Around the leagues:

         ECAC East:  Action over the holidays saw many teams hosting or 
          participating in tournaments. Middlebury captured their own tournament 
          by defeating Oswego and Salem State, while Babson took the Crusader 
          Classic title by besting Norwich and host Holy Cross....Bowdoin's hard 
          luck continues as they dropped a pair of overtime games to RIT and the 
          host White Mules at the Konica Face-Off at Colby College. The Polar 
          Bears are much more talented than their 1-7-1 record would 
          indicate...The ECAC East will be a 17 team league next season as they 
          lose three teams (AIC, UConn, Holy Cross) to the new MAAC league, but 
          pick up Skidmore, who will move from the ECAC South....Due to 
          scheduling constraints, Salem State and Southern Maine agreed to play 
          their conference matchup as a semifinal game in the Middlebury 
          Tournament. Salem won 4-3, and picked up two points in the ECAC East 
          standings.

         ECAC West:  RIT suffered their first loss of the season to host Alabama 
          Huntsville on 12/20. The Tigers, #1 in the most recent USCHO and NCAA 
          D-III Eastern polls,  had tied the Division II #1 Chargers the night 
          before...Niagara is 5-0 in D-III but 0-6 against Division I opponents. 
          The Purple Eagles have been in most of those games, however, taking 
          Colgate into overtime and forcing Merrimack to come back from a 3-0 deficit.

         SUNYAC:  Just three teams were active over the holidays, participating 
          in four tourneys. Plattsburgh captured their own Cardinal Classic, and 
          Potsdam won the Western Mass. Tourney..... Most teams are off or 
          playing non-conference games for the next few weeks.

         NCHA:  St. Norbert lost their first conference game of the season last 
          weekend to UW-Stevens Point, but rebounded to defeat the Pointers the 
          next night to retain their four point lead in the standings....Lake 
          Forest won their first conference game of the season with a 7-4 upset 
          of Bemidji. The Beavers earned a split with a 7-1 win the next 
          night...UW-River Falls has quietly racked up an 11-2 record and moved 
          into third place in the most recent NCAA D-III West Region Poll behind 
          St. Norbert and Stevens Point.

         MIAC: Last weekend saw plenty of upsets as St. Thomas and St. Johns had 
          to settle for splits with Gustavus and Augsburg, respectively....All 
          of last weekend's series were splits with the exception of St. Mary's 
          impressive sweep of Hamline by a combined 23-0 score. Hamline has been 
          outscored 38-4 in four league contests this season...Bethel's recent 
          success has been aided by goaltender Andy Leafblad, who leads the 
          league in save percentage (.914), and forward Kevin Adam, who leads 
          the MIAC in goals (8) and total points (15).

         ECAC N/C/S:  The only team in action last week was Quinnipiac, who was 
          recently booted from the ECAC South for offering scholarships to 
          players in anticipation of joining the MAAC last season. Even though 
          Quinnipiac told the ECAC of their intent before the season began, the 
          decision wasn't handed down until 12/17. All games played to date 
          against ECAC South opponents are now considered non-conference 
          (Quinnipiac was 6-0-1 in those games).

         Independents: Division II #1 UAH took three of four points against 
          Division III #1 RIT in a hard-fought series in Hunstville back on 
          12/19-12/20. The Chargers scored in the final minutes to earn a tie 
          with RIT in the first game, then jumped to a 3-0 lead and held off the 
          Tigers for a 4-2 win the next night.

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