Union holds on to eighth spot in national rankings


Following a weekend sweep of Penn State on home ice, the Union College Dutchmen held on to the eighth spot in the latest USCHO.com college hockey poll, released Monday.

Union (8-2-1) knocked off the Nittany Lions 2-0 on Saturday and 4-1 Sunday and earned 687 points in the rankings.

Boston College held on to the top spot in the poll, followed by New Hampshire, Minnesota, Miami (Ohio), and Denver.

The Dutchmen return to the ice when they host Quinnipiac Friday and Saturday at home against Princeton.

5 Responses

  1. Kevin says:

    Has there been any further word about Penn State possibly blowing up Western hockey by having the other Big 10 hockey playing members (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State) leave either the CCHA or WCHA and form their own Big 10 hockey league?

  2. Pete Dougherty, Staff writer says:

    @Kevin: That’s a done deal. Big Ten Conference hockey begins next season.

  3. Kevin says:

    My next question is would the Big 10 get an automatic berth even though they only have 6 teams?

    As for Penn State, they were the ones that started blowing up conferences back in 1992 when they joined the Big 10 after years as a football independent, though in other sports they were in the Atlantic 10, though I believe the year before they joined the Big 10 they were kicked out of the Atlantic 10.

    In any case I think the formation of the Big 10 for ice hockey is much more of a serious issue than it was after the 1983-84 season when Hockey East was formed when the bigger schools left the ECAC since they didn’t want to play with the mostly Ivy League schools. I could possibly see schools like Nebraska-Omaha and the U.S. Air Force Academy fill the void in the CCHA and WCHA, though it does seem a little ridiculous to have Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks in the 2 main Western leagues. Also, with the Big 10 forming for ice hockey, would that force schools like Illinois, Northwestern and Nebraska-Lincoln to form teams as well so the Big 10 can grow?

  4. Ed says:

    Yes, the Big 10 receives an AQ to the tournament. The minimum you need is 6. That is why when the CCHA fell apart, they had to scramble to take teams in, they only had 5 teams left and didn’t have an AQ. Enter some Atlantic Hockey schools. In a few years, the same will happen to them, which is why they are working on Navy to go DI.

  5. Fast Fred 101 says:

    @4 A good fit in the Atlantic Hockey League would be RPI. In their banner year they beat up on a bunch of them and they seem to do well against those type teams. They sure can’t do squat(sorry for the redundancy)against ECAC teams. Never made it to the final four in their own league in 6 years.( Only team not to make it in 6 years). Well, maybe they will when they get over this 6 year rebuilding period!