By Wayne Coffey - DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

NEW HAVEN, Conn.- Bob Gerencser is a 65-year-old salesman who lives in Cheshire, Conn.and has probably seen more Yale men's hockey games than anyone on earth. Gerencser grew up playing at Ingalls Rink, the home of Yale hockey, and has been a season-ticket holder at Ingalls for nearly 30 years, a span in which he has experienced a handful of stellar seasons and quite a few more that were something short of stellar.

"In some of those years, you could have your pick of just about any seat in the arena," Gerencser says.

When Yale was going 6-20 and finishing near the bottom of the ECAC in 1987-88, Gerencser was there. When Yale went 5-25-2 in 2004-05, Gerencser was still there. You can imagine how different things seem to him now, as 2010 has turned into 2011, and Bob Gerencser's Yale Bulldogsare not merely 11-1, but the unanimous choice as the No. 1 team in the country.

They've been playing hockey at Yale since 1895, which was even before Chris Chelioswas born. The Yale hockey team had never been ranked No. 1 in the nation until three weeks ago. Suddenly, tickets at 3,500-seat Ingalls are almost as hard to come by as Yale admissions, and the jokes around college hockey about the inferior level of play in the ECAC (or the EZAC, as it is sometimes called by its detractors) have quieted. Gerencser still can't quite fathom it, though the architect of the team's astonishing ascension, coach Keith Allain, is much more circumspect.

"It doesn't matter if we're ranked first or 105th," says Allain, who was in the Yale class of 1980 and played goaltender for coach Tim Taylor- the man he succeeded as coach five years ago. "We have to work hard every day and win games."

Says Brian O'Neill, a senior winger from Yardley, Pa., "I guess it's cool being No. 1 in the country, but it doesn't really mean anything until April."

Yale has forged its torrid start with the highest scoring attack in the nation (the Bulldogs average just under 5 goals per game, more than a goal higher than any other school) and the superb goaltending of Ryan Rondeau, a senior from Alberta. Small and fast and relentless, the Bulldogs have five forwards who are 5-9. They are regularly outsized, but almost never outskated. The puck moves around - four players are averaging 1.5 or more points per game - and rarely stops.

Ken Trentowski is a senior defenseman from Ronkonkoma, L.I.

"We like to say we're the hardest-working team in college hockey," Trentowski says. "We believe nobody can stay with us for 60 minutes."

Allain took over at Yale after an eight-year stay as a goaltending coach with the St. Louis Blues, and previous coaching and scouting gigs in Europe, along with three years as an assistant under Taylor at Yale. He made conditioning and skating a priority, and preached a fast-paced transition game that would appeal to players and spectators alike.

"Being offensive is fun," Allain says. "We'll be better as a team when our guys are having fun. I want everyone who walks into our building to tell how much our (players) love playing by the way they play every night."

Yale had its unofficial coming-out party on the national stage late last March in the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament, when it lost a 9-7 decision to Boston College, the ultimate NCAAchampion, one game short of the Frozen Four. It was the most successful season in Yale hockey history, and with the emergence of goaltender Rondeau, the team looks even more formidable now.

"Keith Allain has done a remarkable job and has built a program that wins on a consistent basis," says Jerry York, the coach of Boston College. "I think Yale is a contender on the national level, for sure."

Yale returns from a three-week break in its season with a game Sunday against Holy Cross. The team remains atop the rankings, and to hear captain Jimmy Martin, a senior defenseman from St. Louis, tell it, will continue to not even think about it. Allain, who will miss the Holy Cross game to coach the U.S.junior team in the world championships in Buffalo, says he has never even brought up the No. 1 ranking with his players.

"We go to the rink every day and try to get better," Martin says.

Such is the goal for now. The greater goal for 2011 is to finish what the team started last season, and bring home the ultimate prize - an NCAA title. "Everybody feels this could be the year," Trentowski says. "It's the driving force for everybody."

Bob Gerencser doesn't have his pick of the Ingalls Rink seats anymore, and has to spend a lot more time on lines at concession stands. He is more than pleased to put up with such indignities. The team he has been rooting for since he played peewee hockey in Ingalls in 1958, has put New Haven on the proverbial college-hockey map. Whoever expected that that would happen?

"I am very proud to be a fan of the No. 1-ranked college hockey team in the nation," Bob Gerencser says.

Friends on & off the ice

Keith Allain is taking a short hiatus from Yale to coach the U.S. junior team at the world championships, which conclude with Wednesday's title game in Buffalo. The director of player personnel for the U.S. side is Tim Taylor, the man who was pushed out after 28 seasons behind the Yale bench to make room for Allain - a former Yale goalie who once played for Taylor.

You'd think the situation would be impossibly awkward, until you find out what the men think of one another.

"He's a very professional, quality coach, and a quality human being," Taylor says. "It's hard to imagine a better guy to work with."

Taylor won six Ivy Leaguetitles, and one ECAC crown, in his time in New Haven, winning more games (333) than any coach in Yale hockey history and becoming one of the most venerable coaches in the sport. His dismissal by athletic director Thomas Beckettin the spring of 2006 after a 10-20-3 season left hard feelings all over the place. When Yale reached out to Allain, his first call was to Taylor.

Taylor, after all, wasn't just Allain's former coach. He was his mentor, the person who encouraged the 52-year-old Allain to try coaching in the first place, after Allain had spent an unfulfilling year in a Proctor & Gamble internship program.

Allain's first question to Taylor, over a cup of coffee that would last almost five hours, was basically, "Should I take the job if it's offered to me?"

Replied Taylor, "It's a great job, and you're a great coach. I'm not going to be coaching there next year. I'd rather have it be you than someone else."

Says Allain, "I'm not sure if it's correct to say I had his blessings, but I guess I did. I probably would've shied away if I hadn't."

Taylor not only gave Allain a complete go-ahead, he actually called his incoming recruits and encouraged them to stick with Yale, telling them the program was in capable hands. Allain lauded Taylor at his introductory press conference, and the admiration continues unabated. Working together is not awkward at all, both men say.

"Any issues I had were not with the players and not with Keith Allain," Taylor says. "I'm extremely proud of the job Keith has done. And I'm proud that, despite our won-loss struggles the last few years (of my time at Yale), that the foundation was there for a good future."