Last week this page said a single weekend could reorder the bottom of Massachusetts 16U Tier 2. It did. Worcester Jr Railers (Elite) held the eighth and final qualifying spot seven days ago. They are now tenth and outside it. Boston Jr Terriers (O'Leary) are eighth, Boston Jr Huskies (Beshwaty) ninth, and both climbed a place without a single team above them moving.
The order changed. The tightness did not.
Eight teams from this tier reach the Massachusetts state tournament, so the gold bar after eighth place is a cut line, not decoration. We publish the top ten — the eight that would qualify today and the two closest to getting there.
A team also has to play 18 games to be eligible. That is a Massachusetts Hockey requirement and it applies at every tier. A GP figure in amber means that team has not reached 18 yet.
Rating is the number that orders the list, and it is what separates eighth from ninth. MyHockeyRankings weighs who a team has played, not only what its record says, which is why ranks and records disagree all over this list.
On records. The lists publish Wednesdays and clubs post results through Tuesday, so a late score can land in a team's record before it reaches that team's rating. We print each record as it stands and never calculate how a club did over a given weekend.
| Rank | Team | Record | GP | Rating | vs Wk 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Jr Eagles 16U AAA | 10-9-2 | 21 | 88.09 | – |
| 2 | Bay State Breakers 16U AAA | 10-2-3 | 15 | 87.37 | – |
| 3 | North Suburban Wings (Hentosh) 16U AA | 14-3-1 | 18 | 87.12 | – |
| 4 | South Shore Kings 16U AA | 12-4-1 | 17 | 86.83 | – |
| 5 | Boston Advantage (Prep) 16U AA | 9-8-4 | 21 | 86.41 | – |
| 6 | South Shore Dynamos 16U AA | 19-1-1 | 21 | 86.20 | – |
| 7 | Middlesex Islanders East (American) 16U AA | 9-5-3 | 17 | 85.10 | – |
| 8 | Boston Jr Terriers (O'Leary) 16U AA | 8-10-2 | 20 | 85.03 | ▲ 1 |
| State Tournament cut line — top 8 qualify9th and 10th on the outside | |||||
| 9 | Boston Jr Huskies (Beshwaty) 16U AA | 4-12-2 | 18 | 85.00 | ▲ 1 |
| 10 | Worcester Jr Railers (Elite) 16U AAA | 2-8-3 | 13 | 84.96 | ▼ 2 |
Three teams remain inside seven hundredths of a point for the last place in the Massachusetts field, and all three carry losing records. On this tier a reader is better off treating eighth, ninth and tenth as one group than as a ranking — the order has now changed twice in two weeks without much actually happening.
Worcester have the harder version of the problem. Their published record is unchanged at 2-8-3 and their rating actually rose, from 84.85 to 84.96. They fell two places because the two clubs beneath them rose further. They are also the thinnest schedule at this tier at 13 games, five short of eligibility. Outside the cut and short of the minimum is a difficult place to be in late October.
The top seven did not move a single position. Boston Jr Eagles hold No. 1 for a fourth straight week. South Shore Dynamos are 19-1-1 — still the best record of any Massachusetts club at either age group, and still ranked sixth, which is the clearest illustration at this tier of what the rating measures and what it does not.
Six of these ten are now eligible, up from two a week ago. This was the thinnest tier in the state on games played and most of that gap closed in seven days. The exceptions are Worcester at 13, Bay State Breakers at 15 despite sitting second at 10-2-3, and South Shore Kings and Middlesex Islanders East (American) at 17 apiece — one game each.