UND ranked No. 7 in first preseason national hockey poll
Sep. 25—GRAND FORKS — UND turned over all eight of its defensemen in the offseason.
College hockey pollsters don't think that will be much of a setback.
The Fighting Hawks are ranked No. 7 in the first preseason poll released by USCHO.com. It's tied for the largest jump from last year's season-ending poll. UND was No. 17 in that one.
Michigan State also jumped 10 spots. The Spartans ended last season at No. 19 and jumped to No. 9 in the preseason poll.
The poll also indicates UND will be starting the season with some difficult opponents.
The Fighting Hawks are scheduled to play No. 1 Boston University and No. 3 Minnesota within the first month of the season.
The top-five teams are the Terriers, defending national champion Quinnipiac at No. 2, the Gophers, defending National Collegiate Hockey Conference Penrose Cup champion Denver at No. 4 and Michigan at No. 5.
Other ranked NCHC teams are St. Cloud State at No. 8, Western Michigan at No. 12 and Minnesota Duluth at No. 17. Three NCHC teams are unranked — Omaha, Colorado College and Miami. The Mavericks and Tigers both received top-20 votes in the poll.
UND opens with an Oct. 7 exhibition game against the University of Manitoba.
It begins regular-season play Oct. 13-14 in the Ice Breaker Tournament in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks play Army in Game 1 and Wisconsin in Game 2.
Then, it hosts Minnesota and Minnesota State before traveling to Boston University.
Despite turning over the eight defensemen, UND brings back a lot of firepower up front, including 20-goal scorer Riese Gaber and 42-point scorer Jackson Blake.
The Fighting Hawks made a few key additions out of the NCAA transfer portal like center Cameron Berg from Omaha, defensemen Garrett Pyke (Alaska) and Keaton Pehrson (Michigan), and goaltender Ludvig Persson (Miami).
The headliner of the incoming freshman class is Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Jayden Perron.
1. Boston University (17)
2. Quinnipiac (22)
3. Minnesota (10)
4. Denver
5. Michigan (1)
6. Boston College
7. North Dakota
8. St. Cloud State
9. Michigan State
10. Michigan Tech
11. Cornell
12. Western Michigan
13. Ohio State
14. Merrimack
15. Harvard
16. Penn State
17. Minnesota Duluth
18. Providence
19. Northeastern
20. Notre Dame
