It’s no secret that one of Adrian College’s most successful sports on campus is the hockey program. Here at Adrian College, there are 7 total hockey teams. That includes men’s and women’s NCAA D3, as well as a D1 and D2 ACHA or club level team for both men’s and women’s. The seventh team is a men’s ACHA D3 team. All of these teams play inside the Arrington Ice Arena, located right next to Docking Stadium and The Merillat Sport and Fitness Center.
For this article, we are going to focus on the highest level of hockey here on campus, the NCHA (NCAA) teams as they will be hosting the quarter finals this upcoming weekend.
Coming up this weekend is an exciting quarterfinal matchup in the Slaats Cup Playoffs as the Adrian College women’s NCHA team enters the tournament ranked number 2. In the quarter finals, Adrian College will be facing off against number 7 Trine University in what is essentially a continuation of their series last weekend. There, they played a home and home series with Trine in which they won both games the first one was a 9-0 win at home and the very next day they won 7-0 in Angola, Indiana. The Bulldogs will play their first game against Trine at 2:00 PM on Friday, and the second game at 1:00 PM on Saturday. If the Bulldogs win in the quarterfinals they will participate in the semifinals on March 1st. With the Bulldogs ranked at #2 that means that the only team that would host them if it came down to it is St. Norbert who is ranked #1 and they would only meet in the championship on March 8th.
For the men’s NCHA team, they play in the Harris Cup Playoffs this weekend where they will host their first matchup against #5 ranked Milwaukee School of Engineering, or MSOE. It is a common theme that when coming into an 8 team playoff bracket the matchups never get closer than 4-5, and that is what we get this weekend between these two teams. Earlier this year these 2 teams played in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a 2 game series, in that series we saw the bulldogs come out victorious in both games as they won the first game 5-2 and the second game 7-5. For most people this looks like another series that looks good for the Bulldogs but coming off a series sweep to Trine last weekend they need to come out strong and win the first game of the series this Friday at 7:00 PM then they will close the series on Saturday at 5:00 PM.
The quarterfinals for the NCHA conference cups has an interesting rule, because it is a 2 game series there is no obvious tie breaker however if the two teams are tied going into the end of the second game where each team has won one game it comes down to one 20 minute period of play with no sudden death goal like a normal overtime.
Don’t forget to visit the Arrington Ice Arena this Friday and Saturday to witness the quarterfinals of the NCHA conference tournament to support your Bulldogs. If you are unable to attend in person, you can also tune in on the Adrian College TV YouTube channel, where every one of these games will be broadcasted with commentary. Don’t forget to support Bulldog hockey as they look to end their season strong.
