Two weeks of holiday tournament action brought fans across the nation plenty of thrills, but the results didn’t do much to affect the national rankings, according to Monday’s USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll.
Minnesota, with 37 of 40 first-place votes, was No. 1 in the nation for the fifth poll in a row following its title at the Dodge Holiday Classic, and a 2-1 win at Boston University Sunday. The Gophers were followed by WCHA mate Colorado College, which won the Ohio Hockey Classic in a shootout after tying host Ohio State in the final, and got the remaining three first-place nods.
Boston College took the Florida College Classic and moved up two spots to No. 3, displacing new No. 4 Michigan, which dropped the Great Lakes Invitational title game to Michigan State. Denver, meanwhile, won its Denver Cup and climbed two spots to fifth.
Wisconsin, which lost the Badger Showdown championship to Ferris State, fell to sixth, trailed by the GLI’s third-place team, New Hampshire; North Dakota, which swept Canisius at home in lieu of holiday travel; and ninth-ranked Cornell, which split two games at the Florida Classic.
Ohio State was ranked No. 10 after a win and a tie at the Ohio Classic. Boston University, which beat Nebraska-Omaha before losing its meeting with the Gophers, was No. 11, and Harvard, after losing and tying at the Dodge Classic, came in at No. 12.
Colgate took third place at the Denver Cup to stand at No. 13 in this week’s poll, followed by Vermont, which lost the Ledyard Bank final to Dartmouth. No. 15 Maine, which tied and lost in Florida, rounded out the poll.
