Utah M2 still #3 in West Regional Rankings

January 24, 2025
Salt Lake City, Utah

With winter break in the rear view, the first computerized rankings of spring semester have been published.

Your Skatin’ Utes maintained their #3 seed in the Western Region with an 20-4-3 record. They have also closed the gap in the data and are now just 0.191 points behind coveted #2 ranking.

The Utes’ have offense continues to impress with their goals for and goals against ration now at 108 to 60 this season. The top five points leaders for the Utes include: Rookie Connor Beers with 21 points (10G, 11A), followed by Captain Ezekial Endy with 20 points (9G, 11A), Garrett Jackson with 17 points, (5G, 12A), Keegan Torrey with 16 points (13G, 3A), Max Fenne with 15 points (7G, 8A).

Goaltending for the Utes have been a secret to their success with all three goalies exhibiting game winning numbers; #31 Ryan Winkelmann with 1.81 GAA with 6 games played, #30 Jack Nowicki with 2.16 GAA with 11 games played, and #33 Marcello De Antunano with a 2.35 GAA with 11 games played.

The Utes host Boise State tomorrow in their final game before the Wasatch Cup, hosted by the University of Utah on January 31st and February 1st.

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 30, 2025.

2024-2025 ACHA MEN’S DIVISION 2 Western Ranking #6