Vegoe’s Top 20 – 1/13/2025

Ohio State was one of the risers in my poll this week as they got a big win over Minnesota. The Buckeyes now have some quality wins over the Gophers and Wolverines this season and they’ve largely taken care of business the season. Their book of business has them slotted for a No. 9 NCAA Tournament seed according to PlayoffStatus.com and an 86% chance of making the postseason.

Colorado College was the biggest faller in my poll this week as they were swept at Omaha 5-2 and 3-1. Those were two crushing losses in the Pairwise Rankings and left them with just a 13% chance to make the tournament going forward. Head Coach Kris Mayotte’s team is falling short on results and might be looking at having to make a run in the conference tournament to advance.

“We’re going through it right now. We’re struggling to believe through stretches of the game… this league, there’s no breaks in the schedule, nobody is going to feel sorry for us, we’ve got to push forward and grow from this.”

The other NCHC team struggling right now is St. Cloud State after losing two games on the road to Minnesota Duluth. There is one conference that has puffed out their chest for good reason the last decade, but the Huskies are the league’s third ranked team and they’re chances of making the NCAA tournament are 61% with Arizona State the league’s next team at 55%. 

Friend of the GPLPodcast Brad Schlossman called out some analytics at the break that should have been warning signs. “St. Cloud State has generated a higher even-strength expected goals total in just three of its 17 games this season, [but] the Huskies have gotten by with exceptional goaltending from Isak Posch and excellent special teams, led by the nation’s No. 5 penalty kill (90%).”

Big games this week include Michigan State and Michigan — Gophers fans know that the Wolverines are always a dangerous team that get up for top ranked opponents — the teams will play a home and home series. Hockey East has their top two teams going at it with Providence and Boston College also playing a home and home. I’ve always understood why a home and home might make sense for out of conference scheduling, but seems to take a little bit off these huge important series in January. Along the more tradition two game series, we shall see Western Michigan at North Dakota.