bakdraft21
Well-known member
Interesting post, will follow for sure, the YAC will be tough this yr for sure,I think Platty will step it up this year,then ya have Cortland and a few others who may/will challenge Oz and Bart.....
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SUNYAC 25-26 The start of a new era
- Thread starter dmac1103
- Start date
Plattsburgh definitely looks like a different team this year. The goaltending looked great this past weekend with Bovan and Spry combining for a. 982 save percentage. It may not have been Hobart or Oswego still Plymouth State is coming off a 19 win season and ranked 1st in thier new league. Hopefully then can stay healthy cause my NFL and MLB teams dealt/dealing with tons of injuries.
I saw the same thing. I thought Bovan looked the more confident in net, but Spry made all of the saves as well. I also thought the defensive coverage was a bit better than in prior years. The penalty kill looked very good - even dangerous on the counter. Definitely some offensive skill on this team. I'm interested to see where it stacks up with the big boys next weekend.
Lord_Zubin
Puck Flattsburgh!!!
Week 2 of the weekly roundup is here. Since the NCHA and CNE played mostly conference games this weekend, we will be focusing on just the SUNYAC and UCHC this week, with one exception. No two conferences have battled each other more this season as they have faced off against each other 20 times this season already, the next closest pair is the MIAC and WIAC, who have faced off 12x this season.
The SUNYAC went 8-9 overall this weekend with all games being against the UCHC. They still have the best overall non-conference record at 18-12 with a win % of 0.6, but now they have been brought back down to earth with the CNE, NCHA, and the WIAC not far behind. The UCHC went 10-9 this weekend with all but 2 of those games being against the SUNYAC. Those 2 games were a loss to Ind Salve Regina and a win vs MASCAC Rivier. With a 0.516 win% so far the UCHC isn't quite breathing down the SUNYACS neck yet compared to other conferences that were previously mentioned, but they sure aren't out of the ball game yet.
Notable Wins:
#10 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego "upsets" #5 UCHC SUNY Geneseo on the road. The top 2 in the SUNYAC have gone 3-0 against the UCHC's top 2 with Hobart also sweeping Utica this weekend. Oswego does play Geneseo again and Utica this year, but assuming these 2 stay the top 2 they have guarenteed the series in their favor. I don't think it will be a clean sweep as Oswego has to visit the Aud and they refuse to win in that building regardless of who the opponent is, but a 4-1 series or a 3-2 series in the SUNYACS favor should help a lot with the math.
Unranked UCHC St. John Fisher upsets RV SUNYAC SUNY Cortland on the road. This is the last week I will be considering Cortland as part of the top 3 as their play has been unimpressive to start the year. St. John Fisher is a contender for that 3rd spot is the UCHC now with this win and a good result vs Buff State on the road. Their only loss is to Chatham who I will talk about later in the summary section.
Notable Losses:
#5 UCHC SUNY Geneseo loses to #10 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
RV SUNYAC SUNY Cortland losses to unranked UCHC St. John Fisher. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
Weekly Winner(s): No one
While the top of the SUNYAC had a great weekend, the rest of the conference failed to support going 4-9 against the UCHC. Conversely, the top of the UCHC didn't have a good weekend going 1-3, but the rest of the conference went 9-6 to help support them. I have no idea how the math works, so for this week I am going to call it a draw for now. Anyone who knows how the math works feel free to reply and share your thoughts.
Weekly Losers (s): Johnson and Wales
For those who missed. Johnson & Wales had to suspend their game vs Endicott friday night just 30 seconds into the 2nd period because the entire score board broke. No one was able to fix it in a timely manner so they decided to just call the game. No reschedule has been made official yet. I've heard of facilities breaking down before a game as it usually happens 1-2x a year across D3, but during the game I have never heard of.
Summary:
The race has narrowed, while it remains to see if the NCHA can keep their 3 bids (spoiler given recent trends its not likely) for now it seems likely the SUNYAC and the UCHC will be in an absolute dog fight for getting those at large bids. The CNE also hasn't ruled themselves out yet for receiving 3 bids like they did in 2023. Cortland is no longer 3rd in the SUNYAC and while Platty is probably everyones pick to replace them, keep an eye out on Canton as a dark horse. They've already upset Trine and have #8 Hamilton coming up to them on the 15th. If they win their next two games, they will most likely be ranked. Elmira is still the 3rd best team in the UCHC by the skin of their teeth with their only excuses being they played Hobart 2x this season and Canton is off to a hot start. St. John Fisher, Nazareth, Albertus Magnus, and Chatham are all comping at the bits so I think we have a good midfield shuffle in both conferences this year. I have also just realized that the next 2 weeks are 90% conference matchups so one of these wont be posted again until after black friday. I will include the upcoming St.Norbert UW-Steven Points game in that post, as well as any other notable non-conference results from the 4 conferences. As always, if you disagree feel free to tell us why, I'm opening to edit the post.
The SUNYAC went 8-9 overall this weekend with all games being against the UCHC. They still have the best overall non-conference record at 18-12 with a win % of 0.6, but now they have been brought back down to earth with the CNE, NCHA, and the WIAC not far behind. The UCHC went 10-9 this weekend with all but 2 of those games being against the SUNYAC. Those 2 games were a loss to Ind Salve Regina and a win vs MASCAC Rivier. With a 0.516 win% so far the UCHC isn't quite breathing down the SUNYACS neck yet compared to other conferences that were previously mentioned, but they sure aren't out of the ball game yet.
Notable Wins:
#10 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego "upsets" #5 UCHC SUNY Geneseo on the road. The top 2 in the SUNYAC have gone 3-0 against the UCHC's top 2 with Hobart also sweeping Utica this weekend. Oswego does play Geneseo again and Utica this year, but assuming these 2 stay the top 2 they have guarenteed the series in their favor. I don't think it will be a clean sweep as Oswego has to visit the Aud and they refuse to win in that building regardless of who the opponent is, but a 4-1 series or a 3-2 series in the SUNYACS favor should help a lot with the math.
Unranked UCHC St. John Fisher upsets RV SUNYAC SUNY Cortland on the road. This is the last week I will be considering Cortland as part of the top 3 as their play has been unimpressive to start the year. St. John Fisher is a contender for that 3rd spot is the UCHC now with this win and a good result vs Buff State on the road. Their only loss is to Chatham who I will talk about later in the summary section.
Notable Losses:
#5 UCHC SUNY Geneseo loses to #10 SUNYAC SUNY Oswego at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
RV SUNYAC SUNY Cortland losses to unranked UCHC St. John Fisher. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here
Weekly Winner(s): No one
While the top of the SUNYAC had a great weekend, the rest of the conference failed to support going 4-9 against the UCHC. Conversely, the top of the UCHC didn't have a good weekend going 1-3, but the rest of the conference went 9-6 to help support them. I have no idea how the math works, so for this week I am going to call it a draw for now. Anyone who knows how the math works feel free to reply and share your thoughts.
Weekly Losers (s): Johnson and Wales
For those who missed. Johnson & Wales had to suspend their game vs Endicott friday night just 30 seconds into the 2nd period because the entire score board broke. No one was able to fix it in a timely manner so they decided to just call the game. No reschedule has been made official yet. I've heard of facilities breaking down before a game as it usually happens 1-2x a year across D3, but during the game I have never heard of.
Summary:
The race has narrowed, while it remains to see if the NCHA can keep their 3 bids (spoiler given recent trends its not likely) for now it seems likely the SUNYAC and the UCHC will be in an absolute dog fight for getting those at large bids. The CNE also hasn't ruled themselves out yet for receiving 3 bids like they did in 2023. Cortland is no longer 3rd in the SUNYAC and while Platty is probably everyones pick to replace them, keep an eye out on Canton as a dark horse. They've already upset Trine and have #8 Hamilton coming up to them on the 15th. If they win their next two games, they will most likely be ranked. Elmira is still the 3rd best team in the UCHC by the skin of their teeth with their only excuses being they played Hobart 2x this season and Canton is off to a hot start. St. John Fisher, Nazareth, Albertus Magnus, and Chatham are all comping at the bits so I think we have a good midfield shuffle in both conferences this year. I have also just realized that the next 2 weeks are 90% conference matchups so one of these wont be posted again until after black friday. I will include the upcoming St.Norbert UW-Steven Points game in that post, as well as any other notable non-conference results from the 4 conferences. As always, if you disagree feel free to tell us why, I'm opening to edit the post.
Last edited:
bakdraft21
Well-known member
Not a big poll guy this early in the season, unless Oswego is ranked high 
,,but did see that Canton got 19 votes in the poll, not bad, anyone see them play???
,,but did see that Canton got 19 votes in the poll, not bad, anyone see them play???bakdraft21
Well-known member
Not one seat left for the Oswego vs. Platty game Friday night at The Campus Center,should be another barn burner....Let's Go Lakers!!!!!!
HockeyTime9
New member
Held on at NAZ. Looked good against Elmira. Huge test this weekend with rivalry game against Pdam and then top 10 ranked Hamilton. If they put a good weekend together, look out for the RoosNot a big poll guy this early in the season, unless Oswego is ranked high
MilkUniversity
Roll 'Thers | Plymouth State
St. John's is surprising so far. Wonder what they're doing right (aside from scoring more than the other teams), especially with wins over Cortland and Buffalo. Would be cool to see a mid-table UCHC team put up a fight against Utica or Geneseo. Know the strength of competition is nowhere close, but some schools might have the momentum to make an upset during the regular season.
Russell Jaslow
Registered User
You mean St. John Fisher (or SJF). St. John's is a school in the MIAC.
MilkUniversity
Roll 'Thers | Plymouth State
Oops... yeah St. John Fisher's. Blanked that there is a St. John's out west.
Lord_Zubin
Puck Flattsburgh!!!
3rd Edition of the SUNYAC Roundup. It has been almost a month since one of these was last posted so if I am missing anything please do let me know.
The SUNYAC went 2-5 in Non-conference matchups for this past month which not very good. Granted 2 of those include Morrisville and a 3rd game involved canton losing to nationally ranked Hamilton, but still some lackluster results from the teams we typically consider actually good in the conference. They now have the 4th best OOC record behind the NESCAC, the WIAC, and the NCHA. The UCHC and CNE are not far behind as the SUNYAC has a 0.541 win % whereas the other 2 have a 0.536 and 0.524 win % respectively. In fact 2nd-6th place in the OOC standings are just separated by roughly 0.04 % points so for now it's anybody's guess as to how the at large bids will shake out, especially with the pairwise still being in a very wacky state for now. Given the poor results from some of the SUNYACS midfield teams, a clear divide has formed between the top 2 of Hobart and Oswego compared to everyone else so we will mostly only see those 2 unless one of the other teams pulls off a upset. As for the UCHC, you could honestly flip a coin for who's 3rd place between St John Fisher and Chatham, so I will split the UCHC into the top 4 of Geneseo, Utica, Chatham, St. John Fisher, and then everyone else.
Notable Wins:
#15 CNE Endicott beats #14 NESCAC Bowdoin at home. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
#8 NESCAC Hamilton beats #10 UCHC Utica on the road. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
Unranked NESCAC Trinity beats #7 CNE Curry on the Road. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
Notable Losses:
#9 UCHC SUNY Geneseo loses to unranked NESCAC Amherst at home. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
#5 CNE UNE loses to unranked NESCAC Tufts on a neutral site. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
#10 UCHC Utica loses to #8 NESCAC Hamilton at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.
#3 NCHA St Norbert loses to unranked WIAC UW Eau-Claire on the road. This loss combined with other developments around D3 probably lowers the odds of the NCHA being a 3 big league again by a noticeable amount especially with how crazy the math can be out west sometimes.
#7 CNE Curry loses to unranked NESCAC Trinity at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.
Monthly Winner: The NESCAC
The NESCAC hasn't been a multi-bid league since 2017, so I assumed that would be the same situation this year and we'd only mention them occasionally if the upset someone. They have shown that may not be the case anymore this year. With an 13-4-4 OOC to start the year. This includes some massive wins over Babson, Utica, SUNY Geneseo, UNE, and Curry. Hamilton still appears to be the class of the league for now but if the NESCAC can keep up these OOC results. Another team from the 'CAC may be joining them in March. I will now be analyzing and talking about them going forward unless they are brought back down to earth which could very well happen.
Monthly Loser: The Utica Pioneers
Currently Utica is #10 in the polls, but with a 5-5 record they're on thin ice. While 7 loss teams have received at large bids to the tournament recently, they were either NEHC or CNE schools, leagues that usually had a 3 headed monster at the top of the standings, and often had teams in the 4th or 5th place range knocking on the door. The 2025-2026 UCHC is nowhere near those past leagues. While Chatham and St John Fisher has surprised most people with how well they're doing, Geneseo has had some questionable results this year despite their current ranking(I personally think they're gonna be unranked next week after losing to Naz and Amherst) but they also needed OT to beat Buff State. Utica essentially has to run the table because one more regular season loss will firmly plant them in conference championship or bust territory despite their strong OOC schedule. Keep in mind they still have to play Oswego (who they will beat because Oswego cant win in that building regardless of the opponent) Geneseo x2, Chatham x2, and St John Fisher x2. It's certainly plausible for them to go 7-0, but it's certainly not guaranteed either.
Summary:
The race has gotten tighter than I would've imagined. While I wont confirm it yet, it appears more than likely the UCHC may be a 1 bid league this year if Geneseo continues to have these results and if Utica slips even once again during the regular season. The NCHA and CNE can still possibly be 3 bid leagues this year although I highly doubt both will get 3 bids. I do think both leagues are near locks for at least 2 bids barring a disaster, so it will be interesting to see the now 5 conferences go after those last 2 at large bids. Oswego appears prime to take one of those spots, but their infamous yearly December/January skid hasn't happened yet, so we will have to wait and see how that shakes out. The NESCAC is a total free or all (as per usual) and well see if someone in the CNE or NCHA slips up. Worth noting Aurora has already played both St Norbert and Adrian this year and went 3-1 so there place at the top is much more secure compared to the others.
The SUNYAC went 2-5 in Non-conference matchups for this past month which not very good. Granted 2 of those include Morrisville and a 3rd game involved canton losing to nationally ranked Hamilton, but still some lackluster results from the teams we typically consider actually good in the conference. They now have the 4th best OOC record behind the NESCAC, the WIAC, and the NCHA. The UCHC and CNE are not far behind as the SUNYAC has a 0.541 win % whereas the other 2 have a 0.536 and 0.524 win % respectively. In fact 2nd-6th place in the OOC standings are just separated by roughly 0.04 % points so for now it's anybody's guess as to how the at large bids will shake out, especially with the pairwise still being in a very wacky state for now. Given the poor results from some of the SUNYACS midfield teams, a clear divide has formed between the top 2 of Hobart and Oswego compared to everyone else so we will mostly only see those 2 unless one of the other teams pulls off a upset. As for the UCHC, you could honestly flip a coin for who's 3rd place between St John Fisher and Chatham, so I will split the UCHC into the top 4 of Geneseo, Utica, Chatham, St. John Fisher, and then everyone else.
Notable Wins:
#15 CNE Endicott beats #14 NESCAC Bowdoin at home. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
#8 NESCAC Hamilton beats #10 UCHC Utica on the road. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
Unranked NESCAC Trinity beats #7 CNE Curry on the Road. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
Notable Losses:
#9 UCHC SUNY Geneseo loses to unranked NESCAC Amherst at home. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
#5 CNE UNE loses to unranked NESCAC Tufts on a neutral site. You might be surprised to see the NESCAC on here considering I wasn't planning on talking about them much. We'll cover that a little bit later.
#10 UCHC Utica loses to #8 NESCAC Hamilton at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.
#3 NCHA St Norbert loses to unranked WIAC UW Eau-Claire on the road. This loss combined with other developments around D3 probably lowers the odds of the NCHA being a 3 big league again by a noticeable amount especially with how crazy the math can be out west sometimes.
#7 CNE Curry loses to unranked NESCAC Trinity at home. Already been mentioned, but still has to be noted here.
Monthly Winner: The NESCAC
The NESCAC hasn't been a multi-bid league since 2017, so I assumed that would be the same situation this year and we'd only mention them occasionally if the upset someone. They have shown that may not be the case anymore this year. With an 13-4-4 OOC to start the year. This includes some massive wins over Babson, Utica, SUNY Geneseo, UNE, and Curry. Hamilton still appears to be the class of the league for now but if the NESCAC can keep up these OOC results. Another team from the 'CAC may be joining them in March. I will now be analyzing and talking about them going forward unless they are brought back down to earth which could very well happen.
Monthly Loser: The Utica Pioneers
Currently Utica is #10 in the polls, but with a 5-5 record they're on thin ice. While 7 loss teams have received at large bids to the tournament recently, they were either NEHC or CNE schools, leagues that usually had a 3 headed monster at the top of the standings, and often had teams in the 4th or 5th place range knocking on the door. The 2025-2026 UCHC is nowhere near those past leagues. While Chatham and St John Fisher has surprised most people with how well they're doing, Geneseo has had some questionable results this year despite their current ranking(I personally think they're gonna be unranked next week after losing to Naz and Amherst) but they also needed OT to beat Buff State. Utica essentially has to run the table because one more regular season loss will firmly plant them in conference championship or bust territory despite their strong OOC schedule. Keep in mind they still have to play Oswego (who they will beat because Oswego cant win in that building regardless of the opponent) Geneseo x2, Chatham x2, and St John Fisher x2. It's certainly plausible for them to go 7-0, but it's certainly not guaranteed either.
Summary:
The race has gotten tighter than I would've imagined. While I wont confirm it yet, it appears more than likely the UCHC may be a 1 bid league this year if Geneseo continues to have these results and if Utica slips even once again during the regular season. The NCHA and CNE can still possibly be 3 bid leagues this year although I highly doubt both will get 3 bids. I do think both leagues are near locks for at least 2 bids barring a disaster, so it will be interesting to see the now 5 conferences go after those last 2 at large bids. Oswego appears prime to take one of those spots, but their infamous yearly December/January skid hasn't happened yet, so we will have to wait and see how that shakes out. The NESCAC is a total free or all (as per usual) and well see if someone in the CNE or NCHA slips up. Worth noting Aurora has already played both St Norbert and Adrian this year and went 3-1 so there place at the top is much more secure compared to the others.
Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Interesting post, thanks. Sums up the weekend nicely.
Utica is indeed hanging by a thread for a possible AL berth. A very thin thread, at that. Turns out that they over-scheduled early on, but that's hindsight. Had they split those first four games they'd be in solid shape right now.
Oh well, I'll have enough good teams in my neck of CNY to pull for in the PS in any case, and there's plenty of RS left for UU to turn the ship around. Thing is, they almost need to win out at this point, as you said.
Boy, this post did not age well. I think someone once said if you have three goaltenders, you don't have any. Less than a month later, this is how I feel about the Cardinals. They continue to rotate three guys and none of them have looked like a #1. It will be interesting how things play out.... does one or two of them leave over semester break?
Russell Jaslow
Registered User
So what does it mean if you have five goaltenders like Air Force?
When everyone at the institution is on a scholarship........So what does it mean if you have five goaltenders like Air Force?
Lord_Zubin
Puck Flattsburgh!!!
The excelsior scholarship is still alive and well, although ur household income has to be less than 125k to qualify. Considering the costs of hockey in general I would imagine a lot of NY hockey kids wouldn't qualify, its probably one of the main reasons only cortland and brockport have seem to taken advantage of it. Most other suny schools do not have that many NY'ers on their rosters