With just a little over a week passed in the college hockey season, doing a Power Rankings is a task in extreme presumption. After all, our first Power Rankings last year had the eventual Frozen Four teams ranked second, sixth, 10^th and 16^th. Our first No. 1 then didn’t even qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

Knowing that, we reluctantly bestow the top honor on a team who’s been missing them of late, despite their storied past and overcrowded trophy case.

 1. Minnesota (2-0-0): The grain of salt here is that the Golden Gophers opened their season with a twinbill against a weak Sacred Heart team. But outscoring the opposition 15-0 in two games is what we call coming out of the gate on fire.

2. Boston (1-0-0): Terriers goalie Kieran Millan should be on early-season watch lists for the Hobey Baker Award. Stopping all 35 shots New Hampshire threw at him on opening night is a good start to that campaign. It also means the next win Millan posts will give him more than any other goalie to ever don a BU uniform.

3. Boston College (2-0-0): For those who thought that the Eagles would take a small step back this year, convincing 5-2 and 6-2 wins over stalwarts Michigan State and North Dakota should silence some of the doubt.

4. Western Michigan (2-0-0): Outscoring Alabama-Huntsville 11-1 in a weekend sweep showed us two things: UAH may be worse than we thought, and last season’s success in Kalamazoo may not have been such a fluke after all.

5. Michigan (3-0-0): The only mild surprise in their sweep of Bentley was that goalie Shawn Hunwick didn’t post at least one shutout. That goose-egg actually came – with a little help from Adam Janecyk – in Tuesday’s opener, a 5-0 win over Niagara.

6. Union (1-0-0): An 8-1 walloping is a fitting way to start the year for the ECAC favorite. It’s also a good head start, since the conference’s Ivy League schools don’t get going for a few more weeks.

7. Denver (0-0-0): Yeah, the Pioneers whitewashed the U.S. national U-18 squad, but that doesn’t count. Doesn’t matter. They’ll still be the team to beat in the WCHA once their games start counting.

8. Colgate (2-0-0): So Nebraska-Omaha has had this good gig going, where they host a tournament to open the season and invite three very beatable teams to boost their record and/or ego. The problem is, the Raiders had different plans this year, and took the trophy from Omaha in their own barn. Now that’s a better gig.

9. Merrimack (1-0-0): Warriors goalie Joe Cannata holds a high-flying offense to just one goal in a Merrimack win. Expect to see that previous sentence quite often this season.

10. Notre Dame (1-1-0): Give the Irish credit for not scheduling cupcakes. After the opening weekend’s split with the defending champions, the rest of Notre Dame’s out-of-conference schedule includes Boston University, Boston College, Minnesota, Northeastern, Rensselaer and an exhibition against the Russian Red Stars. Feel free to cross-reference that list with our rankings.

11. Minnesota-Duluth (1-1-0): No shame in splitting with what a lot of people had as the top team in the country to start the season, but the Bulldogs will need to see more from their goaltending if they want any chance at repeating.

12. RIT (0-0-1): Okay, so the goaltending and defense are there like we expected, but the offense was nonexistent in the scoreless tie against Niagara. In related news, soccer suddenly seemed exciting.

13. Ferris State (2-0-0): A team expected to be an afterthought in the CCHA quietly went about sweeping St. Lawrence over the weekend. Sure, it’s like beating a four-year-old at chess, but we’ll give the Bulldogs some love nonetheless.

14. Alaska-Anchorage (1-0-1): The Seawolves began the year with two straight overtime thrillers, and survived them both. Quick quiz: which NCAA Division team played in the most overtime games last season? Answer: the eventual national champions, Minnesota-Duluth. Stretch that meaningless coincidence as far as you’d like.

15. Lake Superior (2-0-0): Okay, Lakers, so you got to sweep Alabama-Huntsville to officially open the season the week before last. Enjoy it now. You likely won’t be on this list long.

16. Michigan Tech (2-0-0): Wait, what? Michigan Tech’s undefeated? The Huskies swept someone? Oh, American International? In that case, Michigan Tech, please see the previous note to Lake Superior.

17. North Dakota (1-1-0): For all the Sioux’s successes, they just can’t figure out Boston College, whether it’s in three straight national semifinals or in this past weekend’s Icebreaker Tournament.

18. Miami (1-1-0): Cody Reichard got pounded by Bemidji State on opening night, but his creasemate Connor Knapp righted the ship for Miami to avoid a sweep. We’ll see how long the platoon plays out in Oxford.

19. Colorado College (0-0-0): Sure, the Tigers are undefeated in two exhibition games. Now if they can just keep it going when the NCAA starts counting their records…

20: New Brunswick: The Varsity Reds aren’t in Division I. Heck, they’re not even in the NCAA, but they made a valiant effort to tie Division I resident Massachusetts-Lowell in an exhibition, 3-3, on Nick MacNeil’s goal with one second left in regulation. Bonus points for taking an exhibition game seriously enough to pull the goaltender for an extra attacker. 

THREE STARS

Erik Haula, Minnesota

The week’s performance: Three goals, two assists and a plus-6 in the Gophers’ annihilation of Sacred Heart.

Fun fact: The native of Pori, Finland, is the first European player Minnesota has had since a guy named Thomas Vanek.

Shane Berschbach, Western Michigan

The week’s performance: Three goals, an assist and a plus-5 in big routs over Alabama-Huntsville.

Fun fact: While he was with the U.S. World Junior A Challenge team, he was named to the All-World line. Rumor has it mentioning this is his go-to pickup line. 

Cody Campbell, Niagara

The week’s performance: We’ve made no effort to cover up our admiration for RIT goalie Shane Madolora, but Campbell went shot-for-shot with his counterpart and more, stopping all 30 shots he faced in a 0-0 tie with the Rochester Institute of Techonology.

Fun fact:  Cody is only at Niagara because New Hampshire, the school that recruited him, cut his scholarship.

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college student and hockey fan

Dear Steve,
Perhaps I don’t understand your definition of the term “Power Ranking” but this list has to be a joke right? Not only is this a poorly written article, but also you give no explanation behind the reasoning of your picks (stating the results of the first few games of the season does not count). Do you even watch college hockey or hockey at all for that matter? If you did, you might understand the reason for my confusion. Clearly last season’s results have no weight in your considerations. If the previous season did factor in, there is no possible way that Michigan Tech or Colgate would even come close to making the cut. Last season Michigan Tech tied Alabama-Huntsville with the absolutely embarrassing statistic of only 4 wins for the entire season and Colgate (who not only made this travesty of a list but somehow ended up in the top 10) only did slightly better with 4 conference wins and 11 overall wins. You make no mention of scoring leaders, expected goaltending standouts or coaching staff. One might say this list is based off games played thus far but even then that would be a stretch. Somehow Western Michigan (a team only slightly better than mediocre), sweeping the worst team in the NCAA earns them the number 4 spot, RIT (who had not yet won a game at the time) make the list at number 12 but you say has so far had a nonexistent offence and Denver as well as Colorado College had not even played a regular season game yet. Not to mention the fact that the title of this article is NCAA Rankings but includes a team that is not even in the NCAA. I am forced to conclude you spent less time on this article than I spent writing this comment (less than 10 minutes). I hope for your sake the goal of this website is not to become a reputable source for college hockey news because if it is you are failing miserably.

Jane Wilson , October 16, 2011

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