D-III Women’s Week Three in Review: The Parity is Showing…

This past week’s slate of games didn’t necessarily feature a heavyweight matchup in terms of rankings, but it gave us a preview of what we can expect the rest of the way if it hadn’t already happened enough thus far. We saw some major parity with upsets occurring as east as the coast of Massachusetts, to the middle of Minnesota… Again, we’ve seen the play and depth of women’s hockey at the Division-III level (and others) grow immensely over the past few seasons, but let’s take a look at our most recent examples as we were treated to plenty of upsets and overtime hockey.

Marian defeats #6 St. Norbert 2-1 (OT)

Marian (3-3-0), a program whose historically struggled, only winning 10+ games once (2016-17), got a huge victory for the program this past weekend, defeating #6 St. Norbert (4-2-0) in overtime 2-1. In game one, the Green Knights handled their business as usual, shutting out the Sabres 3-0, Tanith Plachetka made 19 saves in the win.

The shocker happened on Saturday in De Pere… Marian had been shutout their past three games, granted, they faced the two top teams in the league (Adrian & St. Norbert), losing 6-0, 2-0, & 3-0 respectively. In this one, Marian was outshot 38-23, Sabre goaltender Jillian Traver made 37 saves in the biggest win of her career.

Marian defeats #6 St. Norbert in overtime (Video via Marian Sabres on YouTube)

The game was scoreless through the first period, but we would see the first goal come from the Sabres on the powerplay, Olivia Church just before the midway point of the second period gave her Sabres the lead. The lead would hold until very late in the final period, Maddie Madden tied it up for the Green Knights, scoring with just under three minutes left in the game. Ella Spies would be the overtime hero for Marian, scoring a rapid 30 seconds into the 3v3 overtime period.

St. Norbert was without their leading forward and starting goaltender for this series, we will see if they return in the near future and how that will affect them the rest of the way. The Sabres on the other hand, have vegan the season 3-3 and although it’s very early, are on pace for their best season in a while…

St. Olaf defeats Gustavus 3-2 (OT)

The Ole’s (2-4-0) have had an interesting start to the season, they opened their season getting swept by Wisconsin-Stevens Point, then managed a split against Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a historically stronger opponent. Now, they split with the Gusties (2-2-0), a MIAC rival.

On Friday, we were treated to a back-and-forth game that was started by a goal scored with a mere 12 seconds left in the opening period, it was Makaela Reinke for the Gusties scoring to give her squad the lead headed to the locker room. We would see a scoreless second period that featured three penalties (GAC – 1, STO – 2), but the penalty killing units did their jobs.

St. Olaf defeats #5 Gustavus in overtime. (Video via @StOlafAthletics on X)

In the final period, St. Olaf tied it up just over six minutes in, Solvei Berg-Messerole scored. A quick four minutes later, Noelle Hemr gave Gustavus the lead right back, scoring just after the midway point of the final period.

The game would feature some madness late, with the Gusties leading 2-1, the Ole’s scored a 6v4 with 15 seconds left in the game, it was Emilie Anderson scoring on the cross-checking penalty that was committed by Gustavus with 30 seconds left on the clock.

Berg-Messerole would score her second of the night, this time the winner, scoring at the 3:54 mark in overtime to give St. Olaf the massive MIAC victory.

The next day in Saint Peter, senior Lily Mortenson would score the game-winning overtime goal in a game which featured two regulation goals, coming under 30 seconds from each other in the first period (2:26 & 2:53). Mortenson, coming off a 46-point junior season, will need to have another great year if Gustavus wants to have a chance in the NCAA tournament assuming they can earn a bid.

Western New England defeats Endicott 5-2

The Golden Bears of Western New England (5-1-0) have had a real strong few seasons as a young program, while the Gulls of Endicott (3-1-0) have run the conference for the most part since 2019, winning four of six conference titles. Despite the historical record versus Endicott (4-10-1), WNE is 2-1-1 in their last four vs Endicott (including this past weekend).

Head Coach Katie Zimmerman enters her sixth season with the Golden Bears as their founding head coach, she’s brought the program to levels I’m not sure many imagined at first, making the NCAA tournament in 2024. This isn’t questioning her coaching abilities early on, but new programs typically don’t make NCAA tournaments that early on, thus, the surprising results.

Game one, the 5-2 WNE victory, was an interesting game… Endicott got the early 2-0 lead entering the first period, scoring a pair of goals (Mackenzie Graham – 04:44 / Teaghan Hall – 13:41). However, the third period is where we would see a barrage of Golden Bear powerplay goals…

The lone second period goal was scored by Maddie Pope a quick 01:42 into the period, setting us up for a 2-1 Endicott lead entering the third.

The final period featured six penalties, the first two period had three combined. WNE would score their first PP goal a brisk two minutes in, tying it up. The eventual GWG would come about 10 minutes later by Lilly Ainley on the PP, giving WNE the 3-2 lead. The Golden Bears would score another just under five minutes later, doubling the lead. Then, they topped it off with just over 30 seconds left in the game, scoring on the PP again, making it 5-2 and giving the Golden Bears their biggest win of the season.

Saturday would feature a tighter game, fewer penalties (END – 4, WNE – 1) and goals. The main highlight besides the overtime winner was the tying goal for WNE was scored a minute after the go-ahead Gulls’ goal at 09:01 of the period.

Gracyn Kurrle would end the game just before the midway mark of overtime, scoring the winner to avoid the huge potential sweep in CNE play.

These two face off again on February 7 in the new year, I would predict there’s a better chance than not that we’ll see them in the CNE playoffs come March…

Other Notable Scores/Upsets

#13 Wilkes split with Lebanon Valley (LVC 4-3 – OT / Wilkes 4-2)

#14 Elmira vs inaugural-St. John Fisher (EC 3-1 / T 1-1)

#2 Amherst vs Williams (T 1-1 / AMH 1-0)

#4 Middlebury vs Hamilton (MID 2-1 / T 2-2)