By Benet Pols
Back in November while the rest of us recuperated from
Thanksgiving or threw ourselves headlong into a holiday shopping frenzy,
college hockey players returned from just one day off to resume play on a
weekend of invitational holiday tournament play. For NESCAC this meant
out-of-conference play began in earnest. Likewise New Year’s weekend tournament
play puts players back on campus long before their classmates.
No team in NESCAC worked harder on Black Friday than the Middlebury Panthers
who, in the opening game of the Primelink Shootout, played what is arguably one
of the two toughest out-of-conference opponents a NESCAC team will face this season:
Norwich.
The Panthers advanced to the Primelink final after a shootout. The result went in
the standings as a 1-1 tie, but gave Middlebury the right to face Plattsburgh, arguably
the other of the two toughest opponents to be seen by NESCAC teams this season.
The Panthers succumbed 3-1.
Between November 24th and January 7th
there is only one full weekend of NESCAC play; during that time NESCAC men’s ice
hockey teams play a total of 56 games, 47 of them are against out-of-conference
(OOC) opponents. Outside this six-week
period NESCAC teams play just 12 games OOC.
What does OOC play mean? For some teams it’s an opportunity
to renew long-standing regional rivalries that predate conference play, for
others it’s a nod back to the days when NESCAC and the ECAC-East played an
interlocking schedule. Geography plays a role too, with some, like Amherst, taking the
opportunity to test the waters against teams from the western reaches of D-III
hockey while others, like Bowdoin, work on building regional rivalries with new opponents.
Underlying it all is the question of strength of schedule.
Strength of schedule is one of the key factors in determining who gets into the
NCAA playoffs in March. It is also a key factor in determining which teams host
and which teams travel during the first two rounds of NCAA play. With just 11
teams qualifying for the NCAA tournament in D-III play, and eight of them earning
automatic qualifiers as a result of conference tournament play, competition for
the last three at-large spots is fierce. Often enough the selection committee
will be choosing among several seemingly deserving teams and will have to rely
on strength of schedule, and play against regionally ranked opponents, to
decide who gets in and who gets shut out.
Put more simply for a team---in any conference---looking to
be considered for post season play a win against an OOC opponent that has done
well is worth more than a win against an OOC opponent that has been regularly
shelled. The flip side of the coin: a team can build an OOC schedule against a
group of very strong competitors and then lose every game. The OOC scheduling
game is a balancing act. Among the factors considered are geography, tradition,
coaching relationships, and strength of schedule.
As the 2013 season worked its way to a conclusion last
spring it was obvious that strength of schedule would likely mean that
only the NESCAC tournament champion would advance to the NCAAs. Strength of schedule
would eliminate any runner-up no matter how good their regular season record.
Geography
Within NESCAC Colby, Bowdoin and Hamilton are the most geographically isolated.
But Hamilton’s isolation from the rest of NESCAC on the west
leaves it sitting squarely at the geographic heart of two well-regarded
conferences: the SUNYAC and the ECAC-West. This year Hamilton has managed to
put together one of the more competitive OOC schedules. The Conts face
traditional SUNYAC and national power Plattsburgh State, along with resurgent
Geneseo State. In addition they’ll face-off against the ECAC-West’s Utica
College, an NCAA semi-finalist last season. Depending on how the Buck holiday
tournament unfolds this weekend the Conts will see either
ECAC-W power Hobart, or familiar Williams. In either event, it’ll be a game
against a quality opponent.
Geography is less kind to Bowdoin and Colby. At the eastern
extreme of the NESCAC, no D-III college hockey is played further north or
further east. The conferences closest to the two teams from Maine are the
ECAC-E, the ECAC-NE and the MASCAC. While the ECAC-E is competitive and
features national power Norwich, the other two conferences are lightly
regarded. For the time being neither Colby nor Bowdoin has an OOC schedule that
will draw raves.
Long-standing traditions
Located about 60 miles apart and an
hour and half’s drive through the Middlebury gap, Middlebury and Norwich have been meeting
since 1926 when Middlebury took the opener, 2-1, in a year that saw the Panthers
win their first Vermont State Championship. Since then they’ve met another 145
times with the most recent being a barn burner that ended in a 1-1 tie with
Middlebury advancing by virtue of a shootout victory.
The Panthers
hold an 80-58-8 series advantage but, including November’s game, the Cadets have
had their way recently going 5-0-2 in the last seven meetings. In March when
games against regionally ranked opponents will be all the talk, the Primelink
game will be seen as a tie, but for now it counts as a win for NESCAC.
Adding an interesting wrinkle to the Norwich Middlebury
rivalry is the distinct culture of the two schools. While many of NESCAC’s
traditional rivalries seem like sibling rivalries---after all, Bowdoin
 |
| What Norwich students think happens at Middlebury. |
and
Colby are cut from nearly the same cloth and legend has it that a disgruntled
Williams employee founded Amherst---Norwich and Middlebury are much different.
 |
| What Middlebury students think happens at Norwich. |
On the west side of the Middlebury gap you have Middlebury College, the epitome
of the eastern elites, its founders descended from the founders of Yale University,
but on the other side of the gap in Northfield, Norwich’s progenitors are the
closely shorn drill sergeants of a military school.
Middlebury has won eight---yes 8---national championships. From
1995 to 1999 and again from 2004 to 2006 the Panthers took home all the
hardware. The Panthers most recent NCAA appearance was in 2010; the Panthers,
seeded second in NESCAC, took the tournament championship and the NCAA automatic
qualifier at Bowdoin with a 3-2 win. Middlebury was eliminated in the first
round by Plattsburgh (3-2, OT).
Norwich has three NCAA championships with wins in 2000, 2003 and most recently
in 2010. Since winning it all in 2010, the Cadets have made Final Four
appearances in each of the last three seasons before bowing out in the
semi-final match each time.
 |
Hockey has been played at Norwich for a long time. This
team predates the Cadets first game against Middlebury,
a 2-1 Panther win in 1926. |
“Legendary” gets tossed around the D-III hockey reaches a lot
when talking about coaches, but in the cases of these two coaches it is
deserved. In addition to their 11 NCAA Championships both Norwich’s Mike
McShane and Middlebury’s Bill Beaney are members of the “500 club.” McShane’s
record comes in at 640-322-60 while Beaney’s is 584-240-55. In addition, McShane
has DI head coaching experience with time at St. Lawrence and a long
stretch at Providence in his background.
Coaching relationships, the Colby connection
Relationships between coaches also plays an important part developing out-of-conference
rivalries. Compared to Bowdoin versus Colby. Bowdoin’s OOC conference rivalry
with the University of New England is just a baby.
UNE, an hour south of Bowdoin on I-95, is in just its fifth
season playing varsity hockey. Its Coach, Brad Holt, is the Biddeford Maine
School’s first and only head coach. Playing in the ECAC-East, UNE has yet to
host a home play-off game.
As a result of the old interlocked schedule between NESCAC
and the ECAC-East, Bowdoin and UNE began play in 2009-10, UNE’s first varsity
season. When the interlock ended after the 2011 season, Bowdoin and
UNE stuck with the relationship adding a home-and-home series; the teams
typically meet for midweek contests in November and then again in January.
UNE’s Coach Holt played for his father, the
legendary Charlie Holt at UNH in the late 1970s. He recalls coming back to
Durham after long weekend road trips against some other national DI powerhouse
only to have to board the bus for Brunswick for a Tuesday night game against
the Polar Bears: a game where a win meant little, but a loss was always an
alarming possibility. Grumbling to his father about why UNH kept Bowdoin on the
schedule after all these years the elder Holt would respond: the relationship is
too important.
 |
While Sid Watson was known around small college hockey
for wearing a fedora, his good friend Charlie Holt of UNH
fame also kept his head covered. Holt started his coaching
career at Colby in 1960. No word on whether
Holt's son Brad at UNE in the ECAC-E will
bring it back in style. |
Coach Charlie Holt and Bowdoin’s Sid Watson cut their
coaching teeth against one another in the 1960s when Holt coached at Colby. The
relationship continued when Holt was hired by UNH in 1968. For decades the two
coaches ran a six-week summer hockey program in Brunswick known as “The Clinic.”
It regularly featured coaches from other hockey powers and the counselors
always included top players from UNH’s roster.
Coach Holt’s assistant during Brad Holt’s years at UNH was
Watson protégé Bob Kullen, Bowdoin ’71. Kullen had been Co-Capt of the Polar Bear’s first ECAC-Championship
team, which defeated UVM in 1971 to claim what was then the ECAC D-II
championship.
For Brad Holt his relationship with “Kully” was crucial to
his success as a player at UNH. UNH made two NCAA DI final four appearance
during Brad Holt’s playing years. At any level, a player-coach relationship
between a parent and child is fraught with potential landmines but Kullen, who
succeed the elder Holt as Head Coach at UNH in 1986, made it all work.
In 1983 when Terry Meagher took the reins at Bowdoin the games
between D-I UNH and Bowdoin continued even though, by 1984, UNH had joined
Hockey-East, the premiere eastern DI hockey conference, which played an interlocking western
schedule with heavy travel.
Bowdoin owns an all-time record of 21-49-3 against the Wildcats,
with the most recent match, in 1990, resulting in a 9-5 UNH win.
Building
new traditions
UNE’s program is primed for growth and while the
Nor’easters have yet to take a game from Bowdoin, Coach Holt sees progress and
looks forward to a day when D-III hockey in Maine means more to those from
away than just Bowdoin and Colby. With their ECAC-E travel partner, the
University of Southern Maine Huskies located just 17 miles away in Gorham, just outside of Portland, Coach Holt sees the potential for the four programs
to jointly host holiday tournaments, or a Maine State Championship.
Both Bowdoin and Colby currently play USM in home-and-home series. Last season
UNE traveled to Waterville and nearly took out the Mules who had to rally to tie the
game with just 6 seconds remaining in regulation.
Not playing Colby this season was clearly a disappointment for UNE. Even so, Coach Holt looks to upgrade the schedule every year. This season the Nor’easters
added three games against teams from the lower reaches of the mighty SUNYAC.
In an early season trip, UNE tied Canton (not yet playing a
full SUNYAC schedule but working toward admission to the conference) and defeated
Potsdam. For Potsdam, playing UNE in its home opener at the newly renovated
Maxcy Ice Hall, the 6-3 loss to UNE must have come as a rude surprise. UNE
takes on Morrisville State in Biddeford on January 4th.
But UNE is also turning heads within the ECAC-E. Just
before the break UNE picked up 3-1 win over then 6th ranked Babson
in Biddeford.
A look around the sparkling new
Harold Alfond Forum at UNE
shows that in terms of student amenities UNE can match the best of NESCAC, or
any other D-III program. When Coach Holt refers to the rink as a “student
centered place” he’s not just talking about the 50+ skaters on the Nor’easter’s
men’s and women’s ice hockey rosters. The Forum also hosts the exercise
physiology department, along with other programs that support UNE’s many
medical arts programs, the basketball arena, the fitness center, and a full service grill.
 |
The Harold Alfond Forum at UNE is a student centered place.
The building houses academic offices and facilities
for the exercise physiology program as well as the
basketball court, hockey rink, fitness center and the athletic
administrative offices. There's a full service grill so spectators
can eat a real meal. Public skating is held on Friday
nights before home games. |
While the Alfond Forum, opened in 2012, is an obvious indication of the newness
of UNE’s hockey program—they played in the Biddeford municipal rink for their
first few years—it’s not the only thing that sets them off from their NESCAC
brethren.
Bowdoin, founded in 1794, and Colby, founded in 1813, are both older than the
State of Maine itself. Bowdoin’s Watson Arena is its second on-campus ice
arena, while Colby’s own Alfond Rink opened way back in 1955 (named for the
same family, there are also Alfond ice hockey facilities at the University of
Maine at Orono, at the Kent’s Hill School in Maine, and at Eaglebrook in MA).
UNE was founded in 1977 when the New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
merged with St. Francis College of Biddeford to form UNE. The small St. Francis
College, originally founded as a Franciscan high school and junior college, had
been granting Bachelor’s degrees since only 1953. A 1996 merger with Westbrook
College gave UNE a Portland presence along with expanded programs. Known for
it’s medical arts programs, UNE has the state’s only medical school, it also
runs a successful pharmacy program and the State’s only
dental school. UNE serves more than 8,000 students including about 4,000 undergraduates.
NESCAC’s out-of-conference play to date
How have NESCAC teams done to this point?
At this point 28 of the 49 OOC games have been played. NESCAC
stands at a very healthy 17-8-3 overall, but is 2-3 against ranked opponents
Plattsburgh, Norwich, Babson, and Utica (each in the top 15 of the December 16th polls for both USCHO and D3hockey.com). When other quality opponents including
Hobart, Manhattanville and Castleton State are considered, NESCAC’s overall
record is 5-5.
At this point there’s very little to be gained from analyzing
the teams individual records. NESCAC’s two ranked teams have played just one
ranked opponent. Williams and Babson, tied at #7 according to the most recent
USCHO poll met in December 1 with the Ephs taking 3-2 win. The night before #15 Amherst dropped a
2-0 contest to the Beavers.
Middlebury, in the top 15 in the early weeks of the season,
is 0-1-1 with a loss to #1 Plattsburgh and a tie with #5 Norwich.
Bowdoin, Colby, Trinity and Wesleyan are a combined 12-1-2
but have faced weaker competition. Bowdoin particularly has raked up some gaudy
numbers, scoring 22 goals in four OOC games while giving up just 7.
Which NESCAC Team plays the hardest OOC schedule?
1. The
Hamilton Continentals.
Good arguments can be made for Middlebury and Williams but
because the Conts finished low last year the nod for courageous scheduling goes
to Clinton.
The Conts, 1-0 in OOC play, with an easy win over lightly regarded Canton early
this season, will face a real challenge on January 3rd when they
take on #1 Plattsburgh in the Buck Supply Winter Classic.
Williams is also playing in the Buck tourney in Plattsburgh
so there’s a chance Hamilton will meet the Ephs in the second round of the
Buck. The Ephs would likely be looking for revenge as the Conts blemished the
undefeated Ephs with a tie on Dec 6th in Clinton. Otherwise, the
Conts may face Hobart, last season highly regarded in both the national rankings
and in the ECAC-West standings. The Statesmen were ranked as high as 8th this November but are a misleading 2-4-4 so far. Hobart has already played
Utica three times and is 1-1-1 with the loss coming in OT. With the exception
of a surprising 6-2 drubbing at Wesleyan, each loss has been by one-goal; six
of their 10 games have gone to overtime.
At the end of the month the Conts will host Geneseo,
currently ranked 12th, before traveling to #9 Utica. Geneseo State has surprised a lot of folks in the SUNYAC with a 7-1 conference record, including a win against perennial power Oswego
Four of five OOC games for Hamilton involve highly regarded,
ranked teams.
2. Middlebury.
It’s tough not to credit Middlebury with the toughest OOC
schedule when you realize they’ll play Norwich and Plattsburgh twice each this
year. The Panthers surprised the then second ranked Cadets by advancing to the
final of the Primelink Tournament with their shootout victory. The shoot-out
gave the Panthers a crack at Plattsburgh the following night. The Cards, now
ranked first by USCHO were then sitting in third place, put away
Middlebury with a big first period.
In mid-January the Panthers will see both teams again as part of their Lake
Champlain hell weekend. The Panthers host #1 Plattsburgh on the 17th and travel to #5 Norwich the following night.
This weekend, in the Middlebury Holiday Tourney the Panthers host in-state
rival St. Mike's and face a second round game against either well regarded
Neumann, 5-3-2 overall (ECAC-W), or the USM Huskies (ECAC-E), coached by Bill
Beaney’s brother Jeff.
If the Panthers meet Neumann this weekend, five of their six OOC games will have
been played against serious competition.
3. Williams.
The Ephs have nearly as strong a schedule playing four tough
games in six OOC contests. Only Johnson & Wales of the ECAC-NE should be
considered weak. Manhattanville cracked the NCAA regional rankings late last
season.
The Ephs defeated Babson 3-2 on December 1st. The Beavers and Ephs
currently share the seventh spot in the USCHO rankings.
In the Buck tournament Williams will play Hobart first and either top ranked Plattsburgh or Hamilton on the second day.
4. Amherst,
a clear fourth.
The Lord Jeffs have beaten St. Mike’s 4-0 and lost to 7th ranked Babson 2-0. This weekend in the Norwich New Year’s Tourney, the Jeffs
will face off against Plymouth State. Currently fifth place in the
MASCAC with a 3-3 record, Plymouth is 4-6 overall. Opening night, Norwich hit
double digits against the Panthers in a 10-4 win. The Jeffs second night opponent will be either
Norwich or Milwaukee School of Engineering. Milwaukee is 1-10 overall, and 1-7
in the NCHA. If the Jeffs get by Plymouth a game against Norwich is likely;
that would certainly boost their OOC argument.
Amherst wraps up OOC play at the end of the month when they travel west to take
on Concordia (8-3-1 overall, 3-2-1 and third place in the MAIC) and
Lake Forest (5-6 overall, 4-4 and fifth place in the NCHA).
5. Connecticut
College.
The Camels own the 5th toughest OOC schedule.
They’ve already lost to both ranked Utica and well-regarded Manhattanville by
big scores and dropped a 1-0 contest to Salem State from the MASCAC. The Camels
will finish off with games against Canton, powerhouse Oswego (13th),
and ECAC-NE cellar dweller Curry.
6/7 Colby
and Bowdoin.
With very similar OOC schedules because they jointly host a thanksgiving event,
which included UMass Dartmouth and Suffolk, the Mules and Polar Bears also
typically face off against fellow Pine-Tree Staters USM and UNE. But Colby has
foregone the meeting with UNE this year to play in a Holiday Tournament hosted
by Salem State. The Mules beat Wentworth 5-3 on January 2nd and face Babson, who defeated Salem State, for the Championship on January 3rd. With Babson ranked 7th the Mules get the nod over their traveling partner from
Brunswick in the OOC stakes.
What separates Bowdoin and Colby from the teams with even weaker OOC schedules
is the fact that both UNE and USM play in the ECAC-East. Along with NESCAC, the
ECAC-E is one of the most competitive D-III conferences in New England.
8. Tufts.
The Jumbos barely avoid the label for the weakest OOC schedule. Both Castleton
and Manhattanville are solid, if not glittery, programs in solid conferences. In addition, the
Jumbos may also face UMass Boston in weekend tourney play. The Jumbos lost to
Becker, beat Castleton State, lost to Manhattanville and face Southern New
Hampshire University this weekend in tourney play. Their second game will be
against either UMass Boston or Suffolk. The Jumbos close out OOC play against
Suffolk.
The rear.
Wesleyan and Trinity bring in the least competitive OOC
schedules. Each team plays just one OOC game against a historically strong
team; their remianing five games are against decidedly weak teams.
Wesleyan handed Hobart it’s worst loss of the season and has also dealt
with Stonehill and Salve Regina but tied Wentworth.
They’ll close down their OOC schedule with games against New England College and
Canton.
Trinity’s toughest opponent has been Manhattanville, whom they beat 6-3, but the
Bantams suffered a weird loss to Stonehill. With wins against Salve Regina and
Wentworth, they’ll close out with Becker and Western New England College.
Over the next three days, 17 NESCAC OOC games will be played. What they
each mean will become clearer in late February and March when the jockeying for
“Pool-C” slots in the NCAA tournament begins.
Overall (Conference Rank) Conference Games (conf. rank)
