BF's Benchmark Monday - National Polls; Accolades and Awards in HE; Mass High School Hockey Scoring Leaders

Hockey East in the Polls:

Boston University (15-6-1) continues to ascend the national ranks and moved up to #2 in both the USA Today and USCHO polls while the Terriers have garnered the #1 rank in the Pairwise rankings. This all comes on the heals of a dominating weekend for BU as they pounded the Providence Friars on back to back nights.

The BC Eagles (14-10-1) finally took a slight fall in all of the rankings after 2 gut wrenching losses in Orono over the weekend. The Eagles looked like national title contenders at the onset of the season but have been mired in the .500 doldrums since November. Maine climbed a few spots and the Black Bears are on the fringe of the USCHO and Pairwise polls coming in at #20 and #18 respectively. They have a huge series coming at #2 BU this weekend in Boston.

Despite a split over the weekend with UNH, Merrimack (13-5-5) climbed to #5 in both the USCHO and USA Today polls. Unfortunately for Merrimack, they will be without top center Ryan Madsen who faces season ending ankle surgery that stemmed from a nasty collision with the boards during Saturday’s win over the Wildcats.

UMass Lowell swept a realing Northeastern team over the weekend as sophore sensation Doug Carr pitched a shutout on Friday and backstopped Lowell to an overtime win on Saturday; not a bad weekend, unfortunately it wasn’t enough to win defensive player of the week honors (BU’s Kieran Millan took home that honor).

• Pairwise Rankings

National Polls:

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll
January 23, 2012

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Wk.
1.	Minnesota Duluth (31)	507	1
2.	Boston University (3)	479	3
3.	Minnesota	420	2
4.	Notre Dame	375	6
5.	Merrimack	333	7
6.	Cornell	320	9
7.	Ohio State	292	5
8.	Boston College	261	4
9.	Michigan	239	10
10.	Colorado College	199	11
11.	UMass Lowell	183	13
12.	Ferris State	154	14
13.	Union	104	12
14.	Western Michigan	103	8
15.	Denver	51	15

Also receiving votes: Miami 30, Michigan State 12, Maine 10, Northern Michigan 6, RIT 1, North Dakota 1.

USCHO.com Poll
January 23, 2012

No.	Team (First-place votes)	Points	Last Wk.
1.	Minnesota Duluth (45)	995	1
2.	Boston University (5)	952	2
3.	Minnesota	790	4
4.	Notre Dame	750	7
5.	Merrimack	720	6
6.	Ohio State	703	5
7.	Boston College	680	3
8.	Michigan	675	10
9.	Cornell	654	9
10.	Ferris State	532	13
11.	UMass Lowell	526	14
12.	Colorado College	518	11
13.	Western Michigan	360	8
14.	Union	349	12
15.	Denver	319	15
16.	Michigan State	250	16
17.	Miami	242	20
18.	North Dakota	133	17
19.	Northern Michigan	103	NR
20.	Maine	101	NR

Also receiving votes: Lake Superior State 47, Colgate 43, Quinnipiac 24, Nebraska-Omaha 17, Harvard 8, RIT 7, St. Cloud State 2.

Accolades and Awards in Hockey East:

ATHLETIC REPUBLIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK

#57 MATT MANGENE, MAINE (Junior Forward; Miller Place, N.Y.)

Mangene scored four goals in Maine’s weekend sweep of No. 3 Boston College at Alfond Arena. He scored the overtime game-winner on Friday night and followed that up with his first collegiate hat trick and eight shots on goal on Saturday. He finished the weekend with 10 shots on goal and a +3 plus/minus rating.

PRO AMBITIONS ROOKIE OF THE WEEK

#23 SCOTT WILSON, UMASS LOWELL (Freshman Forward; Oakville, Ont.)

Wilson scored four points (3g,1a) and a +3 rating on five shots, including Friday’s game-winning goal against Northeastern at the Tsongas Center.

HEA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

#31 KIERAN MILLAN, BOSTON UNIVERSITY (Senior Goaltender; Edmonton, Alta.)

Millan stopped 62 of the 63 (.984 save%) shots he faced over the weekend to lead BU to a pair of wins over Providence. Stopped all 26 shots he faced in Saturday’s 8-0 road win to earn his third shutout of the season at Schneider Arena. Mass High School Scoring Leaders Jim Clark provides the best high school hockey coverage in Massachusetts and released the Statewide scoring leader today. The list includes future BU Terrier Brendan Collier of #1 Malden Catholic whose 11-19-30 numbers lead the prestigious Catholic Conference.  The Mass High School Hockey rankings also have some familiar faces as BC High, Hingham and St. John’s Prep rank #3, 4 and 5 respectively. Another Terrier recruit, RW Sam Kurker has been a prominent figure on the St John’s Prep team; good to see the local boys stay in Boston for their college careers. Catholic Memorial is having their 2nd down year in a row as the Knights have struggled (3-5) to an unfamiliar #20 ranking.

About these ads