Men’s NCAA Tournament First Round Recap: The Quarterfinal Stage Has Been Set!

We’ve made it to the NCAA tournament and were treated to a great weekend of hockey, setting us up for some historical quarterfinal games. How nice it was seeing teams being flown all over the country to ensure a true-seeded bracket… Incredible. Looking back, there were a few lopsided scores in the first round, but the thriller in De Pere made up for it and then some, plus, I’ll take a few lopsided games in the opening round for the matchups we get next weekend… Let’s look at each matchup from this past weekend and see how we got to these quarterfinal games as shown in the updated bracket above!

A thriller in the Cornerstone Community Center finale

St. Norbert 5-4 Univ. New England

It’s March and that means it’s another year of St. Norbert head coach Tim Coghlin winning big games in the playoffs. Coming off their Harris Cup title against NCHA power Aurora, the Green Knights had bigger sights than simply a league title as always. Despite the stream malfunctioning on either the St. Norbert and/or NCAA end of things for the final five minutes of play, we were treated to an absolute thriller in the final game played at the Cornerstone Community Center as St. Norbert moves into their new facility beginning next season with a two game series against a unique opponent from out east as the SNC broadcast alluded to. I’ll let them release that when they wish to do so.

In this game, the 1st period was quite something and probably a shocker for the Green Knight faithful as I’m sure very few (if any), had ever heard of the University of New England Nor’Easters, despite the fact they’ve made multiple Frozen Fours in recent memory (2022, 2023). That sentence right there is the beauty of the true-seeded bracket… New and exciting east/west crossover matchups.

In the first eight minutes we had four goals, two by each team. Getting us started a whole 56 seconds in was SNC’s Calvin Hanson, making it 1-0 Green Knights, but it wouldn’t last long as UNE tied it up an entire two minutes later as Ryan Hadland scored. A short three minutes and change went by and all of a sudden the Nor’Easters took a 2-1 lead as Nick Marino fired one in. However, like before, this time under a minute later, St. Norbert found the back of the net on the powerplay as Logan Dombrowsky capitalized, tying it back up 2-2.

Later in the period with just under five minutes remaining, UNE’s co-star Dominic Murphy scored to put the Nor’Easters up 3-2 after the 1st period. At one point, UNE had a mere 7 shots, but 3 goals.

In the 2nd period we had one lone goal and it was once again on the powerplay. SNC’s Blake Ulve fired it in to tie us up again, this time 3-3 as we entered the final period.

Now, the excitement unfortunately occurred after the stream went out, but you can watch the whole game here with this link.

In the final five minutes of gametime, St. Norbert’s Braydon Beahm scored unassisted to make it 4-3 Green Knights with just over four minutes remaining. UNE would answer with a mere 30 seconds left as Nathan Chickering scored in a cluster to tie us up and likely send us to overtime… We said likely because well… it was likely, but not guaranteed… With a whole 13 seconds remaining, Jack Christen found the back of the net off a backhand in which we will let you watch the video below and let it do the explaining…

St. Norbert’s Jack Christen scores the winner against University of New England. (Video via @sncathletics on X).

St. Norbert now heads to Hobart (28-0-0) for a legendary quarterfinal matchup between two legendary head coaches in Tim Coghlin & Mark Taylor. I’ll be at this can’t-miss matchup next Saturday at The Cooler. It’s debatable whether I’d rather see this or any other potential national championship matchup… I’d likely lean seeing these two play instead…

The Blue Devils handle the AMCATS, eye Utica

Wisconsin-Stout 4-1 Anna Maria

For Wisconsin-Stout, their journey continues under head coach Mike MacDonald after snapping their 16 year NCAA tournament drought dating back to 2009 as they now head to Utica, NY for the quarterfinal matchup against the Pioneers. For Anna Maria, their historical season has come to an end after qualifying for their first-ever NCAA tournament as the young program was established quite recently in 2018-2019 with their current head coach David McCauley.

The Blue Devils won their ninth straight game over the weekend, defeating the AMCATS 4-1 with an empty netter at the end. This game was closer than many may have believed, especially those out west who haven’t seen much (likely any) Anna Maria hockey. Gunner Moore got things started just past the midway point of the opening period, putting Stout up 1-0.

Shortly after, Tristan Therrien doubled the lead with just under three minutes remaining in the 1st, making it 2-0 Blue Devils to conclude the opening frame. In the 2nd, Stout spent no time relaxing, Hayden Stocks, their leading scorer, scored in a rapid minute and a half to make it a commanding 3-0 lead just over 21 minutes into the contest.

The AMCATS would attempt to claw back, Lucas de la Salle scored just over five minutes later, making it 3-1 Stout. We would be scoreless until the final minute of the game when the second-leading point getter Kullan Daikawa iced the game with an empty netter, making it 4-1 Blue Devils and they now set their sights on Utica, NY.

On the goaltending side of things, Stout’s Sebastian Monaco made 21 saves in the win, while Matthew Hennessey made 30 saves in the loss.

Wisconsin-Stout will continue their season with a flight to Syracuse, NY to visit Utica where if they win… they likely remain there for another week instead of flying home as this of course is the same sight of the Frozen Four which takes place the following week (March 27 & 29) in the Adirondack Bank Center (buy tickets here). Another storyline is we get the exciting matchup between two teams that may have a little edge to them (other than the fact it’s for a trip to the Frozen Four), due to the cancelled summer-transfer.

Nicolas Pigeon, a star player for Stout with 23 points on the season (80 in his career), transferred to Utica this past summer, but just a day or so later, cancelled his plans and recommitted to Stout, thus heading back to Wisconsin. I bring this up a fair amount when these two get mentioned because I think it’s a cool scenario that isn’t very common. We see players transfer to other teams and face off against their former team, but leaving and then coming back and facing that team isn’t very common. We’re in for a good one!

Utica moves one step closer to another home-ice Frozen Four

Utica 3-0 Williams

After starting 0-4-0, many fans outside of the Utica circle likely wrote the Pioneers off after dropping their first four games to Adrian (20-7-1) & Hobart (28-0-0), but you should’ve known better. Williams College finished the regular season with a below .500 record, but shocked the NESCAC and came into Hamilton, defeating the top-seeded Continentals and then winning the final against Middlebury.

We were in the building for this one and were treated to an exciting game of hockey where the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story. All three Utica goals came during a three-minute span in the 2nd period.

In the 1st, Williams played a very good period led by their goaltender Harrison Fogel, making some big saves in the opening frame and throughout the game. Utica didn’t look their best early which has been a season-long consistency issue which head coach Gary Heenan has harped on. Coach Heenan also noted this in his post-game press conference in his opening statement:

“A little disappointed in our group, I thought we came out arrogant. I thought our 1st period was horrific.”

Coach followed that up shortly after when responding to a question regarding their slow start in the opening period saying “Well I just questioned our spirit, I just thought we came out thinking it was gonna be against a sub-.500 team… we just weren’t us, and to their [Williams] credit, they came out and got after it, moved the puck great in the neutral zone and had some real good chances… that game could’ve went the other way quickly.”

As we entered the 2nd period, it seemed like there was a turning of the tables physically and game-wise. Utica seemed to get into a different gear than the prior period, leading to a trio of goals in the 13:58-17:01 span of the period. Aidan Hughes got the scoring started at 13:58 which was followed up exactly 30 seconds later by Andrew Della Rovere to double the Pioneer lead. Shortly after, John Gutt scored a backhand from the side of the net, bouncing off Fogel’s back, tripling the Pioneer lead and making it 3-0.

Head coach Bill Kangas challenged the second Utica goal on the basis of “mis-stoppage of play”, which was briskly confirmed, thus costing the Ephs their timeout.

Overall, Williams played a really good game and have a promising outlook ahead as they’ve got a young class of freshman who played extremely good hockey this season, especially in the final month of the season. The Ephs outshot the Pioneers 28-26, Kyle Curtin of Utica was credited with the shutout victory, while Harrison Fogel made 23 saves for Williams.

Utica as mentioned, welcomes Wisconsin-Stout to the Aud next weekend as they look to have a home-ice Frozen Four for the second-straight season, this time in their main rink, the Adirondack Bank Center.

Aurora’s 46 second flurry leads them past the Johnnies

Aurora 6-1 Saint John’s

Aurora got in the dance via at-large after falling to St. Norbert in the Harris Cup finals. While Saint John’s booked their ticket via the MIAC auto bid after they scored four unanswered against Gustavus. Now, these two faced off in a game that was defined, like Utica & Williams, by a very short span in the 3rd period.

In the 1st period, the scoring didn’t begin until the final minute when Jakson Kirk put the Spartans up 1-0 with a mere 13 seconds remaining in the period.

Following the intermission, Saint John’s would capitalize on a Spartan penalty, scoring at 6:02 was Jordan Newpower tying the game up 1-1, which didn’t last very long. The Spartans would get the lead back a brisk minute thirty-five seconds later as Andrew Schultz regained the Spartan lead, making it 2-1. The rest of the period would be quiet on the scoring side of things, but the Aurora offense came alive in the final period.

In the 3rd period of play, Aurora ended the game and ended the game quickly. Here’s the span of Spartan goals:

AU 3-1: Conor Ronayne – 9:07
AU 4-1: Jacob Brockman – 9:21
AU 5-1: Lukas Sedlacek – 9:53

Once that barrage happened, the Spartans sealed the deal, scoring their sixth goal (empty netter) with just under three minutes left. On the goaltending side, Aurora’s Matt O’Donnell made 36 saves in the victory, while Jon Howe made 27 saves in the loss.

The Spartans high-powered offense struck again as they scored 5+ goals for the 16th time this season and they’ll hop on a flight from Chicago to Boston, MA as they’ll visit the #2 seed Endicott College (21-3-3) for their chance to book a ticket to the program’s first-ever Frozen Four appearance as head coach Jason Bloomingburg has completely changed the outlook for the program. Established in 2014-2015, Bloomingburg took over in 2016 and has transformed the program into a power of the NCHA, putting together a 100-36-6 record since 2021.

The Cadets capitalize on the Seahawks’ five-week layoff, winning handily

Norwich 6-1 Salve Regina

First year head coach Dominick Dawes has certainly made his mark in his return to his alumnus Norwich University as the Cadets now find themselves back in the NCAA tournament and now are eyeing a trip to the Frozen Four after defeating Salve Regina in the first round, ultimately where the Norwich faithful expected to be on an annual basis in years past. Salve Regina on the other hand under first year head coach Jay Punsky, found themselves in a peculiar situation, playing their first game in about a month. The last time the Seahawks took the ice was back on February 10th due to their independent schedule. We’ve dove into that situation enough, it’s now done and over with, if you would like to read about it, we’ve had other articles regarding that matter.

In this one, Norwich got off to the fast start that answered the biggest question going into this one, would Salve be able to hold Norwich off while they got their own rust off after the long layoff? The answer to that was no as the Cadets took a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game, scoring both goals within 19 seconds of each other. Frank D’Ancona got us started 4:29 in, then his teammate Jed Brazo scored 19 seconds later to double the Cadet lead in front of a sold out Salve crowd. Near the end of the 1st, Nick Cordeiro made it a commanding 3-0 lead after the opening period.

In the 2nd period, Salve seemed to have gotten things settled down a bit, not allowing a goal for the first 19 minutes, but Norwich all but sealed this one with a goal in the final minute by Zach Ophoven, making it 4-0 after two periods.

Entering the final period, hopefully everyone was back from concessions and the restrooms as we had two goals in 46 seconds. Ben van Waterschoot (great name), made it 5-0 for Norwich, followed by his teammate Boyd Stahlbaum on the powerplay a mere 21 seconds later, making it a 6-0 blowout. Salve would get on the board about five minutes later on the powerplay as this game was quite penalty-ridden, Jack Arizo scored to make a small dent in the deficit, but the Cadets would hold strong and win this one 6-1.

As mentioned, the game had a lot of penalties, Salve leading the way with 10 for 20 minutes and Norwich with 7 for 14. In net, Norwich goaltender Sami Molu made 33 saves and Selby Warren made 29 in the loss.

Norwich will head to Clinton, NY to Sage Rink in the quarterfinals to face Hamilton who’s struggled down the stretch, but looked solid for two thirds of their Neumann game and will look to defend home ice and bus a short 20 minutes or so over to Utica for a Frozen Four experience.

Hamilton’s big 3rd period buys them another home playoff game

Hamilton 6-2 Neumann

Hamilton entered this game with a lot of question marks considering how their season ended last weekend at home. The Continentals finished the season 1-3-0 with three of those games going to overtime all on home-ice (two losses coming against NESCAC champion Williams). Meanwhile, despite the lesser schedule, Neumann entered with a 7-2-0 record in their last nine games including a MAC 5-4 overtime title against Stevenson.

In this one, Neumann made everyone in Hamilton think “oh boy here we go again”, as they led 1-0 after the 1st period when Jared Coccimiglio scored just over eight minutes in. Hamilton would tie the game up early in the 2nd period, scoring was Ryan Sordillo to break the seal for the Continentals. Later on the powerplay, the Hamilton star Luke Tchor scored to get the Continentals back on top, where they haven’t spent much time as of late.

Following Tchor’s goal, Coccimiglio scored his second of the game to get Neumann back in it, tying it 2-2 as we entered the 3rd period.

In the 3rd, we would see a Hamilton barrage, like Aurora, but not as quick, scoring a trio of goals in two minutes-twenty seconds. Hamilton’s Max Bulawka scored a pair of goals, one on the powerplay, at 5:26 & 5:43, a mere 17 seconds apart! Making it 4-2 Continentals.

Following Bulawka’s goals, teammate Connor Thue scored just over two minutes later, tripling the lead and breaking the dam open, 5-2 Hamilton with just over 12 minutes left. With just over three minutes left, Curtiss Sturgeon sealed it with an empty netter. Hamilton gets out of this one with a 6-2 victory after a dominating final period of play. Hopefully this 3rd period was the stretch of hockey they needed to really find a groove and break the stretch of hockey that we’re not used to seeing from Hamilton.

Goaltender Aksel Reid made 17 saves in the victory, while Christian Green made 26 in the loss.

The Continentals will welcome Norwich to Sage Rink next weekend as both look to make a Frozen Four trip.