At the current pace, the Terrier-Husky showdown should start around 8:10. Unless, of course, this game goes to overtime. (Since it’s a consolation game, the game will simply end if 65 minutes can’t determine a victor.)
No No. 2 for NU
Northeastern somehow missed out on the second spot in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll, which is a bit befuddling. The second-ranked Irish of Notre Dame split with Ohio State this past weekend, yet didn’t slip. True, the Buckeyes are ranked, but they’re not a top-10 team … every time I’d ever seen a top team lose to a decidedly inferior squad, the former had dropped a spot or two in the rankings (presuming there was anyone lurking who also deserved to move up). Perhaps Western voters held firm with the Irish at No. 2, not wanting to place Eastern programs at the top of the stack, but maybe I’m just paranoid.
Boston University holds onto No. 1, and yes, the Huskies did wrest the second spot from ND in the USA Today poll (but I know for a fact that a number of “that poll’s” voters don’t know squat about hockey. USCHO’s voters, on the other hand, all fall under one of the following categories: coach, administrator, journalist, or sports info person).
So by technicality, tonight’s finale can be considered a No. 1-No. 2 matchup, which is honestly what everyone back East had been hoping for. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, the top two teams in the nation have never met in the Beanpot. There is an argument positing that Harvard and BU were the premier teams in the nation in 1972 and/or ’73, but there were no official national rankings at that time: only regional Eastern/Western polls. So make a note of it folks; you’re witnessing history tonight.
