The top two teams in the nation were unchanged in the final USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll of the season, released Monday.
Notre Dame remained No. 1 for a seventh straight week and Minnesota stayed at No. 2, as the Fighting Irish and the Gophers won the CCHA and WCHA tournament titles, respectively, over the weekend.
The other “Big Four” conference champions occupied the next two positions in the poll. Clarkson, the ECACHL tournament champion, climbed two spots to No. 3 with its wins, and Boston College, the Hockey East tournament titlist, was up three spots to fourth in the rankings.
New Hampshire, which lost the HEA title game to the Eagles, fell two slots to fifth, followed by North Dakota, which stayed in sixth place after losing the WCHA championship game to Minnesota.
St. Cloud State, which finished fourth in the WCHA tourney after losing Saturday’s third-place game to Wisconsin, dropped three positions to No. 7 this week, while Michigan was up a place to No. 8 after taking second in the CCHA tournament.
Boston University, which lost in the HEA semifinals to BC, was down one to No. 9, and Michigan State, the third-place finisher in the CCHA after a Saturday win over Lake Superior State, rounded out the top half of the poll at No. 10.
St. Lawrence remained at No. 11 with a third-place finish in the ECACHL tournament, beating Dartmouth Saturday, Massachusetts, which lost its HEA semi to New Hampshire, was again 12th, followed again by idle Miami.
Maine, which sat out championship weekend in Hockey East, rose three places to No. 14 as the announcement of the NCAA tournament field appeared to influence some votes. The Black Bears supplanted idle Denver, which missed the field of 16 and held as No. 15 in the poll.
Quinnipiac rose two places to No. 16 after finishing as the runner-up to Clarkson in the ECACHL, and Wisconsin, the third-place team in the WCHA tournament, was 17th.
Dartmouth dropped four spots to No. 18 after losing two games at the ECACHLs, followed by Michigan Tech, which was beaten by Wisconsin in the WCHA play-in game and dropped three places, and then idle Colorado College, which moved down one place to complete the top 20.
