Skidmore hosts the Skidmore Thanksgiving Invitational this weekend. (Photo by Matt Milless)
Skidmore Thanksgiving Invitational
Hosted by Skidmore College – Saratoga City Rink
Saturday:
Alvernia (5-3-0) @ Skidmore (2-3-1) – 2pm ET
Tufts (3-2-0) vs #5 University of New England (6-0-0) – 5pm ET
Sunday:
Consolation – 1pm ET
Championship – 4pm ET
Week five marks the start of tournament season across Division III, and the first event we cover is the Skidmore Thanksgiving Invitational. Skidmore hosts the four-team field at the Saratoga City Rink, featuring Alvernia, Tufts, the host Thoroughbreds, and No. 5 University of New England. Both first-round matchups take place Saturday, with the championship/consolation games set for Sunday afternoon.
Skidmore enters the weekend 2-3-1, though their early schedule has been tough. They have already taken on No. 1 Hobart, No. 7 Oswego, and an Albertus Magnus team that’s received votes in various polls. In matchups against unranked/RV teams, they’re unbeaten, in matchups vs ranked teams, they’re winless. Skidmore also benefits from the Olympic-sized surface at Saratoga City Rink, something the other three programs do not regularly see.
Alvernia comes into the event 5-3-0. Their highlight so far was a strong 3-2 road win over SUNY Cortland who received votes early on in the season. They also swept King’s College with a combined 10-4 scoreline. This will be the first-ever meeting between Alvernia and Skidmore according to the school websites.
UNE comes in as the tournament favorite, sporting a 6-0-0 record, which improves to 8-0 when including their two exhibition games. The Nor’easters also picked up a major win earlier this season against No. 6 Curry College, where Northeastern (NCAA D-I) transfer Harrison Chesney stopped 23 of 24 shots. They’ve been one of the strongest teams in the country through the first month led by their elite head coach Kevin Swallow.
Tufts arrives with a competitive early-season résumé. The Jumbos opened with wins over Wesleyan and then-No. 14 Trinity but dropped their next two contests to Middlebury and Williams. They also faced No. 11 Babson before traveling to Skidmore. Historically, Tufts is 2-0-0 all time vs UNE, but the last time the two met was all the way back in 2011.
This tournament features several players who could take over games. For UNE, forward Dominic Murphy leads all skaters in the field with 12 points in six games, while their goaltending is anchored by Harrison Chesney, the Northeastern transfer, who shined in their early win over Curry. Tufts will lean heavily on goaltender Gustave Bylin, who has a 2.01 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage through four starts. For Skidmore, the key name is senior goaltender Joshua Seeley, who has posted a .932 save percentage and made 55 saves across two starts. On the Alvernia side, all eyes will be on forward Frazer Dodd, who has six points and leads the Golden Wolves with 34 shots this season.
If both Skidmore and UNE win their opening games, the two teams would meet on Sunday for the first time since 2016 in an all-time series the Nor’Easters have won the last five games in. The mix of new matchups, strong individual talent, and the Olympic-sized surface gives this invitational plenty of intrigue. Championship puck drop is scheduled for Sunday at 4 PM ET at the Saratoga City Rink.
