A one-point weekend for Colorado College was all the room Boston College needed. The Eagles won their lone game of the weekend, 4-2 Friday over Northeastern, then took over the No. 1 spot in the nation in Monday’s USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll with 29 of 40 first-place votes.
CC, the top team in the last two polls, tied and lost against Minnesota-Duluth and dropped to No. 2, receiving 10 first-place votes. Wisconsin, which won a pair of nonconference decisions against Notre Dame, got the remaining first-place vote and climbed to third. The Badgers swapped spots with Michigan, which split a series at Ohio State.
Denver took two decisive victories over St. Cloud State to come in at No. 5, followed by New Hampshire, which beat Merrimack in its lone game last weekend. Minnesota, which was stunned by Michigan Tech for a pair of home losses, dropped three spots to No. 7. The WCHA has placed at least four teams in the top seven every week since Nov. 22.
Next up, ECACHL fellows Cornell and Colgate switched positions, with Cornell finishing in eighth after defeating Dartmouth and Vermont. Colgate, the Big Red’s travel partner, was No. 9 after splitting with the same two teams. Tenth place belonged to Ohio State, unchanged after its split with Michigan.
Harvard moved up two spots to No. 11 as its exam break continued. Interestingly, the Crimson leapfrogged North Dakota, which stayed at No. 12 after also having last weekend off. Massachusetts-Lowell tied Brown Tuesday, then beat Massachusetts to climb to No. 13.
Boston University tied and lost at Maine, but hung on at No. 14, down three spots. Meanwhile, the three-point weekend propelled the Black Bears back into the rankings at No. 15.
Exiting the rankings was Vermont, after dropping decisions to Cornell and Colgate.
