Women’s Poll Steady With Bulldogs At Top

Minnesota-Duluth held on to first place in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll following a weekend sweep of unranked MSU-Mankato, but saw it’s lead slip slightly as challenger Minnesota earned two first place votes. Last week the Bulldogs earned all but one first place vote.

With a 8-0 win on Saturday over St. Cloud, Minnesota christened the new Ridder Arena, the country’s first ice hockey facility dedicated to a women’s program.

The big movement in this week’s poll came from New Hampshire, as the Wildcats swept Ohio State, 1-0 on Friday and 5-4 in overtime on Saturday. With the wins, New Hampshire remained perfect on the young season with a 3-0 record, and jumped to No. 9 in this week’s rankings.

This weekend sees the action heat up, as No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth plays a two game set with No. 6 Wisconsin, and No. 7 St. Lawrence travels to No. 8 Providence Saturday and No. 10 Northeastern on Sunday.

The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 15 voters, including 11 coaches of Division I programs and four women’s hockey writers.