D-III Men’s Weekend in Review: The parity continues & an analysis of the top five ranked teams!

This past weekend of D-III hockey continued to highlight the beauty of the current landscape of the sport that has been put under a negative light as of late, whether it be conferences, financial aid, or the transfer portal: the parity continues week in and week out.

Let’s look at some of the highlights of the weekend and then analyze the top five ranked-teams and compare them relative to the rest of the field.

The Green Knights are beginning to separate themselves

St. Norbert (9-0-0) continues to roll, they’ve added another pair of ranked-wins over #5 Aurora University who was lighting the schedule on fire as of late, coming off a pair of road victories against Adrian who finds themselves on a little bit of a struggling path so far.

Seeing this, you must think, who’s really the #1 team in Division III men’s hockey right now? Based on resumé, I’d say St. Norbert, but Hobart hasn’t lost either and is the back-to-back champs… Using their given resumé’s, Norbert takes the cake for me, but Hobart will reign supreme until they suffer a loss (if they lose). We’ll get back to this topic later if you continue reading.

For now, let’s talk parity.

Buffalo State is 5-0-0?

Now before we get confused, Buffalo St. is 5-1-0, but their lone loss came to St. Anselm (D2), therefore, the loss does not count toward their overall record, nor NCAA implications, so we will use the logic they are undefeated.

The Bengals had a massive weekend, defeating Oswego (2-1 OT) and Canton (3-2 OT) to stay atop the SUNYAC standings. Historically, against Oswego, they’re 5-56-4 all-time, and 2-9-0 in their last eleven games played… Not great to say the least. This comes after defeating Cortland last weekend who’re the defending SUNYAC champs, they’re 4-6-0 in the last ten games vs the Red Dragons.

Buffalo’s never won the SUNYAC’s nor made an NCAA tournament appearance, they’ve got a long way to go of course, but they couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year besides possibly beating both Oswego & Canton in regulation, not overtime, which would’ve granted them an extra league point.

What’s up in the WIAC?

Let’s look at the WIAC for a minute, if there wasn’t an auto-bid (as there was not one for years), the two favorites would be needing near-perfect seasons the rest of the way to even have a chance at a bid. UW-Stevens Point and UW-Eau Claire, who’ve won every conference championship besides 2015 (UW-River Falls) and the COVID year title in 2021 (UW-Superior), are looking for a lifeboat as they work their way through the first half of the season.

UWSP stands at 4-3-0, granted, two of their losses came to #5 Aurora & #2 St. Norbert, but their level of play has been underwhelming to their standards. This past weekend, they split with a 5-1 loss to UW-River Falls who’s looking like an early favorite to come out of this league, then a 5-4 win over UW-Superior.

UW-Eau Claire currently sits a disappointing 2-3-1, a roster with six listed Division I transfers is trying to get their feet under them early in the season.

The standout in this conference is River Falls, looking for their first WIAC title since 2015 and finding their way into the NCAA tournament for the first time since the ’06-’07 season.

The Falcons sit with a near-perfect 6-1-0 record, their lone loss coming to Saint John’s on the road. They’ve got a 2-0-0 record in the WIAC, with wins over Stevens Point (5-1) and Northland (4-1). Senior transfer Brennan Boynton (NCAA D-I Univ. Minnesota) has showed out thus far, with a 1.43 GAA (goals-against-average) and a .940 save-percentage.

An analysis of the top five teams (as of the week three poll – 11/18/24)

#1 Hobart (8-0-0)

Hobart’s the two-time defending national champs, they’ve earned their top ranking based on historical merit thus far, granted, they’re unbeaten, but based on resumé, it’s not the greatest other than the fact they won these games for the most part, convincingly.

So far, the Statesman have defeated Oswego (3-3-1), Castleton 2x (0-7-1), UMass-Boston (2-5-0), & USCHO’s #14 Salve Regina (4-3-0), (keep in mind all records include Hobart’s wins, therefore, Salve Regina was considered two high-quality wins).

I’m not saying a team must be ranked to be considered a “good win”, but I’d like to see them face higher levels of competition (which they may once more games have been played and the sample size increases), but for now, we must wait and see. Hobart remains at the top of D-III.

#2 St. Norbert (9-0-0)

All things considered, Norbert makes a compelling argument for #1 in the polls, they’ve got wins over quality competition and just swept #5 Aurora. They’re playing in one of the best leagues, if not the best, NCHA.

For now, we’ll see how the Green Knights fare as they, just like everyone else, has a long season ahead, but I’d say they’ve passed the record test and the eye test as the current best team in D-III so far. Will HC Tim Coghlin win his sixth national championship?

#3 Utica (7-1-1)

The Pioneers are coming off a Frozen Four appearance in which HC Gary Heenan considered a “rebuilding year” when the season began, well that was fast-forwarded a little bit and Utica comes in with a loaded team as it was one of the youngest rosters Coach Heenan had ever assembled. Now, nearly the same team has taken the ice and is rolling so far.

The UCHC, which historically hasn’t helped them strength-of-schedule wise, now has Geneseo in the mix, so four games versus the Ice Knights will show us a lot. Utica also has on their schedule some high-quality non-conference competition as well. After splitting the opening series with Adrian, I like their chances a lot.

#4 Geneseo (7-0-0)

Goodbye SUNYAC and hello UCHC, words most of us probably didn’t imagine hearing, but here we are.

The Ice Knights have started perfect, something HC Chris Schultz is accustomed to, but his squad faces a significantly weaker SOS this season than compared to past years.

Not playing the likes of Plattsburgh, Cortland, Oswego, and others, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare come NCAA tournament time if they make it. Playing Utica 4x plus a possible UCHC playoff game certainly helps, but I wonder if this will give us a true assessment of Geneseo’s play.

#5 Curry (7-1-0)

Curry’s been a team that really stood out last year and charged up the polls, staying consistently in top 15 and top 10, now, they’re top five.

The Colonels lone loss was to Endicott, who seems to be playing good hockey with a roster loaded with D-I transfers. They’ll face Cortland in a two-game series this weekend which should be on your radar if it’s not. Game one will be played on Saturday in the War Memorial in Syracuse, NY (Syracuse Crunch Arena – AHL) at 12pm prior to the Crunch game later that day. Game two is in Cortland on Sunday at 3pm.

They then face UNE 2x and Trinity in the coming weeks, we’ll really get to see Curry against top competition and tested well as they look to make their third straight NCAA tournament under HC Peter Roundy.