For the third consecutive week, the St. Norbert Green Knights lord over the rest of Division III hockey.
In improving to 8-0-1 overall with a road sweep of the then-sixth ranked University of Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons, the Green Knights acquired an additional first place vote, receiving 17 of a possible 20 top nods.
Second ranked Oswego, 8-1-0 on the season, trail No. 1 St. Norbert by 17 points. Sixteen votes behind the Lakers sit the Plattsburgh Cardinals.
Interestingly, like last week, neither of these two highly rated teams received any first place votes.
Also similar to the last poll, Manhattanville (one first place vote) and Adrian (two top tallies) remain undefeated and continue to rank fourth and fifth in the country.
This week’s biggest rise up the rankings belongs — fittingly enough — to the Elmira Soaring Eagles. Having won seven of the first nine contests, they rose five spots to sixth after sweeping arch-rival Hobart (3-2, 2-0) in Geneva, New York.
Currently seventh, UW-Stout moved up two positions after taking three points from in-state rival Stevens Point.
Idle St. Scholastica remained at No. 8 while Middlebury — who tied Tufts before defeating Connecticut College in its first two games of the season — slipped a spot to ninth.
The Norwich Cadets fared much better. And they were rewarded with a two spot jump to No. 10 after defeating the cleverly named Nor’Easters and Huskies from Southern Maine on back-to-back nights.
Landing with a thud at No. 11 were the Falcons from River Falls. Their sweep at the hands of top ranked St. Norbert failed to elicit any sympathy from the voters.
They did look kindly on host UW-Superior taking three points from Eau Claire as they elevated the Yellowjackets three spots to No. 12.
Spots 13 through 15 featured three new squads with Trinity entering the poll at No. 13 and Bowdoin and Hamline each tying with 25 points to share the No. 15 spot.
Amherst, previously No. 10, fell four spots.
Neumann and Hobart — who combined to lose all four games between them — dropped out of the top 15.
