Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

[Bar Down]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

That 2010 team was the first DIII team I ever saw, so I had no point of comparison. However, I vividly remember being a Rook, hating life and hating Norwich, and watching them blow people out. Most of those games from that season, home games anyways, were not even close.

With that said, this UWSP team was **** impressive. They definitely deserved to win the title last night. As a Norwich fan, what was particularly frustrating to watch was UWSP's forecheck. They seemed to win every board battle while the Cadets struggled to get the puck out of their own zone. Then, once established, the Pointers would cycle the puck while 5-on-5 as if they were on the powerplay.

In any sport, comparing teams across eras is difficult. As we see increased parity and depth in the sport, one could argue that it is even more impressive to go undefeated today since there are more good teams. On the flip side, one could also argue that there was more talent concentrated on the great teams of the past. But like Prez says, certainly seemed to be a lot of talent from top to bottom on the Pointers.

Agreed (it's always difficult to compare teams across multiple decades) however. this current UWSP team has to be in the elite status. Statistically, going into the frozen four weekend, the Pointers have trailed a minuscule 2.6% of game time this year, 45:44 out of 1,750 minutes this season. They have also never trailed by more than one goal. Now add in the Hobart and Norwich games, and it's still 45:44 out of 1,874 minutes or 2.4% of game time. Now that is DOMINATION considering their last 3 games were against top 10 teams (St Norbert #4, Hobart #6, Norwich #3)

 

[pete99race]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

I'd be curious to hear from Dan Lukes and the St. Norbert fans who they think was their best team of the powerhouse teams they've had for the last 20 years.

I got to go with our 2008 National Championship team, anchored by Kyle Jones and Marc Belanger....that team lost their third game of the season and than ran off 29 straight without a loss and finished 27 - 1 - 4.
And shutout both Norwich and Plattsburgh to win the first national title in a team sport for SNC.
I also liked the 2004 - 05 SNC team even though they did not get to the FF, lost to St. Thomas in the Qtr Final round.
Jones and Belanger were both freshman that season and Jones won the starting job in goal early in the season. That team racked up 147 goals with Dietsch, Hughes, Carbery and Tew all exceeding 30 points each.
Solid D corp, led by Tew, Derton, Gow and Toneys.
I often wondered if this could have been SNC's first National Championship team had they made it to the FF.

 

[neumyer]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

1988 Wisconsin-River Falls they were monsters

Obviously you can't, but if you could put the 1988 River Falls team on the ice against the 2019 Stevens Point team how do you think the game would come out? Have skills, coaching and equipment improved so much that it would be a rout by Steven's Point?

 

[sacole13]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

Obviously you can't, but if you could put the 1988 River Falls team on the ice against the 2019 Stevens Point team how do you think the game would come out? Have skills, coaching and equipment improved so much that it would be a rout by Steven's Point?

River Falls were fast and physical, it would be one hell of a game........

 

[BetterInLakePlacid]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

River Falls were fast and physical, it would be one hell of a game........

This game would be a huge blowout by the the current Pointer team. The difference in players from 1988 vs today is too great. Go watch some of the clips online of D3 college hockey around that time vs today. It would not be even close. The gap in goaltending alone is just massive as well. The game has changed too much in the past 30 years.

This doesn't mean that 88 Falls wasn't a dominate team in anyway. The better judge is how they did against their competition relative to how UWSP did against their competition. And speaking of this, UWSP trailed in only 5 games total this year.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

Agreed (it's always difficult to compare teams across multiple decades) however. this current UWSP team has to be in the elite status. Statistically, going into the frozen four weekend, the Pointers have trailed a minuscule 2.6% of game time this year, 45:44 out of 1,750 minutes this season. They have also never trailed by more than one goal. Now add in the Hobart and Norwich games, and it's still 45:44 out of 1,874 minutes or 2.4% of game time. Now that is DOMINATION considering their last 3 games were against top 10 teams (St Norbert #4, Hobart #6, Norwich #3)

When they mentioned this stat on the broadcast, I was absolutely stunned.

Sure a great team is going to lead most of their games and never trail by that much. But the amount of time WSP had led and the most they ever trailed by is absurd.

 

[NU Pastime]

Hard pass. Trying to compare teams from different eras with how styles and systems have changed is a fools' errand only an ESPN talking head just trying to fill air time would attempt.

Well, the reality is settling in that we have 7 months until next season, so...

 

[snc1]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

Hammer doesnt want any part of this conversation with the 08-09 Adrian team?

 

[bakdraft21]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

Hammer doesnt want any part of this conversation with the 08-09 Adrian team?

who???

 

[NUProf]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

If it is a single year, i’d vote for the 99-00 NU team. A loss to Midd right after their 5 year title run and one to RIT, who sat out most of their top
Players the night before. Redemption against both later(ot win over Midd, and two game sweep of RIT). Not fastest team, but plenty fast enough. The one thing they had more of than others was just plain grit.

This!

 

[OSU2010]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

I've only been following division 3 since 2008, but the most dominant team I've ever seen was the 2009-2010 Lakers team, they blew teams out like I haven't seen before or seen since. They lost a heart-breaker of a game to SNC in the Semi-Finals that year.

They had players like
Eric Selleck
Neil Musselwhite
Jon Whitelaw
Paul Rodriguez
Kyle Gunn-Taylor
Paul Beckwith


Selleck was so dominate it's a shame we only had him for 2 years.
Neil Musselwhite was the fastest skater in any division that year, beating out all the D1 guys in the fastest skater skills challenge at the Frozen four. Not to mention his Short handed natural hat trick the first and only in D3 history

 

[BKrosky]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

Probably have to agree with this, at least for Oswego. Musselwhite was the a different species out on the ice and I don't know how he didn't go D1 - Selleck too.

This was also the first year of arguably Gosek's greatest recruiting class ever, some of the players you mentioned (Whitelaw, Rodrigues, Moodie, Muise, Brown, Leimbrock - Went to 4 consecutive Frozen Fours)

Part of me wants to argue that the '13 team was more talented, because that was one of the deepest teams ever. All of the forwards mentioned above with a stacked D and Hare in net should be on this list, but not beating Eau Claire in the title game sets them back.

I've only been following division 3 since 2008, but the most dominant team I've ever seen was the 2009-2010 Lakers team, they blew teams out like I haven't seen before or seen since. They lost a heart-breaker of a game to SNC in the Semi-Finals that year.

They had players like
Eric Selleck
Neil Musselwhite
Jon Whitelaw
Paul Rodriguez
Kyle Gunn-Taylor
Paul Beckwith


Selleck was so dominate it's a shame we only had him for 2 years.
Neil Musselwhite was the fastest skater in any division that year, beating out all the D1 guys in the fastest skater skills challenge at the Frozen four. Not to mention his Short handed natural hat trick the first and only in D3 history

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

I've only been following division 3 since 2008, but the most dominant team I've ever seen was the 2009-2010 Lakers team, they blew teams out like I haven't seen before or seen since. They lost a heart-breaker of a game to SNC in the Semi-Finals that year.

They had players like
Eric Selleck
Neil Musselwhite
Jon Whitelaw
Paul Rodriguez
Kyle Gunn-Taylor
Paul Beckwith


Selleck was so dominate it's a shame we only had him for 2 years.
Neil Musselwhite was the fastest skater in any division that year, beating out all the D1 guys in the fastest skater skills challenge at the Frozen four. Not to mention his Short handed natural hat trick the first and only in D3 history

It’s a shame that 2010 team didn’t get a chance to play Norwich for the title. Certainly, St. Norbert proved to be a very worthy for going 2 OTs with that powerhouse Norwich team but if I recall correctly it was a really fluke goal for SNC that beat Kyle Gunn Taylor for the game winner.

 

[snc1]

It’s a shame that 2010 team didn’t get a chance to play Norwich for the title. Certainly, St. Norbert proved to be a very worthy for going 2 OTs with that powerhouse Norwich team but if I recall correctly it was a really fluke goal for SNC that beat Kyle Gunn Taylor for the game winner.

No flukes with "Mr March" Cody Keefer

 

[pete99race]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

No flukes with "Mr March" Cody Keefer

Keefer had some big games vs Oswego, including a hat trick in the 2012 National Championship game!

 

[sacole13]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

This game would be a huge blowout by the the current Pointer team. The difference in players from 1988 vs today is too great. Go watch some of the clips online of D3 college hockey around that time vs today. It would not be even close. The gap in goaltending alone is just massive as well. The game has changed too much in the past 30 years.

This doesn't mean that 88 Falls wasn't a dominate team in anyway. The better judge is how they did against their competition relative to how UWSP did against their competition. And speaking of this, UWSP trailed in only 5 games total this year.

see I get tired of the "today's athletes are so much better" narrative. It is such BS. You are short changing those guy. You have no real idea if they would step up or not.

 

[NUProf]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

see I get tired of the "today's athletes are so much better" narrative. It is such BS. You are short changing those guy. You have no real idea if they would step up or not.

The fact is the players of the past were elite for their time. Who knows how they would respond to modern coaching and techniques - chances are good they would have done just as well now. Goaltending has evolved a lot - but that doesn't mean that if we transported an athlete from the late 80s to the present and gave him a modern approach to the game that he would not dominate the game. It's all speculation.

 

[nascoo]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

First off you cannot compare teams across eras. 20 years ago there were far less D1 teams and thus a lot of D1 talent made it to top tier of
D3. Keith Accoin, Kurtis McLean to name a couple home boys. Pointers had the best D3 season ever, no arguing the first undefeated season.
However if D3 decided to play all championships at a neutral site, Herb Brooks arena for example, wonder if the larger ice surface could have changed
the outcome. NU was dominated but there advantage speed was neutralized by smaller surface.

Hats off to the Pointer IMO the best D3 team we have seen in recent years.

 

[BetterInLakePlacid]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

see I get tired of the "today's athletes are so much better" narrative. It is such BS. You are short changing those guy. You have no real idea if they would step up or not.

I'm short changing no one. I'm being realistic. Anyone who can watch this and conclude these teams wouldn't get pounded by any of the four that were in Point (and a bunch of others) is either clueless or lying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFem5ru58v4

Now give them some time, updated training and gear and such, and sure the talent might be there to level it out in the long run but you drop one of those two teams in the video right into Point last Friday they lose by 10+ no matter who they played and I might be being generous. That isn't a "narrative" that's a basic fact based in elementary level observation and takes nothing away from the 1988 teams anyway as they were dominant in their own time all the same.

 

[BetterInLakePlacid]

Re: Most Dominant D3 Hockey Team?

Hammer doesnt want any part of this conversation with the 08-09 Adrian team?

He's been pouting in exile ever since someone called him out for his stupid defense of Connor Armour after he ended the career of Eliot Grauer.