D-III Men’s Week in Review: A Weekend of Upsets & The Conference Playoffs Are Here!

As we enter postseason play, here’s a brief recap of the upsets we witnessed this past weekend, be sure to check out our new Men’s Bracketology #11 (February 24) & Women’s Bracketology #11 (February 24) and get our latest projections on the potential bracket picture.

A weekend of upsets prior to postseason play!

Brockport (10-15-0) @ #10 Geneseo (17-7-1) – Brockport 3-2

In their second season each in the UCHC after departing the SUNYAC, Geneseo is looking to defend their UCHC title as they defeated Utica in the finals last season and sweeping them this season. The Ice Knights seem to have the Pioneers number despite Geneseo’s injury problems as of late, frequently needing to play defenders are forward.

For the Golden Eagles, the story in this game was their goaltender David Filak who made an incredible 55 saves and kept Brockport in the game as Geneseo was handed plenty of grade-A chances throughout.

This result all but ended Geneseo’s hopes for an at-large bid, they’ll need to get past the injury bug and more-likely-than-not, defeat Chatham in the semifinals & Utica in the finals on the road if they want to return back to the NCAA tournament as they’re so accustomed to.

More importantly, this game was their annual “Bronze Boots” game in which the winner receives a commemorative trophy that will be up for grabs each season the game is played. All funds go to Veterans in need and it was an awesome event to be a part of, organized by David Terry.

 

Geneseo got the 5-2 win the following night, but the game was essentially meaningless for the Ice Knights in terms of standings as they were locked into the 2-seed for the conference tournament.

Williams (9-13-2) @ #2 Hamilton (18-4-2) – Williams 4-3
Middlebury (13-8-3) @ #2 Hamilton (18-4-2) – Middlebury 2-1 (OT)

We’ll pair these games together since Hamilton had a shocking 0-2-0 weekend at home. This could be attributed to the absence of Luke Tchor, widely regarded as arguably the top player in Men’s Division III. The Continentals remain #2 in the NPI rankings despite dropping the pair of games to the Ephs & Panthers, but they’ve made things a lot closer in terms of their potential seeding come NCAA tournament time as even if they were to lose in the opening round, it’s hard to see them dropping out all things considered.

For Middlebury, it was Caden Morgan scoring the overtime winner, while goaltender Andrew Heinze made 38 saves in the victory.

Against Williams, the Ephs seemed to simply take control and not look back, going up 1-0 after the opening period, adding three more in the 2nd period to Hamilton’s two, making it 4-2 entering the final period of play. In the 3rd, Hamilton cut the lead to one with just under ten minutes left in the game, but Williams held up and got out of Sage Rink with a huge victory. Goaltender Harrison Fogel made 30 saves in the win for the Ephs.

Tufts (12-11-1) @ #8 Bowdoin (17-6-1) – Tufts 4-1

Tufts has had a whirlwind of a season; they’ve defeated an incredible number of ranked opponents, but also lost a fair number of games you shake your head at. Here’s some of Tuft’s signature results this season:

W 5-1 vs #13 Babson
W 3-2 vs #5 Univ. New England
W 4-3 OT vs #12 Geneseo
W 4-1 vs #9 Bowdoin

This season the Jumbos have really shown promise and the constant danger they pose in the NESCAC tournament as many may forget/not realize, they’ve made back-to-back NESCAC title games, only one win away from an NCAA tournament automatic bid, but they fell short in both of those contests.

Both goalies were similar in this game in shots-faced, but Gus Bylin made 30 saves on 31 shots when normally Bowdoin’s goaltending has been the highlight story after most of their games this year. We will see if Tufts can put it together once again this season in the playoffs. It’ll be weird not seeing Trinity be a participant as it’s their first time in a long time not making the top-8 of the NESCAC field…

Fitchburg State (17-8-0) @ MCLA (7-15-3) – MCLA 4-0

Fitchburg State won the Plymouth State Invitational last season (MASCAC title), earning the auto-bid in the Panthers final season in the league. The Falcons of Fitchburg defeated MCLA in the finals, ending their Cinderella-like run before heading to Utica in the NCAA First Round and losing 5-1 in a fairly one-sided affair.

Now, Fitchburg State finds themselves in an odd spot, they’ve secured 2nd place behind Anna Maria (38 points) & tied with Westfield State with 29 points each. The Falcons now enter the playoffs on a three-game losing streak which for this season, is uncharacteristic considering they were a strong 17-5 prior to their skid.

MCLA after losing their star goaltender and head coach this past offseason have been looking for bright spots to the season and a win like this was just that. The Trail Blazers pitched a shutout as goaltender Rocco Stolz made 30 saves on 30 shots in the victory.

MCLA secured the 5-seed as Fitchburg State as mentioned, finishes 2nd behind Anna Maria.

Chatham (19-5-1) @ #9 Utica (17-7-1) – #9 Utica 10-3

Now, this game isn’t considered an ‘upset’ simply because of the teams playing, but it’s an upset considering the margin of the final score. Utica would’ve been the betting favorite the whole way entering the weekend, but a 3-3 tie on Friday (Utica shootout win) securing Utica their 10th straight UCHC regular season title, followed by a 10-3 landslide victory likely wasn’t expected by many considering Chatham’s record entering the series at 19-4-0. Drake Morse led the way for the Pioneers with 4 goals & 1 assist in the blowout victory.

Next up, Chatham hosts Brockport in the UCHC quarterfinals and with a win, they’ll visit Geneseo. For Utica, they sit at home and wait for the lowest-remaining seed following round one to come to the Aud.

Here’s a look at each respective Conference Playoff Bracket!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out our “Standings” tab on diiihockeynews.com after each weekend to see the updated brackets! Our “Scores” tab will have all playoff scores of course!