“The Moment Hamilton Won”: A Frozen Four Experience & The Full 60 Finale!

My apologies for the delayed article, but if you’ve been keeping track of our social media accounts (@diiihockeynews) on X (Twitter) & Instagram, you’ve been treated with daily content as always! Keep an eye on both of those respective platforms if you want the fastest, most up-to-date content from a practicality standpoint.

Here, we’ll discuss this year’s Men’s Frozen Four weekend and give a preview of the most likely, final, ‘Full 60’ episode. If you have no idea what ‘The Full 60’ is, click here to check out our YouTube channel, where we have all our episodes posted. (Hint, 2024 & 2025 Frozen Four videos are the best)… Before we begin, we must thank Utica University once again for their incredible support of our videos for the second-straight year, giving us access that not everyone would and/or has in the past. Utica Women’s Hockey HC Melissa Lomanto lent us their locker room for our filming again, allowing for an awesome area to interview the coaches and others involved. Utica Men’s Hockey HC Gary Heenan lent us their locker room if needed during the weekend, while Utica Univ. Sports Information Director Jordan Lambert couldn’t have been more hospitable and helpful the entire weekend with the entire Frozen Four operation itself, not just with us.

Funny enough, I tweeted back on January 10, 2026: “I want to see Hobart vs Hamilton.“… Well, I got my wish.

If you would like to read our Frozen Four Semifinals recap, click here.

Hamilton defeats Hobart 2-1 in overtime

For the most in-depth article recapping the game (and one that was posted on time, unlike myself), check out Scott Kinville’s article on CNYHockeyReport.com as Hamilton is one of the key teams they cover being in Central New York. Also, they posted a full photo album of over 100 photos, click here if you would like to check those out as well.

This game was intriguing not just from the idea that it was a National Championship, but it was a tale of two seasons. Hobart, a perfect 30-0-0, always finding ways to win and seemed unbeatable regardless of their level of play. With 2026 Sid Watson award-winning goalie Damon Beaver in net, he made up for nearly all mistakes his team in front of him made, which was very few all things considered. The Statesmen received a first-round bye, defeating NCHA-winning St. Norbert 2-1 & WIAC-winning Wisconsin-Stout 4-2 in their journey to their fourth-straight national championship game, seeking the four-peat.

On the other side, we had Hamilton, a team who lost their final three of four games (all at home) prior to the start of the NCAA tournament, but rattled off three great wins en route to their title game appearance. The Continentals defeated MAC-winning Neumann 6-2, LEC-winning Norwich 2-1 (OT), & Aurora 6-3.

The Continentals are the first NESCAC squad since 2015 Trinity to raise the National Championship trophy.

Another fun fact, with Hamilton defeating Hobart, ending their perfect season (30-1-0), 2019 Wisconsin-Stevens Point remains the only team in Men’s Division III hockey history to go undefeated and win the national championship. The Pointers went 29-0-2 (two ties), defeating Norwich in the title game on home-ice in K.B. Willett Arena to go unbeaten.

In the opening period, Hobart got to work quickly as Hamilton took an early penalty for checking-from-behind, scoring was senior Kahlil Fontana, a player who always comes up in big moments. Teammates Conor Lally & Bauer Morrissey were credited with the assists on the opening goal, very familiar territory for Hobart, scoring first with their 33% powerplay unit.

The 1st was largely dominated by Hobart, not allowing Hamilton many, if any, Grade-A chances, while winning the shot-on-net battle 12-4.

In the 2nd period, hopefully you were back from the concourse, Luke Tchor fired in a rebound goal a rapid 15 seconds into the period to tie things up, assisted by Noah Leibl.

The eye-opening part of this period stems from the fact that Hamilton only allowed three shots-on-goal from Hobart as we reached the midway mark of the period, something that I’m not sure has happened all season for the Statesmen. The tides definitely seemed to turn in this one as we played this period out, but it wouldn’t last forever.

Before the momentum shifted back to Hobart, the Continentals nearly buried the go-ahead goal as there was some miscommunication behind the Hobart net which resulted in a fumbled puck by Beaver, causing him to dive without a stick onto it and forcing a faceoff in their zone, saving a potential goal from Hamilton.

The Statesmen seemed to get their feet back under them with five or so minutes left in the period and generated some great chances in the Continental zone, showing their championship experience and poise, the game’s never over. We headed to the 3rd period of play deadlocked at 1-1.

All the credit in the world needs to be given to Aksel Reid, the Union (NCAA D-I) transfer in net, making incredible save after incredible save, allowing the game to go to overtime and eventually result in a win for his team. Both Reid & Beaver kept their teams in it and as Hamilton Head Coach Rob Haberbusch said in his postgame press conference, you need to keep a short memory as a coach and team (in reference to the huge momentum shifts and game-saving plays made at either end of the ice.

Damon Beaver made 23 saves, while Aksel Reid made 39 after making 35 in their semifinal game in Friday’s 6-3 win over Aurora.

Overtime: “The Moment Hamilton Won”

Forget the box score, forget the stat sheets, forget the incredible saves made by both Damon Beaver & Aksel Reid in the overtime period, let’s cut to the video that went viral on both X & Instagram, captured by John Rice III of the game-winning-goal by Hamilton freshman Curtiss Sturgeon. Watch below:

Hamilton’s Curtiss Sturgeon scores the game-winning-goal on a pass from Luke Tchor to defeat Hobart 2-1 in overtime. (Video by John Rice III – @stickyricestudiosllc)

All-Tournament Team

F – Luke Tchor – Hamilton – Jr.
(2G, 1A)

F – Kahlil Fontana – Hobart – Sr.
(1G, 1A)

F – Justin Biraben – Hamilton – Jr.
(2G, 1A)

F – Curtiss Sturgeon – Hamilton – Fr.
(1G) – *Overtime Winner*

D – Conor Lally – Hobart – Jr.
(1G, 1A)

D – John Wojciechowski – Hamilton – So.
(2A)

G – Aksel Reid – Hamilton – Jr. – Most Outstanding Player (MOP)
(74 saves – .949 save-percentage)

‘The Full 60’ – 2026 Men’s Frozen Four Edition

As mentioned earlier, here’s our trailer for this year’s Full 60. Thanks to everyone at Utica who helped make this happen and to all the coaches who participated. The full episodes will be coming out in the coming weeks, here’s a list of everyone featured in this year’s videos:

Rob Haberbusch – Hamilton College Head Coach
Mark Taylor – Hobart College Head Coach
Jason Bloomingburg – Aurora University Head Coach
Mike MacDonald – Wisconsin-Stout Head Coach
Jon Garver – NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Committee Member / Wisconsin-Superior
Jordan Lambert – Utica University Sports Information Director
Chris Sugar – Founder, DIIIHockeyNews
Scott Huston – Contributor/Writer, DIIIHockeyNews
Liam Sample – Narrator, SUNY Cortland ’26 / Broadcaster

Give this year’s trailer a watch below! If you would like to view our full episodes from previous years, please check out our YouTube channel as mentioned before, our Plattsburgh vs Oswego & the 2024 / 2025 Frozen Fours are our best work thus far! All of the videos are created by John Rice III, owner of StickyRiceStudios LLC.

“The Full 60” – Men’s 2026 Frozen Four – By John Rice III (@stickyricestudiosllc)

If you’ve made it to the end, thank you once again for an incredible Division III Men’s & Women’s hockey season. We will be updating our archives in the coming weeks, as well as adding new content. We will release our DIIIHockeyNews.com awards next week as well!

We would also like to thank our sponsors Wallkill Group & The AI CEO once again for their amazing support this season.