2021-22 Adrian - Most dominant team in D3 history?

[PrezdeJohnson09]

I know Stevens Point 2019 team is the lone undefeated team in D3 history and that team will forever be special in its own right.

However, this Adrian team going 31-1-0 with 31 straight wins is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen or read about.

Outscored it’s opponents 39-14 in 7 games in the postseason, including a 12-3 win over a NCAA quarterfinalist in their conference championship game.

190 goals for and 63 against in total for the season.

Would have loved to have had a fantasy matchup between the 2020 Norwich defensive stalwart that seemed destined to win a national championship and this year’s Adrian’s squad.

Hats off to Coach Krug and the Bulldog program for getting the monkey off their back. You can tell that they’ve “changed their ways” and are not the same chippy/heavily penalized team that existed for a stretch of time in their program history.

I have to wonder how much the only Division III team that didn’t really see any change in its 2020-21 season overall compared to the rest of the teams having very short or no season at all played out this year?

Not experiencing a full-year disruption certainly helps with team chemistry etc.

 

[altazo]

Quite possibly.

Personally, I’m a fan of defensive hockey so I would’ve liked to see if the ‘20 Norwich team could have carried that scoreless streak into NCAA’s.

Adrian’s 12-3 game vs SNC got out of hand very quickly and I think can mostly be attributed to Adrian being so psyched up about finally having their number. I like to think if SNC had gotten by Augsburg that National semifinal would have looked more similar to the result, effort, and detail Augsburg showed in that game.

For what it’s worth, the 2014 National champion SNC team beat quarterfinalist Adrian 11-1 during that season. Again, more indicative of the rivalry than anything else. SNC’s biggest win that season was against Point in the National final.

 

[OZFEST]

Snarky take: In the West maybe, cause in the East ya know....Utica.
Real take: pretty close to being the most dominant, yeah.

 

[bakdraft21]

I will say that Adrian had a very good schedule this year as well, they are not afraid to go on the road to play good teams, they made 2 trips out east, which I think helped them in the long run, and played the USA team 2x as well, besides their conference schedule...Yes playing a full season last year vs some good teams as well helped..

 

[OZFEST]

"Yes playing a full season last year".........Yep can't forget this fun fact.....

 

[spwood]

Well, this will be a fun off-season topic.... I'll put up the 1991-1992 Plattsburgh Cardinals for the discussion. They were 32-2-2. One of the losses was to Div I Clarkson. The other was to Elmira, a loss that was avenged in the NCAA QF series by a combined 11-2 score over two games. In 9 playoff games (SUNYAC, ECAC West, NCAAs), they scored under 5 goals only once, averaging 6.56 goals per game over the post season.

 

[altazo]

Well, this will be a fun off-season topic.... I'll put up the 1991-1992 Plattsburgh Cardinals for the discussion. They were 32-2-2. One of the losses was to Div I Clarkson. The other was to Elmira, a loss that was avenged in the NCAA QF series by a combined 11-2 score over two games. In 9 playoff games (SUNYAC, ECAC West, NCAAs), they scored under 5 goals only once, averaging 6.56 goals per game over the post season.

This was the season when they beat undefeated RIT in the National championship, correct?

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

This was the season when they beat undefeated RIT in the National championship, correct?

No. RIT was undefeated in 2000-01 season until the final game. Plattsburgh won national titles in 1992 and 2001. 87 was vacated after they beat Oswego due to violations.

 

[Fishman'81]

Snarky take: In the West maybe, cause in the East ya know....Utica.
Real take: pretty close to being the most dominant, yeah.

Utica swept Adrian AT Adrian last year, and split with them at Utica this year, UC out-shooting them in both games.

What was your point again?

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Utica swept Adrian AT Adrian last year, and split with them at Utica this year, UC out-shooting them in both games.

What was your point again?

Adrian was missing 11 of the players in that Utica loss this year that ended up playing in the national championship including some HUGE ones in Ruffin, Gray, Luciani. No doubt the Pioneers still get credit for the win, but let's not pretend they beat a full strength Adrian squad in that game either.

 

[Sir Nubs]

Utica swept Adrian AT Adrian last year, and split with them at Utica this year, UC out-shooting them in both games.

What was your point again?

Is Utica going to hang a banner for those wins? Like the real one Adrian will hang?

 

[IceKnights20]

Utica swept Adrian AT Adrian last year, and split with them at Utica this year, UC out-shooting them in both games.

What was your point again?

Utica is clearly the true national champion being the only team to beat Adrian all year.

Also, Geneseo outshot Adrian does that get them banner too?

And just to make sure the point is clear… shots don’t mean anything unless they end up in the back of the net.

 

[geneseo]

Utica is clearly the true national champion being the only team to beat Adrian all year.

Also, Geneseo outshot Adrian does that get them banner too?

And just to make sure the point is clear… shots don’t mean anything unless they end up in the back of the net.

Not worth much, I know, but three sets of Adrian hockey parents told me, unsolicited, that they thought Geneseo was a tougher opponent than Utica. They also thought the Ice knight's performance especially impressive given that they didn't play last year-- with seven players in the line-up experiencing post-season play for the first time. Props to Geneseo! Also, props to some very classy Adrian hockey parents!

 

[JSicedog]

Not worth much, I know, but three sets of Adrian hockey parents told me, unsolicited, that they thought Geneseo was a tougher opponent than Utica. They also thought the Ice knight's performance especially impressive given that they didn't play last year-- with seven players in the line-up experiencing post-season play for the first time. Props to Geneseo! Also, props to some very classy Adrian hockey parents!

1) I don’t believe for a second this happened
2) Even if it did happen, why would an Adrian parent come up to you and say “Utica was actually better than you”
3) You are the only one that keeps bringing up the fact Geneseo didn’t play last year. Nobody else brings this up, certainly not parents.

Adrian was significantly better than every team this year, and still would have been better if everyone played last season. Stop trying to find the silver lining.

 

[OZFEST]

1) I don’t believe for a second this happened
2) Even if it did happen, why would an Adrian parent come up to you and say “Utica was actually better than you”
3) You are the only one that keeps bringing up the fact Geneseo didn’t play last year. Nobody else brings this up, certainly not parents.

Adrian was significantly better than every team this year, and still would have been better if everyone played last season. Stop trying to find the silver lining.

and tell us.... how do you tell do you measure this latest claim?

 

[802Hockey]

and still would have been better if everyone played last season. Stop trying to find the silver lining.

Calling heavy BS on this claim. Perhaps they would have been but I believe playing a full season not only helped with extra experience together but also in recruiting. If I'm a recruit you bet your ass I'm putting a heavy edge towards the program that gets the most games.

 

[JSicedog]

and tell us.... how do you tell do you measure this latest claim?

Because they were that much better than anyone else in D3 this year. Nobody was beating them full strength. Not Utica, not St Norbert, not Geneseo or Oswego if they played last year. I see some have a hard time swallowing reality.

 

[Fishman'81]

Adrian was missing 11 of the players in that Utica loss this year that ended up playing in the national championship including some HUGE ones in Ruffin, Gray, Luciani. No doubt the Pioneers still get credit for the win, but let's not pretend they beat a full strength Adrian squad in that game either.

I had heard that they were down a couple of guys. I didn't realize it was 11.

For the record, (IMO) of course Adrian was hands-down best team in D-3 this season and has to be considered among the best ever.

 

[altazo]

Adrian was missing 11 of the players in that Utica loss this year that ended up playing in the national championship including some HUGE ones in Ruffin, Gray, Luciani.

And they still managed to take 4 of the 6 available points at Utica.

And some Adrian parents I spoke with said despite the scores, SNC was a much tougher opponent than Utica this season. They said even though the Utica Aud was pretty full the crowd didn’t seem to know much about hockey and they speculated it would’ve been empty had they not been selling beer. They said everyone was really interested in the beer. (Insert winky emoji here - it’s called a joke folks.)

 

[Sir Nubs]

Because they were that much better than anyone else in D3 this year. Nobody was beating them full strength. Not Utica, not St Norbert, not Geneseo or Oswego if they played last year. I see some have a hard time swallowing reality.

Another claim made on speculation and not empirical evidence. This year is not last year. You guys never learn.