Minnesota’s sweep of Bemidji State has the Gophers assuming the top spot in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, up from their No. 3 rank of a week ago.
The Gophers, who earned 31 first-place votes this week, are one of four 4-0 teams in the nation and all are ranked this week – Notre Dame at No. 2, Lake Superior State at No. 15 and Northeastern at No. 20.
Notre Dame, which garnered 11 first-place votes, swept Michigan Tech to rise two spots, last week’s No. 1 team, Miami, split with North Dakota and falls to third with five first-place nods, Michigan tied and beat New Hampshire and is up one to No. 4 and Boston College jumps two spots to No. 5 with a win over Wisconsin.
North Dakota stays sixth, Yale hasn’t played a game yet, but took home the last three first-place votes and sits seventh again, Providence topped American International and is up two to No. 8, two wins over Massachusetts-Lowell push Quinnipiac up five to No. 9 and idle St. Cloud State moves up a notch to No. 10.
At No. 11, Wisconsin tumbles from No. 2 after losses to both Boston College and Boston University, Rensselaer beat both BU and Sacred Heart to move up five to sit 12th, BU is No. 13, up two places, after losing to RPI and beating Wisconsin, New Hampshire is down one to No. 14 and previously-unranked LSSU enters the poll this week at No. 15.
Minnesota State rises two to No. 16 with a sweep of Connecticut, Denver falls from No. 12 to No. 17 with two overtime losses to Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage, UML is down nine spots to sit 18th, Cornell, another team that has yet to take the ice, remains 19th and Northeastern, unranked last week, is No. 20 according to this week’s vote.
The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll consists of 50 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 22 beat writers and sports professionals from across the country.
