USU hockey punches ticket to nationals
Utah State’s nine-game winning streak helped them jump Northern Colorado for the No. 2 rank in the West, giving them an automatic bid at the AHCA National Tournament.
Wednesday’s rankings, revealed in the ACHA Men’s D2 Reveal Show, are the final rankings which will be released this year. USU was previously ranked second from Nov. 22 to Jan. 17. They fell as low as No. 4 in the Jan. 24 rankings, but worked their way back thanks to the win streak and victory in the Mountain West Conference tournament and a timely loss by former No. 2, Northern Colorado.
“I think it shows the character of this team,” USU head coach Jon Eccles said of how his team bounced back, “that they’re not willing to give up just because they hit a few road bumps. Everything came together, guys working together and believing that we could get back to No. 2. They were not going to let it not happen.”
There was some doubt in the mind of Eccles, not sure if the computer-generated rankings would reflect how the Aggies have done, but overall he was confident his team would make the jump from No. 3 (their previous rank) to No. 2.
“We did everything we had to do,” Eccles said. “Then we got some help with [Northern Colorado] losing and I really think that pushed us over the top.”
Utah State will play in Group B at nationals, which start March 9 in Columbus. They are the two seed in the four-team group while Penn State is the one seed in the pool. The other two teams in the pool will be determined by the Central and Northeastern regional tournaments. The winner of the Central regional and runner-up in the Northeast tournament will fill out the group.
The Aggies have made it to nationals in seven of the last eight seasons, but have only obtained an auto-bid three times in that span, the last one coming in the 2012-13 season.
Had the Aggies remained at No. 3, they would have needed to go through the regional tournament Feb. 23-25 to get a spot at nationals. But even then, they would have had a harder time in group play.
As it is, USU will have a hard time in group play. Penn State, the No. 1 ranked team in division two (the Aggies are No. 20 nationally) while nine of the Aggies’ potential group opponents playing in the Central and Northeast regional rank ahead of them nationally (four in Northeast, five in Central).
The task appears daunting, but Eccles said the computer-generated rankings can be “deceptive” because teams in the West don’t have the ability to put together a schedule as strong as teams in the East, thus hurting their rating. Eccles said he was confident Utah State can go toe-to-toe with the top teams they’ll face at nationals.