Mass. Boys HS Hockey – EMass. Division 3 Top 10: Hanover Still No. 1; Nantucket Off To Perfect Start

EMass Boys Division 3 Top 10

Rank	Team	*PR	W	L	T
1	Hanover	1	4	0	1
2	Dartmouth	2	1	0	0
3	Lowell	3	1	0	0
4	Hopkinton	4	2	1	0
5	Somerset Berkley	6	3	0	0
6	Nantucket	NR	3	0	0
7	Norwell	7	1	1	1
8	North Quincy	8	1	1	0
9	Shawsheen	10	1	0	1
10	Essex Tech	NR	2	0	0

The preseason No. 1 team in the HNIB News Eastern Mass. Division 3 rankings has played more games than any other in the top 10, which has only served to cement Hanover’s spot at the top.

The newly named Hawks actually tied their last outing, 2-2 against new Patriot League rival Marshfield, which snapped a nine-game win streak dating back to last season. But Hanover has a pair of victories over Division 1 Duxbury among its four overall, and has outscored its opponents by a combined 24-5 so far.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, No. 2 Dartmouth has been on pause since beating Bishop Stang, 2-0, on Jan. 2 in its only game so far. The Indians hope to be back on the ice Monday against Norwell in a key showdown.

Lowell also has gotten off to a slow start, last year’s Division 3 North champion beating Haverhill (4-1) last Wednesday in its lone action so far. The Red Raiders have a pair of games against Dracut/Tyngsboro scheduled for this week.

Hopkinton split a Tri-Valley League pair with Norwood before bouncing back to beat Division 2 Westwood, which keeps the Hillers at No. 4 this week.

The first move in the rankings comes at No. 5, as Somerset Berkley moves up a spot thanks to its perfect start with wins over South Coast foes Wareham/Carver, Bourne and Greater New Bedford.

No. 6 Nantucket enters the rankings this week following a buzzer-beating victory over No. 7 Norwell. The Whalers are 3-0 overall and have yet to give up a goal. Meanwhile, the Clippers head into Monday’s matchup with Dartmouth having scored a late nonleague tie vs. Division 1 Archbishop Williams, and then rolling over East Bridgewater in the South Shore League.

North Quincy kept the No. 8 spot, having lost its opener to Div. 1 Hingham and then beating Quincy. After more than a week off, the Red Raiders have three Patriot League matchups upcoming — Plymouth South (Monday), Pembroke (Wednesday) and Scituate (Saturday).

Shawsheen moves up to No. 9, after the Rams tied Div. 2 independent Lowell Catholic and then iced Northeast in its Commonwealth opener.

Another CAC team, Essex Tech, enters the ranking at No. 10. The Hawks have swept a pair of league games against Greater Lowell/Nashoba Tech so far.

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Jim Clark

Jim Clark has covered Massachusetts high school hockey for three decades, and joins Hockey Night in Boston for the 2019-20 season. Previously he was the lead high school hockey writer for 19 years for the Boston Herald, where he also worked full-time on the copy desk in the sports department and served as the paper's high schools editor from 2000-06. Clark was honored by the Mass. State Hockey Coaches Association with its William Stewart Award for contributions to the sport in May 2019, and also received the Joel Perlmutter Award for media coverage in 2006. A graduate of UMass, he also spent eight years as sports editor and reporter for the Sentinel & Enterprise in Fitchburg, Mass.

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