Men's Hockey Breaks into USCHO's National College Hockey Poll

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The University of New Hampshire men's hockey team broke into the USCHO.com Men's College Hockey Poll Top 20. The Wildcats garnered 273 points, just 10 points behind 14^th-ranked Northeastern.

The Wildcats return to the USCHO poll for the first time since Oct. 10, 2011. New Hampshire opened the 2012-13 season with a pair of home wins against St. Cloud State University. The 'Cats avenged a poor start in 2011-12, when it was 0-4-1 out of the gate, by getting out to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2008-09.

New Hampshire returns to action Oct. 20 against No. 11 Boston University. Game time at the Whittemore Center is 7 p.m. The game will be televised live on WBIN-TV and nationally on FOX College Sports. Check your local listings for stations. Tickets for the BU game and many other individual games are available online at UNHWildcats.com.

ABOUT THE POLL: The USCHO.com Poll consists of 50 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 22 beat writers and sports professionals from across the country. The poll, published weekly by the Associated Press, is a production of USCHO.com, which provides in-depth coverage of college hockey.

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll

Minneapolis, Minn./October 15, 2012

Team             (First Place)   Record   Pts  Last Week

 1 Minnesota                 (46)    2- 0-0   991     2

 2 North Dakota              ( 1)    0- 0-0   894     4

 3 Boston College            ( 2)    0- 1-0   878     1

 4 Miami                             2- 0-0   751     8

 5 Michigan                          1- 1-0   726     3

 6 Cornell                           0- 0-0   714     5

 7 Denver                            0- 0-0   690     7

 8 Union                     ( 1)    2- 1-0   606    10

 9 Notre Dame                        2- 0-0   583    14

10 Massachusetts-Lowell              0- 0-1   576     6

11 Boston University                 1- 0-0   549    12

12 Western Michigan                  1- 1-0   422     9

13 Minnesota-Duluth                  1- 1-0   308    13

14 Northeastern                      2- 0-0   283    NR

15 New Hampshire                2- 0-0  273    NR

16 Ferris State                      0- 1-1   218    11

17 Harvard                           0- 0-0   213    17

17 Northern Michigan                 2- 0-0   213    NR

19 Colorado College                  2- 0-0   194    NR

20 Quinnipiac                        2- 1-0    74    18

Others receiving votes: Air Force 47, Wisconsin 47, Maine 40, Rensselaer 40, Ohio State 39, Nebraska-Omaha 37, Merrimack 33, Michigan State 17, RIT 12, St. Cloud State 9, Lake Superior 7, St. Lawrence 6, Providence 4, Minnesota State 3, Yale 3.