January 26 – Today marks our third in-season poll and once again a lot has changed in the D1 MIAA landscape. Lots of games were played featuring multiple Top 15 squads and many of them determined how this poll shaped up. We are starting to see a trend that this year there is no clear runaway front runner, however some teams fair better against the Top 15 than others as you can see in the list below. Here is how we see things shaking out for Poll 3:
For the second poll in a row, Burlington is tops on our list, they split their wins and losses but 10 wins against the schedule they play is an impressive accomplishment. Next up is a fast riser in Arlington, who won four of the five games they played and took down top-seeded Burlington in the process; they are knocking on the #1 door as they continue to play well. Up next are the very consistent Hawks of Xaverian who stick in our 3 spot after beating Central Catholic and tying a tough Catholic Memorial team. At 4 is Framingham who jumps up a spot after a blistering two weeks and four wins: they are one of only two D1 squads with 10 wins on the year. Rounding out the Top 5 is St. Mary’s Lynn who came down a couple of spots after two tough losses to Austin Prep and Winchester.
Coming in at six is a streaking Pope Francis who won three out of four, notably against BC High and Austin Prep. We should also note that we removed three early season Rider Cup games from Pope Francis’ record this week, hence the record disparity from last week. At 7 are the Eagles of BC High who lost to our 6 seed and have had a tough time recently, losing in OT to a red hot Malden Catholic squad. At 8 are the giant slayers in St. John’s Prep: their list of accolades barely fit on one line below, earning two big wins against Xaverian and Austin Prep and tying CM and Reading: they could be poised to jump up higher in our next poll. At 9 is Catholic Memorial who tied all three games they played against Xaverian, Hingham and SJP. They are a veteran group that is strong on pucks and will be dangerous as the playoffs get closer. Sticking at 10 is Austin Prep who had an up and down week but notched a big victory against St. Mary’s Lynn and held the high powered Pope Francis offense to one goal.
The bottom five of this poll is where most of the big shifts took place. At 11 we have Hingham who jumped a couple of spots after going undefeated in their last four, most notably tying CM and St. Mary’s Lynn. At 12 comes Central Catholic who had a tough couple of weeks going 1-3, losing to Westford Academy and Billerica. At 13 is a familiar face who is back on our poll with vengeance: the Redhawks of Natick went 4-0 and knocked off a speedy Braintree team and took a skilled Framingham team to the wire, losing by one. At 14 is a pleasant surprise in Shrewsbury who is as hot as it gets going 5-0 and is undefeated over their last eight games during the past two weeks. New head coach Terry Virtue has installed a new system predicated on quick puck movement and the players have fully bought in: nobody will want to play this team in March. Finally at 15 are the Wamps of Braintree who had a strong week winning three of their four games: they are winning the tilts in front of them, but many other teams are beating Top 15 squads hence their shift down in poll #3.
Unlike most polls: we like to keep our list to 15, but don’t worry…we also included a section below highlighting The Next Five: teams who just missed the cut. There is a great deal of season left and these are teams you will likely see jump up into our poll at some point if they remain on their current trajectory…
Editor’s Note: We took into account strength of schedule, wins against fellow Top 15 teams and recent record (i.e. games over the last two weeks). We have personally scouted all but one of these Top 15 teams but we plan to cross the final squad off our list shortly…
- Burlington 10-3-0 def Hingham & Reading [2-2-0]
- Arlington 8-1-2 def Reading & Burlington, tie Woburn & Pope Francis [4-0-1]🔺
- Xaverian 8-2-4 def BC High & CC, tie Austin Prep, Framingham, CM [2-1-2]
- Framingham 10-3-2 def Braintree & Pope Francis, tie Xaverian [4-1-0]🔺
- St. Mary’s Lynn 9-2-2 def Austin Prep, tie Hingham [1-2-1]🔻
- Pope Francis 7-3-2 def Austin Prep, BC High & Arlington, tie Arlington [3-0-1]🔺
- BC High 7-3-2 def Framingham, CC & St. John’s Prep, tie St. John’s Prep [2-1-1]🔻
- St. John’s Prep 6-3-4 def Xav. 2x, Framingham, PF, AP, tie BCH, CM, Reading [2-1-2]🔻
- Catholic Memorial 6-3-5 def SJP & BC High tie Xaverian, Hingham, SJP [0-0-3]
- Austin Prep 7-5-2 def Central Catholic, Hingham, St. Mary’s Lynn tie Xaverian [3-2-0]
- Hingham 7-4-2 def Braintree, St. John’s Prep, tie CM, St. Mary’s Lynn [2-0-2] 🔺
- Central Catholic 7-6-1 def Hingham & Pope Francis [1-3-0]🔻
- Natick 8-2-3 [4-0-0] def Braintree, tie Duxbury NR
- Shrewsbury 9-2-2 [5-0-0] def Framingham NR
- Braintree 8-3-1 [3-1-0]🔻
The Next Five:
- Reading 6-3-3 def Woburn, tie SJP [3-0-3]
- Duxbury 7-2-3 [3-0-1]
- Woburn 5-3-3 def Burlington, tie Arlington [1-1-1]
- Waltham 9-3-1 [5-0-1]
- King Philip 8-3-1 [2-0-1]
