DULUTH — The Minnesota Gophers advanced to the WCHA Tournament Championship game with a 6-2 win over Ohio State Friday evening at AmSoil Arena. It was the second come-from-behind win of the day in Duluth as the Gophers scored six unanswered goals after the Buckeyes jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
“It was just some really good, smart, hard hockey by our team, angling with our feet, taking away their time and space, making them go 200 feet. I’m really proud of our group and excited for the opportunity to win a championship tomorrow,” said Minnesota coach Brad Frost.
Jocelyn Amos and Joy Dunne each lit the lamp for OSU in the opening ten minutes of the game and it looked like the Buckeyes were in control. But penalties late in the frame gave Minnesota a player advantage and they did not let the opportunities pass them by.
First Abbey Murphy found herself with time and space at the bottom of the far faceoff circle, giving her a chance to pick her spot to make it 2-1. The goal was the 100th of her career, making her just the seventh Gopher to reach that milestone.
Less than five minutes later Minnesota was again on the power play and a similar play developed, though this time Murphy unloaded a slap shot from the top of the circle. The puck hit the crossbar and post before dropping into the crease where Ella Huber quickly cleaned up the rebound to tie the game.
Ohio State seemed to deflate in the face of the Gopher response, allowing Minnesota even more space and never really getting dangerous shots in on Hannah Clark and the UM defense.
“Our group knows that Ohio State likes to get those dirty, net-front goals. One of our big focuses was a strong defensive zone. We wanted to box out, not let them get shots, not let them get rebounds. After we went down 2-0, we really locked it down and all their opportunities kind of came from those high shots, wide areas, and then we were able to not allow any rebounds,” said Gopher defender Sydney Morrow.
In the second, Audrey Wethington and Natálie Mlýnková took advantage of the deflated OSU defense as they easily passed through the neutral zone and Wethington was at the doorstep to tip in the pass Mlýnková sent her. Ava Lindsay scored on an odd-player rush midway through the game, opting to take it herself and snap a wrister to extend the lead.
The turning point in the game came early in the third period as Minnesota held a 4-2 lead. Chloe Primerano and Ella Huber were sent to the penalty box 31 seconds apart, giving Ohio State a long 5-on-3 opportunity that they were unable to capitalize on.
“I got so much energy from that 5-on-3. The game was not over at that point and they still could have come back with that and our PK was just absolutely killer. The momentum we got from that was just insane. I think that that was the moment where I was like, ‘hell, yeah,’” said Murphy.
For Ohio State, whiffed shots and missed opportunities during the advantage just felt like a culmination of everything that went wrong the rest of the game.
“When everything goes bad, it just continuously falls apart and that just kind of seemed to be the problem. We just couldn’t dig ourselves out of a hole that we put ourselves into,” said coach Nadine Muzerall.
Murphy punctuated her excitement by cleaning up a loose put after chaos at the net to extend the lead to 5-2 and put the game out of reach. Murphy now leads the country with 31 goals so far this season.
An empty-netter from Chloe Primerano closed out the win for Minnesota.
The loss was a gut-punch for Ohio State, who has spent most of the season ranked #2 in the country.
“We have a game plan, and that was not it tonight. We didn’t stick to it,” said Jocelyn Amos.
Joy Dunne said the team was prepared to watch the game tape and learn from it, but then erase the game, move on and do better.
Coach Nadine Muzerall was less concerned with the outcome and more concerned with how her team handled the game, especially as Minnesota started to push back.
“I guess for me the disappointing thing is we quit,” said Muzerall.
“If we’re going to lose, we will fight. If we lose, we’ll take it on the chin, but we never quit, and we did that tonight.”
Both Minnesota and Ohio State have ensure their will host a regional during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Minnesota will play Wisconsin on Saturday for the WCHA Tournament Championship at 2 pm central.
DULUTH — The top-ranked Wisconsin Badgers will face #3 Minnesota for the WCHA Tournament Championship on Saturday after both teams registered come-from-behind wins in their respective semifinals Friday afternoon at AmSoil Arena in Duluth.
In the early game, Minnesota Duluth got on the board first. Sophomore Grace Sadura drove up the left side of the ice and dragged Badger defender Katie Kotlowski, giving her open ice in on UW goalie Ava McNaughton, who looked like she made the save before the puck trickled through her pads and into the net.
Wisconsin equalized three minutes later. Laney Potter’s centering pass went in off Kelly Gorbatenko as she crashed the net.
“It bounced off my chest. I was just trying to get to the net and get gritty. That’s how you score this time of year. I was just trying to cause chaos in front and it took a good bounce,” said Gorbatenko.
Defender Caroline Harvey gave Wisconsin the 2-1 lead late in the second when a broken play led to a loose puck in the slot. Harvey charged in from the blue line and one-timed the puck off the corner pipe and into the net.
The Bulldogs put the pressure on Wisconsin in the final frame, pushing the Badgers out of sync, but were unable to find the back of the net in the chaos. In a stellar defensive game in which UMD blocked 23 shots and goalie Eve Gascon made 39 saves, the Bulldogs could not capitalize on the chaos they created in the final frame.
“We had a ton of momentum in that third period and some really good looks, but I think we have to continue to have a shot mentality. Any time you face good goalies, you have to just continue to pummel them with pucks, because you know something eventually is gonna go in. I thought we started to do a really good job with that towards the end of the game, so we just have to have that mentality from the get go,” said Minnesota Duluth coach Laura Schuler.
Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson knows his team was lucky not to give up a goal in the final frame, citing sloppy passes and unforced errors. But he always knows that his team learns more from games where they survive adversity.
In the third period where they started to push us, we weren’t managing the puck well. We were playing on our heels. They were playing on their toes,” said Johnson.
“If it’s perfect, you might not get better. If there are bumps in the road, maybe you end up learning from those and you get better the next time that situation presents itself.”
Schuler unknowingly echoed his sentiments, saying her team learns and grows every time they play.
“Even though we didn’t win, I still think we took another step, which is going to prepare us for this next part,” she said.
Wisconsin secured the win with an insurance goal from rookie defender Emma Venusio, the first of her career. Harvey assisted on the goal, scoring her 131st career point, which set a new Badgers school record for most points by a defender.
“It doesn’t change anything. I credit that all to my teammates I couldn’t do it without them.
It’s not something I care about at all. All we’re focused on is bringing that trophy back to Madison,” said Harvey.
Both teams will advance to the NCAA Tournament based on their placement in the Pairwise Rankings, but Minnesota Duluth will have to go on the round and play in the regional semifinal round because of today’s loss.
Bulldog captain Nina Jobst-Smith knows her team is ready.
“We have everything we need in our locker room. We have all the experience, we have all the depth and we’re a close knit team that knows what it takes to win championships and knows how hard we have to work, and we’ve done that. We’ve put in the work all season long, and I think we’re geared up and ready to go for the next two weeks. It’s only four wins away for national championship, and I think that’s our mindset.”
From left, Annelies Bergmann, Eve Gascon and Ava McNaughton.
The Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association has announced the three finalists for the Women’s Hockey Goalie of the Year Award.
They are Cornell’s Annelies Bergmann, Minnesota Duluth’s Eve Gascon and Wisconsin’s Ava McNaughton. The winner will be announced during the NCAA Frozen Four in Minneapolis.
All three finalists are preparing for their conference championships: Bergmann and the Big Red are the top seed in ECAC Hockey. Their Friday semifinal is against Clarkson Friday in Ithaca. Gascon and UMD will host McNaughton and Wisconsin, the top team in the nation, on Friday in Duluth.
Two of the finalists come from the United States and one is from Canada. All three are sophomores on highly ranked programs.
The Women’s Hockey Goalie of the Year Award was established in 2021. The first three winners came from Northeastern: Aerin Frankel (2021 and 2022) and Gwyneth Philips (2023). Last year, the NU domination came to an end when Clarkson’s Michelle Pasiechnyk took home the trophy.
Annelies Bergmann – Cornell
(SO – Detroit, MI)
Bergmann has led Cornell to the No. 3 ranking in the country. Her nine shutouts is tied for best in the country. Her key numbers: 1.37 and .939. Cornell hosts Clarkson Friday in ECAC semifinal play.
Eve Gascon – Minnesota Duluth
(SO – Mascouche, PQ)
Gascon posts numbers of 1.85 and .943 in 27 games. Her 826 saves are tops among the three finalists. UMD hosts No. 1 in the nation Wisconsin in a Friday WCHA semifinal.
Ava McNaughton – Wisconsin
(SO – Seven Fields, PA)
McNaughton leads the NCAA in almost every goaltending stat. She is No. 1 in GAA (1.13), save percentage (.949) and wins (31). The top team in the nation takes on UMD on Friday in a WCHA semifinal game.
The top-three finalists are expected to be announced on Wednesday, March 12, with the winner being revealed on March 22 as the highlight of Saturday at the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four in Minneapolis.
SELECTION PROCESS
The selection process commenced in early February when NCAA Division I women’s hockey coaches were asked to nominate players for the award. Players who were nominated by multiple coaches were then placed on an official ballot, which was returned to the coaches to vote for the ten finalists. The three finalists, including the recipient of the 2025 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, will be chosen by a 13-person selection committee made up of NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey coaches, representatives of print and broadcast media, and an at-large member and representative of USA Hockey, the national governing body for the sport of ice hockey in the United States.
SATURDAY AT THE NCAA WOMEN’S FROZEN FOUR
The 2025 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Show will be broadcast live from the McNamara Alumni Center, on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, as part of Saturday at the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four. The event is free of charge and fans can enter the facility at 11 a.m. CT with all guests seated at 11:20 a.m. and the live 30-minute television show beginning promptly at 11:30 a.m. The three finalists will be on hand, in addition to the Frozen Four teams, as the 28th winner of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award will be revealed. Following the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Show, fans will have a chance to get autographs from previous Patty Kazmier Memorial Award winners Krissy Wendell-Pohl, AJ Mleczko, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Taylor Heise.
ABOUT THE PATTY KAZMAIER MEMORIAL AWARD
An award of The USA Hockey Foundation, the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is annually presented to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey. Selection criteria includes outstanding individual and team skills, sportsmanship, performance in the clutch, personal character, competitiveness and a love of hockey. Consideration is also given to academic achievement and civic involvement. For a full list of previous honorees, click HERE.
ABOUT PATTY KAZMAIER
The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is named in honor of the late Patty Kazmaier, who was a four-year varsity letter-winner and All-Ivy League defenseman at Princeton University from 1981-86. An accomplished athlete who helped lead the Tigers to the Ivy League Championship in three consecutive seasons (1981-84), Patty Kazmaier-Sandt died Feb. 15, 1990, at the age of 28 following a long struggle with a rare blood disease.
St. Norbert is hoping to win another NCHA championship this weekend. (Photo Credit: Patrick Ferron/St. Norbert Athletics)
This is it. Three conference championships will be decided this weekend in the west region of NCAA Division III hockey.
And a lot is riding on the games as not only is a conference title at stake, but an auto bid to the NCAA tournament is on the line as well.
MIAC
Gustavus (15-9-2) vs. St. Olaf (14-9-3)
Gutavus won the regular season title but hasn’t been in the conference final since 2018. The Gusties haven’t won a championship since 2012.
St. Olaf is playing in the championship game for the second straight year and aiming for a repeat.
These two teams split in the regular season, with each winning at home, so that could be a good sign for the host Gusties.
Two of the top scoring threats in the MIAC will be on the ice in St. Olaf’s Jonathan Panisa and Gustavus’ Jack Suchy.
And goaltending should be on point for both teams, with Colin Androlewicz in goal for Gustavus and the Oles having Thomas Lalonde and Matthew Malin.
The last time Gustavus won a title, it beat St Olaf in the final to do it. Could history repeat itself? Perhaps. But then, it’s hard to bet against the Oles on the road in the postseason. St. Olaf, 5-4
NCHA
Adrian (18-9-1) vs. St. Norbert (22-5-1)
A familiar matchup is ahead in this title game. Adrian and St. Norbert know each other all too well.
The Bulldogs made quite the impression last week, shutting out Aurora 2-0 in the semifinal round. Dershahn Stewart has been strong in goal this year for the Bulldogs and sports a 2.54 goals against average.
Adrian lost the conference final last year to the Green Knights and is hoping for a little revenge this time around. The Bulldogs have four of the top goal scorers in the conference in Ian Amsbaugh, Bradley Somers, Ryan Pitoscia and Frank Tafelski.
The Green Knights won their first 12 games this season and swept Adrian in the regular season. Liam Fraser and Logan Dombrowsky are two of the best hockey players in the nation and have fueled the St. Norbert attack. Hunter Garvey is having an impressive year in goal.
St. Norbert is 13-3-1 at home this year. I think home ice makes a difference here. St. Norbert, 4-2
WIAC
UW-Eau Claire (13-15-1) vs. UW-River Falls (17-11-1)
It could be dubbed the championship no one expected, but then again, in college hockey, it’s anybody’s game on any given night.
The Falcons come in looking to secure their first WIAC crown since 2015 but they haven’t been to the NCAA tourney since 2007.
This is the sixth time in conference tourney play that the Falcons have battled the Blugolds, who are in the final after finishing as the runner-up a year ago. Eau Claire has won five of those games.
Keep an eye on the power play, where the Falcons have scored 10 goals off it in the last nine outings. Jonny Meiers and Dylan Smith lead the way for River Falls with 15 goals apiece and Brennan Boynton is having a great year in the goalie spot.
The Blugolds beat the Falcons twice in the regular season, including a shutout win at home. Max Gutjahr leads the way in goal for Eau Claire while Jordan Randall and Leo Bacallao have helped lead the way offensively. River Falls, 4-3
Curry netminder and CNE Player of the Year, Shane Soderwall looks to help the Colonels extend their 15-game win streak with a conference title as they battle Endicott on Saturday (Photo by Curry Athletics)
Here we are at the final weekend with everything on the line for conference titles and berths in the NCAA tournament. While some top seeds survived last week’s playoff carnage, no team can possibly be looking past any opponent regardless of their seeding. At this point the stakes are too high not to bring your very best to the ice in search of hardware and more hockey in March.
My picks were truly hit or miss last Saturday with my upset picks missing combined with my missing the real upsets, so I finished a mediocre 10-9-0 (.526) which is just barely on the positive side of things. This is my last weekend before the national tournament (Field to be announced by the NCAA on Monday morning) so will need to make it a good one. My season numbers now stand at 131-60-10 (.677) so maybe these final picks will rebuild some positive momentum for the remainder of the month of March. No picks for the Sunday championship games, in the NEHC and NESCAC but hoping to get the semifinal selections right. Everyone loves a Cinderella story so letting the good-feel story influence my picks this weekend so here are the upset-minded picks in the east for championship weekend:
Saturday, March 8, 2025
CNE
(12) Endicott v. (3) Curry
The Colonels best be ready for a battle with the Gulls who have a playoff pedigree and have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the first two games of the tournament. Teams play for home-ice advantage and now is the time you want it and need to take advantage of it. Will not be surprised with yet another OT result but this one goes to the Colonels who continue their amazing win streak – Curry, 3-2
MAC
Stevenson v. Wilkes
The Colonels have home ice against the Mustangs, but this game is very evenly played and challenging for Grade A scoring opportunities. Expect special teams will matter in this contest but not as much as the overtime period or periods needed to decide a winner. Coach Dawes and the visitors celebrate the win and NCAA auto-bid for the MAC – Stevenson, 3-2
MASCAC
MCLA v. Fitchburg State
The Falcons have found their game in the playoffs and have been receiving exceptional goaltending from Max Macchioni in their wins over Worcester State and Salem State. Only team with better stats in goal is the Trailblazers where Mathew Gover has been virtually unbeatable. Surprise winner in MASCAC regardless of outcome but who doesn’t love a great Cinderella team, and you can’t spell MIRACLE without the letters MCLA, just not necessarily in that order – MCLA, 2-1
NEHC
New England College v. (1) Hobart
The Pilgrims have shown some winning form in front of their first-year netminder Anthony Beaulieu but now face a juggernaut in the defending conference and national champions. The Cooler will be rocking and the 200-foot pressure from the Statemen pays off late for the winning margin – Hobart, 5-1
Skidmore v. Norwich
These two teams just split a two-game series to close out the regular season at Skidmore. The scene shifts to a neutral site where a standard sized rink may actually help the “home team” Cadets. Expet this one to be a very disciplined game with some veteran leadership coming to the fore in Clark Kerner and Joe Johnson helping the Cadets eke it out in regulation – Norwich, 3-2
NESCAC
Middlebury v. (8) Hamilton
The Panthers just knocked off Hamilton to ensure their playoff position and now play them as the visitor but with confidence with their recent comeback win. The Continentals played very well last weekend but will have to solve a stifling Panther trap and goaltender Andrew Heinze. This is my UPSET ALERT special with the Panthers winning dramatically in OT – Middlebury, 3-2
Tufts v. Colby
The Jumbos have been a hot team since the return of Jon Horn and the steady and consistent goaltending of Gus Bylin has backstopped the team to a nice run. Colby has also shown the ability to play and win close hockey games and has the roster to pressure the Jumbos for sixty minutes or more. Teams count on veteran leadership this time of year and one of them steps up with a big goal to advance the Jumbos to a second straight championship game – Tufts, 2-1
SUNYAC
Plattsburgh v. Oswego
Just month ago, the Cardinals were on the outside of the SUNYAC playoffs and now after two stunning comeback wins, have a chance to win it all against a big, fast and physical Laker squad. Long-time rival face-off in another classic playoff contest and while the score is close, it is Oswego that returns to the top of the SUNYAC standings as champions as they fend off a determined PSU squad – Oswego, 4-3
UCHC
(6) Geneseo v. (2) Utica
The Knights and Pioneers have played four games with each winning on home ice which should suggest a Pioneer victory in the title game. Have already picked a bunch of upsets above and these picks could go horribly wrong, but the way this season has gone it makes sense to expect the unexpected. Knights in an OT thriller to capture their first UCHC championship – Geneseo, 4-3
By late Sunday we will know all the conference champions and already be in preparation mode for the NCAA field to be announced on Monday. With all the conference drama there will surely be more surprises this weekend that make the 14-team field and interesting bracket – “Drop the Puck!”
Correction – North Adams State lost in their last championship game appearance in the ECAC East in the 2001-2002 season to Norwich. Thanks to Kevin McGonigle for the update.
USCHO Edge hosts Jim Connelly (@jimmyconnelly), Dan Rubin (@DanRubin12) and Ed Trefzger (@EdTrefzger) look at futures for the six men’s conference champions.
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
There are 14 teams left with NCAA tournament hopes as the National Collegiate women’s hockey season reaches the conference championship weekend.
Four semifinal games Friday and five championship games Saturday leave 512 possible scenarios for how the PairWise Rankings will look when Selection Sunday arrives.
Here are the percentage of the 512 scenarios in which the 14 remaining teams get into the field, broken down by their status.
These teams have locked up a spot in the tournament
These teams still can get in as an at-large team even if they don’t win their conference tournament
Penn State 91.2%
Clarkson 82.2%
St. Lawrence 76.6%
These teams need to win their conference championship game
Northeastern 50%
Boston University 50%
Mercyhurst 50%
Sacred Heart 50%
Long Island 50%
Here’s what else we know
• Wisconsin and Ohio State will finish as the No. 1 and No. 2 overall seeds, respectively.
• Minnesota, Cornell and Colgate will finish in the third, fourth and fifth spots, in some order. Minnesota hosts a regional in 88.5% of the scenarios, with Cornell at 69.5% and Colgate at 42%.
• Penn State still gets in as an at-large team in 82.4% of scenarios if it loses the Atlantic Hockey final to Mercyhurst.
• A St. Lawrence win over Colgate in the ECAC Hockey semifinals and a loss in the final has the Saints making the field in 86% of remaining scenarios.
• Out of the 128 scenarios that involve Clarkson winning its ECAC semifinal against Cornell but losing in the final, the Golden Knights make it as an at-large team in 69.5% of remaining scenarios.
• All of the scenarios that keep St. Lawrence and Clarkson out after wins in the ECAC semifinals and losses in the final involve Mercyhurst beating Penn State in the Atlantic Hockey final.
• The No. 6 overall seed will be either Minnesota Duluth (90.4% of scenarios) or St. Lawrence (9.6%).
• Four teams are in contention for the No. 7 overall seed: Penn State (60.9%), St. Lawrence (25%), Minnesota Duluth (9.6%) and Clarkson (4.5%).
• The No. 8 overall seed is down to three teams: Clarkson (65.2%), Penn State (30.3%) and St. Lawrence (4.5%).
• St. Lawrence (37.5%), Northeastern (25%), Boston University (25%) and Clarkson (12.5%) can be the No. 9 overall seed.
• If Mercyhurst beats Penn State in the Atlantic Hockey final, the Lakers will be the No. 10 overall seed. Otherwise, it’ll be the winner of the Hockey East final between Boston University and Northeastern.
• The winner of the NEWHA championship game between Long Island and Sacred Heart will be the No. 11 overall seed.
Air Force visits Sacred Heart this weekend (photo: Air Force Athletics).
The top seeds advanced in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey America tournament, but not without some drama.
Two of the three games needed overtime, and the other was a one-goal game until midway through the final period.
The weekend’s highlight was a classic battle between Air Force and Robert Morris at Cadet Ice Arena that needed double-overtime to settle. Anthony Yu’s goal at 13:30 of the second OT advanced the Falcons to this weekend’s quarterfinals.
“We needed to win this game at home and we needed to advance,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore after the game. “I’m really proud of the guys. We had to come from behind twice tonight, but the guys stuck with it. We managed the game well in overtime. To measure our success for the season, we needed to win this game. Being able to win for our seniors on our home ice is something special.”
Looking ahead to the quarterfinals
Eight teams will enter this weekend’s quarterfinals, with four emerging to play on. The three survivors from the first round join the top five seeds, which had byes last weekend.
These are best-of-three series.
#8 American International at #1 Holy Cross
The Yellow Jackets kept their season (and program) alive for another weekend with a 2-1 overtime win against defending champions RIT in a rematch of last year’s title game.
AIC is also looking to repeat last year’s semifinals upset of Holy Cross, while the Crusaders are looking to avenge that loss and advance. As the top seed, Holy Cross will be home throughout the tournament as long as they stay alive.
The teams met four times in the regular season, including two weeks ago. Holy Cross won the season series 3-1.
#7 Air Force at #2 Sacred Heart
These with be the 60th and 61st (and possible 62nd) meetings between the schools, but their first postseason pairing since 2011.
Assuming senior goaltender Guy Blessing is in the net for Air Force, these will be his 99th and 100th career games. His counterpart, rookie Ajeet Gundarah, has played in 21 contests and leads the conference in both goals against (1.93) and saves percentage (.933). Blessing is ranked sixth in GAA (2.54) and tenth in SV% (.906).
The teams split their only series this season, each winning by a 3-0 score.
#6 Canisius at #3 Bentley
The Golden Griffins advanced out of the first round thanks to a 2-0 win against Mercyhurst at LECOM Harborcenter. Rookie goaltender Ben Bonisteel posted his first career shutout in just his sixth career start for Canisius.
Bentley earned its bye by finishing in third place, its highest finish since 2018-19. The Falcons are 5-2 in their last seven games; Canisius are 3-4 in their last seven.
The teams only meeting this season was a two-game series at Bentley Area three weeks ago that saw the teams split, with Canisius taking four of six points thanks to a win and overtime loss.
#5 Army West Point at #4 Niagara
The teams have had an extra week to prepare for each other, as both enjoyed byes last weekend.
The Black Knights are looking for a storybook ending as head coach Brian Riley is retiring after 21 seasons at the helm. They would like nothing more than to see him host the Riley Trophy, named for his father who also coached at West Point (along with brother Rob).
The Black Knights will try to hold off the high-flying Niagara offense, which is averaging 3.38 goals per game, best in the conference.
The teams met only twice this season, back in early November at Tate Rink. They split a pair of close games.
Awards season
It’s almost that time of the year when the league hands out awards and announces its all-league and all-rookie teams. We’ll be handing out our kudos as well over our final three columns of the season.
Let’s start with the rookies. Here are our picks:
F: Michael Felsing, Robert Morris
F: Trevor Hoskin, Niagara
F: Jack Ivey, Army West Point
D: Tristan Allen, RIT
D: Dominic Elliot, Robert Morris
G: Ajeet Gundarah, Sacred Heart
Check back next time for our picks for all-conference teams.
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.
