In the Hockey-L poll results, Marcus Day writes...
>And WELCOME to Ohio State who makes their first appearance
>in the Poll with a good showing this last week....
 
>11)Ohio Sate         38     7-n/a   10.45         13      --   --   --
 
I've never been one to say good things about the Buckeyes,
but the numbers don't lie.  OSU is currently sitting in fourth
place in the CCHA.  They have a two-point lead over fifth
place Northern Michigan, but OSU wins that tie-breaker on
the strength of a 3-0-0 season sweep of NMU.
 
Michigan's Bill Muckalt continues to lead the CCHA in
overall scoring, but OSU sophomore Hugo Boisvert
(16-21--37) is the current leader in CCHA play.  Fellow
soph Eric Meloche (15-14--29) and junior Chris Richards
(10-19--29) are tied for fifth in CCHA scoring and JF
Dufour (7-9--16) is one of the conference's promising
freshmen.
 
The young goaltending tandem of frosh Jeff Maund
(13-5-0, 2.60, 91.3) and soph Ray Aho (4-5-2, 2.43, 90.3)
have obviously played well.  At 17-10-2, OSU is headed
for their first 20-win season since 1985-86.  Until this
season, they hadn't recorded more than 12 victories
since 1986-87.
 
They weren't very overwhelming in a two-game sweep
at the hands of Michigan at Yost, but I've been watching
(mostly reading) from afar and OSU is putting together
a very impressive season with a young team.  They're
currently 12th (tied for 11th, actually) in the pairwise
comparisons, so an NCAA tournament appearance
is not out of the question.
 
I can't honestly say that I like them, but giving credit where
credit is due, it's now mid-February and OSU is stringing
together and outstanding season.  Time will tell if they
can hold it together for another six weeks.
 
 
John Haeussler ([log in to unmask])
 
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