One week after narrowly holding onto the top spot in the USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll, Miami was the runaway choice of voters impressed by the RedHawks’ road sweep of then-No. 3 Michigan State Thursday and Friday.
Miami received 48 of 50 first-place votes to retain the No. 1 ranking for the fourth straight week, followed again by fellow CCHA member Michigan, which earned the remaining two first-place nods after a sweep of Lake Superior State.
Edging up to third was Denver, which beat Minnesota State twice, and then Colorado College, which moved up three places to No. 4 with a sweep of Wisconsin. Michigan State slipped to fifth, and North Dakota dropped one spot to No. 6 during an off week, giving the WCHA and CCHA a sweep of the top six spots in the poll.
Clarkson was up one notch to seventh after beating Yale and Brown, with New Hampshire next after losing to Northeastern and bouncing back to top Providence.
Notre Dame eased up to No. 9 with two wins over Western Michigan, and Massachusetts continued its ascent through the rankings, entering the top 10 with a three-point weekend against Boston College. Also tied for 10th was St. Cloud State, which leapfrogged three teams despite having the week off.
In 12th this week was Wisconsin, while Minnesota, which split with Alaska-Anchorage and dropped one place. BC was down three spots to No. 14 this week, followed by Minnesota-Duluth, up two positions after a three-point series against Michigan Tech.
Also idle this week, Rensselaer was No. 16, followed by Niagara, which ran its nation-best home unbeaten streak to 22 games with two victories over Sacred Heart.
Harvard edged up to 18th by beating Cornell but losing to Colgate, and Michigan Tech hung in at No. 19. Northeastern entered the poll at No. 20 with wins over UNH and Massachusetts-Lowell.
Dropping out since last week was Maine.
