Men Move Up One more, Women down Three

With just a few games being played last week, the polls did not move around much.  The Men’s team, following a win against UMass Lowell, moved up to the #3 spot in the nation.  The women had a tough loss against BC at home, and moved down to #9 in the women’s poll.  There was actually only one new entry into either poll’s top 10, and that was Wayne State on the women’s side.  Let’s take a look at how things shaped up on the Mens’ side:

Rank	Team	First Place Votes	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Notre Dame	(41)	14-3-2	981	1
2	Miami	( 6)	12-3-3	921	3
3	Boston University		11-4-1	867	4
4	Minnesota	( 1)	8-3-5	854	2
5	Denver		13-5-1	804	6
6	Northeastern		11-3-2	755	5
7	Boston College		9-5-2	675	7
8	Princeton	( 2)	10-2-0	666	8
9	Colorado College		10-6-4	585	9
10	Cornell		7-1-2	559	10
11	Air Force		14-2-0	479	12
12	Michigan		11-7-0	439	13
13	Vermont		9-4-2	426	11
14	Wisconsin		9-7-2	263	16
15	New Hampshire		8-6-3	257	15
16	Nebraska-Omaha		11-4-3	175	19
17	Minnesota State		8-7-3	168	14
18	Alaska		8-4-4	104	20
18	North Dakota		9-8-1	104	NR
20	Dartmouth		6-4-0	103	18
Others Receiving Votes: Minnesota-Duluth 87, Maine 62, Ohio State 61, St. Cloud State 59, Bemidji State 11, Massachusetts 11, Alaska-Anchorage 10, Yale 7, Mass.-Lowell 4, Niagara 2, Quinnipiac 1

Despite moving up one spot in the polls, the men still failed to secure even one first place vote!  I’m not sure how that happens, but BU has been in the top 5 for two weeks now, and haven’t had anyone give them any love.  I suppose that it will take a winning weekend at the Denver Cup in the new year for that to happen.  Hard to believe that the team will be out of action for a little more than two weeks.  How am I going to keep busy?

Elsewhere around the nation, Notre Dame extended their unbeaten streak to 14 games, and retaining their spot at the top of the nation.  It’s going to be really interesting when Miami and ND face off again… unfortunately that doesn’t look to happen again until the CCHA tournament.  Two of Notre Dame’s losses come to Miami, and both teams figure to have a very similar schedule the rest of the way.  Both still have series against Michigan and Michigan State, which should be tough, despite the tough times the Spartans are facing.

It’s also nice to see 5 of the 10 Hockey East teams ranked in the top 20.  The league is really tough this year, and the competition for home ice looks to be as fierce as ever.  The surprise this year is still Northeastern, holding strong at #6 in the nation.  Definitely can’t rule them out of contention for anything this year, and I’m glad to have a victory in hand on those guys.

That’s it for now… how do you feel about this week’s poll?

Image Credit: Hockey East Online

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