Thursday, September 29, 2011
Polls Split on Preseason No. 1
The 2011-12 college hockey season figures to be wide open, based on two preseason polls released Monday.
Notre Dame and Miami hold down the No. 1 positions in the USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls, respectively. Seven teams received first-place votes in the two polls, which feature a total of 77 voters.
While disagreeing on the top spot, the two polls featured the same teams in their top five: the Irish, RedHawks, North Dakota, Denver and Boston College. Defending NCAA champion Minnesota Duluth ranks eighth in the USCHO poll and 10th in the USA Today poll.
In fact, the same teams – but in different order – occupied the top 14 in each poll. All but one of those 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament last year, with Boston University (10th in the USCHO poll, sixth in the USA Today poll) being the lone exception.
Thirty-seven of the 58 Division I programs received at least one vote in the two polls.
The college hockey season kicks off this weekend with primarily exhibition games on the slate. Lake Superior State will visit Alabama-Huntsville for the only two regular-season games on the schedule.
The season begins in earnest next weekend, with action highlighted by the Ice Breaker Tournament at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. That event will feature two top-five teams in North Dakota and Boston College, defending Atlantic Hockey champion Air Force and Michigan State in the first games of Tom Anastos’s tenure as head coach. All games will be televised on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network and Fox College Sports.