College Hockey:
Yale maintains top spot in men’s poll

USCHO Staff Report • Jan. 4, 2011

Yale is once again the top team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, having received 45 of 50 first place votes.

No. 2 North Dakota (two) and No. 3 Boston College (three) had the other first place selections from the voters.

New Hampshire is down two spots to No. 4 and Minnesota-Duluth falls to No. 5 from No. 4.

Denver jumps a spot to No. 6, trading places with Miami, while Michigan is up three spots to No. 8.

Maine stays at No. 9 and Rensselaer, rising four places to No. 10, round out the top 10 this week.

The bottom half of the top 20 has Notre Dame up a spot to No. 11, Nebraska-Omaha down four to No. 12, Wisconsin up two to No. 13, Boston University down four to No. 14 and Union down three to No. 15.

Alaska (No. 16) and Merrimack (No. 17) maintain their rankings from the last poll, while Colorado College jumps two to No. 18, Princeton enters the poll this week at No. 19 and Ferris State sits at No. 20.

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Anonymous
It would help if Yale played more than 1 game in a month…
- UNDalumCHITOWN
  Its likely they win the rest of their games this season given the lack of talent they play. Its also likely they get run over come tournament time due to that fact.
  - Bulldogs better then you think
    Just like last year. No wait, Yale beat your Sioux last year.
    - SiouxFan
      I don’t think the odds are good Yale makes it to the Frozen Four. They may be #1 in the polls and even PWR based on their cupcake schedule (but playing well, nonetheless) but they’ll still be underdogs and won’t be likely to catch their opponents sleeping this year. That said, as soon as they play some decent teams and win, people might give them some respect. Until then, sit around and enjoy your #1 ranking, I hope beating up on teams most of the college hockey world hasn’t heard of and playing a game a week will prepare them well for the toughest teams in the country come tournament time. Somehow I doubt it.
      - Bulldogs better then you think
        Sorry SiouxFan but they have no games lately because these guys actually have to go to class and take exams.
        The #1 Ranking is nice, but you are right it does not matter. You have to get in the tournament and win 4 straight. That is all that matters in the end.
      - USA
        lot of classes going on over winter break I hear….rube
      - http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
        I highly doubt they were going to class over the holiday break, nice try skippy…
      - Reading123abc
        By the way, I think it should be “Bulldogs better THAN you think.” Nice Ivy League education.
      - SiouxAlumDenver
        Yale’s odds are very good to get to the frozen four. Cupcake schedule or not, they will be a number one seed along with UND, BC and Miami most likely. That will mean that they will play in Bridgeport which will be 2 home games for them with no travel. The have a great offense, but in the Frozen Four, in a one game winner take all each game, any one can win. I will take North Dakota to win the national title if they make it to the Frozen Four. Not only because of their talent, but the tourney is in St. Paul, and fans will be decidedly in North Dakota’s favor.
      - Mike
        It doesn’t matter where a game is at, or what they are playing for, etc, the crowd is always in favor of the Sioux. Nobody, I mean nobody travels like Sioux fans.
      - Bottomfeeders
        I would be very surprised if Yale receives a 1 seed. Some of the bottom dwellers are going to beat the might Yale and when that happens they will see that top 4 rank go for good. Any loss on there schedule would be worse than one of UND, BC, or Miami’s.
    - http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
      Last year doesn’t matter son…
Pitching a tent for #1 Ranking
Overrated or not, no one gets a trophy for #1 in the polls. Who cares, they will end up playing in Bridgeport come tourney time. It’s not a big deal.
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UNDalumCHITOWN
Its great how UND supporters greatly outnumber fans of any other team on these USCHO posts. Best, most loyal hockey fans in the world. Keep it up everyone.
- WCHAobserver
  Yes, lots of UND fans, but a good number of them are whiners and bullies… much more than any other school. I rarely see the other WCHA teams complaining about their rank or their SOS. Clearly UND fans have a chip on their shoulder for some reason. Are they confused about how the various ranking systems adjust for SOS? Upset about last year’s upset? Angry that this is the last year they will be cheering for the “Fighting Sioux”? Who knows. It’s just too bad that these fans get so upset about rankings and feel the need to be rude.
  - Jv56749100
    must be a gopher fan
  - Lefty
    Agree. By now, I thought we would have heard from that D-Bag whiner Sue-Sue fan (sorry, forgot his name from the mid Dec. poll posts) about how Yale is a joke and that the ECAC sucks.
    Well, let’s cite the facts about how ECAC teams have fared, say, in the last 10 days:
    RPI 4 BU (#14) 1
    BC (#3) 6 Colgate (last place ECAC) 5
    Quinnipiac 4 Nebraska (#12) 3
    Quninnipiac 3 Nebraska (#12) 2
    Union 3 Minnesota 2
    Brown 6 BU (#14) 1
    St. Lawrence 2 UNH (#2) 1
    Seems the Sue-Sue will have all they can handle from Yale in Minneapolis come mid-April, just like they did in Worcester last March.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KBVOP7JEIJTGTBGPEMTI67KVLU J
    ok im a sioux fan, everyone is biased and i speak for north dakota when i say this……North Dakota has the toughest schedule year after year and respect is never given until they get to the frozen four lol and then they get thier buts kicked haha but this years team is something special.
- Lefty
  Woe!!! Sue-Sue barely get by perennial cellar dweller Robert Morris 2-1. A near disaster.
  - Righty
    This is an educated statement. A near disaster. It amazing how someone can look at the final score and make a terrible assumption. The game was 2-0 when RMU scored with 20 seconds and a pulled goalie. Nice comment. For the last 20 seconds the puck barely entered the UND end. Your a joke
StudentAthlete
Look at the PWR people, it’s not just based on their win percentage, but also teams they’ve played who are also likely to make the tournament. It seems that people take the “ez-ac” for granted, but RPI seems to have been doing pretty well for themselves this year so beating them was not a giveaway game. Yale didn’t get destroyed last year in the frozen 4, so why would they this year when they are returning a lot of key players? As far as teams “most of the college hockey world hasn’t heard of” I hope you mean that they are less known for hockey because they are too busy providing the best EDUCATION to the STUDENTS who attend there not because you’ve never heard of Yale. Maybe it was just because you or your kids weren’t accepted there…
- SiouxAlumDenver
  Pretty sure you misread that person’s post. The schools they are referring to that people haven’t heard of and Yale plays are places like Holy Cross, Canisius, the Watertown girls squirt C team, and Derek Zoolander’s School For Kids Who Can’t Read Good and want to learn how to do other things good.
  - StudentAthlete
    The comment was about teams that Yale “beats up on” which would still apply to any team that they beat in the ECAC (not just non-conference games) …which so far this year is all of them. Last I checked the ECAC was home to all Ivy League schools with hockey programs…so Yale is beating up on quite a few world renowned schools. I doubt very many people outside of the US have heard of half of the midwestern/western schools (to be honest, until I started following college hockey I had never heard of them) but I would bet that Harvard, Yale and Princeton would be recognized in most civilized countries. Many also had hockey programs before some of the other schools even existed. Obviously polls (especially ones only midway through the year) are not the way to determine national champions. Look how far some have fallen since the October polls and how high some have risen. I just hope all of the, to pardon the expression “haters” on this site get a little surprise this spring in the frozen 4.
  - UNDalumCHITOWN
    I remember when Holy Cross beat Minny in the Ralph. Go HC Go.
  - Lefty
    Those clubs must be pretty good competition because if my memory serves me correctly, Yale beat UND less than 12 months ago. Was it the NCAA round of 16? The game where Yale’s speed had UND hemmed in their own zone most of the night? Where Yale outshot UND by 2:1? Where Yale went on to the quarters and UND went home to punch the clown?
CC fan
I’m a CC season ticket holder, and watched Yale beat CC. I didn’t believe in their record prior to coming to Colorado, but after watching them, they are a quality team. They played as well as any team CC has played so far. Who knows whether they are #1, but I said to those around me at the game that these guys could cause some real grief for others should they make the tournament.
- Lefty
  Agree with you. Who knows if they are #1 team. They are definitely a top 16 team and that is all that matters as it means a ticket to the tournament. Glad to see that they played CC, a quality school and hockey program. Yale has a very good team, but not as good as last year’s club as they lost their top two goal scorers and top two D to graduation.
what am I missing?
Why is it that the sole purpose of this series of posts is for UND fans to complain about Yale? If UND fans were such great ones, they’d wait until the end of the year and see who finishes where in the tournament and then if UND wins, make their case. The fundamental argument they make is that Yale doesn’t play a schedule that UND fans respect. No point in arguing with them. Frankly, I’m enjoying watching Yale this year and hope they go far. UND fans have little authority in that they haven’t actually won the national tournament in about a decade and other schools have won twice. UND probably has no academic standards and probably turns a blind eye to players spending too much time on the ice. Kind of embarassing when the school is like 12th grade four years in a row. You should have a phenomenal program.
- UNDalumCHITOWN
  The purpose of my earlier post was simply to point out the fact that UND has a lot of fans in tune with the game and follow their team religiously. Not once did I say we come on here to bash Yale (or any team for that matter). Everyone doubts Yale as depicted by the Question of the Week to the right. We enjoy discussing the game and choose not to reserve our sentiments. Also, if you haven’t noticed in the last 30 or so years, we LOVE that our team is essentially hated country-wide. It means we are good, really good. UND plays fast, brutal, physical, “bullyish” hockey which is why many of our incoming players are drafted every year.
  Additionally, you are in no position whatsoever to comment on the quality of a UND education unless you attended. It is a great school and many do very well post-graduation. Enjoy your $200,000 in school loans and your mediocre hockey team.
  One more thing – USA won the World Juniors last year with a one-time UND coach (Blais) at the helm. What happened this year with the Yale coach (Allain) leading the troops?
  - what am i Missing
    Yale’s mediocre hockey team is ranked number 1 and Ingalls Rink, which is beautiful, is routinely sold out. North Dakota is largely a minor league hockey team with academics optional. If you want to look at the academics and compare the two, be my guest. In fact, try comparing UND to Minnesota or, god forbid, Michigan. This UND bullying on the board is boring. As has been proven, there are two teams in Hockey East with much better recent track records than North Dakota and Minnesota has a better recent history. Anything short of an NCAA championship means the best UND can hope for is a year without a student being caught in a combine harvester
    - UNDalumCHITOWN
      Here’s a few points in hopes of outlining “what you’re missing”:
      -Engelstad Arena is the nicest arena in the country, holds about 10,000 more than Ingalls and is ALWAYS sold out. Hence great fans.
      -The University of North Dakota is a college team, not a minor league team. If it was a minor league team, it would be called a minor league team. Last time I checked, minor league players don’t attend classes and aren’t required to maintain a GPA.
      -Of course Yale is a better school than UND. Thats why it costs about $30,000 more/year to attend Yale. I’m not the one comparing the academic status quo of the two, you are. You brought that up. You can do that on your own time.
      -Please do not put UND in the same sentence as Minnesota. They’ve been struggling for the past few years and do not have a better recent track record.
      -I don’t recall a UND student ever being caught in a combine. Great comment though.
      It’s people like you that need not be allowed to post in here. We come here to talk hockey and you come here to bash UND because it has older players and is located in a Midwestern farming state. You’re very ignorant and unconstructive – at least read a bit and check your facts before you post.
- http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
  UND 7 National Titles Yale 0, no ECAC team has won an NCAA title since 1989… Need I say more? Winning the Broadmor Throphy and the McNaughten title is a hell of a lot harder than winning the ECAC conference tourney…
  I would love to see how Yale, UNION and RPI would do if they played in the WCHA. Yale wouldn’t have a 12-1 record. Union which is considered one good ECAC teams and they lost to lowly BSU who is sitting in the bottom rung of the WCHA…
  - BottomFeeders
    12-1 with a loss to unranked air force. It’s nice to see this power house team take out highly ranked teams like Holy Cross. Can’t imagine the talent on the ice in that game.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KBVOP7JEIJTGTBGPEMTI67KVLU J
everyone keeps talking crap……….the season isnt over yet….both teams could collapse at any time….nothing is a given….
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Crock O’Grimaldi
Bottom line is that UND is expected to compete every year, as is BC, BU, the Gophers, Wisconsin, etc. UND fans hogging the board and bullying are angry people. Bottom line, you should have a team this good. Lot of whining here. You have a minor league hockey team. The kids come in for the sole purpose of playing hockey. If they are good students or bright, it’s a coincidence because all you care about is a hockey machine. And given that for 10 years, you haven’t won the national championship, it looks like majoring in basket weaving, DWI and finding Waldo isn’t working. This is college sports. Stop the trash talking. You sound like the University of Miami in football. The rest of the college hockey world finds new times ascending to be pretty fun. The rest of us liked Bemidji State going far a couple of years ago. UMD is a good story. Hey two good Bulldog teams. With Yale and UMD they are doing something no one expected from them (even though the coaches picked Yale high in the preseason — presumably after seeing them last year in the tourney and returning so many players). If Yale doesn’t win the tournament, everyone is still having fun. At North Dakota, wait til next year is like hiding the retarded younger brother in the family — no one talks about it there. This isn’t life or death, it’s college sports, it’s a sideshow. It’s fun. Most of the kids on the ice won’t go on to the NHL anyway. Goes for North Dakota too. Remember what Kareem said, “no one roots for Goliath.” Unless you’re in North Dakota
- UNDalumCHITOWN
  Lot of hypocritical UND bashing being done by people who seem to think UND bashing other teams is a crime.
- http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
  You sound like a three year old, Chay Genoway is a 4.0 student and isn’t under water basket weaving…
Hog Pilot
Yale a number 1 team in the polls??? At this point it is not a realistic ranking. If you check out Krack SOS rank you will find that the Yale rank is #33. It does not mean they are not a good team it just means they have not really had the schedule that tests their abilities.
- Bemidji Swiller
  #33? Really? With a name like Hog Pilot, you probably eat corn long-ways.
  - UNDalumCHITOWN
    Yes, 33. Really.
  - Anonymous
    SOS means strength of schedule… and yes Yale’s is an absolute cake walk. Now look who the top 9 SOS ranked teams are…. thats right WCHA. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
    - http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
      8 of the 10 SOS are in the WCHA…
- http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
  Beating up on the week sisters of the poor doesn’t impress me… I am pretty sure that most top WCHA teams would crush Holy Cross 10-1 as well..
Jdorf40
None of this jibberish matters. There is a lot of hockey left to be played. The polls never look the same in late March as they do in early January. It’s not like it’s a first time occurrence that the Sioux play the toughest schedule. They do a great job of scheduling tough non-conference opponents. However, you can’t hold it against Yale that they play in a weaker overall conference. The product that’s put on the ice is the only thing that matters. I wasn’t a believer in Yale last year but after watching them zip up and down the ice against UND last year, I’m definitely a believer now. And for some odd reason people aren’t talking about BC AS USUAL! I pray that team doesn’t sneak up behind everyone again like they seem to do every year. Until somebody de-thrones BC, they’ll be my pick to win it every year. I swear, they absolutely love being overlooked. Then come tourney time they end up getting a 2 seed and stationed out East only to pound every team that gets in it’s way. Traditionally there aren’t many teams in the past 6-7 years that have done what the Sioux have, but BC has to be feared.
- Lefty
  Finally a voice of reason in the land of the Sue. Agree on comments re. UND and Yale and rankings and HC. Along with you, I think BC isn’t cited frequently enough as the top or one of the top teams in the NCAA’s. In my mind, they are the #1 team right now: reigning NCAA champs; Kreider and Dumolin had great World Junior tourney; BC had about 6 players vying for spots on the final roster for the World Junior team. They, along with the Sue, and perhaps Yale, all have legitimate shots at the title.
UNDalumCHITOWN
We UND/WCHA fans should refrain from commenting on these posts from now on, or until Yale sh!ts the bed and loses to a basement dweller. When that happens (and it will) they have virtually no argument and we can go back to discussing college hockey again.
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