BOSTON -- Boston College pulled down the No. 1 spot in Hockey East coaches poll released on Tuesday at the league’s Media Day at TD Garden.

No surprise. The Eagles are defending Hockey East regular season and tournament champions and rolled on after that to yet another NCAA championship.

New Hampshire was picked fourth in the Hockey East poll.

That’s fine, too.

“We could be picked ninth, at the bottom, whatever,” said senior defenseman and captain Connor Hardowa. “I don’t think it would really matter. I don’t think many people worry about it around here. It’s just a number to us.”

Coach Dick Umile’s team is concerned more with winning games and bouncing back from a rare losing season.

“As a team, we’re committed to getting back on track,” said Greg Burke, an assistant captain and senior forward from Lee. “We’re returning a lot of guys, a lot of upperclassmen and that left a sour taste in their mouth and no one is taking it lightly by any means.”

The Wildcats were 15-19-3 overall for the season and 11-14-2 in Hockey East.

“I think we’ve got great leadership in our senior class and they know where our program wants to be and we’re a group that looks forward to getting back to where we’ve been,” Umile said. “We’re basically an angry group that’s anxious to get back at it.”

Boston College won its third national title in the last five seasons in April and takes a 19-game winning streak into its Oct. 13 season opener at Northeastern.

The Eagles received the first-place vote of all nine rival league coaches in the poll.

BC boss Jerry York, prohibited from voting for his own team, cast his ballot for UNH.

“I think Dick always has strong clubs,” York said. “From my perspective, we’re always watching the league, but we’re certainly watching the Wildcats. I think this year he certainly has a good club. But one thing about our league is, it used to be BC, BU, Maine and New Hampshire were the four teams at the top and then it was who might surprise. Now it’s just so deep.”

UMass-Lowell was the surprise team in college hockey under first-year coach Norm Bazin last season and tied for second in the league with Boston University. His team went from a record of 5-25-4 the year before he arrived to 24-13-1, the best Division I hockey turnaround in NCAA history.

With much of last year’s team returning, Lowell was picked second behind BC. BU was third.

Maine, at No. 5, followed New Hampshire in the poll and Northeastern and Providence were tied in sixth.

UNH plays St. Francs Xavier in an exhibition game on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.

The Wildcats play their first four regular season games at home in the Whittemore Center.

St. Cloud State is in to open the season on Oct. 12 and 13. BU is in for UNH’s first Hockey East game on Oct. 20 and Northeastern comes to town on Oct. 26.

- - - - - - - -

Tim Schaller, a 6-foot-2 and 210-pound senior center from Merrimack, is again one of the captains at Providence.

Schaller, slowed by injuries in the second half of last season, had a team-high 14 goals in 26 games. He added seven assists.

“He’s healthy and ready to go and had a great summer,” said Providence coach Nate Leaman. “Tim’s a complete player. He can play the game any style. He can play very physical and he can score. He’s great on the penalty kill and he’s great on the power play and he wins big faceoffs. He’s the type of guy as a coach you really feel comfortable with in any situation.”

- - - - - - - -

Maine will be counting on Brice O’Connor, a 5-foot-11 and 190-pound junior defenseman from Londonderry.

“He’ll be a leader for us,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “He came back in great shape. He’s a real tough kid and a very complete player. He got some big goals in big games.”

O’Connor had three goals and six assists last season.

Andrew Cerretani, a 5-foot-10 and 180-pound sophomore from Pelham, played in 24 games for Maine last season and had an assist.

“He’s very talented,” Whitehead said. “We were so deep up front last year he didn’t have a real opportunity to get quality minutes. But I’m confident once he gets healthy, he’s going to emerge for us.”

Cerretani has been slowed in pre-season by an ankle injury.

- - - - - - - -

Allen Lessels may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.