Vegoe’s Top 20 – 2/10/2025

Boston College stumbled in the Beanpot 1-4 to their rival Boston University, but the Eagles only have two losses in their last 15 games and have an 84% chance of getting the number one overall seed at the end of the season. BC HC Greg Brown’s squad are one of the stingiest teams in the country, giving up just 1.8 GA/G which is fourth in the country and rely on a pair of high end talents Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault up front. Leonard’s 23 goals lead the nation in goal scoring, but he couldn’t get one to extend their 1-0 lead on Monday and it cost them.

“They were upset in the locker room,” Brown told The Heights. “The guys, especially the ones who it’s their last shot at it, they wanted it a lot. BU played a little better than us tonight. So you feel bad for those guys, but we can still do some things this season. We came out really strong in the first, moving our puck, supporting pucks really well and carried a lot of the play. Weren’t able to get that second goal—that’s always tough—but [I] liked the overall theme, tempo that we were playing at in the first.” 

The No. 2 team in my top 20 Michigan State also lost a game this weekend. The Spartans fell 2-1 to Michigan on Friday, but came back with a dominant 6-1 win in the Duel in the D at Little Caesars Arena. The game did get a little ugly as rivalry games can get, but everyone escaped without suspensions. Michigan’s Michael Hage got a major and misconduct for face masking and his teammate Kienan Draper got a misconduct. The Spartans’ Tiernan Shoudy also was assessed a misconduct during a third period that had 55 PIMs. 

The split means that Adam Nightingale’s team no longer controls their own destiny in the B10. Minnesota has six games to go in the conference schedule (@ Michigan, Ohio State, @ Penn State) and has 38 points. Michigan State has four games to go (Penn State, @ Notre Dame) and has 32 points. The Spartans still have an edge by playing the bottom two teams in the conference, but the path to a title is back in Minnesota’s hands.

The biggest riser in my poll this week was Ohio State after their sweep over Notre Dame moving up to sixth. The Buckeyes have probably been one of the biggest surprises in college hockey this season after being picked to finish last in the conference by the league’s coaches. Coach Steve Rohlik’s team has nearly mathematically locked up a home playoff game for the B10 playoffs, they’re eighth in the Pairwise Ranking and a near lock for making the NCAA Tournament according to the first run of the College Hockey News Pairwise Probability Matrix. Rohlik recently told The Lantern that the B10 is the best league in the country and there are five teams from it in the top 16 of the PWR. FYI — Hockey East has seven teams in the top 16 of PWR right now.

A couple teams dropped out of my top 20 this week including New Hampshire, Sacred Heart, Wisconsin and Augustana. The Wildcats dropped games to Boston College and Merrimack and are in last place in Hockey East. UNH Coach Mike Souza’s team had a good start to the year, but they’re 3-8 in 2025. Sacred Heart was swept by Army, Wisconsin was swept by Penn State and Augustana was swept by Minnesota State.

It’s been a tough season for the Badgers who started the season ranked 10th in the USCHO.com Poll as they have lost four in a row and now have to travel to Ohio State. UW Coach Mike Hastings is starting to find out how tough the Big 10 can be to find your footing.

“What you find is this group has had to go through it the hard way this year, as far as not getting some of the results,” Hastings told me after his series with Minnesota. “I think sometimes in my own journey, whether it’s as a coach or a father or a husband, the ones that hurt the most are the ones you learn from. This was tough weekend, coming out of [3M Arena at Mariucci] with no points, but what I’m learning in my short time in this league is you better turn the page in a hurry because the next group that’s coming is good also.”

Big games coming up this week will be No. 3 Minnesota at No. 12 Michigan and rising No. 7 Boston University with a home and home against No. 8 Providence.