Nazareth clinches the UCHC again
This was supposed to be the year of the Pioneer (appreciate the rhyme) in the UCHC, but the young squad in Nazareth has done it again, winning the UCHC for the third-straight season, Chris Baudo continues to win, now with a record of 111-25-7 (via USCHO).
With their pair of wins over Lebanon Valley this past weekend (1-0 & 4-0), they’ve clinched home-ice for the conference playoffs, a spot they’ve seen the past two seasons.
With goaltender Maïka Paquin transferring to Syracuse University (NCAA D1) at the semester break, McKinley Hoff who’d been the normal starter, has continued to play well after they had a slow start to the season. Nazareth is 17-0-1 headed into the final weekend of conference play vs Manhattanville. They’ll then face Kings College on Wednesday 2/21/24 in the UCHC quarterfinals.
The Golden Flyers have won 12 of their last 13 games, their only loss coming to Williams (3-2 OT) and they defeated Utica twice on the road in this stretch, essentially locking up 1st place in the UCHC.
In the slim game one win vs LVC, Abby Flanagan scored the lone goal at 9:50 of the 1st period, holding to be the game-winner as goaltender McKinley Hoff made 14 saves, and LVC goaltender Mia Frisoni played an amazing game, making 52 saves in the 1-0 loss.
Game two was a little wider open, Nazareth winning 4-0, goals coming in the 2nd and 3rd periods. Alexis Kindred at 5:40 of the 2nd, then a few minutes later (8:44) Abby Flanagan doubled the lead. Juliet Rutigliano scored quickly into the 3rd (4:10), then Abby Flanagan scored her third goal of the weekend in the last minute at 19:26.0).
Mia Frisoni made another 50 saves in the game, totaling her at 102 on the weekend.
Castleton shocks Elmira!
Like Southern Maine earlier this season, Castleton picked up their first-ever victory as a program over Elmira College, shutting them out 2-0.
Castleton celebrated senior day in a big way, getting a program-changing win over the Soaring Eagles. Goaltender Kristen Dicicco made 37 saves in her huge shutout victory on her senior day.
In this game, one player scored both goals for the Spartans, Moa Carlsson scored a powerplay goal late in the 2nd period at 17:20, then again late in the 3rd at the 19:59 mark.
For Elmira, they enter the NEHC playoffs with a game hosting Plymouth State, one they’ll likely win, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare once they face the likely Norwich assuming they can get by the others in the league tournament.
Overall, they have a solid record of 17-7-1, but they’ve struggled against top competition, only beating Nazareth and Cortland, falling to the rest and tying Norwich once. Elmira has the potential to do big things, they’ve got their third head coach in three years, Greg Haney in his first year is doing well, but it’s sometimes a hard crowd to please when you’re used to a standard.
It’ll be interesting the rest of the way to see who comes away with the lone bid from the NEHC.
Tournament outlook
Looking at the Pairwise currently, we see our auto-bids (assuming top seed wins conference tournament):
SUNYAC: #2 Plattsburgh (20-2-1)
NESCAC: #3 Amherst (18-2-2)
CCC: #13 Endicott (17-4-2)
UCHC: #14 Nazareth (17-5-1)
NEHC: #17 Norwich (18-5-2)
At-large:
NESCAC: #6 Middlebury (12-6-3)
NESCAC: #7 Hamilton (13-4-5)
Some teams that could throw things for a loop are at play here. Nazareth will likely have to beat Utica for a third-straight time this season in the UCHC finals, Chatham and Manhattanville, maybe even Wilkes could shock someone after having a program-best season, but it’s Nazareth’s conference to lose.
Endicott has been dominant in the CCC this season after Suffolk took a step back after making their first-ever NCAA tournament last season, but Western New England is a team to watch out for to cause some problems in the mix of teams at the top.
In the SUNYAC, look out for Oswego to be a dark horse, Cortland and Plattsburgh are the favorites to meet in the finals, Plattsburgh winning this conference year-after-year (seven in a row), we may be in for a change.
Oswego defeated both Cortland and Plattsburgh this season, they played one of the toughest schedules in the country considering road games and quality of opponents, they’re prepared as much as anyone for a run.
The NESCAC will likely be Amherst winning it for a second-straight season, Natalie Stott, one of the best goaltenders in the country, leads her team to another stellar season. It’s hard to tell how this conference will fare come tournament time because due to their lower sample size of games and SOS ratings, Middlebury or Hamilton could quite possibly lose their first-round games and still make the NCAA tournament as we saw Colby do last season, who went on route to win their first-ever NCAA playoff game Norwich.
