Another early, early preseason hockey poll is out.

Inside College Hockey, better known as INCH, rated the Gophers the No. 4 best team going into next season.

INCH’s top 10:

1. Miami

2. Denver

3. Boston U.

4. Gophers

5. Notre Dame

6. Cornell

7. Princeton

8. Michigan

9. Massachusetts-Lowell

10. St. Cloud State

Here is what INCH says about the Gophers:

How can a team that a) didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament and b) loses its top scorer be tabbed as one of the nation’s best heading into the 2009-10 season? Sure, [Ryan] Stoa is a big loss, but [forward Jordan] Schroeder and [defenseman Cade] Fairchild are exceptional talents and, when he’s on his game, [goalie Alex] Kangas can be a difference maker. Another goal scorer needs to step up — [Mike] Hoeffel or Ryan Flynn, perhaps? The most intriguing newcomer is waterbug forward Jacob Cepis, a Bowling Green forward who’ll be eligible after Jan. 1.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.