{"id":3183,"date":"2015-02-27T12:56:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/mens-d3-blog\/?p=3183"},"modified":"2020-08-24T18:53:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T23:53:08","slug":"tournament-picks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Conference tournament picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"ps_captionIns\" aria-describedby=\"caption-ps-captionIns\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/uscho.photoshelter.com\/img-show\/I00000K8K_jJKaDQ\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222-1.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"286\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-ps-captionIns\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drew Fielding will need to be strong in net if St. Thomas is to emerge out of the MIAC as playoff champs (photo: Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men&#8217;s Division III.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>BRIAN LESTER<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>MIAC<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>St. Thomas vs. Hamline: I&#8217;m picking Hamline to knock off Augsburg in the quarterfinal game, which means the Pipers will battle the Tommies on the road Saturday in a semifinal showdown. The Tommies are tough to beat at home. <strong>St. Thomas, 4-2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>St. Mary&#8217;s vs. Concordia (Minn.): The Cardinals are having one of their best seasons in more than a decade. The Cobbers have had a great year as well, but haven&#8217;t played in nearly two weeks. I like the way St. Mary&#8217;s has played in the second half of the season. <strong>St. Mary&#8217;s 5-4<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Championship: St. Thomas will once again be the top team in the MIAC and head back to the NCAA tournament. <strong>St. Thomas, 4-3<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>NCHA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Adrian vs. St. Scholastica: The Bulldogs are a hot hockey right now and have a dangerous offense and a stingy defense. The Saints were nationally-ranked at times this season and are coming off an upset in the opening round. But it&#8217;s hard to bet against the Bulldogs, especially at home. <strong>Adrian, 5-2, 4-2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>St. Norbert vs. Milwaukee School of Engineering: The Green Knights are on a roll, winning five consecutive games, and are determined to defend their NCHA title. MSOE beat St. Norbert once this year, but I think St. Norbert will rise to the occasion this weekend. <strong>St. Norbert, 5-3<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Championship: Adrian is the best team in the NCHA this year and the Bulldogs will be the team holding up the trophy when the tourney is all said and done. <strong>Adrian, 6-4<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>WIAC<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin-Stevens Point vs. Wisconsin-Superior: The Pointers have put together back-to-back 20-win seasons and are hungry for a league tourney championship. Superior will play hard, but Stevens Point is too good of a team to lose this series. <strong>Stevens Point, 5-2, 4-0<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin-Eau Claire vs. Wisconsin-River Falls: This series could certainly go the distance. The Blugolds and Falcons are both playing good hockey heading into the tournament. Eau Claire went 3-0 against River Falls in the regular season. <strong>Eau Claire 4-2, River Falls 4-3, Eau Claire 2-1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Championship: Stevens Point and Eau Claire will duke it out for the title in a showdown between two of the best teams in the nation. But the Pointers are on a mission and I expect them to get the job done. <strong>Stevens Point, 5-4<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>DAN HICKLING<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>All games Saturday<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>ECAC EAST Semifinal<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; #4 Castleton ( 11-15-0, 8-10-0) @ #1 Norwich (22-3-1, 17-1-0). <strong>Norwich 5, Castleton 1<\/strong>. Norwich is on the sort of roll that could land them a spot in the Frozen Four. Castleton happens to be in line for a flattening.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>ECAC NORTHEAST Semifinal<\/strong> <\/span>&#8211; #6 Suffolk (11-12-2) @ #3 Johnson &#038; Wales (14-10-1, 8-6-0). <strong>J &#038; W 3, Suffolk 2<\/strong>. Suffolk got off to one of the best starts (7-0-1) in school history, then fell apart after Christmas. J &#038; W could use a little traction themselves, but chances are they&#8217;ll find some here.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>ECAC WEST Semifinal<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; #3 Nazareth (12-9-5, 7-4-4) @ #2 Neumann (13-8-4, 9-5-1). <strong>Neumann 5, Nzareth 3<\/strong>. As a third year program, the rise of Nazareth has been impressive. Neumann did knock the Golden Flyers off twice, two weekends back and has been strong at home (8-3-1) all season long.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>MASCAC Quarterfinal<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; #4 Westfield State (11-12-2, 8-8-2) @ #6 Worcester State (9-14-2, 7-10-1). <strong>Worcester 4, Westfield 3<\/strong>. Worcester put on a bit of a finishing kick to slip into the league&#8217;s final playoff spot. The guess here is that there is a little more left in the tank.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>NESCAC Quarterfinal<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; # 5 Bowdoin (14-7-3, 8-7-3) @ #4 Williams (14-8-2, 10-7-1). <strong>Bowdoin 3, Williams 2<\/strong>. Could history repeat itself? If so, then the fifth-ranked Polar Bears should prepare for three more upset wins on the way to a second consecutive tourney title.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>SUNYAC Semifinal<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; # 6 Brockport (13-11-2, 6-8-2) @ # 1 Plattsburgh (18-5-2, 13-2-1). <strong>Plattsburgh 6, Brockport 3<\/strong>. Brockport has enjoyed a very nice year, but Platty is not of a mind to make nice. Doubtful the Cardinals are looking past Bport to next week&#8217;s presumed clash (on home ice) with Oswego for the SUNYAC crown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men&#8217;s Division III. BRIAN LESTER MIAC St. Thomas vs. Hamline: I&#8217;m picking Hamline to knock off Augsburg in the quarterfinal game, which means the Pipers will battle the Tommies on the road Saturday in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":96892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1469,1470],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Conference tournament picks - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men&#039;s Division III. BRIAN LESTER\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conference tournament picks - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men&#039;s Division III. BRIAN LESTER\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-27T18:56:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-24T23:53:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"499\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"285\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Mackinder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt Mackinder\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/\",\"name\":\"Conference tournament picks - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-27T18:56:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-24T23:53:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/04922fb89db173792f6f75c37ab66fc1\"},\"description\":\"This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men's Division III. BRIAN LESTER\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg\",\"width\":499,\"height\":285,\"caption\":\"131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Conference tournament picks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men&#039;s and Women&#039;s D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/04922fb89db173792f6f75c37ab66fc1\",\"name\":\"Matt Mackinder\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b056bce2833d30476a5c141f6456941a\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7cb54c63a0c3d2648a18d1bd29bd1ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7cb54c63a0c3d2648a18d1bd29bd1ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matt Mackinder\"},\"description\":\"Managing Editor Matt Mackinder has been moving up the USCHO ladder since 1999. He was the arena reporter for Wayne State for the duration of the team's existence (1999-2008), was also the CHA Correspondent from 2005-2010 and is now the site's managing editor.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/matt-mackinder\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Conference tournament picks - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men's Division III. BRIAN LESTER","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Conference tournament picks - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men's Division III. BRIAN LESTER","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2015-02-27T18:56:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-24T23:53:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":499,"height":285,"url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matt Mackinder","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@USCHO","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matt Mackinder","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/","name":"Conference tournament picks - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg","datePublished":"2015-02-27T18:56:11+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-24T23:53:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/04922fb89db173792f6f75c37ab66fc1"},"description":"This is when Dan and Brian really hope that magic 8-ball works wonders as they pick the nine conference tournaments in men's Division III. BRIAN LESTER","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg","width":499,"height":285,"caption":"131115-UST-UWSP-M-0222.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2015\/02\/27\/tournament-picks-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Conference tournament picks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men&#039;s and Women&#039;s D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/04922fb89db173792f6f75c37ab66fc1","name":"Matt Mackinder","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b056bce2833d30476a5c141f6456941a","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7cb54c63a0c3d2648a18d1bd29bd1ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7cb54c63a0c3d2648a18d1bd29bd1ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matt Mackinder"},"description":"Managing Editor Matt Mackinder has been moving up the USCHO ladder since 1999. He was the arena reporter for Wayne State for the duration of the team's existence (1999-2008), was also the CHA Correspondent from 2005-2010 and is now the site's managing editor.","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/matt-mackinder\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118133,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions\/118133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}