March 8 — Women’s D-III Primer & Jason Robertson Trivia

Yesterday’s NHL Scores

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Last Night’s News 📰

SIX-CESS: The Toronto Six women’s hockey team of the Premier Hockey Federation is under new, barrier-breaking ownership. The club was purchased on Monday by a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) ownership group featuring former NHLer Anthony Stewart, one-time Jack Adams winner Ted Nolan, women’s hockey great Angela James, and Bernice Carnegie, the daughter of hockey legend Herb Carnegie. 

FOURTH TIME TO 40: For the fourth time in his six-year career, Auston Matthews hit the 40-goal mark. Matthews scored his league-leading tally late in the first period, joining Darryl Sittler as the other Toronto Maple Leafs skater with four 40-goal seasons.

HALF AS GOOD: While Matthews became the first player to record 40, Cale Makar found the back of the net twice on Monday to be the first defenseman to hit 20 goals this season. Makar also added an assist, extending his point streak to 12 games, as the Colorado Avalanche scored four third-period goals to beat the New York Islanders 5-4.

IAN COLE, TOOTH FAIRY: A young Carolina Hurricanes fan with Autism was struggling to adjust to the change of losing her first baby tooth, so her father turned to an unexpected source in reprieve. After showing his 5-year-old daughter a picture of Ian Cole smiling with his missing tooth to calm her down, Lorelai’s father, Taylor, shared the story on Twitter. Much to his surprise, Cole reached out to send Lorelai an autographed jersey and invited her family to a game later this month. 

LUCKY NUMBER 13: Tyler Toffoli made the most of his first Battle of Alberta, scoring two goals as the Calgary Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Monday to extend Calgary’s home point streak to 13. Toffoli, who also notched the game-winner, has seven goals and three assists for 10 points in 10 games since joining the Flames. Johnny Gaudreau added a goal and an assist to give him nine points (three goals and six assists) during a five-game point streak, as the Flames beat the Oilers for the first time in three tries this season. 

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Trivia Tuesday

How Well Do You Know Jason Robertson?

1. Where was Robertson born?
   • Arizona
   • California
   • Michigan
   • Florida
     
     
2. Robertson scored his first NHL goal against which team?
   • Nashville Predators
   • St. Louis Blues
   • Chicago Blackhawks
   • Detroit Red Wings
     
     
3. How many games did Robertson play in the 2019-20 season for the Dallas Stars?
   • 40
   • 15
   • 3
   • 5

Answers can be found at the bottom of the email.

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Trade Deadline Primer: Atlantic Division Wild Cards

Rounding out the Atlantic Division segment of our ongoing NHL trade deadline primer, let’s look at the wild card components. Whereas buyers and sellers are pretty self-explanatory, these wild cards probably require a bit more background. These are the fringe playoff teams that don’t have a clear direction in the coming weeks—they could add win-now talent, they could trade assets, or they could even do both.

In short, these teams carry plenty of intrigue in their unpredictability and adaptability. After all, category aside, isn’t the point of any trade to make your team better?

Boston Bruins

Rest assured, the surging Boston Bruins are playoff-bound (in fact, they’re probably more of a sure thing than the stumbling Toronto Maple Leafs, who we identified as a buyer). The uncertainty of their trade deadline status stems from the situation with Jake DeBrusk, the 25-year-old winger who has held firm with a trade demand even in light of a recent offensive hot streak. It won’t be easy for Bruins GM Don Sweeney to grant DeBrusk’s request while bolstering his roster. It honestly brings to mind Sweeney’s 2018 deadline, when he turned Frank Vatrano into a third-round pick even with Boston on the path toward a 112-point season.

Detroit Red Wings

An exciting start and encouraging steps forward aside, Detroit Red Wings fans should probably focus more on the Calder race than any fleeting postseason hopes they may harbor. That said, could GM Steve Yzerman be poised to surprise us? Stockpiling draft picks and prospects are great, but Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond look further along the development spectrum than expected. Detroit has more than $10 million in cap space, while four key blueliners (Danny DeKeyser, Nick Leddy, Marc Staal, and Troy Stecher) will likely hit free agency this summer.

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Women’s NCAA Division III Tournament Primer

It’s March, which means it’s NCAA Tournament time. That applies to multiple sports, including basketball, wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, and indoor track & field. It also applies to hockey. The NCAA Tournament selection shows for the Division I (D-I) and Division III (D-III) women’s hockey took place on Sunday, and both tournaments will begin later this week.

We at Morning Skate are here to fill you in on the format, which schools are participating, when the games take place, and where you can watch them. Today, we’ll preview the women’s D-III tournament, and tomorrow, we’ll cover the D-I tournament.

The D-III tourney consists of 10 teams. Seven teams received an automatic bid by winning their conference tournament, while the final three teams received at-large bids from “Pool C,” consisting of independent schools and those that did not win their conference. Since the event has been canceled the past two years due to COVID-19, Plattsburgh State is the reigning champion, last winning in 2019.

Participants

Schedule

All tournament games will be at campus sites, with the host of the Championship confirmed on March 12, following the conclusion of the Quarterfinals. Although the games won’t be on television, some will be streamed via webcast (check ncaa.com for details). All times shown are Eastern, and you can view the bracket here.

Wednesday, March 9 (First Round)

GM 1: Aurora @ UW-River Falls (8:00 PM) | GM 2: UW-Eau Claire @ Gustavus Adolphus (8:00 PM)

Saturday, March 12 (Quarterfinals)

GM 3: Endicott @ Middlebury (3:00 PM) | GM 4: Elmira @ Nazareth (3:00 PM) | GM 5: Colby @ Plattsburgh St. (3:00 PM) | GM 6: GM 1 Winner @ GM 2 Winner (4:00 PM)

Friday, March 18 (Semifinals)

GM 7: GM 3 Winner @ GM 4 Winner (TBD) | GM 8: GM 5 Winner @ GM 6 Winner (TBD)

Saturday, March 19 (Championship)

GM 9: GM 7 Winner @ GM 8 Winner (7:00 PM)

Players to Watch

Annie Katonka, Plattsburgh State
A fifth-year senior forward, who won a national championship with Plattsburgh as a sophomore, led the D-III in goals and was second in points with 55. With 20.5% of Plattsburgh’s markers on the year, Katonka is a significant reason the Cardinals led the nation in goals this season with 156.

Callie Hoff, UW-River Falls
The only player with more points than Katonka this season was fellow fifth-year senior Hoff, who led the nation in assists (with one more than teammate Abigail Stow). Hoff and Stow led the Falcons to 155 goals, accounting for 21.9% of the team’s tallies.

Sophia Merageas, Middlebury
Only a redshirt freshman, Middlebury’s goaltender has been consequential as the catalyst behind the success of the unbeaten Panthers. Having allowed the fewest goals in the nation this season (min. 600 minutes played), Merageas gave up 14 goals in 17 games while leading the league in goals-against average and tying for first in save percentage.

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Trivia Answers

1. California
2. Chicago Blackhawks
3. 3 Games

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NHL Standings

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NHL’s Leading Scorers

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Today’s NHL Schedule

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• Today’s newsletter was edited by Kyle Knopp, with contributions by Ben Fisher, Kristy Flannery, and Brooke LoFurno.
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