The weekend of November 16^th,2024 was yet another exciting and turbulent weekend of Division 3 College Hockey, albeit with the biggest headlines taking place over in Minnesota (Aurora/Adrian Series) rather than in New England; however, top ranked teams like Hobart still had business with the future LEC programs. As alluded to in my post over on my X, these articles will be truncated like last season’s Hockey East articles.

               Plymouth State was back in action with their first MASCAC game of the season on Friday night at home against Worcester State. The Panthers did what they’ve been known to do in the conference by outshooting the Lancers 54 to 14 and defeating them by a margin of 8-2.  The heroes of the evening were Ethan Stuckless and Cam Patton who recorded 4 points each in the contest. Dante Moretti also contributed 2 goals to the cause, where Will Pray and Matt Hale had multi-point outings for the team. Overall, the team looked as sharp as ever; however, Brandon Shantz’s 85.7% save percentage may be a cause for concern, but it may have just been an off night in net.

               Babson’s weekend would follow in the footsteps of UMass Boston a week ago with a pair of matches against Salve Regina. Friday night’s contest was tightly contested through the opening two periods, as the two teams managed to effectively trade goals in the opening forty minutes. Early in the third period of Friday night’s game, Ryan Murphy gave Babson a 3-2 lead; however, Logan Calder, Walter Baumann, and company managed to rally Salve Regina to a 5-3 victory in the contest. Saturday’s contest was a wild ride that saw Babson get the offense flowing early and often, as 7-4 lead early in the third period, which they managed to defend to pick up a big 7-6 win. Jimmy Fallon starred with a hat trick, but a 3-assist night from Wyatt George, and multi-point offerings from Brendan Kennedy and Will Holland were essential in picking up the win. Mason Rosado had a tough night posting an 82% save; however he outdueled Cayden Bailey early, and he grossly outdueled Selby Warren late to secure the win for Babson.

               For the second consecutive Saturday, Keene State and UMass Dartmouth would be facing off, this time; however, they would be doing so in Keene. Like their previous contest, this game was evenly paced through the first two periods as both teams traded goals back and forth. It wasn’t until the third period that the Corsairs were able to extend their lead to two by a measure of 5-3, before eventually winning 6-4.  In the loss, Keene State saw strong performances from Marcus Chrisafideis (2 goals) and Kyle Gonzalez (2 assists). Umass Dartmouth once again received a monolithic performance from Colin Patterson as he recorded a hat trick and as assist. Not to be ignored, Nolan Wutzke contributed 4 points (1G), Lane Ruffner had 3 assists, and Tyler Stewart also netted to goals in the victory.

               Hopping in the wayback machine, Keene State had two earlier games in the week on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday night saw the Owls pull out a clutch 3-2 OT win against Southern New Hampshire University. The Owls got out to an early 2-0 lead but were unable to secure it to the end of regulation, but Sean McBride completed the victory in Overtime, his second point of the night. Also of note, Artur Dzhilavyan was fantastic with a 94.3% save on the night. On Thursday night, they traveled to Westfield State for a rematch of the prior Thursday contest. Westfield State opened the scoring up in the second period by bulldozing their way to a 3-0 lead, that Keene State was unable to surmount, dropping the contest 4-2, despite late goals from Corey Tumenas and Thor Hansen.

               NEC and Norwich met for a pair of contests in Henniker, NH this weekend for a couple of solid NEHC contests, that will soon be LEC. On Friday night, Sami Molu (Norwich) and Anthony Beaulieu (NEC) put on a goaltending clinic posting save percentages of 97.2% and 97.0% respectively of a 1-1 game that required a shootout. In regulation, Clark Kerner (NOR) and David Novotny (NEC) were the players who managed to tally the goals. In the shootout, Egor Osipik managed to beat Molu to pick up the win for NEC. Saturday’s rematch was also tightly contested in goal; however, Beaulieu was without flaw, stopping 31 of 31 enroute to a 2-0 win for NEC. Paul Waldhauser scored what ended up being the game winning goal ten minutes into the third period with an assist from Novotny (Novotny also added an empty-net insurance marker later).

               UMass Boston would have their biggest test of the season with a pair of road games against #1 ranked Hobart College. On Friday night, Chris Repmann struck first for UMB, but he also struck last, as they would surrender 7 unanswered goals, and drop the contest 7-1. Saturday’s contest would not go much better, as Hobart were score the first 5 goals of the game, extending their streak of goals to 12 before Kolye Bankauskas would cut the lead to 4. Jack Motson would bring the deficit to 3, before Hobart would seal the final score of the game at 6-2. Worth noting for UMB is that Sal Carabelli did post a 94.4% save in relief in the third period.

               Castleton spent their weekend playing a series of games with Albertus Magnus. On Friday night, they played an even contest, where Albertus was simply able to get two goals in the third period, and played solid team defense to pick up a 3-2 regulation win. Dylan Roebuck and Andrew Stefura had the goals for Castleton, while Josh Ward had a respectable 90.2% save on the game. On Saturday, Castleton’s offense found its groove early, scoring three goals in the opening two periods, but it was not enough, as they fell 4-3 in overtime on a clutch goal from William Lavigne. In both games, Castleton failed to have a multi-point scorer; however, Dominic Rodrigue was phenomenal in goal posting a 92.1% save by stopping 47 of 51 shots from Albertus.

               Overall, Plymouth State, following its big-name non-conference showdowns to open the season, is looking locked in to once again bring the hammer down on their MASCAC “rivals”. Babson’s split with Salve Regina is great for confidence, and it spells that this team has the scoring depth to be a factor in their conference down the stretch. UMass Dartmouth’s true potential won’t be clear until after their December 5^th showdown with Plymouth State; however, we do know that Colin Patterson is one of the best players in the MASCAC for the second year in a row and gives the Corsairs a chance to win every night. Keene State continues to be a difficult team to read, but they’re picking up wins at a consistent pace, and are not getting blown out in the games they lose, which is great for a new program at this level. NEC needed those wins against Norwich to get their feet under them after two tough losses to open the season, and they know that their goaltending will lead the way the rest of the year. Norwich would’ve liked to pick up more than a single point in the series against a struggling NEC offense, but their goaltending was solid, and they know they can score after their series against Albertus Magnus the weekend before. UMass Boston just needs to keep their head up and forget about the last two weekends against juggernaut opponents in Salve Regina and Hobart. Castleton won’t have much time this weekend to put their pieces in place with Skidmore on the horizon, but they’ve hung in games against Hobart and Albertus Magnus the last two weekends, and clearly are capable of more. Even if they don’t win against Skidmore this coming weekend, they should have a pallet cleanser against MCLA on Black Friday at the Terry Moran Invitational.

• Christian