Utica One of Four Left for Division III Men's Frozen Four This Weekend

The final weekend of the NCAA Division III men's campaign is here, with just four teams left to compete for the national title.

The semifinals will be held tomorrow in Lake Placid, N.Y., with No. 2 Norwich taking on No. 3 Oswego, and No. 4 Wisconsin Eau Claire facing fellow Frozen Four rookie No. 7 Utica. The championship game will take place on Saturday.

Norwich has won three national titles in its history, while Oswego won it all in 2007 and was runner-up to St. Norbert last year. Eau Claire topped both St. John's (Minn.) and No.1 St. Norbert to open this year's tournament, while ECAC West regular-season champion Utica ousted No. 5 Bowdoin last weekend in its NCAAs debut.

More on Utica and its quest for its first national title can be found here.

ADDENDUM: Utica fell to Wisconsin Eau Claire on Friday by a 5-1 score. The Blugolds will now take on Oswego, a 6-3 winner over Norwich, in the NCAA Division III title game on Saturday. Utica finishes the campaign at 21-6-1 overall.

Pioneers Last Team Left in ECAC West This Season

It's up to Utica to carry the ECAC West banner into the 2013 NCAA Tournament, in the Pioneers' first-ever appearance in the nationals.

Team captain Evan Chlanda and company get back to work after winning the league regular-season title, but falling to Manhattanville in the conference semifinals. The Pioneers will face the winner of Mass-Dartmouth and Bowdoin on Saturday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.

Neumann, which went 14-2-1 overall down the stretch, claimed the 2013 ECAC West Tournament title with a 3-0 victory over visiting Manhattanville on Saturday. The win wasn't enough to get the Knights into the NCAA Tournament, however, as the league does not have an automatic bid for its postseason champion.

Full story can be found here.

Utica Earns NCAA Division III Tournament Berth

Utica, which finished second in the ECAC West this season, has advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time ever. The Pioneers were one of three schools that earned an at-large-bid when the selections were announced tonight, along with Norwich and Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Earning automatic bids to the national tournament were Adrian, Babson, Bowdoin, Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Oswego State, St. John's (Minn.), Wentworth, and two-time defending champion St. Norbert.
 
No. 9 Utica (20-5-1 overall) fell in the ECAC West semifinals in overtime to No. 14 Manhattanville, which ultimately lost to No. 12 Neumann, 3-0, in the league title game on Saturday night. The ECAC West champion, however, does not receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament. Eighth-ranked Hobart, which won the ECAC West regular-season title but fell to Neumann in the conference semifinals, was also denied an NCAA bid.

Utica will now host the winner of Bowdoin and Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Saturday at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The semifinals and championship game will be held on March 15-16 at Herb Brooks Ice Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y.