Endicott wins the 2025 Conference of New England Championship. (Photo by David Le, Endicott College)
To begin our season previews as the 2025-2026 Men’s & Women’s Division III hockey regular season creeps upon us. We’ll begin with the Conference of New England (CNE) and preview the women’s side of things.
We’ll discuss various aspects of this league including returning production, dark horses, and some general analysis!
The CNE features:
Curry
Endicott
Johnson & Wales
Nichols
Suffolk
University of New England
Wentworth
Western New England
2024-2025 Overview
Last season, there was a clear showing of who the best team was in the league, Endicott (22-5-1) once again, put together a stellar season, winning the CNE for the fourth time. The Gulls under Head Coach Andrew McPhee have been in the conference championship game five of the last six seasons (excluding 2021 – COVID), their lone non-appearance was in 2024 where Western New England defeated Curry in the finals, earning the auto-bid for the first time in their young program’s history. That season, Endicott fell to Curry 1-0 in the semifinals after tying them the prior weekend (lost in shootout).
Endicott would go on to fall to Nazareth (21-7-1) in the first round of the NCAA tournament 4-2, but nevertheless, another solid season from the Gulls in Beverley, MA. Other than the Gulls, there were two teams to go above .500 in the league, Univ. New England (13-13-1) & Western New England (13-10-3).
Returning Production
Looking at the league and the returning production via our guy Scott Huston, we find some interesting results:
For the early sizable betting favorite Endicott, they return the most production of anyone in the league in terms of points (139), but they’ll return a smaller percentage than others, 49.46% of goals, 62.42% of assists, & 57.44% of total points will be back on the ice for the Gulls this season.
Returning the most percentage-wise by a significant margin is the University of New England, the Nor’Easters will see 81.82% of goals, 85.29% of assists. & 83.93% of total points. Look for UNE to make some noise this season as they had a few key wins last season, but couldn’t get over the hump of Endicott, losing all three during the regular season, finishing third in the league with a conference record of (9-8-1). I believe UNE will be a contender for second in the league, I simply don’t see anyone touching Endicott for the regular season title.
Curry Women’s Hockey. (Photo via Curry College Athletics)
Curry is a program that’s made a rise in the past few seasons under Head Coach Kelly Rider, making the CNE championship game the past two seasons, losing both by close margins, including last season’s 1-0 overtime loss to Endicott. They will need to find new production from somewhere as they return a very small 32.81% of goals, 47.73% of assists, & 41.45% of total points… Compared to the likes of who we’ve mentioned, plus Western New England (62.36%) & Suffolk (61.50%), both returning over 60% of their points, the Colonels will need to quickly figure out who’s going to be the leaders and major contributors on the ice if they want to make their third-straight CNE title game.
Dark Horses
It’s hard to put a title ‘dark horse’ on any team in this league because outside of Endicott, anything can genuinely happen in this league come playoff time depending who makes it to the postseason…
Endicott is the strong favorite, everyone knows that going in, that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed, but if you polled every person in that league, the Gulls are the favorite coming into every season.
The team I think is the biggest ‘dark horse’, even though they finished third last season, is Univ. New England… As mentioned, the Nor’Easters return the most production by far and I believe under third year Head Coach Cassandra Sherman, the former Southern Maine Husky Captain and assistant coach, they’ll continue to improve in a wide-open league. Sherman is 23-26-4 in her two seasons at the helm, but her squad won the most games the program has seen since 2019-20 and the fourth most since the inception of the program in 2012-13.
University of New England Women’s Hockey. (Photo by Kyle Relf)
Another team I think that has been relatively quiet since their former coach Taylor Wasylk left for Lindenwood University (NCAA D-I), is Suffolk. Head Coach Abby Ostrem, the Trinity College alum and former Director of Hockey Operations at Boston University (NCAA D-I) enters her third season as HC with a career record of 18-31-3. Ostrom got the Rams back in the 10+ win column last season, but I think in her third year and some recruiting classes in the bank, she can get Suffolk back to near the top of the league and give the Gulls a challenge for the auto-bid.
The last and only time Suffolk made the NCAA tournament was 2022-23 when they finished 18-8-2 in Wasylk’s final season with the program. Being a relatively young program with an inception year of 2018-19, making an NCAA tournament in your fifth year is an amazing feat, but the pat two seasons, they’ve been far from it. We will see if they can get back in the mix for another NCAA tournament.
I would remiss if I didn’t mention them at least once, keep an eye on Johnson & Wales pulling off some upsets or winning some games that may be overlooked. Last season they had one of their best seasons in program history under now fourth year Head Coach Maddy Santore, finishing 9-15-2.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts here are simple, it’s Endicott’s bid to lose… Once the playoffs begin, anything can happen and has happened where the games are extremely close, either going to OT or an upset occuring, but on paper (where the games aren’t played), the Gulls are the favorites with everyone else looking to spoil their season.
I think there’s a lot of potential this season with UNE, WNE, & Suffolk all seeming as if they should improve from last year, Curry returns very few, we will see how they rebuild. Johnson & Wales may be creeping in the shadows looking to shock someone as they’re coming off a great season for their program.
If you don’t find yourself regularly paying attention to and/or watching CNE women’s hockey during the regular season, take a peek during the playoffs, every game seems to have exciting results and we’ve seen upsets occur more than once in the past few years!
