2009 Final Rankings
By Fetch
When we did our preseason rankings, we had a few that were a bit, shall we say, out there. But we showed our work and gave our reasoning. Some of them worked out, some of them didn’t. One of the teams we pegged was Boston University. We had some questions about Freshman Kieran Millan but loved Colin Wilson and the deep forwards of Nick Bonino, Jason Lawrence, etc. The Terriers stayed atop or near the top of our rankings for almost the entire season, and entered the NCAA tournament as the favorites to win the title. Although it wasn’t the smoothest of rides, the Terriers came through and took the 2009 title. They are rewarded with perhaps the biggest prize of all: The #1 spot in our final rankings.
1. Boston University (35-6-4) Preseason Ranking: 8
2. Vermont (22-12-5) Preseason Ranking: NR
3. Miami (23-13-5) Preseason Ranking: NR
4. Notre Dame (31-6-3) Preseason Ranking: 5
5. Michigan (29-12-0) Preseason Ranking: 3
6. Minnesota-Duluth (22-13-8) Preseason Ranking: NR
7. Denver (22-13-8) Preseason Ranking: 12
8. New Hampshire (20-13-5) Preseason Ranking: 9
9. Yale (24-8-2) Preseason Ranking: NR
10. North Dakota (24-15-4) Preseason Ranking: 16
11. Cornell (22-10-4) Preseason Ranking: 11
12. Princeton (22-12-1) Preseason Ranking: 10
13. Northeastern (25-12-4) Preseason Ranking: 15
14. Air Force (28-11-2) Preseason Ranking: NR
15. St. Lawrence (21-12-5) Preseason Ranking: NR
16. Ohio State (23-15-4) Preseason Ranking: NR
Starting with the good: We successfully foresaw the good seasons by Cornell and Northeastern (although obviously had no idea Northeastern would be a win away from the Hockey East title) and said Air Force would win an NCAA Tournament game, which they did. We almost exactly nailed UNH, Notre Dame and Michigan as well.
The Bad: I’ll admit it: North Dakota brought the second half surge once again, in a year I didn’t think they could. It was partly because the WCHA was a down league this year, but this was the most impressive UND season in quite awhile.
Also bad: Our top 2 preseason teams (BC and Minnesota) didn’t make the final 16, and our #2 and #3 ranked teams started the year unranked.