Utah M2 maintains #3 in West for final rankings of the semester

December 20, 2024
Salt Lake City, Utah

The first semester of the 2024-25 season are in the books, and the final computerized rankings of the semester have been published.

Your Skatin’ Utes have climbed to #3 in the Western Region with an 15-4-3 record. With the conference move during the off season to the Mountain West Collegiate Hockey League their scheduled has grown far more difficult and while requiring less travel.

The Utes have outscored their opponents 75 to 56 this season. The top five points leaders for the Utes include: Rookie Connor Beers with 17 points (8G, 9A), followed by veterans Keegan Torrey (13G, 3A), and Garrett Jackson (4G, 10A), Max Fenne with 12 points (6G, 6A), and Captain Ezekial Endy (6G, 5A).

Goaltending for the Utes have also been a big part of their success with all three goalies exhibiting excellent numbers; #33 Marcello De Antunano with a 2.35 GAA with 11 games played, #30 Jack Nowicki with 2.46 GAA with 8 games played, and #31 Ryan Winkelmann with 2.99 GAA with 3 games played.

After the Holiday break, the Utes will have several in-state games before hitting the road for their final regular season road trip at Montana Tech University.

January will be pivotal for the Utes as the play Utah Valley, Utah State, Montana Tech, Idaho State, and Boise state before the 2025 Wasatch Cup Tournament.

The Mountain West Collegiate Hockey League, of which Utah M2 is a member, had a strong performance with six (of 10) of its member teams ranked in the Top Ten. The Big Mountain had two (of 6) of its member teams ranked, and the West Coast Hockey Conference has two (of 9) of its member teams ranked.

The ACHA will use the two computer rankings generated by USHSHO.com, Ranking A (Wins with Maximum Goal Differential of 7) and Ranking B (Wins with Maximum Goal Differential of 1), and come up with an average of the two rankings. The ACHA will then use the list generated from the average for its weekly ranking. Ties will be broken using the higher ranked team from Ranking B until the Top 20 teams are listed. All games that go to overtime will be scored as ties in the computer ranking.

Now in its 34nd season of action, there have been a total of 18 schools that have won the ACHA Men’s Division 2 National Championship: Life University (5), Florida Gulf Coast (4), Michigan State (4), Davenport (3), Mary (3), NYU (2), Oakland (2), Indiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Grand Valley State, Colorado, Miami (OH), Western Michigan, Colorado State, Ferris State, Buffalo State, and Toledo.

A total of 182 teams will compete in Men’s Division 2 this season.

The computer ranking will be used to determine the 14 teams that qualify for each of the 2025 ACHA Men’s Division 2 Regional Tournaments. The top two seeds from each region following the final Men’s Division II regular season rankings will bypass the Regional and receive an automatic berth in the 2025 ACHA National Championships, which will be played from March 13-25, 2025 at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri.

Each Regional will consist of 12 teams. Teams seeded #3 through #10 will receive an invitation to their respective Regional. Teams seeded #11 through #14 will be filled by conference auto bids.

If any of the conference auto bids are not filled (i.e., team has already qualified, unable to accept bid, less than four eligible conferences, etc.), the position(s) in the Regional will be filled by the next highest ranked team(s) within that Region as an At‐Large bid.

Men’s Division 2 Conferences include:
Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League (ACCHL)
Big Mountain Hockey Conference (BMCH)
Colonial States College Hockey Conference (CSCHC)
Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association (MACHA)
Mountain West Collegiate Hockey League (MWCHL)
Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA)
Northern Collegiate Hockey League (NCHL)
Pacific 8 Intercollegiate Hockey Conference (PAC-8)
Super East Collegiate Hockey League (SECHL)
Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference (TCHC)
Tri-State Collegiate Hockey League (TSCHL)
Western Collegiate Club Hockey Association (WCCHA)
West Coast Hockey Conference (WCHC)

Full Men’s Division 2 rankings can be found here.

The fifth ranking of the regular season will be released on Thursday, January 16, 2025.

2024-2025 ACHA MEN’S DIVISION 2 Western Ranking #4