Terriers Picked To Finish First In Hockey East Pre-Season
October 3, 2002 | Men's Ice Hockey
The Terrier hockey team, winners of six of the last nine Hockey East regular-season titles, have been installed as the pre-season favorites to win the title in a poll conducted of the nine league coaches.
The maximum number of first-place votes a team can receive is eight, as a coach cannot vote his team number. Thus, of the maximum they could receive, the Terriers garnered six firsts and 61 points. Defending regular-season and tournament champion New Hampshire finished second in the balloting with a pair of first-place votes and 53 points. Boston College was third with 51 points, while Maine finished in fourth with one top vote and 48 points.
In the 18-year history of Hockey East, one of these four has won the regular-season title. The Terriers and Boston College are tied for the most regular-season titles with six each. Maine has won it four times, while New Hampshire has won it twice.
The Terriers won the regular-season title five straight years and six out of seven. The streak began in 1994 when they were 21-3-0 against league competition. In 1995, they were 16-5-3 against Hockey East teams en route to an overall record of 31-6-3 and the NCAA national championship. Over the next three years, they were 17-5-2 in 1996, 16-4-4 in 1997, and 18-4-2 in 1998. The regular-season title streak ended in 1999 when the Terriers finished fifth with an 8-13-3 record. However, they bounced back in 2000 to win the title with a 15-3-6 mark. In 2001, they again finished with a sub.500 record, as they were 9-12-3, which placed them sixth. That marked the lowest finish the Terriers have had in league history. Then, last year, they were second with a 15-6-3 record.
In the rest of this year's balloting, only one point separated Providence and Northeastern. The Friars finished in fifth with 32 points, while the Huskies earned 31 points to finish in sixth place.
The final three spots went to UMass/Lowell with 23 points, the University of Massachusetts with 17 and Merrimack with 8.
| Place | Team | 1st Place Votes | Points |
| 1 | BOSTON UNIVERSITY | 6 | 61 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 2 | 53 |
| 3 | Boston College | | 51 |
| 4 | Maine | 1 | 48 |
| 5 | Providence | 32 | |
| 6 | Northeastern | 31 | |
| 7 | UMass/Lowell | 23 | |
| 8 | Massachusetts | 17 | |
| 9 | Merrimack | 8 |
