Utah moves up to program best #12 in M1 rankings

February 14, 2024
Salt Lake City, Utah

The University of Utah Men’s Division 1 Hockey team (14-10-2) are surging as the regular season comes to an end this weekend. They have landed at program best #12 in the Nation today, as the American Collegiate Hockey Association released their latest rankings today.

The Skatin’ Utes moved up two spots with this ranking with still two games to play before the final rankings of the season, which will be released next week.

The Men’s Division 1 team is anxious to climb as high as they can in the rankings as they have been “bumped” by the Division 1 auto bid process over the last three seasons (detailed below), but look well positioned to advance to their first ACHA National Tournament since their move to Division 1 in 2016.

“Recently, our team has demonstrated exceptional determination and execution on the ice, propelling us to a number 12 ranking. We have a firm understanding that our job is far from over as we head into this crucial weekend series against Iowa State. We aim to showcase our strength and determination, securing two decisive victories that will firmly punch our ticket to Nationals. While we’ve proven our success, come this weekend and into March, we’ll emerge as an even stronger group,” said Head Coach Morgan Feenie on today today’s ranking.

The Utes are 5-4-1 in the last ten games, with signature wins over #4 UNLV at home and #3 Central Oklahoma on the road. Additionally, Utah is now 2-1 all time against the two time ACHA Division 1 Champions University of Central Oklahoma.

Point leaders include #11 Che Landikusic, #24 Ethan Light, #15 Landon Langenbruner, #28 Benjamin Mickel, #8 Jacob Slater, #14 Michael Urtis; all with point tallies over 19 for the season. Landikusic leads the team by averaging 1.17 points per game with 27 points on 24 games played.

Team Captain Dylan Dix leads the defensive core with 19 points on 25 games played. The Utah Defense have also been major contributors on the scoreboard as well; with Logan Jackson, Matthew Delany, Jake Laurila rounding out the top ten producers on the team.

Dix said, “We have put ourselves in a good spot going into the last weekend of the regular season. But the job isn’t done, we have a huge set of games against Iowa State coming up. It’s exciting to be in a place where we control our own destiny”

Tickets for the final two games of the season versus Iowa State are still available for Friday and Saturday.

Or view the entire single game ticket listing is here.

Full schedule and results can be found here.
Full rankings can be found here.
Full standings can be found here.

The Western Collegiate Hockey League leads the way with eight (of 10) of its member teams ranked, while Midwest College Hockey has three (of 7) of its member teams ranked, Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League has four (of 10) of its member teams ranked, and Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League has three (of 8) of its member teams ranked.

The ACHA uses 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), to 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 25 teams are listed. All games that go to overtime will be scored as ties in the computer ranking.

Over the past 20 seasons, 12 different schools have won the ACHA Men’s Division I National Championship: Lindenwood University (4), Minot State University (3), Adrian College (2), University of Central Oklahoma (2), University of Illinois (2), Arizona State University, Davenport University, University of Delaware, Oakland University, Ohio University, Penn State University, and University of Rhode Island.

Now in its 33rd season of action, there have been a total of 14 schools that have won the ACHA Men’s Division I National Championship:

• Penn State University (5 times)
• Lindenwood University (4)
• Ohio University (4)
• Minot State University (3)
• Adrian College (2)
• North Dakota State University (2)
• University Central Oklahoma (2)
• University of Illinois (2)
• Arizona State University
• Davenport University
• Iowa State University
• Oakland University
• University of Delaware
• University of Rhode Island

A total of 72 teams will compete in Men’s Division I this season, including University of Mary, which moves up from Men’s Division II after winning back-to-back National Championships in 2021 and 2022.

The computer ranking will for the tenth time determine the 24 teams that qualify for the 2024 ACHA Men’s Division I National Championships, which will include the following eight auto bids:

• (CHMA) College Hockey Mid-America
• (ECHA) Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association
• (ESCHL) Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League
• (GLCHL) Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League
• (MCH) Midwest College Hockey
• (NECHL) Northeast Collegiate Hockey League
• (WCHL) Western Collegiate Hockey League
• (WHAC) Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference

The sixteenth ranking of the regular season will be released on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.