Amidst a splintering of the votes, Michigan returned to the No. 1 position in Monday’s USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll. The Wolverines, who were idle over the weekend while awaiting their quarterfinal opponent in the CCHA playoffs, received 19 first-place votes.
That was one fewer than second-ranked North Dakota, which tied St. Cloud State twice last weekend to extend its unbeaten streak to 17, but Michigan earned a total of 964 points to UND’s 936 to outdistance the Fighting Sioux for first in the rankings.
Colorado College, which swept intrastate rival Denver, moved up two places to No. 3 and grabbed nine first-place nods, followed by Miami. The RedHawks, also idle last weekend, held their ground in fourth place and picked up the remaining two first-place votes, with New Hampshire slipping two notches to No. 5 after splitting with Vermont.
Another CCHA bye team, Michigan State, was sixth once more this week, with Clarkson — also idle with a bye through the first round of the ECAC tournament — edged up to No. 7.
Denver fell one place to eighth, while St. Cloud moved up two spots to No. 9. Boston College, which split with Northeastern, was again No. 10 in a tie with Minnesota State, which split a pair with Michigan Tech.
Notre Dame came in 12th this week as the fourth CCHA squad on bye, and Wisconsin, which was also idle after wrapping up its WCHA regular season the weekend before, stayed at No. 13. Boston University moved up two places to No. 14 after a sweep of Providence, and Minnesota was 15th in the latest rankings; the Golden Gophers split with Minnesota Duluth Friday and Saturday.
Princeton, also with the weekend off in the ECAC, was No. 16, followed by Harvard. The Crimson likewise enjoyed a bye weekend as a top-four seed in the ECAC. Minnesota Duluth was No. 18, Vermont entered the poll in 19th, and Providence completed the top 20.
Dropping out since last week was Niagara.
