News and opinion on the past season In Division III:
MIDDLEBURY COMPLETES THREE-PEAT - The small school hockey world has been dominated by the Panthers of Middlebury college for the past three seasons. Since the time the goaltending tandem of Chris Farion and Francois Bourbeau arrived, the Panthers are an amazing 71-7-4 and have won three consecutive national titles. Bourbeau has a record of 35-1-2 in his three years at Middlebury, while Farion, a first team All-American, is 36-6-2 and has been in net for all three national championships. With the dynamic duo both slated to return for their senior seasons, Bill Beaney's Panthers will be in the hunt again next year.
TOLL WINS D-III "HOBEY", THEN TURNS PRO - Rochester Institute Of Technology's Steve Toll finished up an amazing season, scoring 84 points (39 goals, 45 assists) in 30 games for the Tigers (21-7-2) , who reached the NCAA quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Middlebury. Toll, a junior, had six hat tricks, including four in a row to start the season. He became the first underclassman to ever win the American Hockey Coaches Association's (AHCA) College Division Player of the Year, sometimes known as the "D-III Hobey". Toll elected to forgo his senior year and signed with Raleigh of the ECHL. He will also play professional box lacrosse in Canada this summer.
NESCAC WEIRDNESS - The New England Small College Athletic Conference, which is a subset of the ECAC East and includes teams like Middlebury, Bowdoin and Colby, has two more years to make up their minds about post-season participation. Until the 1993-94 season, teams in the NESCAC, which sponsors no hockey championship of its own, prohibited their teams from NCAA tournament play. An ECAC East title was as far as these teams could go, in the interest of "academic integrity".
Four years ago, the NESCAC relented, sort of. For a three year trial period, their teams could choose to play in either their ECAC playoffs OR the NCAA tournament. As you can imagine, this creates a great deal of confusion for everyone involved. A NESCAC team who did very well in ECAC play must then risk sitting out their playoffs in hopes that the NCAA will still notice them when the dust has settled from the various D-III conference championships around the country. Middlebury has done very well with this arrangement the past three seasons, winning the ECAC East regular season title and then resting up for the NCAA tournament. Other bubble teams haven't been so lucky. Williams (MA) won the ECAC East regular season title in 1993-94 and opted to wait for an NCAA bid. Sadly, due to a string of upsets in other conferences, (especially those that have automatic bids for their champions) Williams was squeezed out of a bid as well as a chance to play in the ECAC playoffs.
This arrangement also affects teams on the bubble for an ECAC playoff spot. The league has 20 teams, and 10 make the playoffs. Teams in the 11th and 12th places, for example, may still get in based on what NESCAC teams above them decide to do. The weekend before the conference playoffs is a real Chinese Fire Drill.
Last year, the NESCAC opted to extend the "experiment" for a another three-year term. There is a very real chance that they may go back to the old system, thus robbing teams like Middlebury from future participation in the NCAAs.
A suggestion for the NESCAC - make up your minds, already. The current system is a joke. Either let your teams play in both tournaments or break from the ECAC East and form a real hockey conference, which can apply for an automatic NCAA bid for its regular season champ.
NEW FACES IN THE FINAL FOUR - In addition to usual powers Middlebury and UW-Superior, two teams made their first appearance in the NCAA D-III semifinals. Norwich (CT), making their first NCAA appearance, upset Plattsburgh State before bowing in two overtimes to Superior in the semifinals.
Also, St. John's (Minn.) defeated Elmira to reach the semis before falling to eventual champ Middlebury by that same 2-1 score. St. John's was the #1 Western seed in the NCAA tournament, the first time that a team from the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) has had that designation.
WHAT WERE THEY SMOKIN'? - Several decisions on seeding and site selection by the NCAA D-III committee seemed strange. Consider:
1. Middlebury was selected to host RIT in the NCAA quarterfinals even though the teams had been tied in the final NCAA poll and RIT had swept Middlebury in Middlebury earlier in the season. The apparent reason was that RIT had lost in overtime to Elmira in the ECAC West championship game the weekend before the NCAAs while Middlebury, a NESCAC school, had been idle (see above). One would think if Middlebury had no post-season performance to consider, it wouldn't be fair to consider RIT's either. Otherwise, RIT would have had to win their tournament playoffs just to keep pace. Strange as it sounds, RIT would have been better off to opt out of their playoffs altogether. This sets a very strange precedent.
2. Elmira (15-8-4) was selected over UW-River Falls (20-11) and UW-Stevens Point (17-8-2). Elmira earned their spot by upsetting RIT to win the ECAC West championship. However, the ECAC West has no automatic bid for their champion, meaning the NCAA did not have to select them over teams with better records.
3. Middlebury was selected to host the Final Four even though Nelson Area seats just over 1,000 fans, there is just one hotel in town, and the trip in requires a 40-mile ride on a two-lane road from the airport in "nearby" Burlington, VT. Middlebury put on a fine show, but wouldn't it make more sense to give the sport more exposure by selecting a larger, more accessible neutral site? One idea that is gaining popularity is to copy lacrosse and hold the D-III championship game on the Friday of the Division I championship week. Folks holding tickets to the D-I games would get free admission to the D-III championships. I think more than 1,000 people would take advantage of the offer, and it would be quite a thrill for the players.
NEW CONFERENCE IN THE WORKS - It looks like there will be a new Division I conference comprised of current "College Division" schools starting play in the 1998-99 season. "College Division" is defined as Division II and III schools, plus a handful of Division I schools electing to play a D-II/III schedule. My sources tell me that Canisius, Quinnipiac, Iona, UConn and Holy Cross are already in. Niagara, AIC and Mercyhurst have also been mentioned. RIT and Elmira are also considering the move, since the loss of Canisius, Niagara and Mercyhurst would doom the ECAC West.
Meetings will be held over the summer, so look for more information in the fall.
Have a great summer, and see you next season!
Chris Lerch
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