Cool Cats enjoy ranking, know winning must continue

By Aaron Smith

The UK hockey team knows it can control only one thing: how they perform on the ice.

UK debuted at No. 2 in the Southeast Division in the first American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II rankings. They received six first place votes, and sit four points behind standings leader Miami (OH).

“No. 2 is the highest we’ve been ranked in my career, and we were only a vote away [from being No. 1],” senior defender Alex Robinson said. “We love to be that high, but we also have to keep winning.”

And for the Cool Cats that is the bottom line: winning. UK (15-2) knows victories are the only surefire way to ensure a high ranking.

“Who knows what our ranking should or shouldn’t be?” junior goalie Jim Borgaard said. “We just have to go out and win as many games as we can by as much as we can.”

UK knows that victories are what drive the rankings, and the team thought it had done plenty of winning to push them to the top. Still, the Cool Cats realize there is plenty of hockey left to move up in the standings — and down, should they lose their winning ways.

“We’re happy with being No. 2,” UK head coach Rob Docherty said. “But sometimes it’s aggravating to be 14-1 (UK’s record when the rankings came out) and you can’t do anything else. We have to keep on proving ourselves, and the road doesn’t get any easier from here now that we’re a marked team.”

The rankings heavily influence the path each team has to take in order to reach the ACHA National Tournament. The ACHA is comprised of four divisions, each holding four bids to the national tournament.  Two spots automatically go to the top two teams in the final rankings.  The 3-10 seeds within each division play a separate draw to determine who gets the final two bids from each region.

“We play to get the No. 1 seed, to get that top spot so we can go straight to nationals, ” Docherty said. “Why risk having to go up against a team seeded nine or 10 who could play the game of their lives and beat a higher-seeded team?”

UK, sitting on an 11-point cushion over the current three-seed, Ohio State, has received criticism for a weak schedule. Splitting last weekend’s series against Indiana, a Division I team (UK plays in Division II), could play a large part in the next standings.

“This game will definitely be one [the judges] look at,” Docherty said in referring to their Saturday night victory over Indiana. “People still don’t believe we are playing as good of hockey as we really are.”

Perceived slights against UK have become bulletin-board fodder for the team. The No. 2 ranking was huge motivation going into the Indiana contest, Borgaard said. UK said they feel like critics think its success this year is an aberration since it isn’t one of the perennially high-ranked teams.

“Miami probably topped us because voters do account for where teams finished the previous year,” Docherty said. “They finished second last year, we finished at nine, but it’s nice to see that some people felt we were deserving of the top spot.”

UK ultimately controls its own destiny as far as the postseason is concerned. Once the initial rankings are out, there isn’t much fluctuation, Docherty said. And UK plays the only team that could feasibly challenge its automatic berth, Ohio State, on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5.

“We’re in the driver’s seat for our postseason chances,” Docherty said. “We’ve made our mark in the rankings, we know where we stand, and we’re going to keep pushing for that No. 1 spot.”