The contenders in the NCAA Division 3 tournament have been sliced to eight – Trinity, Curry and Plymouth State are among them.
While Trinity enjoyed a first-round bye over the weekend, a reward for its 23-2-1 season and NESCAC title, Curry and Plymouth had to work to advance and did, in different ways.
The region’s other NCAA tournament participant – Endicott – lost at Elmira, 5-2, ending its bid to reach a second straight Frozen Four.
Here are some takeaways from Saturday’s first round and a look ahead to this weekend's quarterfinals.
Curry returns to work with a vengeance
After getting routed on home ice by Salve Regina, 7-2, in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Coast tournament on Feb. 24, Curry was looking at a two-week layoff – at best.
When it was announced that it had secured one of the four at-large bids to the NCAA tournament – and a first-round game at perennial tourney participant SUNY-Geneseo – the focus turned to bringing the energy right from the start.
“We had two weeks off and one of our goals was to be ready to go from the drop of the puck,” said Curry coach Peter Roundy. “The first three or four shifts I thought we really played well.”
The Colonels (21-5-1) got an early power-play goal from Tao Ishizuka – teed up by Matt Connor (Nottingham, N.H.) – and 35 saves from freshman standout Shane Soderwall to cement a 3-0 win.
Next up for Curry is a shot at No. 1 – a road quarterfinal at top-ranked Hobart, the defending NCAA champion and nation's highest-scoring team (5.43 goals per game). It’s a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal that Hobart won, 5-1.
Roundy called Hobart “probably the odds-on favorite” to win the NCAAs again, but likes that so many of his guys got the experience to play at Hobart a year ago. Defense, he said, will be paramount.
“The recipe is going to be pretty similar to Geneseo,” he said. “We really focused on the defensive side the last couple weeks in practice. That’s where everything starts for us.”
Plymouth State puts its demons to rest
Five NCAA tourney berths. Five NCAA tourney losses.
Plymouth State has been trying for several years to extend its success out of the MASCAC, a conference it has dominated and will continue to dominate until it exits in 2025-26 for the Little East.
Skating against Cortland State on home ice in Saturday’s opening round gave it a great opportunity to do just that, and the Panthers made sure to capitalize on it, pulling away in the third period for a 5-2 win, the first for the program in the NCAAs in front of more than 1,000 fans in a packed Hanaway Rink.
“Losing last year, you don’t ever want to feel that again,” said senior captain Jeromey Rancourt (Lewiston, Maine). “For the guys that returned this game meant a lot and for the newcomers, it’s only getting started for them.”
Connor Tait scored a pair of goals for the Panthers (24-2-2), who did all their damage in the second and third periods. National leading scorer Will Redick added two assists to his ledger.
‘I thought that their style really played into our strengths a little bit, with what we like to do and what makes us strong offensively,” said PSU coach Craig Russell. “I just thought it was all about details on faceoffs and certain things in the neutral zone. We were attentive to those things all week long and pretty much the entire game.”
The Panthers will try to keep their historic season going in Saturday’s quarterfinal round at No. 2 Utica.
Trinity ‘D’ digs in for Elmira test
The good news for Trinity (23-2-1) is that it enters its NCAA tournament quarterfinal against Elmira riding an 11-game win streak.
The reality is that its defense and sophomore goalie Devon Bobak have clamped down on teams that are not particularly offensively explosive.
Elmira is that, ranking fifth in Division 3 with 4.18 goals per game. Senior forward Shawn Kennedy ranks fourth nationally in assists (26) and eighth in points (39).
By contrast, only two of the Bantams’ victims during their 11-game win streak average more than 3.0 per game – Amherst and Hamilton.
Bobak and defensemen John Campomenosi and Ned Blanchard (West Hartford, Conn.) were all first-team selections in the NESCAC during another banner year for the Bantams, one that they hope to push into the Frozen Four, which they are hosting on March 21 and 23.
NCAA TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS
Saturday, March 16
Elmira (20-7-1) at Trinity (23-2-1), 7 p.m.
St. Norbert (23-6) at Adrian (23-6-1), 7 p.m.
Curry (21-5-1) at Hobart (25-2-1), 7 p.m.
Plymouth State (24-2-2) at Utica (23-2-3), 7 p.m.
@MikeZhe603
mzhe@hockeyjournal.com
