With the college hockey season just around the corner, it's time to rank the best and most impactful teams in the history of the NCAA.
It's September, and that means the college hockey season is only about a month away.
In anticipation of one of the best times of the year, we've got the opportunity to have some fun — or get insanely mad — and rank the top five teams in the history of NCAA hockey.
The criteria used to put together this list is a combination of national championships, historical significance and the ability to produce future NHL talent.
There's no uniform way these measures are applied, but teams had to check these three boxes at a minimum in order to be considered for this list.
5. Boston College Eagles, 2011-12
This Eagles team, the last to win a national title for legendary coach Jerry York, flipped a switch at the end of January and became a juggernaut.
With future NHLers Chris Kreider, Johnny Gaudreau, Brian Dumoulin, and Kevin Hayes, among others, they went unbeaten and untied from Jan. 27 through April 7, finishing the season on a 19-game winning streak with a plus-56 goal difference. They also only trailed for a total of 16:22 in those 19 games.
This team showcased pure dominance for the final two-plus months of the season and possessed some future NHL All-Stars just starting their high-level hockey careers.
4. University of Michigan Wolverines, 1995-96
The impact of this team goes beyond the on-ice contributions.
Beyond future NHL stars like Brendan Morrison and Marty Turco, or mainstays like John Madden, there is also future GM Jason Botterill.
And you know how they call lacrosse-style goals "The Michigan?" That's because Mike Legg scored a lacrosse goal in this season's NCAA tournament, against Minnesota.
Beyond all of that, this team only lost seven games all year, ending their march to the title with 34 wins and had 11 different games in which they scored seven goals or more.
3. Boston University Terriers, 1977-78
This team featured a number of historically important players who went on to NHL careers, but aren't quite known for that.
Names like Dave Silk, Jack O'Callahan, and Jim Craig probably ring a bell. They helped the United States win gold at the 1980 Olympics.
But before they did that, they powered the Terriers to a stunning 30-2-0 season in which they started out with a 21-game winning streak. They also avenged their loss to one of the two teams that beat them that year, knocking off Providence — who beat them in the ECAC semi-finals — in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
They outscored opponents 15-8 in their three-game run to the title.
2. Cornell University Big Red, 1969-70
I'm breaking my own rule here about players going on to solid NHL careers, but it's for a good reason.
This is the only unbeaten and untied team in the history of NCAA Div. 1 men's hockey. Only two guys on this team went on to NHL games: Brian McCutcheon (37 games) and Dick Fullan (4).
But in college, they were world-beaters. Even if you take out their two exhibition matches which counted in teams' overall stats and record up through the mid-1990s. Not only did they go 26-0-0 against NCAA teams, they only played in five games decided by one goal.
Overall, they outscored opponents — including non-NCAA Canadian colleges — by a combined score of 179-56.
Is that good?
1. University of Maine Black Bears, 1992-93
This is the season Paul Kariya came in as a draft-eligible freshman and obliterated the competition with 25 goals and 100 points in just 39 games played. But the team around him more than held up their end of the bargain, going 42-1-2 en route to the national title. Their only loss came on home ice to Boston University in overtime.
Beyond the future Hall-of-Famer Kariya, the team featured future NHLers like Jim Montgomery (pretty good college and NHL coach, too), plus the Ferraro twins, Chris and Peter.
And both goalies went on to lengthy NHL careers: Mike Dunham played 394 games across 10 seasons, while Garth Snow got into 368 over 12. Snow also, of course, went on to become an NHL GM.
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