Spittin' Chiclets College Hockey Rankings (Week 3)
1.) Minnesota Duluth
2.) Notre Dame
3.) Providence
4.) Penn State
5.) Massachusetts
6.) St. Cloud State
7.) Minnesota State
8.) Denver
9.) Ohio State
10.) Quinnipiac
Week three in college hockey was a weekend that saw tons of upsets, teams playing in Las Vegas, and some of the top teams in the country playing against each other. Another new school has been added to the top-10 this week along with a few of the schools jumping up and down the rankings as well.
First, let’s start with Minnesota-Duluth who takes over as the #1 team in the country this week after they went into South Bend, Indiana and beat the former #1 team in the country not once, but twice. Both games were battles, with the Bulldogs winning Friday night 3-2 and then winning again on Saturday 3-1. Both two very good teams going head to head and it was good to see it get some national attention playing on NBCSN on Friday night. The Bulldogs will welcome Colorado College to Duluth this weekend then head off to Denver next weekend for a big weekend series with the Pios.
#2 Notre Dame on the other hand will be right back at it next weekend against a tough Ohio State opponent. Ohio State will travel to Notre Dame for the weekend series and I expect it to be a good one. Rough schedule for Notre Dame too….I mean they have probably two of the best teams in the country back to back weeks. Not fun.
Providence jumps from #6 to #3 after heading to the Agganis and spanking the Terriers of Boston University 5-0 on Friday night. What a terrible start to the season it has been over on Comm Ave for BU. The Friars will only play once this upcoming weekend for the second straight week, as they’ll welcome Holy Cross to Providence on Friday. Nate Leaman is one of the best coaches in the country and they are loaded from front to back. Keep an eye out for Tyce Thompson, brother of Tage Thompson of the Buffalo Sabres, absolute sleeper freshman in the Hockey East this season.
Penn State moves up from #7 to #4 after a 4-2 win against Princeton on Friday night. VERY excited to see the Nittany Lions welcome a hot Arizona State team to State College this weekend for a weekend series. Not to make this about ASU, but I love this team right now, but that is a story for a different day. Juniors Brandon Biro and Nate Sucese have 7 points through 5 games while Peyton Jones and Chris Funkey have been splitting time on the back end in goal and looked great.
Quinnipiac makes their Spittin’ Chiclets College Hockey Rankings debut this week coming in at #10. The Bobcats are one of the only remaining undefeated teams in college hockey coming in at 5-0-0 after a weekend sweep of American International. Senior defenseman Brandon Fortunato has been an absolute assist machine so far, with 7 through 5 games. QU heads to Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend, going to be tough to come out of the weekend still undefeated but if they do the Bobcats will certainly move up the ranks once again.
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Also shout out to Minnesota, North Dakota, The Orleans Arena and everyone involved who helped put on the US Hockey Hall of Fame game. Looked like an absolute blast. Man, do UND fans travel well too. Bunch of North Dakota hockey fans in Las Vegas, can only imagine what that was like. Need the Sioux back on top of college hockey. College hockey is better when the Sioux are good.