USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men's Poll 10/19/09

by Chris Aliano

Here's this week's installment of the USCHO.com/CBC College Sports National Polls:


October 19, 2009

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Miami	(46)	3-0-1	994	1
2	North Dakota	( 1)	3-0-1	940	4
3	Boston University	( 2)	0-1-0	820	2
4	Denver		2-2-0	801	3
5	Michigan		1-1-0	784	5
6	Cornell		0-0-0	701	6
7	Vermont	( 1)	2-1-0	650	11
8	Yale		0-0-0	589	8
9	Notre Dame		2-2-0	554	7
10	Princeton		0-0-0	530	10
11	Minnesota		0-1-1	454	9
12	Nebraska-Omaha		3-0-1	366	16
13	Mass.-Lowell		1-1-0	363	14
14	Boston College		0-1-0	273	12
15	Alaska		3-0-1	253	17
16	Bemidji State		2-0-0	243	15
17	Wisconsin		0-1-1	205	13
18	Minnesota-Duluth		3-1-0	175	NR
19	Colorado College		2-1-1	160	NR
20	Quinnipiac		3-0-0	150	18
Others Receiving Votes: Massachusetts 136, St. Cloud State 107, Northeastern 74, New Hampshire 48, Michigan State 31, Alabama-Huntsville 22, Harvard 21, Northern Michigan 18, Ohio State 12, Lake Superior 8, Union 8, St. Lawrence 6, Providence 3, Ferris State 1

Initial thoughts: No love for UMass, eh? The team is stacked on offense, has a very capable goalkeeper, and handed the defending national champs a 3-2 loss that could’ve been much worse. Regardless, the Minutemen are on the outside looking in, but if they play like they did last Friday consistently over the course of the season, they should ascend quickly.


Hockey East: UMass is knocking at the door, while Northeastern passes UNH in the receiving votes category. UNH tied and lost to #1 Miami this weekend in the CCHA/HEA Challenge, but voters seemed more impressed with NU’s 3-2 victory over lowly Bentley. Go figure. BU drops to 3rd in the polls after the defeat at the Mullins Center, while Vermont emerged the biggest winner in the conference, jumping up 4 spots to 7th. BC fell two spots to 14th, while idle Mass.-Lowell moved up to 13th.

CCHA: Miami stands tall atop the conference and country, sitting pretty at #1 and certainly living up to the ranking after an impressive 6-3 romp of UNH before settling for a draw the next night at Durham. Notre Dame dropped two spots to 9th after being shocked by unranked Providence in South Bend before rebounding the next night. They stand at an even 2-2 coming into their monumental clash with #3 BU tomorrow night. Alaska moved up to 15th after downing lowly Robert Morris and Rensselaer to improve to remain undefeated. With Ferris State coming to town this weekend, that likely won’t change. Michigan stayed at 5th during their idle weekend, and look forward to a date with BU Saturday night in Boston.

WCHA: This conference is going to be fun to watch all year long. The early favorite right now has to be #2 North Dakota. The Fighting Sioux dismantled #11 Minnesota 4-0 before tying the next night. Denver is still a mystery: they downed Ohio State 2-0 Friday night before the Buckeyes trounced them Saturday 4-0. The Pioneers fell one spot to 4th. Minnesota-Duluth had a nice weekend, returning to the rankings at 18th after beating up on unranked Minnesota State. My dark horse: Colorado College. The Tigers return to the rankings at 19th after beating and tying Wisconsin in Madison over the weekend. The Badgers are 17th and will head to Minnesota State before hosting UNH on Halloween weekend.

ECAC: Quinnipiac, the reigning CollegeHockeyNews.com team of the week, needed overtime to get by Bentley, and thus they suffered: voters dropped them two spots to 20th. Meanwhile, the Ivies stayed put: Cornell (6th), Yale (8th), and Princeton (10th) have yet to play a game, and do not begin their regular seasons until Halloween weekend.

Agree? Disagree? Think Alabama-Huntsville is this year’s Bemidji? Let us know. Remember to check back at wtbusports.com all season long for continuing coverage of everything BU Hockey.