College Hockey:
Minnesota ends season No. 1 in D-I women’s poll

USCHO Staff Report • March 19, 2012

In the final USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll of the 2011-12 season, newly-crowned national champion Minnesota received all 15 first-place votes this week.

National runner-up Wisconsin is No. 2 this week, while the rest of the poll mimics last week’s poll with Cornell at No. 3, Boston College fourth and Boston University fifth.

North Dakota sits sixth this week, followed by St. Lawrence at No. 7, Mercyhurst eighth, Northeastern at No. 9 and Minnesota-Duluth tenth.

The USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 15 voters, including 14 coaches of Division I programs and one women’s hockey writer.

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.

Slambammy
Um, isn’t the season over? Wouldn’t the biggest win in NCAA play make you an automatic #1? What is the point telling us where Wisconsin, Cornell, BC or North Dakota fit in?
- Arlan Marttila
  While it may be obvious in the short term, I think there is historical value to having a final poll to state where each team was slotted at year end, rather than having to manually adjust previous polls to account for tournament results.
- Lenn
  What if a team that finished 8-20 during the regular season, won its conference’s automatic bid during the conference tournament, then went on to win the national title? Would it, or should it, automatically be the season-ending #1 team?
  Back in 1983, when NC State won the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, I don’t believe it was named the season-ending #1 team in the AP poll. The same may have happened in 1977 for Marquette.
  - Slambammy
    But this isn’t regular season play. You don’t see teams who just won the NCAA’s holding up the “we are number three” sign when celebrating. Point is…regular season is regular season…polls always change before the next season even begins. If you win the whole thing…you should be number one. You did what it takes when it counted. That is what should matter.
Subscandy
Congratulations M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A !!!!!!!!!

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