Big Red’s Eighth Consecutive Season Ranked in USCHO.com Preseason Poll
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men’s hockey team is opening the 2024-25 season as the No. 9-ranked team in the first DCU/USCHO.com poll of the season, it was announced.
Cornell collected 585 points, finishing 48 points behind No. 8-ranked Quinnipiac and 96 points ahead of No. 10-ranked Wisconsin. The Big Red also received two of the 50 first-place votes in the poll, joining top-ranked Denver (42 first-place votes) and No. 2-ranked Boston College (six first-place votes).
The Big Red are ranked within the top 20 of the preseason USCHO.com poll for the eighth consecutive year. Cornell is one of six teams to be ranked in the first USCHO poll in each of the last eight seasons, joining Denver, Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota, Notre Dame, and Providence.
Of the teams ranked in the preseason top 20, Cornell is scheduled to play three programs, highlighted by No. 5-ranked North Dakota, who will make a trip to Lynah Rink for the Big Red’s first two regular-season home games on Nov. 1-2.
Cornell will play No. 8-ranked Quinnipiac three times in the regular season, including twice in consecutive weekends as it will host the Bobcats at Lynah Rink on Friday, Nov. 22, before clashing on the storied ice of Madison Square Garden in New York City for the biennial Frozen Apple game on Saturday, Nov. 30. The Big Red will play on the Bobcats’ home ice on Saturday, Jan. 18, at M&T Bank Arena in Hamden, Conn.
The only other ranked program in the USCHO.com preseason poll that Cornell is scheduled to face this season includes No. 14-ranked UMass in the first game of the Desert Hockey Classic, hosted by Arizona State, on Friday, Jan. 3, at 5:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. MT). Cornell could play No. 20-ranked Arizona State the following day, should the Big Red and Sun Devils record the same result.
Cornell’s 2024-25 campaign begins Saturday, Oct. 19, when it hosts Princeton in a scrimmage at Lynah Rink at 5 p.m. Following an exhibition with the University of Toronto on Saturday, Oct. 26, Cornell will open a four-game homestand to open the 2024-25 regular season, beginning with its two-game series with No. 5-ranked North Dakota on Nov. 1-2.
DCU/USCHO.COM PRESEASON POLL
Bold denotes scheduled Cornell opponent for 2024-25 season
TEAM (First-place votes) — POINTS
- Denver (48) — 988 points
- Boston College (6) — 945 points
- Boston University — 869 points
- Michigan State — 775 points
- North Dakota — 755 points
- Minnesota — 748 points
- Michigan — 690 points
- Quinnipiac — 633 points
- Cornell (2) — 585 points
- Wisconsin — 489 points
- Colorado College — 449 points
- Maine — 425 points
- Providence — 392 points
- UMass — 329 points
- Omaha — 262 points
- St. Cloud State — 247 points
- Western Michigan — 224 points
- Minnesota Duluth — 95 points
- Notre Dame — 79 points
- Arizona State — 61 points
Northeastern — 61 points
Others receiving votes: RIT (55), St. Thomas (53), Michigan Tech (47), Bemidji State (44), New Hampshire (31), Sacred Heart (29), Penn State (23), Harvard (22), Holy Cross (14), Ohio State (14), Minnesota State (12), Dartmouth (10), Merrimack (9), Clarkson (8), UConn (7), AIC (4), UMass Lowell (4), Colgate (3), LIU (2), Brown (1), St. Lawrence (1)
(Photo provided by Cornell Men’s Hockey)
