By Jim Connelly/Senior Writer

The Quiet Conquerors

“Quiet” is a word that is pleasant to the ears of Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon.

He himself is relatively soft-spoken. A Harvard graduate, Sneddon speaks authoritatively but with little pomp and circumstance. Behind the bench you’ll see a stoic yet focused coach.

His team, in a way, has assumed their coach’s personality. And that’s something that Sneddon really enjoys.

Quietly is the exact adverb that describes the Catamounts ascent to near the top of the national polls and rankings. While much has been made of the resurgence of Boston University and the Cinderella story of Northeastern, the Cats have tip-toed their way to a top spot among the national contenders.

“We have no problem with the attention being placed on other teams,” said Sneddon when asked about his team’s low-profile. “You know, that’s kind of how our program is and maybe even falls in line with our philosophies as coaches.”

Vermont’s rise — the Catamounts sit comfortably in third place in Hockey East, hold the No. 6 ranking in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll and are have been as high as second in the PairWise — hasn’t been unconventional in any way. There haven’t been any extended winning streaks (the longest is six games), but equally important is that the Catamounts have posted back-to-back losses just once (a 3-2 loss at Boston College on October 24 and a 7-2 loss, the Cats’ worst of the season by far, to BU on November 1).

But the patchwork of a few wins here and there have brought Vermont to a 17-7-2 record with just six games left in the regular season and, barring a collapse, has positioned the club for its first NCAA berth since 1997. At that point, you’ll have to wonder if the Catamounts will be as bright a blip on the radar as their BU and Northeastern counterparts.

“I think BU and Northeastern certainly deserve the attention that they’re getting. BU’s had a tremendous season, and Northeastern. Greg (Cronin) deserves a lot of credit for what he has done with that program over the last couple of years,” said Sneddon. “So, we’re okay with that. The attention certainly deserves to be on those teams and again, that’s not a big part of what we are looking for anyway. So we just kind of go about our business and hope that it means good things for us at the end. We tend not to draw a lot of attention to ourselves, and I think that can be a good thing.”

One place where the Catamounts may soon need to find an identity is in the Hockey East standings. With 27 points, Vermont remains within striking distance of first-place Northeastern (31 points) and second-place BU (30 points).

But as nice as a pennant chase can be, worrying about a league title could bite the Cats in the butt. Take last weekend. Vermont entered the weekend perched closer to first place than fourth. But after a Friday loss at Merrimack coupled with a win by fifth-place Mass.-Lowell and a tie by fourth-place New Hampshire, suddenly the Catamounts were in a must-win situation to maintain their home-ice buffer.

It certainly taught a lesson — that any missteps down the stretch could not only dash Vermont’s hopes of a regular-season title but also send the club on the road for the Hockey East quarterfinals.

“We can’t [watch the standings] ,” said Sneddon. “Our focus has to be on the job at hand and the standings will take of themselves. Wherever we fit, we fit. If we continue to do the things we need to do to win, we’ll be fine, but we can’t look too far ahead.”

The Hobey Push

Count Vermont as the first of the Hockey East schools to use the Internet to promote its Hobey Baker candidate this season.

www.PickVik.com is a site dedicated to promoting forward Viktor Stalberg as a candidate for this year’s Hobey Baker Memorial Award. Though unique in name, the site is hardly the first. Among the players to have their own website in Hockey East was last year’s Hobey runner-up Nathan Gerbe, who had not only a school-sponsored site, but also a fan blog dedicated to his candidacy.

Yes, indeed, the Internet generation is booming in college hockey.