D-III Women’s Week Five in Review: Holiday tournaments are upon us & some upsets!

We’re now past the Thanksgiving Break, which means we had some D-III hockey tournaments featuring a fun mix of teams that in many cases, typically wouldn’t play otherwise. Let’s get into the review of what we saw this past week.

Sunshine Turkey Classic – Tampa, FL 

1. #5 Adrian
2. #9 Utica
3. #13 Trinity
4. #12 Norwich

Women’s D-III hockey headed to Florida this past weekend, Tampa specifically, playing in the AdventHealth Center Ice. Last year, similar teams headed down to South Carolina to play a tournament, trying to grow the game.

Round one: Adrian defeated Trinity 3-1, a very low shot total game, the Bulldogs outshooting the Bantams 20-15.

Utica defeated Norwich 3-1 as well, shots in this one were a little higher, Norwich outshooting the Pioneers 29-24.

In the 3rd place game, Norwich & Trinity went to overtime, Trinity winning with a goal 3:11 into the OT period. The Bantams continue to play great hockey, sitting with a 6-1-0 record after the tournament, we’ll see if they can keep this up as their NESCAC play continues.

Norwich has had a struggling start, granted, they’ve played a tough schedule to begin, but they’ll need to turn it around if they want to win the NEHC auto-bid as at this rate, it’s looking like this will be the only way for them to get in unless things turn around. 5th year star goaltender Leocadia Clark will need to have nearly her best stuff night-in and night-out.

In the championship game, Adrian was all over Utica on the shot-sheet, but Utica’s Angela Hawthorne held strong. Adrian led in shots 46-13, it was 21-2 after the 1st period, but Utica was shooting at a rate of 50% as they were tied 1-1 after the 1st, despite the huge shot disparity.

Adrian would take the lead early into the 2nd, Riley Johnson scored a quick minute four seconds in. This lead would hold until 17:40 of the period when Utica’s Hailey Modlin tied it up.

The Bulldogs would switch up goaltenders, the Freshman Kiera Stack was pulled after two periods after giving up two goals on 9 shots, entering was the junior Annie Gilbert, allowing zero goals on four shots.

Riley Johnson would end the game late in the 3rd period, she scored the winner at 3:51, her second goal of the night, to extend Adrian’s win streak to nine games, their only loss coming on opening night to SUNY Canton.

Cardinal/Panther Classic (Hosted by Plattsburgh)

1. #3 Middlebury
2. #6 Plattsburgh
3. Endicott
4. St. Norbert

The Cardinal/Panther Classic is arguably the best tournament we get every year. We’re always guaranteed two solid rivals in Plattsburgh & Middlebury, constantly ranked in the top 10, if not top 5. Then, we’ll always get two other solid programs, typically one from the west, this year, we got St. Norbert, a team looking to show they’re for real.

In round one, Plattsburgh needed overtime to defeat formerly undefeated St. Norbert 2-1, and Middlebury handled the Gulls of Endicott, rolling 4-1.

In the 3rd place game, Endicott shutout the Green Knights 3-0, moving Norbert to 8-2-0 on the year. This was a big two games for St. Norbert as they’re off to one of the best starts in program history and have played a debatably weak schedule thus far, they’ve challenged Adrian in the past, but not gotten over the hump into the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, these games can help them in the long run as they’ll be looking to make their second NCAA tournament. Head Coach AJ Aitken has the program at new highs with new hopes.

In the win, Endicott’s Lauren Ferrari (great name by the way) made 26 saves in the shutout victory.

In the championship game, we got #3 Middlebury vs #6 Plattsburgh.

In this one, the Panthers rolled, shutting out the Cardinals 4-0, goaltender Sophia Will made 23 saves.

Middlebury got on the board just over the halfway mark of the 1st period, Britt Nawrocki made it 1-0 (12:07), followed by her teammate Kate Flynn doubling the lead just five minutes later at 17:09 to make it 2-0 at the end of 1.

Olivia Gordon added another in the 2nd period, scoring the lone goal. The icing on the cake would be added early in the 3rd period, Cat Appleyard scored on the powerplay, making it 4-0 Panthers.

Codfish Bowl (Hosted by UMass-Boston)

1. #4 Amherst
2. St. Olaf
3. UMass-Boston
4. Manhattanville

An annual event that’s gone on for many years on the Men’s side, we now see it on the women’s side as it’s recently been added as an event.

The favorite pre-tournament #4 Amherst won this one, not allowing a goal in either game as star goaltender Natalie Stott shined once again.

In round one, Amherst shutout St. Olaf 3-0, Stott making 18 saves. Despite the loss, Ole’s goaltender Hannah Fritz made 37 saves.

In the other game, UMass-Boston defeated Manhattanville 5-3. The Valiants used two goaltenders, playing about half the game each, while Veronika Hadamovsky made 29 saves in the victory for the Beacons.

In the 3rd place game, St. Olaf got to go back to Minnesota with a win, shutting out the Valiants 5-0. Goaltender Baylyn Shankman making 25 saves in the shutout victory.

Manhattanville hasn’t had an ideal start to the season, falling now to 2-6-0, they’ll need to grab some wins where they can get them and then see if they can challenge Nazareth or Utica for the UCHC title.

In the championship, Amherst rolled again, shutting out the Beacons 4-0 to remain undefeated at a perfect 7-0-0. The Mammoths had a mammoth-like lead in the shot category, outshooting the Beacons 53-17…

The goals were from Marie-Eve Marleau (3:38 – 1st), Bea Flynn (12:20 – 1st), Gretchen Dann (2:12 – 2nd), Ayla Abban (5:08 – 3rd), goaltender Natalie Stott made 16 saves, while backup goaltender Maleigh Tittel made one save in just under 15 minutes of action.

University of Dubuque Mississippi Match-Up (Hosted by Dubuque)

1. Saint Mary’s
2. Dubuque
3. Lake Forest
4. Milwaukee School of Engineering

The University of Dubuque hosted a tournament on the men’s side for opening weekend, this Thanksgiving Weekend, they hosted a tournament for the women.

Saint Mary’s entered as the clear favorite, which ended up holding true as the Cardinals won the tournament.

In round one, SMU defeated Lake Forest 4-2, while Dubuque defeated MSOE 3-1.

In the 3rd place game, the Foresters defeated MSOE 3-1, outshooting the Raiders 41-22. Goaltender Donna Fowler made 21 saves in the victory, while Jenna Kent made 38 in the loss.

In the championship game, Saint Mary’s defeated Dubuque 5-3. SMU led in shots a commanding 46-21. Goaltender Celeste Rimstad made 18 saves in the victory, while for the Raiders, Savannah Wuitschick made 27 saves and Molly Jex made 14 saves in the loss.

In this game, Dubuque would get on the board extremely fast, Malia Tetreault scoring 15 seconds into the 1st period, which would hold until the Cardinals tied it on the powerplay in the final two minutes of the 1st, Celia Midtbo scoring.

The 2nd period was a busy one for SMU, Allie Urlab recreating the Dubuque first goal in terms of time, scoring 20 seconds into the period, giving them the 2-1 lead. Celia Midto scored her second of the game on the powerplay once again, which would be followed by Sidney Polzin four minutes later at 14:49, putting them ahead 4-1.

The Spartans fought back, scoring two goals in the first six minutes of the 3rd, Alexandria Simmons (3:18) & Peighton Walker (5:32), making the game 4-3. Reese Heitzman capped the game off at 12:23, scoring for SMU, sealing the deal, giving Saint Mary’s the 5-3 victory in Iowa.

#13 UW-Eau Claire upsets #2 Gustavus 4-3

The major upset of the week was UW-Eau Claire who’s had their struggles as of late, the Blugolds took down Gustavus in Eau Claire on Tuesday night. UWEC entered the game with a 4-3-0 record, while Gustavus entered at 4-1-0, their lone loss was to River Falls, who made a 3rd period comeback to defeat the Gusties, read the full game recap HERE.

In this one, the Blugolds outshot the Gusties 27-21, a common occurrence in UWEC games as they’ve managed the shots, but just not finished off the goals. Tegan Swanson got the start for Eau Claire, making 18 saves in the victory, while Lily Timmons made 23 in the loss.

Like other Blugold games, they fell into a hole quite quickly, Gustavus scoring two quick goals in the 1st period, Lily Mortenson at 2:31, then Kylie Scott four minutes later at 6:05. Eau Claire would answer back in the final 15 seconds of the period, it was Ava Bullert scoring late, cutting the deficit in half.

Bullert’s goal was the first of four unanswered goals from the Blugolds, Kylie Wiltsie scored on the powerplay just about five minutes in, then Madisyn Krumholz scored at the 13-minute mark, putting UWEC ahead 3-2.

Sadie Long would score the winner in the empty net in the last 40 seconds of the game, which was the winning goal because Lily Mortenson scored with two seconds left on the clock to make the loss astetically better. Eau Claire gets back on track with the much needed 4-3 victory.