Look at us!
On Monday afternoon, USCHO released their weekly national poll for DI men’s hockey, and the majority of voters selected the Boston College Eagles as their #1 team. With 36 first place votes out of 50, BC climbed from #3 in the rankings to #1, the first time they’ve been in that slot since the 2019-20 season that was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Eagles achieved this ranking with a dominant series sweep over the #8 Michigan State Spartans, who fell to #12 in the new poll. Former #1 Minnesota got swept by Wisconsin, while #2 Denver tied with unranked Augustana, giving BC enough wiggle room to reach the top spot.
This has been one of the best out-of-conference starts for BC men’s hockey in recent memory. Their only loss came to #2 Denver, a close contest that BC let slip away with some costly penalties in the 3rd period. With wins over Michigan State and #8 Quinnipiac, BC is set up nicely in the pairwise rankings to have a good seed when NCAA tournament season rolls around in the spring. But it’s a long season, and there is a long way to go before this team can be confident in any result. Hockey East conference play begins this weekend against UMass Lowell, followed by a trip up to Orono to face #20 Maine, a notoriously difficult place to play. BC will almost certainly lose their #1 ranking at some point, so this early season pressure will be a good test to see if this young team can overcome some adversity. If you want to stay up to date as BC goes through this promising season, be sure to read our Boston College hockey coverage here.
Looking around the conference, #7 Providence and #9 BU are the other big names to look out for. PC received a #1 vote of their own, has a win over #2 Denver, and earned a split with #4 Michigan. The Friars are always a tough team to play and it looks like their squad this year could be extra challenging. Meanwhile, BU has dropped off from their #1 preseason ranking and are fighting through some early season struggles. They split with unranked Notre Dame and went 1-0-1 against #18 UMass this past weekend. Despite the slow start, the Terriers are likely to eventually figure things out.