College Hockey:
Boston University unseats Minnesota-Duluth at No. 1 in men’s poll

USCHO Staff Report • Feb. 6, 2012

With 12 first-place votes, Boston University is the new No. 1 team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll.

The Terriers move up two spots from last week, while last week’s top team, Minnesota-Duluth, fell to No. 3, but did garner ten first-place votes.

Minnesota remains second and earned 22 first-place votes.

Michigan jumps to fourth and was listed No. 1 on four ballots this week.

Boston College stays fifth, while No. 6 Ferris State and No. 7 Massachusetts-Lowell each received a first-place vote.

Merrimack falls four spots to No. 8, Notre Dame drops one to ninth and Colorado College rises one to No. 10.

Union stays No. 11, Maine is up three to No. 12, Cornell jumps one to sit 13th, flip-flopping with Denver this week. Ohio State slides from tenth to 15th and North Dakota is up one to No. 16.

Michigan State is back in the top 20 at No. 17, Western Michigan falls to No. 18, Northern Michigan retains the 19th spot and Miami drops two to No. 20.

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GodsSquadForever
Guess we’re going to have to go beat up on the BDawgs this weekend to get some sort of respect!
- WcHa HoCkEy
  That would be nice but not going to happen.
hockey21
Really? BU gets swept by MAINE, then beats MERRIMACK, and moves up to No. 1? Hmm.
- NumberOneGopherFan
  Superbowl hangover-induced voting nonsense.
  - Slambammy
    Maybe the Madonna half time show was too much for them.
- http://profiles.google.com/scottcmartineau SCOTT MARTINEAU
  BU team gets swept by a Maine Team in a series that the Zebras were determined to have an impact on Last week. This week, Maine comes from behind to beat UAH and take all 4 points when UAH played UM-D to 2 one goal games. That same weekend, PVD lost by football style scores to BU. This week, Merrimack, Top 5 and at Merrimack, handled by BU while UM-D wins one and loses one against one of the worst teams in College Hockey in Alaska Anchorage, and the weekend Prior picked up only one pt in a 2 game series against Michigan Tech. Considering UM-D with a full complement of players played the aforemention Providence to a tie and a win earlier in the season, BU – reinforcing their ranking with a 3-1 victory over a Harvard team with double digit second period comebacks, and I think that BU – especially considering that they have played the Top Teams sans UML to season series victories, I think BU is the obvious choice for the team who best exemplifies TEAM > sum of its parts as BU is TRULY “a better team” with maximized efforts with no true top tier centerman then they were with 2 elite centermen when too often the rest of the team would watch, you now have Nieto & Megan scoring at least a point a game, Clendening skating better than any collegian defense-man (If you didn’t see the uniform number you would swear you were watching video of Shatty with BU or even in the pros). So BU, with Character guys like Gaudet & Ruikka developing important roles & role players elevating to confident players & up the line to the stars like Nieto, Chiasson, & Connolly, has a je ne sais quoi and a #1 G that deliver them their 30th Beanpot in 60 tries and a dominant 3-1 season series on BC this season, and that is why the Terriers are burning up the number one spot.
Joe C
To all of you wanting to pounce on BU, just know that this year in Hockey East has been an old-fashioned Texas Cage Match, with BU, BC, Maine, Lowell and Merrimack in no particular order, taking turns being the dominant team.
Apparently, this trend has taken hold nationally, too. Look at all of the teams with first place votes. If someone can figure out who the dominant team is, more power to them. Right now, there are a lot of teams with flaws and a lot of teams that could win the four games in the NCAA tournament to win the Frozen Four.
In my opinion, the polls this year just reflect three facts:
1) If you win/lose against TUC, you move a lot less than if you lose/tie against non-TUC
2) The voters have little clue (like the rest of us) about who is dominant
3) The Pair-Wise seems to be the voters best friend when trying to figure out the logjam.
There are 8 points between BU and Minnesota and 22 points between BU and UMD. This is not a convincing difference, especially when Minnesota has more first place votes and UMD has only two less first place votes than BU. Apparently, more voters think BU is #2 than #1. I would tend to agree at this point in the season.
Beanpot time!
Decatur Spartan.
Michigan is over rated at #4.
Truroln
BU was undermanned against Maine and then totally dominated MU at Lawler
- NumberOneGopherFan
  Undermanned and overrated.
Anonymous
Thankfully there is no BCS in college hockey and the best team will be determined on the ice, not by a poll.
hockey21
Joe C- You make a good point, and it’s great to know that there will be a true number one at the end of the year, that’s why college hockey is so great! As for BU “burning up the number one spot”… maybe check the poll again? Less than a quarter of the first place votes. It will be great to see who ends up on top at the end!

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