Todd:<\/b> Plenty to get to this week, but I’m still shaking my head a little bit at what we saw last Friday night at the top of the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll. Of the top 10 teams in the rankings, seven lost, including each of the top four. Granted, two of the seven losses were to teams that were also in the top 10, but I’m struggling to find new ways to explain what’s going on in college hockey this season. Do you have any fresh insight there?<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> We’ve used the word a million times this year it seems, but it’s all about parity. I couldn’t even figure out who to vote for as the No. 1 team after last weekend. In the end, I think Ferris State is most deserving with the streak it has put together.<\/p>\n
I think there were six or seven teams that deserved to be No. 1 this weekend, but certainly I think the voters got it right. The Bulldogs became the second team this season, joining Merrimack, to earn a No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history. Hats off to them.<\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> I went back and looked to see where Ferris State was picked in the CCHA this season because I didn’t remember hearing much about the Bulldogs entering the season. The coaches had them ninth in the 11-team league; the media had them tied for seventh. And now they’re the top-ranked team in the country and the first this season to 20 wins.<\/p>\n
It deserves mention, too, that Ferris State is doing all this with a roster that does not include an NHL draft pick. Of course, Merrimack, which you mentioned, has just two. I guess it just goes to show that if you have a good blend of players that have matured, you don’t need the NHL pedigrees.<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> I think that draft picks can be a decent measuring stick, but there’s still no measuring heart. I look at a team like Massachusetts-Lowell, similar to Ferris State, picked near the bottom in Hockey East’s preseason poll and now it leads the league with three weekends left. That team, from what I’ve seen, wins each night with a whole lot of hustle and great goaltending. So it’s hard to tell what the magic formula is but it’s safe to say there are a whole bunch of teams that seem to know the formula.<\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> In Ferris State’s case, a lot of comparisons to the Bulldogs’ 2002-03 team are going to be made, since that was the best team the school has ever had. They won 31 games and had the misfortune of being sent to defending national champion Minnesota for the regionals and fell short of the Frozen Four. I don’t know if this team is as strong as that one was, but I guess time will tell.<\/p>\n
Switching gears, Boston College took home its third straight Beanpot with a 3-2 overtime victory over Boston University on Monday. For as disappointing as the opening-night crowd was, did the championship game make up for it?<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> I think the title tilt definitely made up for last Monday’s disappointing showing. The Garden was packed from opening faceoff to Bill Arnold’s OT winner with 6.4 seconds left. The fans got their money’s worth. And if anything, the title game proved what makes the Beanpot special. Yes, it was yet another BC-BU game when all was said and done, but it was an incredibly intense game that proved why BU is No. 2 and BC is No. 3.<\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> I guess whether people like it or not, there’s really only one matchup that pushes the Beanpot title game to maximum intrigue, and it’s what we saw Monday night. Would it be nice to see Harvard and Northeastern win it at some point? Absolutely. But if it’s going to be BC and BU, let it be the kind of game they put out there this year.<\/p>\n
So we’ve mentioned Ferris State, which has the longest active unbeaten streak at 12 games. And we’ve mentioned Boston College, which is tied for third with a five-game streak. Right in the middle is Air Force, which has gone 5-0-3 in its last eight games to jump into the lead in Atlantic Hockey. The Falcons host third-place Mercyhurst, which is just two points back, on this, the penultimate weekend of the AHA regular season, but I still think that title is going to go down to the last day of the season.<\/p>\n
Jim:<\/b> It seems almost every league is going down to the last day, no? Kidding aside, Air Force seems to be the team that every year puts on some magical run at the end of the regular season that then carries over to the postseason. I would need to do some research, but my guess is that Air Force has the best postseason record in the AHA since the team joined the league. Somehow, Frank Serratore has the ability to have his team playing its best hockey come March, which pays dividends, no doubt.
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\nSpeaking of teams that play well in March, it certainly looks like Michigan will extend its NCAA tournament streak. They took the hard road two years ago, having to win the CCHA title to get to the Big Dance. But at this point, it seems certain that the Wolverines will once again be there on Selection Sunday.<\/p>\n
Todd:<\/b> That seems pretty solid, yes. If there’s anything that would concern me with the Wolverines out of last weekend’s split with Michigan State, its that they twice allowed two goals within a couple of minutes of each other. In Friday’s loss, it was the tying goal and the go-ahead goal less than three minutes apart. Again on Saturday, the Spartans tied and then went ahead inside of three minutes. I’m guessing that Red Berenson didn’t like seeing momentum swing the other way so quickly.<\/p>\n