D-III Men’s Week in Review: A Wild Whiteout, Spartans’ Sweep, & a trip to the MIAC!

Another week has flown by in the D-III hockey season, with lots of action occurring on the men’s side this past week, including a trip to Minnesota to check out Gustavus!

A Whiteout Weekend Classic

If you’re not familiar with the Oswego State / Plattsburgh rivalry, you’re missing out big time… The historical record between these two teams sits at 82-53-9, dating back to 1976… Whether it be throwing bagels on the ice, tennis balls, now stress balls (at Plattsburgh), the rivalry is still there and alive. As of late, Oswego has owned the rivalry, holding a record of 14-5-1 in the last 20 games.

Other than Utica, who sells out ‘The Aud’ on occasion with about 4,000 fans in attendance, but Oswego has the second-highest attendance numbers typically, but on Whiteout Night vs the Cardinals, they’ll bring in 3,000, sometimes 3,500 depending how they do the standing attendance…

This season, it’s a rematch of last year’s SUNYAC conference championship (in the final traditional/non-realigned SUNYAC as we know it), where Oswego got the 5-2 victory. In this one, Oswego entered ranked #9, while Plattsburgh entered at #15, facing a brutal weekend where they got to visit Oswego in their rivalry game, then ‘The Cooler’ versus #1 Hobart on Saturday…

In this one, Plattsburgh struck first and quick at that, probably still during the chants of words that wouldn’t be appropriate for me to write here, scoring one minute eight seconds into the game was Jake Sacratini, which would remain the only goal until the third period.

In the third period, tying the game was Jesse Horacek for the Lakers just under two minutes into the period, which would be quickly followed up by his teammate by Brandon Cohen a minute fifteen seconds later, giving Oswego the lead after trailing for a majority of the game.

The Cardinals would answer back ten minutes later, it was Vlad Pshenichnikov, the Utica Univ. transfer from last season, tying the game back up with just under seven minutes remaining.

Then, when we thought we would see overtime, the lakers made a late rush to the Cardinal zone, leading to a shot and a scrum in front of the net, poking it in was Travis Baker with a mere one second or less left in the game, which had to be reviewed by the referees to confirm there was still time on the clock, but the goal stood and we were treated to another whiteout classic. These two meet again in the North Country on January 24, where they’ll also host Hobart the night before.

The Spartans Sweep the Bulldogs

We had another monster matchup this past weekend in the NCHA, which we’ll see another next week as #2 Aurora hosts #3 St. Norbert, but Aurora and Adrian fought it out (literally), for a statement weekend in conference play. The #3 Spartans (4-0-0), faced off against the #2 Bulldogs of Adrian (4-0-0) in Aurora. Last season, Aurora swept Adrian in the regular season, but Adrian got the last laugh in the head-to-head, defeating Aurora in the NCHA semifinals where they would eventually fall to St. Norbert in the finals.

This weekend, as mentioned, these two literally fought it out… The total cumulative penalties were called evenly funny enough, both teams had 19 penalties for 46 minutes, totalling 38 penalties for 92 minutes. Not a surprise, but always makes it fun as a viewer whether you’re a fan of one of these teams or simply a casual.

In game one, we were given a scoring fest featuring 10 goals, but the 10 goals included a wide variety of goals. By this, I mean we saw five regular goals, one powerplay, two shorthanded, & two empty-netters.

Starting things off were the Spartans, scoring a trio of unanswered goals in the 1st period, it was Lukas Sedlacek just over ten minutes into the game, followed by a powerplay goal from Hassan Akl less than five minutes later. The lead would then be tripled by Conor Ronayne with one minute left in the period, an incredible start for the Spartans headed into the 2nd period up 3-0.

However, Adrian didn’t lay down, they came out firing in astonishing fashion, scoring three goals to tie the game in under two-minutes twenty-nine seconds… Ian Amsbaugh scored two of them, a shorthanded goal a rapid 50 seconds in, then the third Bulldog goal at 02:29. Nathaniel Bannister scored the second Adrian goal which also came shorthanded at 01:43 of the period.

After this flurry, the remainder of the period both teams were somehow held scoreless, but this was becoming an instant classic of a game.

In the 3rd period, Aurora regained the lead just under eleven minutes into the period, it was Ryder Many Grey Horses (yes, that’s his name, simply incredible if you ask me). Then, Landry Schmuck, the rookie of the year last season, scored an empty-netter with just over two minutes left, making it 5-3.

Adrian would get one back less than a minute later, Patrick Saini got the Bulldogs back within one, but Aurora scored their second empty-netter to seal the deal and get the Spartans the 6-4 victory.

Game two would be less eventful in terms of scoring, but the lone goal came on the powerplay (shocker), in overtime, it was Jaden Davis scoring in the 3v3 overtime period with two minutes left, securing the Spartans the massive regular-season sweep of Adrian.

Weekend in the West, a MIAC Experience

I’ve been given some incredible opportunities in the past few years that have really allowed me to expand my horizons and get to watch the hockey and visit the places I never thought would be a reality years ago.

In 2023, I was given the awesome opportunity to travel to Adrian with the help of Head Coach Adam Krug for their playoff game vs Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The following year, I received an incredible opportunity to head west, visiting Wisconsin-Stevens Point for their weekend of MIAC games vs Saint Mary’s & St. Olaf, a weekend I’ll never forget, with the help of Head Coach Tyler Krueger. Later that same year, I traveled once again to Adrian for their NCAA games, first it was the women’s game vs Hamilton, then a rematch of the prior year on the men’s side, vs Wisconsin-Stevens Point. This past season, I got to travel to Wisconsin-Eau Claire for their game vs Wisconsin-River Falls with the help of Head Coach Erik Strand…

This season, I got the incredible opportunity with the help from Gustavus Head Coach Tyler Walsh to visit Minnesota to see MIAC hockey against a great team in St.Olaf, who also has an awesome facility that I got to visit as well. Also, getting to meet the rest of their staff: AC Ethan Schwartz & AC Justen Close.

On this trip as well, I got to visit Augsburg University and meet both the Men’s & Women’s staffs, HC Garrett Hendrickson / AC Tyler Veen & HC Biz Bauer / AC Nicole Neuberger.

Following Augsburg, before I headed to Saint Peter, I stopped by the TRIA Rink (which if you haven’t parked in the correct parking garage before, good luck), to see where Hamline University plays, where I got to see Women’s Head Coach Jake Bobrowski, someone I’ve gotten to chat with for a few years now, but hadn’t crossed paths with until now.

St. Olaf @ Gustavus

Gustavus @ St. Olaf

This isn’t necessarily a game recap persay, but simply a thank you to Coach Walsh who allowed me to experience the MIAC and meet people I otherwise might not have for a long time, or ever, so thank you, genuinely.

First off, Gustavus and their facilities are incredible, simply awesome and a great small town. It also helps when you get to see this site’s other-half – Scott Huston, back in his prime territory of Saint Peter.

Secondly, it was a treat to get to visit where it seemed like anyone who ever talked about it, had great things to say… St. Olaf, simply a beautiful campus and athletic facility that contains the ice rink. It was great to meet newly-named Head Coach Tyler Lindstrom, along with the Athletic Communications Dept., Facility Staff, & Broadcaster Josh Powers. It was nice to see the DIIIHockeyNews sticker on your zamboni during warmups and intermissions, I appreciate the support.

St. Olaf swept the weekend, winning 5-2 after a dominate opening period, and a very close 2-1 game that could’ve easily been 5-4 with the many posts and scrums in front of the net… but, it’s the MIAC, anything can happen and despite the fact Gustavus is 0-4 overall and St. Olaf is 4-1-1 to start the season, no one will be surprised at the end who wins the league, because it’s the most parity-filled league in men’s (arguably women’s as well), division III hockey.

With that being said, thank you to all involved (including Delta for giving me a free upgrade on the flight home), opportunities like this never cross your mind when you’re randomly tweeting game scores in high school to very few followers. It’s cool to see what this passion-project has all become after nine years.