The Adrian College ice hockey team has climbed to No. 1 in the USCHO.com national poll. It is the first time the Bulldogs have been in the top spot since January 22nd, 2018.
The Bulldogs (10-1, 6-0 NCHA) secured their tenth consecutive victory of the season in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon, defeating then-No. 9 Wilkes in overtime. That victory, along with some other drama around the nation, cleared the way for the black and gold to claim Division III’s top slot.
Adrian garnered 14 first-place votes, pushing it ahead of No. 2 Geneseo, who was dealt its first loss of the season over the weekend by then-unranked Elmira.
No. 3 Utica tallied one first-place vote to maintain their ranking from a week ago, followed by No. 4 Augsburg and No. 5 Hobart, who swapped places from the previous poll.
Babson also retained its position from last week at No. 6, then Wilkes, Norwich and Endicott trailed at seventh through ninth.
Along with Augsburg, this week’s poll featured two additional future opponents for Adrian in No. 10 Aurora and No. 12 St. Norbert.
As of Monday afternoon, the Bulldogs remain the top school in the USCHO.com PairWise Rankings.
The PairWise Rankings (PWR) is a system which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants for the NCAA Division III hockey tournament. The PWR compares all teams by these criteria: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, and the rating percentage index (RPI).
As previously mentioned, the black and gold are No. 1 for the first time in almost four years. They would end up holding that ranking during the 2017-18 campaign for five-straight weeks.
The top-ranked dogs will resume their latest campaign against the now-fourth-ranked Auggies of Augsburg on Thursday, December 30 at the Arrington Ice Arena.
Information and media contained within this article were generated by the sports information department of the institution. For more college sports, follow us on Twitter @MWSNsports or like our page on Facebook.
