Todd:<\/b> Well, Jim, another week, another debate on who’s the No. 1 team in the country. Minnesota-Duluth lost the opener of a home series with No. 10 Denver in overtime on Friday before getting a split with a win on Saturday. Yale, which was tied for No. 2 in last week’s poll, earned wins over ranked teams Rensselaer and Union. I’ll come out and say that I put Yale at No. 1 on my ballot this week, but I had quite an internal debate about it. How about you?<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> I also put Yale at No. 1 on my ballot this week. It is a tough decision. But the fact of the matter is that the Bulldogs have just one loss and this weekend played two conference opponents that poll voters deemed were worthy of a top-20 ranking, winning both games. Minnesota-Duluth lost at home, albeit in overtime to a good Denver team. But based on records and this past weekend’s accomplishments I have no reservations about making Yale No. 1. <\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> I was very impressed by the way Yale controlled the game Sunday against Union. In the part of the game I saw on TV, I didn’t ever get the feeling that Yale was letting its foot off the gas. And Union isn’t a team short on offense, so for Ryan Rondeau to get a 30-save shutout tells you that the Bulldogs’ goaltending situation has taken a step up from last season. His save percentage was .880 last season; it’s .926 now. His goals-against average was 4.06 a year ago; it’s 1.89 now. That makes a big difference when everything else seems to be clicking, too.<\/p>\n
My debate was about whether Yale had beaten enough quality teams to justify the top spot, but in the end, the wins over the weekend were enough to show it has.<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> This reminds me a tiny bit of the debate from a few years back when Air Force had a perfect record at about this point in the season. Granted, Atlantic Hockey had even a worse perception than the ECAC back in those days, but still, it was impossible for voters to give the Falcons credit for the fact that no team had beat them.<\/p>\n
They went into Colorado College and won to drive their record to 13-0-0 but then lost a squeaker the next night to Denver, which was ranked in the top 10 at the time. Still, the voters weren’t impressed and Air Force advanced just one spot, from 11th to 10th after that series, despite having by far the best record in the nation. It didn’t matter much, as Air Force went on to the NCAA tournament that season, beating Michigan in the first round before losing to Vermont in the regional final in double overtime. I feel like we could see the same from Yale, though my gut feeling is that the Bulldogs will get more credit than Air Force ever did.<\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> You’re probably right, but I think ECAC Hockey is starting to show that it has some power in the upper levels of its standings, even in a year when Cornell isn’t where many expected it to be. Even putting Yale aside, Union and Rensselaer appear to be solid top-20 teams, and Dartmouth and Clarkson are having pretty good starts. The more you look into the depth of the league, the more you understand why Yale’s record is legit.<\/p>\n
Turning now to the other team that was ranked second in last week’s poll, Boston University. I’ll put it simply: What happened?<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> I’m going to come straight out and say it: BU got outclassed by Boston College. I’ve been a bit critical of BC for being a Jekyll & Hyde team to this point, but this weekend, you saw one of the best efforts a BC team could put forward. Friday was a no-show performance for the Terriers and BC took full advantage jumping out to a 6-1 lead and winning 9-5. Saturday, BU put forth a much better effort and still lost by three goals.<\/p>\n
BC’s offense is clicking on all cylinders right now. All four lines are scoring. Defense is jumping into the play. Everyone looks extremely confident. BU, on the other hand, looked careless at times and couldn’t take over the game like BC could. It was almost as if the Eagles could just flip a switch and go into overdrive and at that point the Terriers were screwed. <\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> So it goes back to why BC is a Jekyll & Hyde team. If this is the potential this team holds, why isn’t it on display every night? Friday’s game made me think of last season’s regional final where Boston College was up big but didn’t really knock out Yale until late. At the time, that got me thinking there was a weakness for the Eagles, but quite clearly there wasn’t, judging from how they fared at the Frozen Four. I think some weaknesses have been exposed in the Eagles so far this year, but it’s still scary how good that team could<\/i> be the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
Since we’re mentioning Jekyll & Hyde, I wanted to touch on Bemidji State’s sweep of No. 4 Nebraska-Omaha. We’ve seen that Bemidji State can play with the best of them, but this season had been going mostly against the Beavers until the Mavericks came to town last weekend. Maybe UNO was rusty after a weekend off, but Bemidji and goaltender Dan Bakala held the Mavericks to one goal on 65 shots over the two games. I still think there’s potential for the Beavers, but the poor first two months of the season may be too much to overcome.<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> I think for BC, when the Eagles aren’t playing well it’s simply for a lack of consistent effort across the entire team. We all know how easy it is to get overconfident and forget that it takes 100 percent effort every night in college hockey, particularly given the increased parity across the board. There simply are no nights off. BC seems to have learned that lesson but it will be interesting to see if there are further lapses in its season.<\/p>\n
And speaking of lapses, you bring up a team that seems to have had such a lapse this past weekend. Nebraska-Omaha was on a roll before running into Dan Bakala. Obviously, Bemidji State played well but it sounds like the Mavericks may have run into a buzzsaw goalie. It will be interesting to see how UNO responds this weekend against Michigan Tech which is winless in its last nine. <\/p>\n