It's not easy to get wins in the North Country
of upstate New York, but Colorado College didn't lose in its
pair of games at Clarkson, and retained the top spot in the
latest INCH Power Rankings. Don't believe us about that difficulty
of getting wins up there? We'll direct those questions to
the folks in New Hampshire. They'll vouch for our statement.
Here's how the Inside College Hockey editors
and staff rank the nation's top teams (along with a note for
each team).
| No. |
Team |
|
Of
Note |
| 1. |
 Colorado
College |
— |
Is Chad Rau the early leader in the Hobey race? The
senior forward has scored a goal in five of the Tigers'
six games and in the one match in which he didn't light
the lamp, he picked up three assists. |
| 4-0-2 (2-0-0
WCHA) LAST WEEK: T at Clarkson, 1-1 ot; T at Clarkson,
2-2 ot. THIS WEEK: at Denver, vs. Denver |
| 2. |
 Minnesota |
 3 |
The Gophers play nine of their next 12 at home; one
of the "road" games is Saturday's tilt against
Minnesota State at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. |
| 3-0-1 (3-0-1
WCHA) LAST WEEK: T at Wisconsin, 2-2 ot; W at Wisconsin,
5-2. THIS WEEK: vs. Minnesota State, vs. Minnesota State
(St. Paul, Minn.) |
| 3. |
 Boston
College |
1 |
The Eagles are 4-0-1 in their last five games against
Vermont, including a win in last year's Hockey East championship
game. The last Catamount victories came on a weekend sweep
of the Eagles in January 2007. |
| 3-1-0 (1-1-0
Hockey East) LAST WEEK: W vs. Vermont, 3-2. THIS WEEK:
vs. Merrimack, at Merrimack |
| 4. |
 Boston
University |
2 |
BU's seven-goal spree against Michigan tied its highest
output at Agganis Arena. The Terriers will be without
freshman Vinny Saponari for Friday's game at Vermont,
as he received a DQ for fighting late in Saturday's win. |
| 4-1-0 (1-1-0
Hockey East) LAST WEEK: W vs. Michigan, 7-2. THIS WEEK:
at Vermont |
| 5. |
 Denver |
 3 |
Freshman Patrick Wiercioch (that's pronounced WEER-kosh)
scored a goal in the Pioneers' loss to Ohio State Saturday.
The 6-foot-4, 185-pound defenseman has four goals and
two assists in five games. |
| 4-1-0 (2-0-0
WCHA) LAST WEEK: W vs. Ohio State, 3-1; L vs. Ohio State,
4-3. THIS WEEK: vs. Colorado College, at Colorado College |
| 6. |
 New
Hampshire |
3 |
UNH had only allowed three goals in their first four
games, and then St. Lawrence scored four on Sunday night.
A bigger concern might be that New Hampshire has scored
only five goals over its last four, since opening the
year with a 5-1 win over Wisconsin. |
| 3-1-1 (1-0-1
Hockey East) LAST WEEK: T vs. Massachusetts, 1-1 ot; L
at St. Lawrence, 4-1. THIS WEEK: vs. Northeastern, at
Northeastern |
| 7. |
 Northeastern |
5 |
The Huskies have allowed a total of eight goals over
their first six games. That's the efficient way to a 5-0-1
record. Seniors Ryan Ginand and Dennis McCauley have scored
three goals each to lead the team in that category. |
| 5-0-1 (4-0-0
Hockey East) LAST WEEK: W at Maine, 5-0; W at Maine, 2-1.
THIS WEEK: at New Hampshire, vs. New Hampshire |
| 8. |
 Princeton |
1 |
Six different Princeton players scored the six goals
in an exhibition game victory, but sophomore defenseman
Cam Ritchie had four assists in the game. |
| 0-0-0 (0-0-0
ECAC Hockey) LAST WEEK: W vs. Western Ontario, 6-2 (Ex.).
THIS WEEK: at Brown, vs. Ontario IT (Ex.) |
| 9. |
 Miami |
5 |
Freshman goalie Cody Reichard earned his first career
shutout Friday, stopping all 29 shots he faced in a 2-0
whitewash of host Notre Dame. |
| 3-1-2 (3-0-1
CCHA) LAST WEEK: W at Notre Dame, 2-0; W at Notre Dame,
3-2. THIS WEEK: vs. Alaska, vs. Alaska |
| 10. |
 Minnesota
State |
1 |
The yin to Minnesota's yang, the Mavs are
on the road for nine of their next 12. That doesn't include
Saturday's match against Minnesota in St. Paul, which
is technically Mankato's home date. |
| 3-1-0 (1-1-0
WCHA) LAST WEEK: Off. THIS WEEK: at Minnesota, vs. Minnesota
(St. Paul, Minn.) |
| 11. |
 Michigan |
4 |
The Wolverines' special teams were anything but in Saturday's
7-2 loss to Boston University at Agganis Arena. Michigan
was 2-for-12 on the power play; the Terriers scored on
five of their nine extra-man opportunities. |
| 4-2-0 (1-1-0
CCHA) LAST WEEK: W vs. Niagara, 4-2; L at Boston University,
7-2. THIS WEEK: vs. Ohio State, vs. Ohio State |
| 12. |
 Michigan
State |
1 |
Don't use Jeff Lerg's 2-2-1 record as an indication
of how he's played so far this season. His goals-against
average (1.58) and save percentage (.947) are sensational. |
| 3-2-1 (1-0-1
CCHA) LAST WEEK: T vs. Northern Michigan, 2-2 ot; W vs.
Northern Michigan, 2-0. THIS WEEK: vs. Western Michigan,
at Western Michigan |
| 13. |
 St.
Cloud State |
3 |
The Huskies' power play is 10-for-25 in their three
wins, and 1-for-24 in their three losses. |
| 3-3-0 (0-2-0
WCHA) LAST WEEK: L at Bemidji State, 4-2; W at Bemidji
State, 5-3. THIS WEEK: vs. Minnesota Duluth (St. Paul,
Minn.) |
| 14. |
 Notre
Dame |
6 |
The Fighting Irish are off to a subpar start, but consider
this: after a Nov. 7 game at Boston College, Jeff Jackson's
team might not face a ranked team until Jan. 30, when
Michigan comes to town. |
| 2-3-0 (0-2-0
CCHA) LAST WEEK: L vs. Miami, 2-0; L vs. Miami, 3-2. THIS
WEEK: at Northern Michigan, at Northern Michigan |
| 15. |
 Cornell
|
— |
Exhibition opponent Western Ontario pulled its goalie
and tied the game with 27 seconds left in the third period.
Headed for OT? Nope. Brendon Nash scored on an assist
from his brother Riley with six seconds left to win it. |
| 0-0-0 (0-0-0
ECAC Hockey) LAST WEEK: W vs. Western Ontario, 4-3 (Ex.).
THIS WEEK: Off |
| 16. |
 Air
Force |
3 |
Just when we thought it was safe to take the name "Lamoureux"
off our spell check: Jacques Lamoureux had 3-1—4
in the Falcons' sweep of American International, giving
him 8-6—14 through six games. |
| 6-0-0 (4-0-0
Atlantic Hockey) LAST WEEK: W at American International,
5-2; W at American International, 3-1. THIS WEEK: vs.
Bentley, vs. Bentley |
| 17. |
 Vermont |
3 |
The Cats have allowed three goals in three straight
games, and have a win, tie, and loss in that stretch. |
| 2-1-1 (0-1-0
Hockey East) LAST WEEK: L at Boston College, 3-2. THIS
WEEK: vs. Boston University, at Dartmouth |
| 18. |
 Clarkson |
— |
Goals were tough to come by in a weekend series against
Colorado College as the teams combined for just six lamp-lighters
over 190 minutes of play. Scott Freeman factored in on
two of Clarkson's tallies, including scoring the game-tying
goal in the third period of Saturday's game. |
| 1-1-2 (0-0-0
ECAC Hockey) LAST WEEK: T vs. Colorado College, 1-1 ot;
T vs. Colorado College, 2-2 ot. THIS WEEK: vs. Carleton
(Ex.) |
| 19. |
 Alaska
Anchorage |
NR |
Forward Josh Lunden was the only UAA skater last season
to score more than 10 goals. In six games this month,
five Seawolves have picked up three or more goals —
Lundin, Kevin Clark, Paul Crowder, Tommy Grant, and Craig
Parkinson. |
| 4-1-1 (1-0-1
WCHA) LAST WEEK: W vs. Minnesota Duluth, 4-3; T vs. Minnesota
Duluth, 1-1 ot. THIS WEEK: at Michigan Tech, at Michigan
Tech |
| 20. |
 St.
Lawrence |
NR |
The Saints took advantage of their first home game of
the season with a 4-1 win over a top-five team. Not too
shabby after starting the year with two close losses at
Michigan and road wins over Niagara and RIT (off campus). |
| 3-2-0 (0-0-0
ECAC Hockey) LAST WEEK: W vs. New Hampshire, 4-1. THIS
WEEK: Off |