CENTERVILLE, Mass. – Curry College has been selected as the No. 1 team in the 2011-12 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Northeast ice hockey league coaches’ poll with 62 points and six first-place votes.

Curry returns with ECAC Northeast Coach of the Year Rob Davies as the defending ECAC Northeast champions for the second season in a row.  With a 16-9-3 overall record (10-2-2 league) last season, the Colonels bring back First Team All-ECAC Northeast player forward Payden Benning (Estevan, Saskatchewan/Estevan Bruins), who scored 16 goals and 10 assists for 26 points.

Wentworth Institute of Technology places second in the poll with 57 points and two first-place votes. In the 2010-11, season the Leopards finished with a 14-9-4 overall record (10-3-1 league) giving them a No. 2 seed going into the ECAC Northeast Tournament.  Wentworth returns First Team All-ECAC forward Skylur Jameson (Long Beach, Calif./Wichita Falls), who scored 20 goals and 15 assists for 35 points, and Second Team All-ECAC defenseman Shaun Jameson (Long Beach, Calif./St. Louis), who scored five goals and 12 assists for 17 points.

Johnson & Wales University earns the third spot with 42 points after completing the season with a 14-12-1 overall record (10-4-0 league).  The Wildcats bring back ECAC Northeast Player of the Year Jeremiah Ketts (Foristell, Mo./Peoria Mustangs), who led the team with 25 goals and 25 assists for 50 points. Also returning is ECAC Northeast Goalie of the Year Matt Cooper (Perrysburg, Ohio/Queen City Steam), who earned a .901 save percentage and a 3.11 goals-against average.

Rounding out the top five is Nichols College in the fourth spot with a 2010-11 season record of 12-13-1 overall (6-8-0 league) and Becker College in the fifth spot.
Salve Regina University earns the sixth spot while Western New England University and Suffolk University are voted into the seventh and eighth spots.
League play begins on November 12 at 2:00 p.m. as Salve Regina hosts Curry.  

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