Colorado College received 22 of 40 first-place votes and held on to the top spot in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll following a weekend split with No. 9 Minnesota State, Mankato. The Tigers also continued to be ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Pairwise Rankings (PWR), an algorithm for predicting NCAA tournament selection.
Right on the heels of CC, No. 2 Cornell received 17 first-place votes after a weekend sweep of Princeton and Yale. The Big Red secured the ECAC regular-season title Friday night, and stand at No. 3 in the PWR.
The only other team to receive first-place votes, No. 3 New Hampshire, earned a single vote after taking three points from No. 6 Boston College and earning a share of the Hockey East title in a weekend series between conference leaders. New Hampshire is currently fifth in the PWR, and BC is tied for seventh with Boston University.
The No. 10 Terriers won a 4-2 decision against No. 4 Maine before the Black Bears earned some revenge in a 4-2 reversal on Saturday. Maine finished third in Hockey East and host Massachusetts on Thursday, while BU finished as the conference’s No. 5 seed and travel to No. 13 Providence for the weekend.
In the CCHA, Ferris State is No. 5 in the poll and No. 6 in the PWR after a weekend sweep of Nebraska-Omaha. No. 8 Michigan held steady after a split with rival Michigan State, and Ohio State dropped one spot to No. 15 after splitting with unranked Northern Michigan.
Hockey East gets playoff play underway. While top seed New Hampshire hosts Mass.-Lowell, co-champions and second seed Boston College plays Merrimack, third seed Maine hosts Massachusetts, and fourth seed and No. 13 ranked Providence plays host to No. 10 Boston University in a best of three series.
Ranked teams that finish up regular season action include No. 14 Denver and No. 1 Colorado College facing off for a home and home series, and No. 8 Michigan traveling to No. 15 Ohio State for two games. Another series to keep a close eye on is No. 7 Minnesota playing a home and home series with in-state rival St. Cloud State, which currently sits tied at No. 11 in the PWR.
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.
