Western Michigan enters top 5 of latest men’s college hockey Power 10 rankings
The men’s regular college hockey season is nearing the home stretch. Two more weeks of excitement and turmoil resulted in some shifts in the top five of the latest Power 10 leaderboard.
As a reminder, these are just my rankings and I base them on a combination of PairWise, schedule strength, recent results and trends that have emerged throughout the season. New rankings will be released every two weeks leading up to the men’s hockey tournament in March.
Here’s this week’s Power 10 (previous rankings in parentheses):
1. Minnesota (1): The Golden Gophers (23-8-1, 17-4-1 Big Ten) come off a great win over Penn State and roll to a 7-2 win before coming back for Game 2 in overtime with 3- 2 to win . Last weekend, they defeated Wisconsin 4-1 before losing 3-1 in the rematch. It’s easy to forget that losses will happen, and Minnesota recovered well this weekend. Logan Cooley, Jimmy Snuggerud and Matthew Knies are a three-headed monster that few teams in college hockey can currently match. Cooley (44) and Snuggerud (43) are both in the top five in the nation in points, and Knies is second in goals (20). They wrap up the regular season against Ohio State this weekend.
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2. Quinnipiac (2): The Bobcats (26-3-3, 18-2-0 ECAC) are rolling on an eight-game winning streak, over the past two weeks they’ve dealt with Clarkson, Brown, Yale and St. Lawrence. In those four games, they have five goals in three straight and two shutouts as part of an 18–3 scoring difference. Colin Graf has moved up to second place with 47 points after accumulating 11 points in his six-game streak, and Yaniv Perets leads the nation in shutouts (eight) and clean sheets (1.59). They want to continue against Union and RPI to finish the regular season.
3. Denver (4): The Pioneers’ five-game winning streak (24-8-0, 15-5-0 NCHC) ended with a back-and-forth 6-5 loss to the troublesome Minnesota Duluth last time out to split the streak after a sweep North Dakota. DU has scored at least four goals in five consecutive games, including four consecutive games with at least five goals. Massimo Rizzo (40p) and Carter Mazur (20g) continue to push the Pios. They have a big fight with Western Michigan this weekend before closing out the regular season with a series against Colorado College.
4.Michigan (5): The Wolverines (20-10-2, 12-9-1 Big Ten) defeated Michigan State two weekends ago, including a dramatic 4-3 win in overtime at Little Caesars Arena, where Luke Hughes lost less than a second in the duel before closing won in the D. But they followed it up with a 0-1-1 weekend against Ohio State, being eliminated in Game 1 (and losing on penalties) before losing 4-2 in Cleveland outdoors. Adam Fantilli continues his insane pace with his NCAA-leading 49 points as Hughes continues to come alive in the second half. They have another Test ahead of them with Notre Dame to end the regular season.
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5. Western Michigan (7): Winners of four straight wins, the Broncos (21-10-1, 13-6-1 NCHC) take care of Minnesota Duluth on the road before returning home to sweep Colorado College. They’ve been 11-1-0 since the holiday, and Jason Polin’s NCAA-leading 26 goals looks untouchable if he keeps up the pace he’s had so far. Ryan McAllister (41 points) is also continuing to have a great freshman season. WMU has a major NCHC series with Denver this weekend before wrapping up the regular season in Miami, Ohio.
6. Boston University (3): The Terriers (20-10-0, 14-6-0 HEA) have lost four in a row. They dropped the Beanpot semifinals against eventual champions Northeastern and lost consolation to Boston College before beating Merrimack this weekend. Matt Brown (40 points) and Lane Hutson (38 points) continue to cook, but Drew Commesso suffered a small slump in the net, as did most of the depth scoring, which fired on all cylinders and went into the beanpot. BU has a potentially exciting road trip to Vermont this weekend to get back on track before a home-and-home with Providence to close out the regular season.
7th St. Cloud State (6): The Huskies (18-9-3, 10-7-3 NCHC) are also winless six straight after a win against UMD, two draws against Miami, and a loss and a draw against North Dakota. Special teams were a big problem as they allowed 10 power play goals in the six games. When Jaxson Castor and Dominic Basse struggled in goal, offense couldn’t keep up and offense has seemingly dried up when those two were on. They have two series in the pipeline, Omaha and Duluth.
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8. State of Ohio (8): The Buckeyes (18-11-3, 11-9-2 Big Ten) are 1-1-2 with a loss and a tie at Notre Dame before a draw and a win against Michigan over the past two weekends. Against UM, OSU bounced back from a two-goal deficit to a tie and eventual shootout win in Game 1. On a large outdoor stage at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, the Buckeyes’ top producers Jake Wise and Stephen Halliday sat down through and left little doubt in a 4-2 win while Jakub Dobes was tremendous with 35 saves. It doesn’t get any easier as they take on Minnesota this weekend to wrap up the regular season.
9. Harvard (NR): The Crimson (19-6-2, 16-4-0 ECAC) are technically unbeaten for five consecutive seasons (4-0-1), despite the 2-2 draw and shootout loss to Northeastern in the Beanpot Championship certainly hurt. They dealt with the semifinals with a 4-3 victory in overtime with 1.5 seconds remaining, where they dominated most of the regulation before the Eagles mounted a late push. Outside of the beanpot, they’ve rolled through Dartmouth, Union, and RPI. Matthew Coronato, Sean Farrell and Alex Laferriere also continue to perform. They finish the regular season this weekend at St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
10.Pennsylvania (9): The Nittany Lions (19-12-1, 9-12-1 Big Ten) prevailed against the Gophers at home. They held a 2-1 lead in Game 2 with 41.2 seconds left before Knies equalized and won it in OT. They have lost three times in a row as part of a brutal 2-8-1 stretch since the calendar switched to 2023. They have a chance to get back on track this weekend in the regular-season finals against Wisconsin under-500.
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Eliminated: Cornell (10)
The Big Red have lost back-to-back in a three-game winning streak. They equalized Colgate before losing the extra point on penalties, struggled with penalties in a home loss to Clarkson and gave up a late goal in a 1–0 home loss to SLU. Ian Shane has a save rate of 0.825 over the three games. They’re going to be looking at Brown and Yale this weekend.