Holiday Hockey Recap/GRS Top 25

(January 08 2010) Written by: Matt Garver in Athletics

College hockey is generally pretty quiet during the holiday season. The most action occurs after the new year with several tournaments across the country which means a ton of non-conference action. This is an area that has not been kind to RIT this year. The Tigers headed out to Minnesota State in Mankato, MN for two non-conference games with the Mavericks just after the new year. Unfortunately they lost both games, 6-1 and 3-0. This leaves the Tigers with an overall record of 9-8-1, but have gone 0-6 in non-conference action this year.

RIT is, however, positioned well in AHA action where they have 4 games in hand on Mercyhurst and Air Force and are just 1 point behind in the standings. The Tigers are 9-2-1 in conference play where I believe they are the best team. There is a stretch of 6 games here that should be wins for the Tigers. They can really distance themselves from the rest of the pack in the AHA by taking wins in all 6 games. They start off conference play in 2010 with Holy Cross this weekend, a team that they have never lost to at the Division I level. I am taking my 2 1/2 year old son to the game at The Ritter tonight and will bring along my camera so I can include some pictures in my hockey recap for next week.

As a result of 3 non-conference losses since my last GRS Top 25, RIT is no longer in the rankings. Hopefully the next 6 games will enable the Tigers to claw back into the GRS Top 25. Nevertheless, here are my rankings.

1. Miami of Ohio                                             114                                      13-2-5
2. Ferris State                                                 108                                      14-4-2
3. Michigan State                                            92                                        14-6-2
4. Denver                                                          84.95                                  13-5-2
5. Bemidji State                                              82.9                                     14-4-2
6. Wisconsin                                                   75.05                                   12-5-3
7. Colorado College                                      75.05                                   12-5-3
8. Quinnipiac                                                   74.5                                     13-5-1
9. Lake Superior                                             64                                        12-7-3
10. Minnesota-Duluth                                     57.55                                   12-7-1
11. Union                                                          55.8                                      10-4-5
12. Boston College                                         50.5                                      10-5-2
13. Alaska                                                         50                                          9-5-4
14. Yale                                                             46.6                                       8-3-3
15. North Dakota                                             46.5                                      10-6-4
16. U-Mass Lowell                                          41.3                                      11-7-1
17. U-Mass Amherst                                       41.3                                      11-7
18. Vermont                                                       41                                         10-6-2
19. St. Cloud State                                           37.75                                    10-7-3
20. Cornell                                                         36.8                                      8-4-2
21. Maine                                                           31.5                                      10-7-2
22. Minnesota State                                        30.15                                    11-9-2
23. Notre Dame                                                26                                          9-8-5
24. Northern Michigan                                     26                                          9-8-4
25. Nebraska-Omaha                                     26                                           9-8-5

The puck drops at 7:05 tonight at The Ritter Arena, come check out some Division I college hockey!