It may not seem like it, but the 2011-2012 NCAA Hockey season is less than two weeks away. With that in mind, the pre-season rankings were released yesterday with the Miami(OH) Redhawks ranked as the #1 team in the country and a number of New England schools featured prominently.
Despite losing a number of their best players from last years NCAA tournament squad, the Boston College Eagles are ranked 5th, one spot ahead of Boston University who returns the bulk of its young team.
Also featured in the rankings are the defending ECAC champions, the Yale Bulldogs at #8. Yale was ranked as the #1 team in the country for a significant portion of last year and qualified for the NCAA tournament.
The other New England schools ranked in the Top 15 include the defending Hockey East regular season champion New Hampshire Wildcats (#12) and the Maine Black Bears (#15).
Among the "others receiving votes" were Merrimack, Dartmouth, and Quinnipiac.
The season unofficially kicks off this weekend when a number of schools will play exhibition games.