New Hampshire surged into first place in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll after a win and tie against previous-No. 1 Minnesota over the weekend. Friday night’s 5-5 tie and Saturday’s 3-1 New Hampshire win lived up to expectations, thrilling thousands of fans in attendance.
The Wildcats were the new consensus No. 1 team, garnering 34 of the 40 first-place votes available. Minnesota, which received one first-place vote, swapped places with New Hampshire and became the new No. 3 team.
Denver, despite a 4-2 loss to Boston College on Friday night, rebounded with a 3-1 win at Northeastern to improve to 3-1-0 overall and remain in second place in the poll. With the win over Denver, combined with an 8-6 victory over Vermont, Boston College rose to fourth place and earned four first-place votes.
No. 9 Maine dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 10 Colorado College, and correspondingly fell four spots in very close voting.
Hockey East had a good week as a conference, as No. 11 Providence made up ground, in addition to New Hampshire and Boston College. With a weekend sweep over unranked MSU-Mankato, Providence remained perfect with a 4-0 record and rose four spots. Mass.-Lowell, which is the looking to enter the poll, has a difficult weekend ahead as the River Hawks face No. 11 Providence and No. 4 Boston College on Saturday.
The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 40 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 12 beat writers from across the country. The poll is published weekly by the Associated Press.
