Déjà vu all over again.
An identical tally — 298 to 282 overall, 18-2 among first place voters — greeted the nation’s top two teams in the final Division III poll of January.
While Oswego and Norwich remained eerily dominant, the rest of the poll bears little resemblance to seven days earlier.
Even teams three through five got a bit shaken up.
St. Norbert, playing more and more like their national championship squad of two seasons ago, moved up one spot to third after sweeping in-state rival University of Wisconsin-Superior, 5-2 and 6-3, in De Pere.
The Plattsburgh Cardinals fell one rung to fourth, despite skating to a 1-1 tie with then-No. 15 Williams and defeating Geneseo (4-3) and Brockport (7-1) — all on the road. After a sweep of UW-Eau Claire, St. Scholastica jumped up two spots to fifth.
Given the strong performance of other contenders, Elmira’s road sweep of winless Lebanon Valley caused a slight dip in altitude (fourth to sixth) for the Soaring Eagles.
Seventh ranked Amherst remains hot, defeating both Skidmore and Castleton to ascend two spots in the poll and up their record to 12-2-2 on the season. While the Hamline Pipers (eighth) and the Gusties of Gustavus Adolphus (No. 10) didn’t change positions, Williams College was the week’s biggest mover, jumping an impressive six spots to ninth.
Another sweep by Adrian lifted the Bulldogs up one spot to No. 11 while Middlebury — 6-0-3 since their last loss on Nov. 27 to Plattsburgh — plummeted six spots to No. 12 after falling to New England College, 7-4, in Henniker, N.H. and getting shutout at St. Anselm, 4-0.
Manhattanville (up from No. 14), UW-River Falls (down from No. 11) and previously unranked Colby round out the top 15.
Wentworth, who lost on the road to Curry, 6-2, fell out the national rankings.
