Spittin' Chiclets College Hockey Rankings (Week 8)
1.) Massachusetts
2.) St. Cloud State
3.) Minnesota Duluth
4.) Minnesota State
5.) Notre Dame
6.) Denver
7.) Quinnipiac
8.) Ohio State
9.) Penn State
10.) Providence
Week 8 college hockey rankings are here and it pleases me to say the we have a new number 1 team in the nation, the University of Massachusetts. NEWMASS BABY! Love to see it. The school is ranked in the national poll as the #1 team in the country for the first time in school history. NewMass took down UConn this past weekend in pretty commanding fashion, winning 7-4. This upcoming weekend, Greg Carvel and his boys will have a home-and-home with #7 Quinnipiac and let me just say…I can’t speak for when the two play in Hamden because I’ve never been, but holy shit the Mullins Center is going to be BUZZING Friday night…Imagine what that Campus will be like if they win?
#7 QU will be a tough opponent for the Minutemen too. Coming off a weekend sweep over Princeton, the 13-2-0 Bobcats have rattled off six wins in a row and are going to be looking for blood this weekend. Big Odeen Tufto guy too. The Sophomore forward has 24 points (10g, 14a) in 15 games this year and has been QU’s best player all season. He’ll be going up against the best defenseman in college hockey and probably the best player in the entire NCAA in Cale Makar this weekend, so it’s definitely going to be a battle.
St. Cloud State drops from #1 to #2 after two ties this weekend with Miami Ohio. Friday night they won in a shootout of a 4-4 games and then Saturday just ended in a 2-2 tie. SCSU has Nebraska-Omaha next weekend then has some time off. The Huskies aren’t going anywhere, they are as a real as it gets and will be one of the top teams for the rest of the season unless something falls off for them.
#5 Notre Dame had themselves a weekend, jumping up to the #8 spot. The Irish played three games this past week, beating Northern Michigan on Thursday night 2-1 in OT and then sweeping Rensselaer, beating them 5-1 on Friday night and 3-0 on Saturday. Cal Burke and the rest of the squad will head to Happy Valley this weekend for a huge Big Ten matchup against #9 Penn State. The Nittany Lions are coming off a tough weekend at Wisco, going 0-1-1 against the Badgers. Evan Barratt is one of the top players in college hockey this season and I still really like this team but I think they do have a few things they need to work through here in the next month or so to get back to being one of the top teams in the nation.
Goal of the week:
Holy shit. Mind you this kid is a Freshmen. I’d say put him on the hands team but he may be the entire hands team after this one.
Save of the week:
Penn State’s Peyton Jones is an animal. This will be the save of the year in college hockey this season, mark my words.