Conference playoffs are almost here, approaching faster than you may think, but also, this thing called Pairwise, it’s now becoming more accurate. By accurate, I mean accurate in terms of showing us the projected field for potential at-large bids or auto-bid seedings and so forth, by no means do I mean it’s an accurate representation of the best teams in D-III women’s hockey, nor men’s for that matter. Let’s get into your week 12 west recap, highlighting the featured games of the past week!
MIAC
#15 Saint Mary’s vs St. Olaf (SMU 5-2 & 5-2)
Saint Mary’s, the big surprise of the MIAC under 1st year Head Coach Chad Davis, the former Adrian & RIT (NCAA D1) women’s head coach, has his Cardinals rolling thus far to start the season.
Saint Mary’s entered the weekend with a solid 8-4 record, three of their losses were at the hands of #1 UW-River Falls (3-1) & #2 Gustavus (3-1 & 3-0), their other loss was Hamline, who’s currently 12-3-0 and on fire.
SMU faced St. Olaf in a home-and-home, Olaf, coming off a program record year, entered the weekend 6-7-0, not ideal, currently fighting for a MIAC playoff spot as they’re hard to come by.
In game one, SMU outshot Olaf 34-17 and penalties were nearly even, 4 for 8 on Olaf & 3 for 6 on SMU. This game featured goals in each period, Olaf scoring first.
Just before the midway mark of the 1st period (9:35), Olaf’s Sophie McBane put the Ole’s up 1-0, which held up for around four and a half minutes as SMU capitalized on the powerplay, Celia Midtbo at 14:01 of the opening period tied it up for the Cardinals.
We’d reach the 2nd period tied, until at 6:23 and 8:28 we saw some action, SMU’s Allie Urlaub (6:23) and then Olaf scored on a power play to even it back at two a piece, Julia Larson (8:28). Reese Heitzman then gave SMU the lead heading into the 3rd period as she scored late in the 2nd at 18:59.
Game one was then wrapped up by a pair of Saint Mary’s goals in the 3rd, Teagan Phillips & Sophia Paduano (10:16 & 14:45). SMU takes it 5-2.
Game two more briefly, involved the same final score, 5-2 Saint Mary’s, and involved St. Olaf scoring the opening goal, Solvei Berg-Messerole opened it up late in the 1st at 18:30, which gave the Ole’s the 1-0 lead entering the 2nd period, but that period was all Cardinals.
Teagan Phillips scored a quick 1:42 into the period, then Sophia Paduano scored shortly after on the powerplay (2:30), and Reese Heitzman capped it off, scoring late in the 2nd at 18:19 to give Saint Mary’s the 3-1 lead headed into the 3rd, which ended up holding up as the GWG (game-winning-goal).
Augsburg vs Bethel (Augsburg 1-0 & 2-1 (OT))
Augsburg, who’s had a rocky season to start, but has picked it up as of late, leaves this weekend with a strong 10-4-0 record after getting the two-slim wins over Bethel.
Game one was relatively quiet, very defensive, the lone goal came from the Auggie’s at 16:20 of the 1st period, Ella Olson scored the lone goal of the game, helping her Auggies in the 1-0 win. Shots were 26-12 favoring Augsburg.
Game two had slightly more action to it, an overtime period. The Auggies got on the board first, like game one, scoring earlier at 6:42 in the opening period, it was Kennedy Stein giving her Auggies the 1-0 lead, which held up until early in the final period.
The Royals of Bethel would score on the powerplay at 5:39 of the 3rd, it was Bethel’s Lindsey Muntifering tying the game and eventually forcing overtime.
In overtime, Augsburg won it as Tenley Stewart scored just over the midway point at 2:37 to give the Auggies the weekend-sweep over a tough Bethel Royals squad.
NCHA
St. Norbert vs Aurora (St. Norbert 5-0 & 2-2 tie)
Like last year when these two were set to face off in the Harris Cup semifinals in Adrian, MI, the game had to get pushed back a day due to the Arrington Ice losing power due to a major snowstorm roaming the Midwest. Well, this year in the regular season, the major snowstorms forced the game to be moved to Sunday, which ended in a tie.
In game one, Norbert goaltender Brynn Waisman pitched a 21-save shutout victory for her Green Knights.
The scoring began late in the 1st when Briar Charchenko scored with less than four minutes to go in the opening period (16:07), which was the lone 1st period goal.
Norbert would add two more in the 2nd, Natalie Hogan, powerplay, (8:56) & Morgan Olson (18:26), sending Norbert to the final period up 3-0. They would then add two more in the 3rd to cap off the 5-0 shutout victory, it was Jo Mahlum & Natalie Hogan scoring two minutes apart to take game one convincingly in this NCHA battle.
Game two featured all but one goal scored in this game in the middle frame (2nd period). This time, Norbert had to come back to avoid the upset Spartan victory. Aurora went up 2-0 in the 2nd period, Peyton Elliott (3:21) & Erin Campbell (8:09).
St. Norbert would then answer, scoring a pair in the 3rd period (Courtnie Hogan, 13:41 & 7:02), and in overtime, neither team broke the deadlock, which resulted in SNC shootout victory, which earned them the extra conference standings point.
WIAC
UW-River Falls vs UW-Stevens Point (4-0 & 6-2)
UW-River Falls has remained perfect for another week, winning two games this past weekend vs UW-Stevens Point and then an earlier-week Tuesday game vs St. Scholastica 6-1.
River Falls is continuing to dominate, led by 5th year graduate senior star player Maddie McCollins who I believe should’ve won the Laura Hurd last year, is showing us now why she’s the best player in D-III Women’s hockey.
McCollins leads all of D-III with (stats via USCHO) 42 points in 17 games (21G & 21A), including her most recent games vs UWSP, registering seven (7) points in the pair of games (5G & 2A).
River Falls will likely be 21-0-0 entering their monumental game vs #2 Gustavus who they’ve impressively defeated twice already this season at home and on the road (2-0 & 3-2). These two always deliver a fun, close, and competitive game, be sure to tune in between the two best teams in D-III women’s hockey as of this season so far.
If River Falls defeats Gustavus again, they’ll likely be 23-0-0 entering their season finale with #12 UW-Eau Claire who would love to ruin the perfect season like they did a few years ago when UW-River Falls was 26-1 to end the regular season, losing their first matchup that season to the Blugolds 2-0.
