The Ultimate Northwood Tournament

By Stephen Reed

Over the course of a typical year nowadays, our boys’ and girls’ hockey teams play in more than a dozen tournaments. The other day I got a note from Jim Sutow ’80 asking what I thought was the best men’s team in my fifty-one years here. A tough question; we’ve had many great ones. After much thought, I came up with the eight squads, which, in my opinion, had the finest seasons. I decided to put them in brackets for a quarterfinal and let our former players weigh in on the merits of each squad.

Meanwhile, I will write about my memories of the various teams as I determine the winners of the imaginary contests. I also invite comments from those who feel that I have unjustly left their own squad out of the tournament. It is a subjective ranking, I admit. My criteria included the accomplishments of each team’s season and the successes in college of its members. The records come from what’s left of my memory; if I am incorrect, let me know.

In any event, here are my quarterfinal matchups: 1987 (27-1-1) vs. 2006 (40-8) 1979 (25-4-1) vs. 1990 (30-6-3) 2016 (45 -5) vs. 1994 (34-5-1) 1988 (28-2-1) vs. 1984 (28-2)