Elise Morphy put the Black Bears up 1-0. Just two minutes later, Alanna Devlin put back a rebound to tie the game 1-1 and that’s how the teams headed to intermission. Things got crazy in the second as the teams combined for five goals in eight minutes. The Black Bears once again struck quickly, this time as Mikayla Boarder put Maine up 2-1 before a minute had elapsed. Julie Pellerin tied it a few minutes later and Keri Clougherty’s power play goal gave the Eagles their first lead of the game, making it 3-2 before six minutes had passed. Maine clawed back one more time as Jamie Grinder scored on the power play. But the tie lasted just 12 seconds as Pellerin took the next play to the net and gave Boston College a 4-3 lead that they’d hold until the final whistle. The Eagles advance to the Hockey East semifinals on Wednesday, where they’ll face their rivals at Boston University.
Ryan Bottrill nets the OT winner Friday night, giving Clarkson a 4-3 win over Quinnipiac (photo: Clarkson Athletics).
Here is a rundown of how the top 20 teams in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll of Feb. 24 fared in games over the weekend of Feb. 28-March 1.
No. 1 Boston College (25-6-2)
02/28/2025 – RV New Hampshire 1 at No. 1 Boston College 4
03/01/2025 – No. 1 Boston College 1 at RV New Hampshire 1 (OT)
No. 2 Minnesota (24-8-4)
02/28/2025 – No. 2 Minnesota 3 at No. 15 Penn State 4 (OT)
03/01/2025 – No. 2 Minnesota 5 at No. 15 Penn State 3
No. 3 Michigan State (24-6-4)
02/28/2025 – No. 3 Michigan State 5 at Notre Dame 2
03/01/2025 – No. 3 Michigan State 5 at Notre Dame 2
No. 4 Western Michigan (24-7-1)
02/28/2025 – No. 18 North Dakota 4 at No. 4 Western Michigan 6
03/01/2025 – No. 18 North Dakota 4 at No. 4 Western Michigan 3 (OT)
No. 5 Maine (21-6-5)
02/28/2025 – Vermont 1 at No. 5 Maine 4
03/01/2025 – Vermont 3 at No. 5 Maine 4
No. 6 Denver (24-9-1)
02/28/2025 – St. Cloud State 1 at No. 6 Denver 3
03/01/2025 – St. Cloud State 2 at No. 6 Denver 1
No. 18 North Dakota (18-13-2)
02/28/2025 – No. 18 North Dakota 4 at No. 4 Western Michigan 6
03/01/2025 – No. 18 North Dakota 4 at No. 4 Western Michigan 3 (OT)
