Third Rankings Update

NJ.com called this weeks rankings update: Upheaval and Chaos.

After you read this there is no way you could disagree. With teams going through cancellations of games and practices resulting in games against opponents that were unplanned and unknown, some crazy results resulted.

The non-public schools had major upsets that changed the rankings for every team. Eight of the ten ranked teams are non-public.

1 Gloucester Catholic: (6-1) moved up from 2nd to 1st defeating Don Bosco (3-0).

2 Bergen Catholic: moved up from 3rd to 2nd defeating Knolls 6-1.

3 Christian Brothers: The state champion of last year and the #1 ranked team this year for the first two NJ.com rankings lost to Delbarton (3-2) dropping to 3rd.

4 Seton Hall: moved up from 7th to 4th by defeating Delbarton 2-3.

5 Delbarton: stayed in 5th because they beat Christian Brothers 3-2, but then lost to Seton Hall 5-1 and Bergen Catholic 3-1 and tying St. Joe’s Montvale 3-3.

6 Don Bosco: moved down from 4th to 6th just by losing to Gloucester Catholic 3-0.

10 Pingry: lost to Ridge 6-1, dropping from 8th to 10th.

The top 6 ranked teams in New Jersey all play in the Gordon Conference.

In the other Gordon group, entitled the National Division, your team would be ranked 4th (Seton Hall), 13th (St. Joseph’s Montvale), and 14th (St. Augustine), only Pope John and St. Peters did not make the Top 20.

Ridge (4-1-0) is the top public school program in the New Jersey moving up from 10th to 8th by defeating Pingry 6-1.

Here is the Mennen Division’s February 15, 2021 Rankings:

7 Morristown Beard: (3-1-1) dropped from 6th to 7th , through no fault of their own, but due to the fact that Seton Hall Prep beat Delbarton. Last week, Beard beat Hun 6-1 and M’Town 8-2, but that was not good enough to keep their slot.

15 Morris Knolls/Hills: (3-3-1) had moved up to 13th from 16th last week and down to 15th this week losing to Bergen Catholic 6-1 and Rumson – Fair Haven 3-1.

16 Randolph (2-1-1): dropped down to 15th from 10th last week and down to 16th this week without playing a game.

17 Chatham (2-3-0): moved to 16th down from 15th last week and just like the Rams, dropped to 17th without skating.

NA: Morristown (2-4-1): is not in the top 20 but has skated as many games as Knolls, which this season is a major accomplishment.

The rankings still match up to the Mennen Division current standings. The Rams will not be able to play until after their quarantine is over on February 25th .

Stay Focused and Stay Safe!!!

NHL Trivia Answer:

The NHL coach of either the Rangers, Islanders, or Devils who has won the most games in their NHL coaching career is the current coach of the Islanders Barry Trotz by a lot. Surprising, when the Rangers are an original six NHL team and the Islanders had won 4 Stanley Cups in a row in the early 1980s with Al Arbour. Barry coached Nashville 15 seasons and won the 2018 Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitalsand made it to the conference finals with the Isles last year. He has won over 850 games (third place in the NHL).

New Jersey High School Ice Hockey Trivia Answer:

The highest ranking NJ.com public boys hockey team is Ridge High School, the team that won the state championship for Public B over the Rams in 2019 and lost to the Rams last year in overtime 3-2 for the state title. Ridge was ranked 10th as of February 9th replacing the Rams (due to the Rams loss to Knolls) and now Ridge is ranked 8th as of the February 15th update having defeated Pingry.

Note: I told you that you would hate the answer…