Colorado College earned a weekend split with No. 7 Minnesota, and held on to the national No. 1 ranking in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll. This is the second consecutive week that the Tigers have help the top spot. Colorado College held steady at No. 2 in the USCHO.com Pairwise Rankings (PWR), a computer ranking that tracks NCAA selection criteria.
With a split weekend, Maine managed to finish second again this week in the poll. On Friday night, the Black Bears dropped a 5-3 decision to visiting Boston College, but rebounded with a 4-2 defeat of Merrimack on Sunday. Maine is currently first in the PWR.
At No. 3 stands Cornell, which earned two of the 40 first-place votes available. The Big Red climbed two places following a pair of convincing home wins, 6-1 over Dartmouth and 8-1 against Vermont.
Rising two spots is No. 4 Boston College, which enjoyed a successful week. After powering past Northeastern last Monday to earn a berth in the Beanpot final, the Eagles traveled to Orono and laid a 5-2 defeat on No. 2 Maine. Tonight, BC takes on No. 11 Boston University for the Beanpot championship. Boston College is tied with Cornell for third in the PWR.
Key conference match-ups dot the schedule this weekend. No. 8 Michigan renews a classic rivalry with a pair of games against Michigan State, which finished first in the receiving votes section. Also, Colorado College continues its defense of the No. 1 position in the poll by travelling to No. 15 St. Cloud State for two games. The Huskies would like to get back on the winning track, having lost two of their last three games, all against unranked competition.
The highlight of the weekend, however, is a Saturday meeting between the two ranked ECAC teams, as No. 12 Harvard hosts No. 3 Cornell in the last regular-season game between the two powerhouses.
The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 40 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 12 beat writers from across the country. The poll is published weekly by the Associated Press.
The PairWise Ranking is a system which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants for the NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament. The PWR compares teams with a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) at or above .500, judging them by four criteria: record against common opponents, head to head competition, record against other teams with RPIs at or above .500, and the RPI.
The PWR can be reformatted and redistributed by any media outlet or person, provided USCHO’s URL (http://www.uscho.com/) accompanies the results.
