Dutchmen move up in National Rankings

In the first week of December Union cracked the Top 20 in the USCHO.com poll at #20 and then shortly after moved up to #18. The Dutchmen keep crawling up the national rankings as USCHO.com has them ranked as the #17 in Division I college hockey. They are still riding a hot streak where they've only lost one game (against Massachusetts at the UConn Tournament) since losing in overtime to RPI on October 30th. You can view the complete USCHO.com rankings here.

But to be honest I am a little surprised about how they went up in the rankings mainly because of their heartbreaking loss to UMass and their overtime win over Army a few days ago. UMass was the first ranked opponent the Dutchmen faced since cracking the Top 20 and needed to prove that they can deserve to be a national power. But, they blew a two goal third period lead and lost 4-3. I felt this game might have knocked them down the rankings as this was their first chance to prove themselves and they instantly lost in terrible fashion. My case with the Army game is that even though Union beat them it was a very tight game against a bad team. Yes, a win is a win but when you barely beat a team that is not even good in the weakest conference in college hockey (Atlantic Hockey) you should be penalized for it. This is basically the same case I used about how Union will never go too high in the rankings after barely beating AIC and losing to Sacred Heart in overtime (the two worst teams in Atlantic Hockey). But, hey I'm not a voter so it doesn't matter and I'm very excited to see them move up slightly in the rankings.

Also note:

• UMass lost to Bentley and Boston University after beating the Dutchmen in the first round of the UConn tournament and moved down a spot in the USCHO.com rankings to #16.


• Other ECAC teams in the Top 20 include Yale who moved up from #9 to #6, Cornell who dropped from #4 to #8, and Quinnipiac who has rapidly fell and is now #12.


• Union is tied for #15 with Maine in the USCHO.com Pair-Wise Rankings, which is ahead of Quinnipiac and Cornell.


• In the Inside College Hockey Rankings Union still stands at #16. Also, Quinnipiac moved down two spots to #11, Cornell dropped three spots to #6, and Yale moved up three spots to #3.
• Union also received eight votes in the USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine poll.