It was an interesting weekend in the Division III hockey world.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the defending national champion, won its fifth consecutive game in shutout fashion.
Elmira ended a nine-game losing streak to Oswego and also picked up its third win of the season over a nationally-ranked team in the process.
Adrian and St. Scholastica hooked up in a thrilling weekend series in which both games went to overtime. One ended in a tie. The other ended with a win by Adrian.
Williams also pulled off an upset as it took down Plattsburgh in a battle of nationally-ranked opponents.
For a look at those games and more, keep reading.
ECAC East
Fifth-ranked Norwich has dominated Middlebury lately and the trend continued Saturday as the Cadets nailed down a 5-2 win over the Panthers.
Five players scored goals for Norwich, which defeated its in-state rival for the 10th time in their last 14 meetings. Norwich is 10-2-2 during that stretch, but Middlebury still leads the all time series 80-59-8.
Shane Gorman scored a goal and dished out an assist for the Cadets, while Erik Lyrvall, William Pelletier, Dean Niezgoda and Chris Duszynski all scored goals as well.
Norwich outshot Middlebury 17-1 in the opening period and held a 36-20 advantage overall as it continued its quest for a 16th consecutive regular-season league title.
Max Franklin came through with the game-winning goal in seventh-ranked Babson’s 4-3 win over St. Anselm on Saturday.
Franklin scored at the 15:54 mark of the third period as the Beavers won their third consecutive game, improving to 14-3 overall and to 8-2 in the conference.
Mike Driscoll scored twice for Babson and Jamie Murray was stellar in goal as he tallied 40 saves.
ECAC Northeast
Several Fredonia players reached new heights on Saturday in a 4-0 win over Curry.
Frankie Hart and Zach White scored their first collegiate goals for the Blue Devils and Jeff Flagler earned his first shutout as Fredonia improved to 4-8-3 on the season.
Taylor Bourne also scored a goal, his first of the season, and Matt Owczarczak tallied his second goal of the year.
Flagler made 30 saves in the win and is the first Fredonia goalie to get a shutout this season. He is 1-3 on the year. The win finished off a week where the Blue Devils fashioned a 2-0-1 record.
Franklin Pierce used a furious finish to knock off Suffolk 4-3 on Saturday.
The Ravens scored four goals in the final 27 minutes of the game to earn the win and improve to 3-11-1 on the season.
Tim Sullivan scored two goals to record the first multi-goal game of his career and now has six goals on the year.
Aaron Baker scored his second goal of the year. He also dished out an assist. Baker didn’t get a point in the eight games he played during the first half of the year, but has four points in the last five games.
Ted Walsh tallied the other goal for the Ravens. It was his first game-winning goal and his fifth goal overall on the season.
Kyle Moran made 25 saves as he made his first start since Nov. 30.
ECAC West
Elmira ended a nine-game losing streak to 10th-ranked Oswego and earned its third win over a ranked team this season as it took down the Lakers 3-2 on Saturday.
The Soaring Eagles pushed their win streak to three games and ended the Lakers’ 10-game unbeaten streak.
Elmira scored first, something no other team has done against Oswego this year, as Carter Shinkaruk put the Soaring Eagles in front 1-0 just 28 seconds into the game.
Dylan Herold and Nick Angelo also scored goals for Elmira, which improved to 8-6 on the year.
Sal Magliocco did his part in goal as he tied his career-high in saves with 42. The Soaring Eagles were out-shot 44-26. It’s the biggest difference in shots this season for Elmira.
Nazareth ended a two-game losing streak on Saturday as it pushed past Cortland 4-2. It was just the second win for the Golden Flyers since Nov. 5.
The Golden Flyers are now 3-12-1 overall and won behind goals from Julius Tamasy, Tom Seravalli, David Seward and Mark Zavorin. The goals by Tamasy and Seravalli were shorthanded. Prior to Saturday, Nazareth had scored only one shorthanded goal in its two-year history.
Nazareth held a 38-29 edge in shots and avenged its 5-1 loss to the Red Dragons on Dec. 12. However, Nazareth did lose Tamasy for the rest of the season as he fractured his leg after crashing into the boards in the third period.
MASCAC
Alex Dewitz came through with a hat trick as he led Worcester State to a 5-3 win over Fitchburg State on Saturday.
Andrew Bates and Richard Bohan also scored goals for the Lancers, who improved to 6-6-1 overall and to 2-5-1 in the conference. Bates now has a team-best five goals on the year.
Worcester State held a 39-32 advantage in shots, but went 0-for-5 on the power play. Salvatorre Tecci came through with 29 saves and is 4-4-1 on the year.
MIAC
St. John’s scored three unanswered goals in the third period and the Johnnies held on for a 5-3 win over Concordia (Minn.) on Saturday.
Alex Ach came through with his fourth goal of the year during the outburst, while Trent Johnson, Kevin Becker, Brady Riesgraf and Nick Vatnsdal also scored goals in the win.
The goal for Johnson was his first of the year and the game was his first one since Dec. 12 because of an injury. Riesgraf scored his first collegiate goal and Saxton Soley made 22 saves for the Johnnies, who are now 9-6 overall and 4-3 in the MIAC.
St. John’s has won four consecutive games and has come out on top in 15 of the last 17 meetings against the Cobbers.
Gustavus Adolphus scored three unanswered goals and rolled to a 4-2 win over Augsburg on Saturday to complete a weekend sweep of the Auggies.
Sam Smith, Alex Gallen and Andy Pearson all scored goals during the surge and Tyler Lapic scored a goal as well for the Gusties, who are 9-4-3 overall and 6-1-1 in the conference.
Gustavus tallied 35 shots and held Augsburg to 25 shots. John McLean racked up 23 saves and improved his record to 8-3-3. He made 13 of those saves in the third period.
NCHA
Adrian and St. Scholastica squared off in a battle of nationally-ranked opponents Saturday night and it was the top-ranked Bulldogs who prevailed with a 4-3 win in overtime.
Justin Basso scored in OT to give Adrian the victory over the 15th-ranked Saints. It was his third game-winning goal of the season.
Duston Hebebrand came through with two goals and an assist for the Bulldogs, while Jeremy Olinyk also scored as Adrian improved to 14-0-3 overall and to 8-0-2 in the conference.
The Saints, who fell to 9-4-4 overall and to 6-1-3 in the conference, got goals from Justin Krabben, Dave Williams and Joel Paiment.
Adrian was outshot 34-30.
The two teams played to a 1-1 tie one night earlier as both games in the series went to OT.
SUNYAC
Williams earned an impressive win on Saturday as it knocked off third-ranked Plattsburgh in a nonconference showdown featuring two of the best teams in the nation.
The Ephs, ranked 12th in the country, extended their win streak to five games and won their tenth game of the season.
Craig Kitto turned in a hat trick to pace the Ephs, who led 3-0 after the second period. Luke Stickel and Sam Gray also scored for Williams, which was outshot 36-21.
Not only did the Ephs win, improving to 10-2-2 on the year, but head coach Bill Kangas now owns the most wins as a coach in program history. He is 330-223-5 at the helm of the Ephs and is in his 25th season at Williams.
WIAC
In a huge nonconference showdown between sixth-ranked Wisconsin-Eau Claire and eighth-ranked St. Thomas, the Blugolds earned their fifth consecutive shutout with a 2-0 win over the Tommies.
With the shutout, Eau Claire becomes just the second team at any level of college hockey to ring up five consecutive shutouts. Lake Superior State last did it in 1994.
The streak began for UWEC back on Dec. 14.
Chris Heineman scored first for the Blugolds and Jack Callahan came through with the final goal of the night.
The Blugolds were outshot 39-32.
Tyler Green earned the win and has been the goalie in three of the shutouts during the streak. He made 39 saves and has not allowed a goal in 2014. Jay Deo has the other two shutout wins in the streak.
Eau Claire improved to 11-3-1 on the season while the Tommies fell to 10-3-2.
