NORTHFIELD, Vermont (November 24, 2009) – Even last year’s NCAA Division III national tournament championships round did not feature four of the top 10 nationally ranked teams.

UW-Stout will participate in the PrimeLink Northern Shootout in Northfield, Vt, where all four teams are ranked in the top 10. Stout (4-2-2) is ranked seventh, and will face host Norwich University (2-0-0) at 7 p.m. (ET), Friday, Nov. 27. Third-ranked SUNY-Plattsburgh (6-1-0) will meet ninth-ranked Middlebury College (1-0-1) earlier that day at 4 p.m. (ET).

The third place game will be Saturday, Nov. 28 at 4 p.m (ET) and the championship game will follow at 7 p.m. (ET).

The Shootout began in 1998 as an eastern school-only tournament. Beginning in 2006, a team from outside the immediate area has been invited to participate in the tournament. St. John’s was the first western team beginning in 2007. St. Thomas participated last year and Stout is the first NCHA team invited to the tournament. No western team has yet won the tournament. Middlebury won the Shootout last year, with a 3-2 win over Norwich.

The national champion has come out of the PrimeLink Shootout seven of the last 11 years.

All of the games will be available in a live video stream produced by students from the Center for Communication and Journalism at SUNY-Plattsburgh.

While he will not be broadcasting this weekend, Matt Kaskavitch, the voice of Blue Devil hockey, will be traveling with the team to Vermont. As usual, Kaskavitch will be providing up-to-the-minute information over Stouthockey.com and through the Twitter site.

PrimeLink was established in 1997 and is a local exchange carrier offering advanced telecommunications services. Along with local and long distance telephone service and high speed internet access for residential customers, PrimeLink offers a wide selection of services for businesses.

————-  Courtesy of Layne Pitt

As mentioned above, you can follow the team like never before right here on Stouthockey.com.  Find up-to-the-hour updates by clicking on ‘Twitter’ on the top of the page, or going to http://www.twitter.com/stouthockey.