Notre Dame topped the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I men’s poll for the sixth straight time Monday. The Fighting Irish won and tied (a shootout win for CCHA purposes) at Lake Superior, extending their nation-best and school-record unbeaten streak to 20 games in the process.
The Irish’s support at No. 1 was again strong, though down a bit from last week’s poll. Notre Dame racked up 38 of 50 first-place votes from the panelists, outdistancing No. 2 Boston University. The Terriers rebounded from Tuesday’s upset loss to Providence by beating Merrimack and archrival Boston College, and earned seven first-place votes.
Up two places to finish third in the rankings was Cornell, which claimed five first-place nods this week. The Big Red, which has lost only one game this season, ran its own unbeaten streak to 10 games with wins against Union and Rensselaer. By doing so, Cornell leapfrogged No. 4 Denver, which was idle last weekend.
No. 5 Northeastern fell two places after splitting its weekend series with Vermont, which moved up one place to seventh, giving Hockey East three of the top seven teams this week. Sandwiched between those two schools was Minnesota, which swept St. Cloud State and rose one position in the poll.
In eighth was Michigan, which slipped two notches after splitting with Bowling Green. Idle Princeton edged up to No. 9, trading places with Miami, which rounded out the top 10 with a split against Michigan State.
New Hampshire opened the second half of the poll, up two spots after beating Dartmouth in its lone game of the weekend. Ohio State moved up two places as well; the Buckeyes’ winning streak ended at 11 games after a Friday win and Saturday tie against Bowling Green, but remain unbeaten in their last 12. Saturday’s game goes down as a win for CCHA but not NCAA purposes after OSU won the shootout.
Colorado College slipped to 13th after a split with Wisconsin, while Boston College moved down to No. 14 with losses to Massachusetts-Lowell and BU. Three WCHA teams were next in the rankings, with North Dakota jumping over No. 16 Wisconsin to move into 15th after a three-point weekend at Michigan Tech. At No. 17 was Minnesota Duluth, which re-entered the rankings by sweeping Bemidji State.
Dartmouth was still No. 18, followed by 19th-ranked Alaska, which rejoined the top 20 by taking three of four points from Nebraska-Omaha. Completing the poll was Air Force, which fell five places to No. 20 after being swept by Canisius.
Dropping out since last week were Yale and UNO.
