The early signs of autumn – kids back in school, tree leaves turning red and gold and cooling temperatures – trigger reminders that another year of college hockey is nearly upon us. In fact, for some teams, the official start of the regular season is but a few days away.

Women’s regular season play in the WCHA officially starts on Sept. 22, with most of the five Division I teams based in Minnesota kicking off their 2017-18 slate the following weekend. Men’s regular season play officially begins on Oct. 1, with most teams in the Big Ten, WCHA and NCHC launching their regular seasons the weekend of Oct. 6-7.

In advance of the upcoming season, several new preseason polls and individual honors have been announced to whet the hockey appetite of college hockey fans, with more news to come soon.

• U.S. College Hockey Online’s (uscho.com) first Division 1 Women's Poll was revealed yesterday, with Clarkson opening the year as the top ranked team in the country. Minnesota (No. 3) and Minnesota Duluth (No. 5) were the Minnesota-based teams represented in the preseason poll. The Golden Gophers, which finished last year 26-8-5, received four of the 15 first-place votes.
• The University of Minnesota women’s squad, which has reached the NCAA Frozen Four in each of the past six seasons, was picked to finish first by WCHA coaches in their annual preseason poll. Minnesota Duluth was picked to finish third (tied with Ohio State), Bemidji State fifth, St. Cloud State sixth and Minnesota State seventh. Former Breck star and current Gopher freshman Grace Zumwinkle was tabbed by the coaches as preseason WCHA Rookie of the Year.
• The Golden Gopher men also earned some preseason respect, as Big Ten coaches declared them the team to beat in the conference in 2017-18. Minnesota has won four consecutive Big Ten regular season titles. According to a Big Ten’s press release, six schools were represented in the league’s Preseason Watch List, led by Minnesota with four honorees (Tyler Sheehy, Ryan Lindgren, Rem Pitlick and Casey Mittelstadt).
• The NCHC named its preseason All-Conference Team, which included St. Cloud State junior defenseman Jimmy Schuldt, who led the league in blocked shots a season ago. North Dakota’s Shane Gersich (from Chaska), who won the NCHC goal-scoring title in 2016-17, was also named to the squad.
• The NCHC’s Preseason Media Poll will be released today via the league’s Twitter account (@TheNCHC).