Inside College Hockey released its preseason top 10 with Colorado College coming in at No. 8 thanks to the return of leading scorer Jaden Schwartz, which INCH listed as a preseason Hobey Baker hopeful, a deep group of forwards and a high regard for goalie Joe Howe.
Miami, soon to be a league rival in the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference in 2013, was No. 1, followed by Notre Dame, North Dakota, Yale and Denver.
CC nonconference foe Union (Dec. 31) is No. 6 followed by Boston University, CC, Minnesota-Duluth and No. 10 Michigan.
According to these rankings, CC has seven games (four vs DU) against top 10 foes.
#8 is a great place to be preseason. But I’m thinking #1 in April!
I think CC and DU are the front runners in the WCHA ahead of North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth.
Yale and Union get too much love, very undeserved. Those teams would be middle of the pack at best in the WCHA. Will be fun to watch CC beat Union on New Years Eve – although Jaden Schwartz will be playing for Team Canada that weekend.
So the New National Hockey Conference has:
#1 Miami
#2 Notre Dame (assuming they will join)
#3 North Dakota
#5 Denver
#8 Colorado College
#9 Minnesota Duluth
The only team not ranked Top 10 is Nebraska Omaha. Wow, what an awesome conference!!!
I can’t wait til October and see this CC Tiger team in action!
Congrats Tigers!
If Goalie Joe Howe has a great year (plays like he did at the end of the season), the sky’s the limit.
Schwartz Brothers, Rapuzzi, Civitarese, Winkler, Guentzel, Dineen, Krushelnyski. The Tigers are loaded with talent. Best team since Frozen Four year.
#8 is just high enough to remind the world that we are lurking around, but low enough to inspire the Tigers to work hard and roar to the top.
I’m convinced that Winkler, Civitarese, and Krushelnyski will have breakout years and be great 2-way leaders on the team. I’m excited to see how much of an impact Harstad and the other freshman defenseman have on the d-core.
Great comments by all of you! I am very excited for the season to start. I believe Joe Marciano will be the most improved player on the team. Look for him to wind up and shoot that slap shot from the blue line with confidence this upcoming season. If you knew the story of Joe and his family you would be amazed by the sacrifice they have all made. Joe’s brother Brian is great, we got to hang with Brian all weekend last season while on a road trip with the team. Brian and I sat at the bar with Darrian Hatcher for four hours on a Friday night after the game. That was fun!