2025-26 Division III Women's Hockey

[SHockey98]

I don’t think this needs to be mentioned here since the diehards live here, but I will anyway. The USCHO voters are becoming a joke with the NESCAC stuff. How Amherst and Middlebury are ahead of Hamline and Augsburg is gross.

Hamline beat the absolute piss out of Endicott in their own rink, who beat and tied Middlebury. The bias is insane. D3HN’s rankings are at least somewhat fair.

(I know these rankings don’t matter… blah blah blah. but they do for programs like the latter two- who seldom reach these heights.)

USCHO lost so much damn credibility, probably have all 9 NESCAC coaches in their poll. NESCAC also runs D3 behind the scenes so NPI is most definitely rigged in their favor

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

NESCAC also runs D3 behind the scenes so NPI is most definitely rigged in their favor

This is completely false. The NESCAC was not involved in the committee that created the framework for the NPI.

I'm not debating the uscho/d3hockeynews polls might show bias towards traditional powerhouse schools or conferences. But, what "poll" doesn't have that? look at the SEC in football, Big 10 and ACC in basketball etc. It's everywhere.

The NPI is what matters and judges teams based on real data from the current season and current season only and doesn't take into account Middlebury winning a national championship 3 years ago or Chatham being a perennially weaker team.

The NESCAC is traditionally the deepest conference in D3 women's hockey and has been for quite some time. Their OOC results speak for themselves. The NPI takes out the bias and all the smoke-filled room non-sense that went on for 20+ years on the men's and women's side.

At the end of the day, win your games and the rest takes care of itself.

 

[VTpucksouteast]

I truly am pretty shocked Hamline fell pretty steeply in the NPI after tying a Top 16 team on the road. Doesn't seem right

 

[JDHack51]

I truly am pretty shocked Hamline fell pretty steeply in the NPI after tying a Top 16 team on the road. Doesn't seem right

Seems right to me, CSB is a capable but not great team, I'd even say slight overrated right now 6-2-3 in the conference and haven't played Augsburg yet. Hamline definitely played down to the opponent allowing them to stay in the game.
Plus not much difference between teams 4-8 in the NPI, so that will continue to move week to week. Hamline's a good team and will be fine the rest of the way. Unless they trip up against GAC they pretty much have a guaranteed auto bid in my opinion going into the playoffs.

 

[JDHack51]

Hamline decided not to mess around this time, putting CSB away 5-1. For CSB this is just the start of a tough stretch, the Bennies have an important series against GAC next, followed by Augsburg. A sweep by Gustavus or CSB solidifies third place in the conference to avoid the 4-5 play in game. A split would leave seeds 3-5 wide open going into that last few weeks.

 

[WCHornet]

Plattsburgh defeats Middlebury 2-1 in overtime

 

[tjoneslo]

I watched that Plattsburgh / Middlebury game and the Reffing was terrible. The calls went 5 to 0 against Midd, but with numerous, repeated penalties on both sides throughout the whole game.

Plattsburgh was playing their game of speed and shooting, and largely outplayed Midd. Sophia Wills stops 42 of 44 shots, but still not enough to stop the Plattsburgh offense.

 

[Scott_TG]

I was pleasantly surprised at yesterday's result, considering the Cardinals had two significant players out with injuries. They have a good young offensive core, they need to tighten things up on the defensive end.

 

[spwood]

I was pleasantly surprised at yesterday's result, considering the Cardinals had two significant players out with injuries. They have a good young offensive core, they need to tighten things up on the defensive end.

I think their problem is that they don't score enough. The PP was utterly useless in five opportunities yesterday. They don't finish many of the great opportunities they seem to generate. Against good teams, they seem to lose 2-1 more often than they win 2-1. They need to put the puck in the net more.

 

[Scott_TG]

I went to this game. Buffalo State was very impressive the whole game. Even though the shots appear lopsided, most of Buffalo State's best opportunities didn't result in shots on goal, so just looking at the stats provides a misleading idea. Grade A chances were pretty even. Alexa Todd played fantastic.

No matter who won that game, I would have said they deserved it. So I guess ending in a tie seems appropriate. Though giving up the tying breakaway goal at the end when you're on the power play is a really bad mistake. It was a rough game, and the refs weren't calling any checking penalties when there was plenty of checking. Two such hits resulted in Nazareth players being down for a bit and needing help to get off the ice.

I have to give Buff State their props for playing tough in the 2-1 OT loss to Plattsburgh tonight. As you observed against Naz they play a very rough game and Plattsburgh gave it right back, resulting in a lot of trips to the box. This is the third straight one-goal loss by Buff State to Plattsburgh dating back to January 25, 2025. In the previous 22 games between the pair Plattsburgh won by at least 3 goals and as many as 14. Plattsburgh has a 25-game winning streak on the Bengals dating back to that tie in the regular season finale of the 2016-17 season but it's no longer an easy game.


A lot of upsets tonight:

- 6-10-2 Conn College beat Williams, handing them their second loss.
- Colby gave #2 Amherst their second loss with a 2-0 win.
- I'm not sure if this counts as an upset, considering that they came into the game with the better record, but Concordia (WI) beat Adrian 6-3. All the goals for both sides were in the second period. It must have been a crazy period