2025–26 NCAA Division III men's ice hockey season

The 2025–26 NCAA Division III men's ice hockey season began on October 31, 2025, and will conclude on March 29, 2026. This is the 53rd season of Division III college ice hockey.

Regular season Season tournaments Tournament Dates Teams Champion Buffalo State Bengals Classic October 31–November 1 4 Chatham Key City Classic October 31–November 1 4 Aurora Woo Cup October 31–November 2 4 Worcester State LayerEight Shootout November 28–29 4 Norwich Superior Showdown November 28–29 4 Dubuque Terry Moran Invitational November 28–29 4 St. John Fisher Utica Thanksgiving Showcase November 28–29 4 Hamilton Bowdoin/Colby Classic November 29–30 4 Bowdoin Skidmore Invitational November 29–30 4 Tufts Tampa College Hockey Invitational January 1–2 4 Geneseo Codfish Bowl January 2–3 4 Massachusetts Boston Comfort Inn Complex Winter Classic January 2–3 4 Amherst NSB Holiday Tournament January 2–3 4 Nazareth Oswego Holiday Classic January 2–3 4 Babson The Lobster Pot January 2–3 4 Bowdoin Boston Landing Invitational January 3–4 4 Nichols

Realignment Carrying through on an announcement that had been made in the summer of 2024, the Little East Conference formally supported ice hockey beginning with this season. The return of Keene State's program a year earlier gave the conference six active ice hockey programs, the minimum number required to secure an automatic qualifying bid for the NCAA tournament. The five other active teams, Plymouth State, Southern Maine, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth and Vermont State Castleton, announced their departure from their previous conferences for this season. The six full Little East members were subsequently joined by three other teams, Babson, New England College and Norwich, as affiliate members while a seventh full member, Western Connecticut, announced that their ice hockey program would be starting this season.

The majority of the new LEC members had come from the New England Hockey Conference and left the NEHC severely reduced. While the league still had enough members (seven) to retain the league's automatic NCAA qualifier, the remaining clubs started looking for their own way out. In the spring of '25, Hobart and Skidmore agreed to join SUNYAC for this season while Albertus Magnus and Elmira departed for UCHC. Around the same time, Salem State also left the NEHC, joining its primary conference, MASCAC. The lone remaining team, Salve Regina, was unable to find a home for this season, however, they did eventually reach a deal to rejoin the Conference of New England in 2026.

Beloit - Northland With the closure of Northland College following the 2024-25 academic year, the entire ice hockey program was transferred to Beloit College. The eligible players, staff and administration were all moved and Beloit assumed Northland's place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

New programs Aside from Western Connecticut and Beloit, two other Division III programs were founded this season. Both Hiram College (independent) and St. John Fisher University (UCHC) played their first games this year. Additionally, Roger Williams University revived its ice hockey program, having last fielded a varsity team in 1998. The +4 change brought up the number of active programs to 91. Because the ratio of programs to NCAA seeds had recently been changed from 6.5:1 to 6:1, this meant that there were now enough active teams to merit fifteen spots for the 2026 tournament, increasing the number of at-large bids from four to five. Despite this, the NCAA tournament was not expanded and remained at 14 teams.

Standings

Note: Mini-games are not included in standings

Player stats

Scoring leaders

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

Player Class Team GP G A Pts PIM Junior Assumption 33 34 31 65 51 Junior Adrian 28 12 37 49 18 Sophomore Saint Mary's 25 21 25 46 4 Senior Massachusetts Dartmouth 25 21 24 45 24 Senior Chatham 27 18 27 45 28 Freshman Wisconsin–River Falls 27 26 17 43 6 Sophomore Hobart 31 11 32 43 8 Senior Hobart 31 21 21 42 6 Junior University of New England 28 19 23 42 18 Junior University of New England 27 11 30 41 19

Leading goaltenders

GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Player Class Team GP Min W L T GA SO SV% GAA Senior Hobart 10 561 9 0 0 9 6 .942 0.96 Senior Hobart 21 1207 20 1 0 20 7 .951 0.99 Junior Salve Regina 19 1046 14 4 0 27 4 .940 1.55 Freshman Endicott 27 1619 21 4 2 44 5 .933 1.63 Sophomore Bowdoin 24 1452 17 6 1 41 4 .940 1.69 Sophomore Assumption 17 1033 14 1 2 30 2 .953 1.74 Senior University of New England 27 1564 20 7 0 46 5 .918 1.76 Freshman Albertus Magnus 11 848 4 2 0 10 0 .934 1.79 Junior Hamilton 28 1666 20 5 2 51 5 .924 1.84 Junior Anna Maria 24 1440 17 4 2 45 2 .944 1.87

NCAA Percentage Index The NCAA Percentage Index (NPI) are a statistical tool designed to approximate the process by which the NCAA selection committee decides which teams get at-large bids to the 13-team NCAA tournament.

The NCAA committee began using the NPI for Division III ice hockey in 2024–25, having previously used a similar metric called the PairWise Rankings (PWR). The PWR remained in use for the Division I level.

The NCAA Percentage Index is the tool used to select teams for the national collegiate ice hockey tournament for Men's and Women's Division III. Only results from games between Division III teams are used. The contribution of each individual game is weighted by a factor of 1.1 for a road win or home loss and 0.9 for a home win or road loss. Factors involved are 1) the team's weighted winning percentage; 2) the weighted average percentage of the team's opponents NPI;

A team's record is based only on games against other Division III hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament.

+ NCAA Division I Men's Hockey PairWise Rankings Rank Team Conference 1 66.668* 49.435 SUNYAC 2 59.211* 49.851 CNE 3 58.493* 52.665 NESCAC 4 58.428 53.525 UCHC 5 57.778* 50.637 WIAC 6 57.667* 47.141 Independent 7 57.636 50.371 NCHA 8 57.627 51.253 NCHA 9 57.497* 50.645 CNE 10 57.478* 50.694 NCHA 11 57.383 53.644 NESCAC 12 56.641 52.130 UCHC 13 56.625 49.791 LEC 14 56.315* 51.242 SUNYAC 15 56.271* 49.947 LEC 16 55.484 50.421 MIAC 17 55.409 53.748 NESCAC 18 55.244 50.485 NCHA 19 55.088* 47.818 UCHC 20 54.887* 46.753 MASCAC 21 54.669 51.959 UCHC 22 54.274 50.647 CNE 23 54.167 54.272 NESCAC 24 54.154 49.888 CNE 25 54.061 50.449 MIAC 26 53.800 50.950 WIAC 27 53.277 54.144 NESCAC 28 53.010 48.583 MAC 29 52.841 53.695 NESCAC 30 52.793 52.292 NESCAC 31 52.583 49.932 MIAC 32 52.417 48.221 MAC 33 52.414 49.079 LEC 34 52.221 50.588 MIAC 35 52.121 50.427 SUNYAC 36 51.923 50.528 LEC 37 51.899 50.672 SUNYAC 38 51.864 50.284 WIAC 39 51.740 50.839 MIAC 40 51.723 49.768 UCHC 41 51.340 51.079 WIAC 42 51.315 46.674 MASCAC 43 51.282 48.886 MAC 44 51.225 47.619 MASCAC 45 50.923 50.708 SUNYAC 46 50.873 50.748 WIAC 47 50.805 53.365 NESCAC 48 50.688 48.475 MAC 49 50.455 53.895 NESCAC 50 50.208 49.049 LEC 51 50.082 51.327 NCHA 52 50.041 54.098 NESCAC 53 49.717 50.211 UCHC 54 49.315^ 51.740 UCHC 55 49.250 51.242 CNE 56 49.027^ 51.054 SUNYAC 57 48.917 50.372 LEC 58 48.593 50.221 MIAC 59 48.442 50.617 NCHA 60 47.936 51.233 CNE 61 47.875 48.568 LEC 62 47.278 50.347 MIAC 63 46.818 51.250 NCHA 64 46.791^ 50.336 SUNYAC 65 46.563 48.352 MAC 66 46.453 49.854 LEC 67 46.196 49.955 MASCAC 68 46.180 48.754 MAC 69 46.121^ 53.415 UCHC 70 46.066 51.941 CNE 71 45.682 51.941 NCHA 72 45.682^ 50.110 SUNYAC 73 45.672 51.867 NCHA 74 45.307 46.877 MASCAC 75 45.095 51.567 MIAC 76 44.689 50.311 NCHA 77 44.592^ 53.388 UCHC 78 44.477 46.498 MASCAC 79 44.421 50.265 CNE 80 44.278 50.012 MIAC 81 44.268 50.037 LEC 82 43.243 49.702 MAC 83 43.227^ 51.633 SUNYAC 84 43.067^ 50.817 CNE 85 43.054 48.772 MAC 86 41.669 48.024 MASCAC 87 41.499^ 49.601 WIAC 88 41.000^ 51.779 SUNYAC 89 39.849^ 50.695 LEC 90 39.114^ 49.240 MASCAC 91 36.628^ 49.973 Independent * A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating a weak opponent. ^ A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove positive effect from losing to a strong opponent. Note: A team's record is based only on games against other Division III hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament.

2026 NCAA Tournament

See also 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season 2025–26 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season

References

External links