It’s officially tournament time! How did we get here you ask? Well, we’ll review that now with a recap of the conference championships a few days ago and also take a look at this week’s upcoming games that begin on Wednesday, March 8.
The 2023 Women’s D-III NCAA Bracket Overview
Auto-Bids:
Amherst (24-3-0) – NESCAC
Plattsburgh (25-2-0) – NEWHL
Gustavus (24-3-0) – MIAC
Adrian (26-3-0) – NCHA
Norwich (19-7-2) – NEHC
Nazareth (22-5-1) – UCHC
Suffolk (18-7-2) – CCC
At-Large Bids:
Hamilton (20-5-2) – NESCAC
UW-River Falls (24-3-1) – WIAC
Middlebury (16-7-3) – NESCAC
Colby (17-7-0) – NESCAC
First-Round Matchups: March 8, 2023 (Wednesday) – 7pm EST
Norwich at Colby
Nazareth at Hamilton
Suffolk at Middlebury
Quarterfinal Matchups: March 11, 2023 (Saturday) – 3pm EST
Amherst hosts winner of Norwich/Colby
Adrian hosts winner of Nazareth/Hamilton
Plattsburgh hosts winner of Suffolk/Middlebury
UW-River Falls at Gustavus
*Frozen Four is hosted by the highest-remaining seeded team (that meets hosting requirements) after the completion of the quarterfinal round*
How it all happened
I’ll be quite brief with the recaps as there were a ton of games taking place to determine the fate of the auto-bids and sort out the remaining at-large, but nothing too crazy occurred in terms of results.
CCC
Suffolk got the job done, defeating Endicott 2-1, and winning their first-ever conference tournament, also receiving their first-ever NCAA tournament bid. There was a goal in each period, Suffolk scoring in the 1st & 2nd period to go up 2-0, while Endicott scored just over halfway through the 3rd period, it wasn’t enough in the end. Head Coach Taylor Wasylk and her Rams are going dancing for the first time ever in program history.
MIAC
Gustavus rolled to a 4-2 victory over Augsburg to clinch the lone MIAC bid of the tournament. The Gusties went up a quick 2-0 in the 1st period, scoring at the 6:30 & 7:59 marks. They would add another in the 2nd to take a 3-0 lead. However, Augsburg would fight back and score two goals in the 3rd, but in the end, it wasn’t enough as Gustavus scored the game-winning empty net goal at the 19:12 mark to end it and secure the victory.
NCHA
After some power outage issues due to the severe winter storm rolling through the Midwest, Adrian and St. Norbert got to play their title game a day late on Sunday. Adrian defeated lake Forest on Friday 2-0, while St. Norbert and Aurora had to wait until the following day, Saturday, to play their game, in which SNC won convincingly 5-1. On Sunday, Adrian and SNC met for the title game, Adrian won 4-1 and the game was one-sided. Adrian scored 4 unanswered goals to start the game, 1 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd. SNC did score a goal in the 3rd period, but by then it was too late.
NEHC
Norwich defeated Elmira 2-0 to secure the auto-bid. The regular season games between these two went back-and-forth, very evenly matched entering the game. The lone non-empty net goal was scored at the 2:50 mark of the 2nd period, otherwise, no goals besides the last last-minute empty netter. Norwich goaltender Leocadia Clark had a great game, getting the 38-save shutout victory.
NESCAC
Amherst and Hamilton faced off for the championship on Saturday night, in which Amherst won the game a commanding 5-0. Amherst simply dominated this game, showing us again what they’ve done this year, play defense and win games. Shockingly enough, Hamilton actually outshot Amherst 26-20, but couldn’t find the back of the net as yet once again freshman goaltender Natalie Stott had another great performance. The Mammoths scored once in the 1st period, then twice in both the 2nd & 3rd to win the NESCAC. Side note: this game had a listed attendance of 1,080, great to see in women’s hockey.
NEWHL
Plattsburgh won its 5th consecutive NEWHL title in their 2-0 win over Cortland. Plattsburgh has won all five NEWHL regular season & postseason conference titles since the conference was established. Cortland always plays Plattsburgh close, and no game is ever a given, even this one. The Cardinals scored the winner at the 2:23 mark of the 2nd period and added another on the powerplay at the 4:02 mark of the 3rd. Plattsburgh led in shots 31-16.
UCHC
In my opinion, these were the two most evenly matched teams in the country based on how their games went this regular season and postseason. In the regular-season series, game-one was a registered 2-2 tie, with Nazareth winning the extra conference point in the shootout. In game-two, Nazareth won 2-1 in OT to win the UCHC regular-season title. Most recently in the conference final, these teams took it to double overtime, with Nazareth getting the 3-2 win. The crazy part of this game was this: Nazareth’s Abby Flanagan scored the tying goal with a mere 7 seconds left in the game (19:53 mark of the 3rd period) to send it to overtime. Nazareth’s Julia Holmes would eventually score the winner at the 81:55 mark of the game (1:55 of the 2nd overtime period) to send Nazareth to their second-straight NCAA tournament. Say what you want about these two teams and their overall SOS’s etc., but the 3 games they played this season were the most entertaining trio of games played by any two teams in the country.
WIAC
Although no auto-bid is given to the winner of the WIAC due to the conference only containing five teams, the conference usually receives 1-2 at-large bids annually. UW-River Falls defeated rival UW-Eau Claire 5-1 to win the conference title. UWEC, lacking their starting goaltender due to injury, was in for a tough task if they wanted to repeat their 7-4 win over the Falcons a few weeks ago. UWRF got off to a fast start and didn’t look back, scoring a quick 2:47 into the game and then adding another late in the 1st. They would then score once in the 2nd period and twice in the 3rd to cap off the victory. UW-River Falls luckily receives an at-large bid, the only non-NESCAC team to receive one. While UW-Eau Claire (22-4-2) is unfortunately left out of the tournament, falling one pairwise spot short to Colby (17-7-0) … Another side note, this game had an attendance of 1,024.
It’ll be an interesting tournament. Looking forward to seeing some of the matchups even though we’ll be seeing many familiar faces square up unlike the men’s side that tends to have a more diverse selection of teams, leading to more intriguing matchups. I’m sure we’ll still be plenty entertained nevertheless!
