Even though all the top seeds ended up advancing, NEWHA had, BY FAR, the wildest first round. Two of the three series went to three games, there were four overtimes, and the conference flirted with complete and utter chaos.

The Franklin Pierce – Sacred Heart series was the closest by goal differential and also the most pedestrian. A lot of that is because it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if either team advanced.

Post lost by a combined score of 11-2 in a January series with Stonehill and after a 7-1 first game it looked like that would continue. And then they took a 3-1 lead 5:40 into the third period of game two and it looked like we might be heading for an improbable game three. Stonehill would eventually tie things up, but Post made them sweat for an entire overtime and change before allowing the winner and Stonehill to advance.

St. Michael’s won one game all season. They had never beaten St. Anselm in their program’s history. Then they did it in game one. How? Two power play goals from a unit that had converted just 7 times in 94 tries to that point. Like Post they took a 3-1 lead, but then got a key fourth goal which would eventually be the winner.

Which is impressive enough. St. Anselm won game two 8-0 and it looked like they’d cruise the rest of the way. But. St. Michael’s NEARLY DID IT AGAIN. They had a 2-1 lead heading into the third period of the deciding game and held it for almost 14 minutes before St. Anselm equalized. The Hawks would get the winner late in the first overtime, ending what might have been the biggest upset ever in the history of D1 college hockey.

Whew. The fun thing about the remaining teams is no one wanted to kill any penalties. Don’t let St. As and Stonehill’s numbers fool you — those are adjusted to include the fact that they traded shorthanded goals like Pokémon cards.

Games are tomorrow, March 1st.

#1 Long Island vs. #4 Franklin Pierce

It’s tough to make much out of the second series, which came on the final weekend of the season. Long Island had wrapped up the top seed by then and didn’t have anything to play for.

Last week on NEWHA

Long Island avoided all the drama by getting the bye.

Franklin Pierce got a bit of a scare from Sacred Heart. Still, the Ravens largely outplayed the Pioneers and the goals finally came in the deciding game.

Keys

Long Island – Shore up the defense. Long Island didn’t allow Franklin Pierce many chances, but the Ravens sure took advantage of the ones they did.

Franklin Pierce – Don’t let Long Island dominate the puck.

Prediction

Long Island 3-2

#2 St. Anselm vs. #3 Stonehill

Stonehill had the most successful inaugural season since…uh…Long Island a few years ago. The Sharks won the NEWHA tournament that year and the Skyhawks are looking to replicate that. Stonehill’s lone victory over the regular Hawks came on the strength of three second-period power-play goals. At that point the Skyhawks were up 5-0 and it was all but over.

Both teams scored as many shorthanded goals as they did powerplay goals in the season series, 3 for Stonehill and 2 for St. Anselm.

Last week on NEWHA

St. Anselm was getting the fear of God put into them by St. Michael’s.

Stonehill was getting the fear of God put into them by Post.

Keys

St. Anselm – Discipline. The Hawks are currently the NCAA’s only 100/100, 1,000/1,000 team for 2023 — 100 goals scored and allowed, 1,000 shots for and against. The Hawks are going to get their chances…and they’re going to give you plenty too.

Stonehill – Play a normal game? I dunno, three of the games between these two were weird. Game one had three shorthanded goals scored back to back to back in the second. There were no power play goals in that period or the game. Game three saw Stonehill take a 2-0 lead only for the Hawks to score the next 5, including 2 on the power play which I might have declined at that point. Game four was 8-3.

Prediction

Hell I don’t know, St. Anselm 6-4