After an incredible regular season and sensational NCAA tournament with Hobart winning their third consecutive national championship, it was time for the annual USCHO awards. Now after further time to digest the season that was and begin to look ahead to the 2025-26 campaign, here are some thoughts on what was, what will be different and what to look forward to as we wrap-up the coverage for the season.
Three-time champions
Not since the Middlebury juggernaut of 2004-2006 have we seen a team like the Hobart Statesmen at the D-III level. The three consecutive national titles is rarified air for any program but consider over the last three seasons, Hobart has a record of 86-5-2, a .935 winning percentage that also included a record win streak and current home active win streak. Hobart has simply been dominant.
That said it hasn’t been all remote control for head coach Mark Taylor who has managed the incredible talent well including some challenging decisions in the NCAA tournament.
“I’ve been blessed this year with two outstanding goaltenders [Damon Beaver and Mavrick Goyer] and their individual numbers and our accomplishments [just 32 goals-against in 31 games played in the 2024-25 season] as a team reflect that,” said Taylor. “We lost one game in overtime and had a zero-zero tie and those guys split games every weekend. I had my toughest goalie decision ever going into the playoffs. “Beavs” had some pretty good playoff credit that I used.”
The Statesmen lose a bunch of talented players and leaders including Austin Mourar, Cooper Swift, and Luke Aquaro but the cupboard is far from bare in Geneva and oh yeah, Beaver and Goyer are back for next season.
League Re-alignment – Part I
This past season saw the birth of the MAC conference and the demise of the NEHC conference as Hobart won the final Mariano trophy to be competed for in the NEHC tournament. Shifts in the SUNYAC, UCHC, CNE, and MASCAC all reflected temporary competition conditions for the 2024-2025 season. Geneseo won its first UCHC title in its inaugural season in the conference while Stevenson captured the first MAC title that included an auto-bid. The only independent team was the new NCAA Keene State program who finished with a solid 13-10-1 record as prep to their joining the brand new Little East conference next year.
Parity Re-imagined
For years many coaches have referenced the Parity that exists across the D-III landscape and this past season may have represented it at its highest level yet. No longer were there upsets but rather a favorite losing to a team that out-worked or out-played them.
Top to bottom no conference showed the parity more than NESCAC where up until the final weekend of the regular season, every single team in the conference was still eligible for the playoffs and ten teams fighting for eight spots and scoreboard watching for final scores, positions and seeding that translated directly into the playoffs where No. 7 Middlebury knocked off No. 2 Trinity and took top-seeded and eventual champion Hamilton to double-overtime in the semifinals.
In the MASCAC No. 8 MCLA knocked off both the No.1 seed Plymouth State and No. 2 seed Anna Maria by 2-1 scores to advance to the conference championship game where they lost to Fitchburg State, 3-1.
Re-tooling through the portal
No team took as much advantage of the portal at the semester break as the Utica Pioneers. Utica brought in goaltender Ryan Piros from Dubuque along with forwards Tio D’Addario from Plattsburgh and Collin Patterson from Massachusetts-Dartmouth to help stabilize their lineup which turned into a solid second half and NCAA tournament bid despite losing the conference championship game. The Pioneers improved on the 2023-24 Frozen Four appearance by downing top-seed Curry in double overtime, 2-1, before losing in the national championship game to Hobart in overtime by the same 2-1 score.
Just a thought but who would object to seeing those two teams play in the final again but this time in The Aud where next year’s D-III Frozen Four is scheduled to be hosted.
The dreaded two-goal lead
There were perhaps more two goal and three goal leads in the third period surrendered this season than any other in recent memory. Maybe this does harken back to the previous reflection on parity but probably more so the challenge of playing a complete sixty-minute game and the implications of mistakes and penalties at this level that can be significant factors in determining the outcome of a hockey game.
No better spot to highlight this than the conference tournaments and teams like Plattsburgh that rallied from late deficits to advance all the way to the SUNYAC title game against Oswego or a better example of the NCAA quarterfinal round.
Curry was the only team in the quarterfinals that maintained the lead after establishing a 2-0 advantage on Hamilton and closing out a hard-fought 4-1 win over the Continentals to punch their ticket to the Frozen Four. In the other three quarterfinal matchups that featured east v. west games, Hobart, Utica, and Geneseo all rallied from two and three goal deficits in the third period to claim victory in their matchups with Trine, St. Norbert and Aurora respectively. Hobart needed overtime to get past the Thunder but scored twice in the final twenty minutes of play to send the game to the extra session.
NE-10 not adding AIC in 2025-2026
Let’s start with the D-II changes that won’t be felt or seen in the 2025-26 season. AIC announced during the season that they would be leveling the athletic program at the D-II level moving forward which eliminated their highly successful hockey program in Atlantic Hockey built by head coach Eric Lang (announced this week as the new head coach at RPI in the ECAC). It was assumed that a re-vamped hockey team would join the current six team NE-10 conference where AIC is a member in all other sports. Plans were being made for the 2025-26 season but the current teams in the league were notified that AIC would not join until the 2026-2027 season.
Re-alignment – Part II
Get ready for another big shift in conference alignment next year as the dissolution of the NEHC and creation of the Little East along with several new teams will change the landscape significantly for next season.
The Little East will begin play as a ten-team league comprised of Babson, Keene State, Norwich, Plymouth State, Southern Maine, Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Massachusetts-Boston, VSU-Castleton, New England College and Western Connecticut. Western Connecticut will be playing their first season as an NCAA program.
The SUNYAC will add defending national champion Hobart and fellow NEHC competitor Skidmore to become a ten-team league next season with Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Buffalo State, Fredonia, SUNY-Canton, Morrisville, and Cortland.
The UCHC will see significant changes for next season as the team shifts from a six-team league to a nine-team league with the additions of Elmira, Albertus Magnus and newcomer, St. John Fisher University. The Soaring Eagles return to the league where they were a charter member while the Falcons join from their one-year affiliation with the NEHC.
The CNE will become a nine-team conference with the addition of Roger Williams University in the 2025-2026 season. The Hawks, led by head coach Chris Hall will join the highly competitive league that features Curry, Endicott, Wentworth, Nichols, Suffolk, Johnson & Wales, University of New England and Western New England.
The MASCAC reverts to an eight-team conference with the moves of PSU and UMass-Dartmouth to the Little East. Defending champions Fitchburg State will see challenges from Anna Maria, Rivier, Worcester State, Framingham State, MCLA, Westfield State, and Salem State for next year’s title.
Only the MAC and NESCAC remain unchanged in configuration in the D-III landscape for next year.
With all the changes and additions of new teams there remains one team in the east that does not have a home for the 2025-2026 season – Salve Regina. After the one year in the NEHC after departing the then CCC, the Seahawks were unable to find an affiliation for next season with the UCHC the final conference to reject their application. Salve Regina will play an independent schedule next season as the only team in the east at the D-III level.
Pre-determined Frozen Four sites
There seems to be a lot of buzz around this topic coming from coaches and institutions everywhere. Two of the past three Frozen Fours were awarded less than a week prior to the games being played and not to the highest remaining seed (regardless of region). The pressure that puts on the institution, facilities and coaches to coordinate travel, tickets, hotels and other critical logistics only takes away from the guarantee of the best possible experience for the student-athletes that have earned their way to the season’s final weekend.
I like many others applaud the NCAA on bracketing such a terrific national tournament this year. The openness to travel for the right alignment of the bracket was well done and the fantastic east v. west matchups added great excitement to the fan base. Let’s find some suitable pre-determined sites that can host in both the east and the west so that teams can solely focus on the hockey to be played.
Coaching carousel
Already there are job openings that include Western New England and what will be a highly sought role at Norwich with the departure of Cam Ellsworth at the end of the season. The summer always finds more opportunities as coaches move on or decide on retirement so stay tuned for what will probably be an off-season with additional changes happening before next season.
Thanks for another great season
To all the coaches, players, SIDs and administrative staff that help this writer support coverage during the season I want to say a profound thanks for all the support this season. You give so much of your time and effort to the great sport we all love and the time sharing your thoughts, insights, resources and program events has made my work so much easier.
Finally, a shoutout to my western partner Brian Lester – as always, great work covering the west and while I may have won the NCAA challenge this year, there is always next year to prepare for. Afterall, the 2025-26 season is just 209 days away!
