Vegoe’s Top 20 – 11/11/2024
1– Denver
2– Boston College
3– Minnesota
4– Michigan State
5– Colorado College
6– Michigan
7– Maine
8– Boston University
9– Providence
10– Cornell
11– North Dakota
12– Western Michigan
13– St. Cloud
14– UMass-Lowell
15– Ohio State
16– Minnesota State
17– Penn State
18– Dartmouth
19– Harvard
20– Michigan Tech
Who says that sweeps are hard in college hockey? The top four teams in my poll all came away with them this past week as DU swept Lindenwood, Boston College swept Maine, Minnesota swept Wisconsin and Michigan State swept Ohio State. However, the Gophers did need to come from behind against the Badgers in both games and went to overtime on Saturday at Kohl Center. Those four teams will stay on top of my poll for another week.
Another tough weekend for Wisconsin. They were ranked 10th in the opening USCHO Poll of the season, but are now 2-8 on the season. Defenseman Ben Dexhiemer told Todd Milewski on Saturday, “I think we’re all sick of it but everyone’s trying to stay as positive as we can.”.
Looking a little farther down the poll we saw a couple series have overtime results as well, Colorado College stretched their record to 8-0 with a sweep over Arizona State and Michigan swept Notre Dame. I do enjoy the CC media crew getting a little postgame from their coach Kris Mayotte each night — the coach was pretty happy with the weekend Kaiden Mbereko had against the Sun Devils making 27 and 41 saves in the two wins.
What to do with Cornell this week? They outshot Yale 33-10 on Friday, but gave up two power play goals to the Bulldogs and came away with a tie (shootout loss). Then they gave up a first period goal to Brown, but came back to win it late. I’m going to move them down a bit in my poll. Head coach Mike Schafer said in the postgame after the tie , “I’m really disappointed. I’m disappointed in the way our guys prepared. [Yale] bent but didn’t break throughout the game. They didn’t take the penalties they took against Denver [last weekend]. Tip your hat to them and their goaltender for playing well.”
Okay maybe splits are a thing. Boston University got tested playing a home and home with UMass Lowell this week and the two Hockey East teams split the series with road teams winning. UML coach Norm Bazin was frustrated his team let Saturday slip away, giving up all five goals in the second period. Providence in another Hockey East home and home series went to overtime both nights with Northeastern and came away essentially splitting the points.
The NCHC had some big games this weekend as well with North Dakota taking all six points from Minnesota Duluth at Amsoil Arena, St. Cloud State sweeping Miami at the Herb and Western Michigan sweeping Omaha at Baxter Arena.
Looking toward the bottom of the poll, some standout scores were Quinnipiac dropping home games to visiting Dartmouth and Harvard. Coach Rand Pecknold on the weekend, ‘It’s like a broken record. We’re struggling a little bit right now. Confidence wasn’t there. Frustrating, frustrating weekend.” Massachusetts tied and lost at Vermont. Union tied and lost to visiting Alaska. The new teams to my top 20 this week include Dartmouth who are out to a 4-0 start with wins at Harvard, Quinnipiac and Princeton so far this season, Harvard who have only lost a 2-1 game to the Big Green and tied BU in an exhibition and Michigan Tech after their sweep at Ferris State–which moved the Huskies to 6-2 on the season.
Big games this week will be two top ten teams battling at Alfond Arena when Boston University visits Maine for a two game series, another top ten matchup will be Denver traveling to North Dakota for a series at Ralph Engelstad Arena and a battle to stay in the top ten will happen at Lawson Ice Arena with Colorado College visiting Western Michigan. I’ll also be keeping an eye on Cornell as they’ll play two road games against the top teams in ECAC, Dartmouth and Harvard.