Spittin’ Chiclets College Hockey Rankings (Week 25 – Tournament Preview)
1. St. Cloud State
2. Denver
3. Notre Dame
4. Cornell
5. Ohio State
6. Northeastern
7. Minnesota State
8. Clarkson
9. Minnesota Duluth
10. Providence
It’s finally tournament season. The most underrated playoffs in all of sports, college hockey. This weekend, 16 teams will begin their quest to Minnesota to play in this year’s Frozen Four. The rankings will start to change a ton over the next week or two, but there wasn’t much change after this past weekend. Cornell falls from #2 to #4 after falling to ECAC champion Princeton in the ECAC championship game. The Big Red doing their best to screw a team like Boston College out of a tournament spot, getting the at-large bid being that Princeton won the ECAC. Denver moves up a spot from #4 to #3 this week after their NCHC tournament win over SCSU in the NCHC championship.
But with the tournament here, I might as well give my predictions to come out of each bracket.
West Regional (March 23-24) – Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls, S.D.
- St. Cloud State vs. 4. Air Force
- Minnesota State vs. 3. Minnesota-Duluth
Winner – (1) St. Cloud State over ( 3) Minnesota-Duluth
Midwest Regional (March 24-25) - PPL Center, Allentown, Pa.
- Ohio State vs. 4. Princeton
- Denver vs. 3. Penn State
Winner – (2) Denver over (1) Ohio State
East Regional (March 23-24) – Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Conn.
- Notre Dame vs. 4. Michigan Tech
- Providence vs. 3. Clarkson
Winner – (1) Notre Dame over (3) Clarkson
Northeast Regional (March 24-25) – DCU Center, Worcester, Mass.
- Cornell vs. 4. Boston University
- Michigan vs. 3. Northeastern
Winner- (3) Northeastern over (4) BU
Frozen Four
Denver vs St. Cloud State
Winner – Denver over SCSU
Northeastern vs Notre Dame
Winner – Northeastern over Notre Dame
National Championship
Denver vs Northeastern
Winner – Denver
Yep. That’s right. I have Denver repeating. Who would have guessed? Like I mentioned on this week’s Spittin’ Chiclets, a team with Henrik Borgstrom, Troy Terry and Tanner Jaillet is just too tough to take down. They have the experience, they have the depth and they most certainly have the star power.