D-III Women’s Week in Review: River Falls Rolls, 2nd Period Madness, Upsets in the ‘CAC & an NPI/SOS Discussion!

#1 Wisconsin-River Falls evens the season series, defeating #9 Wisconsin-Eau Claire 5-3

Earlier this season, UW-Eau Claire ended their nine-game losing streak against the Falcons, dating back to March of 2023. The Blugolds shutout River Falls 3-0 in Jarrad Vroman’s first game as head coach in this huge rivalry that’s been largely one-sided as of late & historically, with River Falls owning the all-time record 78-18-11. Eau Claire showed their most cumulative success against River Falls from 2018-2021, holding a record of 9-7-1.

On Saturday, it looked like we were going to see a repeat of November as the Blugolds took a 2-0 lead after the 1st period and made it 3-0 in the early half of the 2nd period. Madisyn Krumholz got on the board a quick four minutes in (3:56) and Ava Johansson scored with just under 30 seconds remaining in the period (19:34.1). The final Blugold goal was scored by Maddie Hulter at 7:11 of the period before the Falcon barrage came in full force.

Things looked quite lopsided at this point and shocking honestly. However, River Falls would then show why they’ve been the #1 team in Division III women’s hockey for the past two seasons, rattling off four unanswered goals in the period, three coming within three minutes of each other!

Makenna Aure got UWRF on the board shortly after Hulter made it 3-0, Aure scored 48 seconds later. Following this, Aure scored her second of the game, this time on the powerplay at 15:39, followed by two more goals in the following three minutes (Alexa Niccum – 17:25 & Megan Goodreau – 18:36). With this powerplay goal from Goodreau, she’s now the all-time WIAC single season record holder for the most powerplay goals in a season with 13. After all that, Falcons lead 4-3 after the 2nd period.

In the 3rd, we saw one goal, it was Kailey Niccum seven minutes into the period, making it 5-3 and sealing it for River Falls who scored five unanswered to defeat Eau Claire. Jordan O’Kane made 16 saves in the win, while UWEC’s star freshman Kambelle Freije made a remarkable 40 saves in the loss.

For these teams, UWRF remains firmly 1st in the NPI, looking to win and host their third-straight national championship, while UWEC drops a spot to 11th. In the WIAC standings, these two are deadlocked at 24 points apiece, tied for 1st place as they’ve firmly been the class of the WIAC the past decade. These two will meet again in their regular season-finale 2pm CT showdown in Eau Claire on February 21st that will most likely hold home-ice implications unless we see a shocking loss from either of these two teams in their remaining conference games.

A nine-goal 2nd period determines the outcome of game one between Concordia-Wisconsin & Adrian

This season one of the most surprising stories out of the NCHA has been #12 Concordia-Wisconsin’s remarkable season thus far as they sit 20-2-1 following their weekend split with #8 Adrian College (18-5-0). The biggest story of this weekend has to be the 2nd period of play in mainly game one, but also game two. Historically, Adrian has owned the Falcons until last season when Concordia split the regular season series, but fell in the Slaats Cup to the Bulldogs later in the season. The all-time record between these two is in favor of the Bulldogs, 38-6-3 with three of those Falcon wins coming since 2022.

Remarkably, all nine goals scored on Friday came in the 2nd period, while five of seven goals came in the 2nd period on Saturday!

On Friday, here’s the score sheet for the time of each goal as I think that best describes the game itself:

1st Period – no scoring

2nd Period:
7:47 – Ava Litkey (CUW 1-0)
8:27 – Carly Carpenter (Adrian 1-1)
10:00 – Abby Hansberger (CUW 2-1)
10:59 – Makayla Spejcher (CUW 3-1)
11:18 – Riley Veldman (CUW 4-1)
12:43 (SH) Paige Pomerleau (Adrian 4-2)
14:25 (PP) Abby Hansberger (CUW 5-2)
17:05 (PP) Makayla Spejcher (CUW 6-2)
18:14 Maddy Loe (Adrian 6-3)

3rd Period – no scoring

Personally, this is a phenomenon I’ve never seen considering the volume of the goals. Of course, there’s been games with only scoring occurring in the middle frame, but the sheer volume of goals scored and in such quick succession, adding the fact we had multiple powerplay goals and a shorthanded goal to go along with it. Insane.

Now on Saturday, here’s the score sheet:

1st Period:
1:07 – Jordan McQuade (CUW 1-0)

2nd Period:
3:21 – Abby Hansberger (CUW 2-0)
5:05 (PP) – Emma Simon (Adrian 2-1)
11:17 – Maddy Loe (Adrian 2-2)
15:13 – Julia Richardson (Adrian 3-2)
16:42 – Courtney Ben (Adrian 4-2)

3rd Period:
00:54 – Emma Simon (Adrian 5-2)

Honestly, these score sheets tell the story of these games, there isn’t much more that needs to be said. Coming up for Adrian, they’ve got a home/home with Trine in which they’ll be heavy favorites, holding a historical record of 27-0-0 against the Thunder. For Concordia-Wisconsin, they’ve got a home/home with Marian where they’ll be heavy favorites as well, holding a historical record of 34-5-6 & an 8-1-1 record in the last 10 matchups.

For Slaats Cup playoff implications, Adrian is 1st with 45 points, while the Falcons are 2nd with 44. These two sit firmly in the top two seeds as 3rd place is St. Norbert with 33.

Upsets in the ‘CAC, narrowing the conference standings

We discussed the NESCAC playoff race last week in our weekly recap as the top spots were extremely close and home-ice was at stake. The top five seeds following this past weekend are now a mere 4.5 points away from each other:

1 – Middlebury (14-3-3) – 29
2 – Amherst (14-2-4) – 27
3 – Colby (14-4-1) – 25.5
4 – Williams (14-2-4) – 25.5
5 – Hamilton (11-6-4) – 24.5 (14 GP vs 12 GP for top four)

Friday’s Results:
#10 Williams @ Connecticut College – Conn. College 3-0
Bowdoin @ Hamilton – Hamilton 5-2
#14 Colby @ #3 Amherst – Colby 2-0
#5 Middlebury @ Trinity – Middlebury 6-2

Saturday’s Results:
#14 Colby @ #3 Amherst – Tie 1-1
Bowdoin @ Hamilton – Hamilton 4-1
#10 Williams @ Connecticut College – Williams 4-0
#5 Middlebury @ Trinity – Middlebury 4-1

With Amherst dropping points against the Mules, Middlebury now controls things, but the Panthers have their toughest stretch yet coming in the final two weeks of the season. Middlebury has a home/home with #10 Williams next weekend and then a pair of home games against #14 Colby to end it off. Even though they control 1st now, they could easily lose and/or tie a few of these games, putting them back into the shuffle with the others.

Amherst ends their season with three of four games on the road as they play a home/home with Trinity, then visiting Hamilton for their season finale.

Williams as mentioned plays Middlebury in a home/home, finishing off with Bowdoin who’s currently riding a seven-game losing streak.

Colby will play two home games with Wesleyan before visiting Middlebury as mentioned for their season finale.

Hamilton has played 14 games unlike the others with 12, so they’ve got a midweek non-conference road matchup with SUNY Cortland on February 10, a week off, then finishing off with their pair of home games against the Mammoths.

The race is heating up and anything can happen with these five teams that’ll determine the all-important home-ice advantage and hosting of the NESCAC semifinals/finals.

A quick NPI / SOS discussion as we near postseason play

Looking at the current NPI rankings on both the men’s & women’s sides, we see some disparities as we always do, but there’s a few important points you should be focusing on as we near closer to the end of the regular season and into the respective conference playoffs.

Currently, Nazareth & Wilkes University sit ranked 2nd & 6th respectively. The Golden Flyers sit with an unbeaten 20-0-1 record, their only blemish being a tie against Buffalo State, while Wilkes sits 19-1-1 with their blemishes being an overtime loss to Lebanon Valley & a tie against SUNY Cortland.

This is in no way saying these two teams shouldn’t be NCAA tournament teams, but Nazareth is currently looking at a 1st-round bye with the #2 seed as they sit with the 60th ranked (out of a possible 79) strength-of-schedule. The Golden Flyers have two wins over Elmira and then a trio of NESCAC teams in Hamilton, Trinity, & Wesleyan. This is a decent resumé and I’d say they’re well deserving of a bid, regardless of auto or at-large, but considering other resumé’s, in no way do I think they should be getting a 1st-round bye when you look at a teams such as Norwich, Augsburg, Hamline, or even Amherst/Williams, all with higher-quality marquee wins and significantly stronger schedules.

Wilkes on the other hand, sits #6 in the NPI as mentioned with the 63rd SOS, plays in the MAC which requires 21 conference games in one of the weakest auto-bid leagues (using metrics, not opinion). I’m not sure what happens if they lose to a hypothetical Lebanon Valley or Arcadia in the conference finals, but in the scenario where the MAC receives two bids (assuming Wilkes doesn’t drop out after the hypothetical loss), I don’t believe it would be a good look at all on the system as it would keep out a hypothetical Middlebury, UW-Eau Claire, Adrian, Concordia-Wisconsin to a league that largely doesn’t warrant two bids…

The Colonels in the non-conference this season defeated Utica (6-14-1), tied Cortland (12-5-3), & defeated Cortland. They’ll only have three non-conference games as their scheduled game with Elmira on February 11 appears to be cancelled according to the Elmira women’s hockey schedule, Wilkes’ doesn’t show the game listed at all. I simply don’t believe when you only have three non-conference games and a weaker conference schedule, you deserve an at-large if you don’t win your league. Wilkes is very likely going to win the MAC, thus negating this discussion other than them having an inflated seeding such as Nazareth, but even still, these are possible scenarios that will become big discussions in the coming weeks.

The reason Concordia-Wisconsin hasn’t been mentioned in terms of their weak SOS, sitting with the 70th SOS, ranked #12 in NPI, is because any loss they incur will drop them out of any possible bid, the same goes for Adrian who sits a spot behind them at 13th. Wilkes is still firmly in the at-large race barring a collapse, unlike the Falcons who essentially need the auto bid no matter what. Keep an eye on this as we near closer to the conference finals weekend.