Among 84 combined voters in the U.S. College Hockey Online and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine preseason polls, the University of Denver received all but two first-place votes in easily emerging as the preseason No. 1 in both.
Denver, the defending national champion, received 998 points and 48 first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll. Harvard and Minnesota Duluth received other the first-place votes, with one each.
The Pioneers received 510 points and all 34 first-place votes in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. Denver received 86 more points than No. 2 Boston University and 102 more points than No. 3 Minnesota.
Last week, the Pioneers received all 30 first-place votes in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference preseason poll.
DU returns 16 letter-winners from a team that finished 33-7-4 in April after defeating Minnesota-Duluth 3-2 in the NCAA championship game. Back are explosive offensive forwards Henrik Borgstrom, Troy Terry and Dylan Gambrell — last season’s top three scorers — plus four of six defenseman and Tanner Jaillet, who won the 2017 Mark Richter Award as the country’s best goalie.
Denver also welcomes a stellar freshman class that was ranked in the top five, nationally.