Men's Hockey Maintains No. 4/4 Ranking

Despite a 5-1 loss at home to St. Lawrence this weekend, the Harvard men’s ice hockey team retained its No. 4 ranking in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey national polls on Monday.

The Crimson (11-3-2, 7-2-2 ECAC) took a big hit in the first place vote column, with only one brave voter (Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold? Donato?) listing the team at No. 1. That’s down from five votes last week and 15/13 votes one week prior. Harvard also fell to No. 6 in the KRACH and No. 7 in the PairWise rankings.

Nevertheless, voters generally gave the Crimson the benefit of the doubt, perhaps given the team’s undermanned lineup and strong performance against Clarkson on Friday.

Harvard’s ranking was also helped by a difficult week for the rest of the nation’s top teams. Six of the USCHO’s top 10 and 11 of the top 20 lost at least one game this week. No. 3/3 Boston University fell to a much-improved No. 19/- Boston College team on Friday, yet BC fell two spots in the rankings thanks to a loss to unranked Maine on Sunday. Minnesota Duluth, UMass-Lowell, Bowling Green, Omaha, and Vermont were the other top 10 teams to drop a game over the weekend.

In ECAC play, No. 13/14 Yale continued its rise with a pair of wins over Brown. No. 20/- Quinnipiac’s stock fell rapidly with a pair of losses to No. 14/15 Merrimack, and Colgate split its Rensselaer-Union road trip, edging the Dutchmen on the back half, to hold relatively steady at No. 15/13.

USCHO.com Poll (First-place votes)

1. Minnesota State (42)
2. North Dakota (7)
3. Boston University
4. Harvard (1)
5. Massachusetts-Lowell
6. Bowling Green
7. Minnesota-Duluth
8. Nebraska-Omaha
9. Miami
10. Michigan Tech
11. Denver
12. Vermont
13. Yale
14. Merrimack
15. Colgate
16. Michigan
17. Minnesota
18. Providence
19. Boston College
20. Quinnipiac 

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll

1. Minnesota State University (32)
2. University of North Dakota (1)
3. Boston University
4. Harvard (1)
5. Massachusetts-Lowell
6. Bowling Green
7. Minnesota-Duluth
8. Omaha
9. Miami
10. Michigan Tech
11. Denver
12. Vermont
13. Colgate
14. Yale
15. Merrimack