PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The Babson College men's ice hockey team was picked to finish third in the inaugural Little East Conference (LEC) preseason coaches' poll released on Friday morning.
In its first season with men's ice hockey as an official sport in the LEC, the conference is comprised of core institutions Plymouth State, Keene State, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, Southern Maine, Western Connecticut and Vermont State Castleton, along with Babson, Norwich, and New England College, previously of the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC).
Plymouth State, which won five straight Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference championships from 2019-24, received six of the 10 first-place votes and finished atop the poll with 76 points. Norwich and Babson, long-time rivals in the ECAC East and NEHC, both received two first-place votes and finished second and third, respectively, with 73 and 70 points. UMass Boston (53) and New England College (47) rounded out the top half of the poll.
The Beavers return 21 players from a team that finished 13-11-2 overall and 11-8-1 in the NEHC last year. Led by 22nd-year head coach
Jamie Rice '90, Babson was knocked out of last year's NEHC Tournament in the quarterfinals with a 2-0 loss to New England College.
The Green and White open the 2025-26 season with a home-and-home non-conference series with Fitchburg State, facing off in Fitchburg (Mass.) on October 31 at 6 p.m. and at the Babson Skating Center on November 1 at 4 p.m.
2025-26 LEC Men's Ice Hockey Preseason Coaches' Poll
| Rank |
School (first-place votes) |
Points |
| 1 |
Plymouth State (6) |
76 |
| 2 |
Norwich (2) |
73 |
| 3 |
Babson (2) |
70 |
| 4 |
UMass Boston |
53 |
| 5 |
New England College |
47 |
| T-6 |
Southern Maine |
36 |
| T-6 |
VTSU Castleton |
36 |
| 8 |
UMass Dartmouth |
30 |
| 9 |
Keene State |
20 |
| 10 |
Western Connecticut |
9 |
