5. Penn State (5)

As hard as it is to reward a high-octane offense for annihilating an Atlantic Hockey visitor, it is impossible to penalize PSU for the same reason.Sacred Heart entered Pegula Ice Arena with no nonconference wins beyond a 3-0 blanking of Arizona State on Oct. 17. It had allowed no more than 34 opposing shots on net in any of its first nine ventures.The Nittany Lions would launch new season-high salvos of 51 and 67 at the Pioneers cage, good for an 8-2 romp and 3-2 nipping, respectively. Now 6-2-2 on the year, despite a mostly less-than-challenging schedule, they can say they are meeting their expectations more often than not.

Source: Big Ten rankings: Golden Gophers’ solid stretch snaps late