An officially-idle weekend was good enough for Boston College to take over sole possession of No. 1 in the USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll released Monday.
The Eagles, who beat St. Thomas 5-3 in an exhibition but don’t begin their NCAA season until Tuesday against Northeastern, moved ahead of defending NCAA champion Wisconsin, which is No. 2 this week after taking three of four points against now-No. 20 Northern Michigan over the weekend. The two teams were tied for No. 1 in the preseason poll two weeks ago.
Preseason No. 3 Minnesota dropped a 3-1 decision to Maine Friday in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game, falling all the way to No. 8 and allowing the next four teams from the preseason poll to slide up a spot apiece.
Boston University (exhibition win over New Brunswick) moved up to No. 3, Michigan State (exhibition win over Wilfred Laurier) to fourth, North Dakota (sweep of Quinnipiac) to fifth and Michigan (exhibition wins over Waterloo and the U.S. Under-18 team) to sixth. Also leapfrogging the Gophers were their guests Friday, the Black Bears, who climbed from No. 11 to seventh this week.
After Minnesota came No. 9 Miami, which beat Denver but lost to Vermont at the Ice Breaker Invitational. Vermont, which topped Colgate and then the RedHawks to take the Ice Breaker title, made the biggest leap, from an unranked position in the preseason all the way to No. 10 this week.
Denver slipped two spots to No. 11 with its win over Colgate and loss to Miami at the Ice Breaker. Following the Pioneers were 12th-ranked Harvard, New Hampshire and Cornell, none of which has begun its NCAA season. Colorado College, which beat Air Force and Alabama-Huntsville last weekend, stayed at No. 15.
Next up was St. Cloud State, followed by Clarkson, which beat Niagara and RIT. Dartmouth remained No. 18, Ohio State slipped down to No. 19 without playing an official game, and NMU rounded out the poll.
Dropping out of the Top 20 was Colgate, which lost both its contests at the Ice Breaker.
