Spittin' Chiclets College Hockey Rankings (Week 10)
1.) St. Cloud State
2.) Massachusetts
3.) Quinnipiac
4.) Minnesota Duluth
5.) Providence
6.) Ohio State
7.) Notre Dame
8.) Denver
9.) Minnesota State
10.) Bowling Green
Week 10 of the Spittin’ Chiclets college hockey rankings are here. Tough week for the rankings, being that most of the NCAA is on their winter break so teams have a few weeks off. We are at the midpoint in the college hockey season though, so i’ll have my midseason recap later in the week but a few teams were in action this weekend though, so let’s see how they did.
I hate to say I called it, but I called it. I have been weary of #9 Minnesota State all season and what happened this weekend when they finally saw some good completion? They got swept. The Mavs are a good hockey team, don’t get me wrong, but they finally faced off against some good competition in Bowling Green and lost on both Friday night and Saturday night 4-1. So Minnesota State drops from #3 to #9 this week.
On the other hand, Bowling Green is new to the top-10 this week. They have been quietly doing well all season and after a weekend sweep over Minnesota State, they deserve some recognition. The Falcons now have wins against two top10 teams in Ohio State and Minnesota State. Led by Sophomores Brandon Kruse (6g, 19a) and Max Johnson (6g, 14a) the team is relatively young and is showing that they can play with the big boys. BGSU has a week off but then will come back against Bemidji State and Michigan Tech. So hopefully they can continue to rack up the wins.
Penn State was also one of the teams in action this weekend, I’m sure they wish they had the week off though. Maybe they just went into vacation mode a little early, but the Nittany Lions who were ranked #10 last week fall out of the rankings this week after a 4-4 tie with Princeton. Can’t be having bubble teams that go out there and tie Princeton. They’ll have the next few weeks off and will be back after the new year against Minnesota. At 11-5-2 I’m not too worried about Penn State, they’ll find their way back into the top-10 and I’m sure they’ll make a run, but they’ve got to clean it up.
Special shout out to Arizona State, every week they are so close to making the top-10. At 14-6-0 on the year and with some wins over some legitimate programs, ASU is showing they can keep up with anyone. Greg Powers has done an unbelievable job in transforming this program from the ACHA to the NCAA and I’m excited to see what the future holds for them. They have Clarkson, Boston College, Cornell and potentially Minnesota Duluth in the coming weeks, so that will be a good test for the Sun Devils.
Goal of the week:
Not too many to choose from this weekend, but you can always count on someone on Penn State to join the Hands Team.