Vegoe’s Top 20 – 12/16/2024

The Golden Gophers put together a very impressive opening half of their season only losing two of their first 20 games in regulations. Their fans were disappointed that one of the losses will linger through the holiday day, but Bob Motzko knows his team is ready for some time away from the rink. Minnesota has played every weekend since the start of the season, has dealt with a bunch of injuries and mostly weathered the storm. 

“As disappointing as it was with [losing] the 3-1 lead [Saturday]… our guys had a terrific first half,” said Motzko. “We’d love to go back and not turnover a couple of those pucks that we turned over, but that doesn’t define what we did in the first half of the season. They’re fourth in the Pairwise Rankings, on top of the Big Ten and they will go into the break fourth in my top 20.

Boston College is the new top team in my poll headed into break. They just played the early game against UMass Lowell and took care of business 3-2. The Eagles are one point back of Maine in Hockey East, the conference that is leading the way in Pairwise Rankings with seven teams in the top 15. Greg Brown’s team played the toughest schedule in the first half and only dropped three games. The CHN Hobey Tracker says that their two leading scorers Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard only trail Minnesota’s Sam Rinzel in their College Hockey Individual Point (CHIP) rating.

Denver tripped up a little bit with Colorado College as their Gold Pan series got underway this season. The Tigers won the game at Robson Arena 5-4 and the Pios won at Magness 2-1 after giving up the game’s first goal. David Carle will have a break away from his team during the holidays as he’ll take charge of USA Hockey in the World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

New to the poll this week is Ohio State. The favorite team of friend of the podcast Paul Caponigri, the Buckeyes added a sweep over Notre Dame to their resume and they sit 12th in the Pairwise Ranking. They’re still without a quality win bonus in the KRACH and their strength of schedule is 33rd in the country.

Not much on the college hockey docket the next couple weeks until December 28. If you’re looking to get your fix, then focus on the World Junior Championship. Gophers Oliver Moore and Brodie Ziemer are expected to play for the red, white and blue. Matthew Wood was not selected for Team Canada, so still no Gophers have worn the Red Maple Leaf in the tournament. One trivia note… there have been four Minnesota players to play for non-Team USA have been Thomas Vanek (Austria), Leon Bristedt (Sweden), Erik Haula and Sampo Ranta (Finland).