A pre-season poll released yesterday ranks the Crimson hockey team ninth in the nation.

The University of Minnesota, last year's NCAA champion, was named best in the nation, according to the Associated Press poll, followed by Boston University, last year's ECAC champion.

The Crimson skaters will have plenty of opportunities to match skills with the other top ten powers. In early January Harvard will play a pair of away games against fourth-ranked Michigan State.

Number six Vermont, which beat Harvard 6-2 in a scrimmage earlier this month, looms as a possible ECAC tournament foe.

And then, of course, there's BU. In recent years, the Terriers have evolved into Harvard's fiercest rival. The Crimson downed BU last year in their regular season meeting, but then fell victim to the Terriers in both the Beanpot and ECAC finals. The two teams will meet again on December 10 and in the first round of the Beanpot Tournament. With any luck, they will meet a third time in the ECAC tournament.

BU has been given the nod as number two in the country because, among all of last year's Eastern powers, the Terriers have been the least hurt by graduation, defection to the pros, or selection to Olympic teams. Ten of their top twelve forwards return, as do six of the top seven defensemen. Brian Durocher and Pat Devlin are back to man the nets again.