M. Hockey Earns No. 8 Ranking

The Harvard men’s hockey team will begin its 2000-01 season with its highest national ranking in nearly seven years, according to the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll which was released yesterday.

The Crimson was ranked No. 8 by the poll’s voters, which include media and coaching representatives from each of the sport’s six NCAA conferences. Harvard was picked to win the ECAC by the conference’s coaches last month.

Harvard junior winger Dominic Moore, the team’s leading scorer last season, said he was somewhat surprised by the ranking.

“I guess it’s a bit flattering, considering that we haven’t been anywhere near that high in six or seven years,” Moore said.

Moore did, however, stress the relative irrelevance of polls.

“We can’t read too much into it, ” Moore said. “We’ll see what happens when the games are played.”

The Crimson made strides last season by achieving its winning season since the 1993-94 Frozen Four squad. Besides coming off its best season in seven years, this year’s squad has eight NHL draft picks on its roster. The Crimson has produced an ECAC-best four picks in each of the two most recent drafts. Unlike No. 7 Boston College, which lost three outstanding underclassmen from its 2000-01 national championsip team, the vast majority of the Crimson’s NHL draftees have played for the full four years.

This year’s Harvard recruiting class included two NHL draftees. Defenseman Noah Welch, a Brighton native, was a second round selection of Pittsburgh. Forward Tom Cavanagh, son of three-time Crimson All-American Joe Cavanagh ’71, was a sixth round selection of San Jose.

Harvard earns the high ranking despite questions surrounding its goaltending situation. Sophomore Will Crothers received little playing time last season due to the exceptional play of Oliver Jonas ’01, the ECAC Goaltender of the Year last season. Freshman Dov Grumet-Morris is also competing for the starting job.

“[The starting goaltender] is definitely a question mark,” Moore said. “I don’t know who’ll be starting. It’s tough to call, but hopefully one of them will step it up.”

Harvard is the only ECAC team ranked in the top 10. Clarkson, the ECAC media’s pick to win the conference, was ranked 13th. Dartmouth, who fell to Harvard in the ECAC consolation last year, is No. 15.

Michigan St., North Dakota, and Michigan—the three teams who came up short at last year’s Frozen Four—are ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 respectively. Two WCHA teams, No. 3 Minnesota and No. 6 Colorado College, and Hockey East preseason favorite No. 5 Providence round out the top six.