Elite Prospects NCAA Power Rankings for early December

This article is presented by Everything College Hockey.

A friend of mine who has only a passing interest in NCAA hockey asked me the other day who was good this season and I said, "Well, I guess the answer is, like, BC, Denver, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, and Maine."

He responded, "So, the usual suspects."

Yeah, pretty much, Kevin. Pretty much the usual suspects. Hockey East has eight of its 11 teams in the top 20 of the Pairwise right now. The Big Ten has four of its seven. The NCHC has five of its nine. Everyone else has three combined. That feels about right. Maybe a smidge light on the "everyone else" side but you wouldn't have said that would be outlandish this close to the holiday break, either.

But how does that top 20 reflect our own feelings about the best teams almost halfway through the college hockey season? You tell us:

Let's dig into some of the topics around the country right now:

Which team in your top 20 is the most surprising to you as the first half winds down?

SS: I know Dartmouth lost both games this weekend, but the fact they've been as successful as they've been has caught my eye and Ryan wrote about them at length last week. With them not starting the season until November, I'm curious if it was just a hot start or sustainable, but as of right now I'm impressed. 

RL: Yeah Dartmouth is the obvious answer here but I think the start there was a little unsustainable (they were shooting 17ish percent coming into last weekend). They're a good team and almost certainly top-20 at the end of the year, but they were top-five in the PWR until getting swept, so it's one of those things.

That said, my pick here is UNH. They're currently on the right side of the tournament cutline (at 14th) and while they started really well last year, too, they collapsed down the stretch. They could certainly do that again this season, but the results just seem a lot more sustainable. For the most part, the only teams they're really losing to are tournament teams. Then again, they're sub-.500 in conference and after Jan. 4, it's all Hockey East games the rest of the way.

Let's talk about Atlantic Hockey. Bentley is on a six-game conference winning streak and most of its five losses this year are narrow ones against Hockey East teams. Preseason favourite Sacred Heart is playing well. Holy Cross is 5-2-1 lately after a slow start. Who ya got?

RL: Bentley looks awesome, but I had Holy Cross circled as my preseason favourite and they do seem to be hitting their stride now. I think the Crusaders are gonna turn this into a real horse race down the stretch. They might have given Bentley a head start, but I think that gap is closing.

SS: I'm gonna go with Bentley, simply because the defence and the ability to keep the puck out of the net. I think there's something to that, especially later in the season as games get tighter. 

Minnesota has yet to lose a Big Ten game, and is already at 15 total wins, but arguably hasn't been treated like a team with that pedigree by national voters or our own Power Rankings. Are we missing something or is the top four of the country just that good?

SS: I have Minnesota at No. 4, which I think is pretty damn good and reflective of what they've done this season. The weekend sweep of Michigan being fresh in mind certainly helped and one of the reasons I didn't punish Michigan so much in my rankings was because I'm a believer in Minnesota.

RL: Basically all the other teams that have been in my top four this season have played through some of the most difficult schedules of the season, while Minnesota's strength of schedule was middling. They keep winning, but in a lot of games, those are Ws they should be getting. But at some point, you gotta give 'em credit and the sweep of Michigan shows why. There are just five or six exceptionally good teams this year.

Is there anyone currently outside your top 20 you see being a legit threat to get an at-large bid at the end of the season?

SS: Not really. 

RL: That's basically my reaction as well, but I just wanna flag Cornell (currently in the mid-20s) as being capable of winning a bunch of ECAC games down the stretch and get themselves into the conversation. They're showing lately that's easier said than done, but they have the horses.

Arizona State has regulation wins in its last five games, including a road sweep of Denver, and enters its holiday break a game above .500 after an injury-hampered rough start. What do you think their ceiling is?

RL: I don't think they're as good as, say, Denver or Western Michigan on a long enough timeline, but they're in that next tier below them. They had a ton of injuries to overcome earlier in the year and a tough road schedule, but I need a liiiiiittle more evidence they can do this for 16-plus more games.

SS: I think they are a sneaky good pick to win the NCHC conference tournament. I believe there's on-ice evidence to that, plus some pretty cool motivation going into the tournament attempting to make a splash for the first time within a conference. 

Looks like Minnesota State is kinda-sorta running away with the CCHA. Surprised? Do you think anyone can catch them?

SS: I watched them in person early in the season when they visited Michigan and I was impressed. I think there's a looming threat of Michigan Tech catching them, but beyond that it's all about teams trying to maybe catch Minnesota State in the conference tournament. 

RL: I'm a little surprised they're in a tournament spot right now, but not that they're the on-paper best CCHA team. Tech could certainly catch them, but a four-point cushion feels more or less fair to this point. Maybe things change, guys get injured, etc., but as usual they're just a rock-solid team with few obvious weaknesses.