Boston College Hockey Rises to 16th in USCHO Rankings; Women Still #1

The Boston College men’s hockey team has improved slightly in the new USCHO rankings released on December 8.

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Boston College rose one spot from last week to 16th in the nation after having tied and beaten the New Hampshire Wildcats this past weekend. The Eagles’ record stands at 8-7-1 overall with one more game to play prior to the mid-season winter break; that game will be against the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday.

The news is not all good for the Eagles, however: because of the bad season being had up in Durham, Boston College’s PairWise ranking dropped to 31st despite their three-point weekend. The Eagles will need a very strong second half of the season in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

Retaining their top position nationally in the USCHO rankings is North Dakota, followed by Hockey East and in-town rival Boston University at second. Minnesota State and Michigan Tech are third and fourth, respectively, while the surprising 9-1-2 Harvard Crimson have rocketed up to fifth in college hockey.

The bottom half of the top ten features two more Hockey East teams with UMass-Lowell sitting at eighth and Vermont now tenth.

Meanwhile, joining Boston College in the bottom half of the top twenty are other conference opponents Providence at 18 and Merrimack at 19. No other team in Hockey East received a vote.

On the women’s side of the USCHO rankings, Boston College retains its unanimous number one spot. They have been at the top for six weeks in a row, while being unanimously so for the past five.

The ladies are undefeated through seventeen games at 16-0-1, with a perfect 10-0-0 record in Hockey East. Boston College has a six-point lead in the conference, and overall, they have outscored their opposition by a margin of 101 to 17.

While the Eagle men are fighting desperately to save their season, the women have to be the favorites to win the national championship. The men’s team has to be relieved that they are still ranked at all given the hardships they have experienced, while the ladies are at the top of their games.