Maine Trust for Local News sports columnist Travis Lazarczyk is a voter in the U.S. College Hockey Online men’s poll. Each week he will share his top 10 votes, as well as hit on a few items of interest in the sport.
My ballot this week:
- Boston College
- Minnesota
- Michigan State
- Western Michigan
- Maine
- Denver
- Providence
- Arizona State
- Ohio State
- Boston University
- UMass Lowell
- UConn
- Michigan
- Minnesota State
- Quinnipiac
- Michigan Tech
- Augustana
- North Dakota
- UMass
- Colorado College
Black Bears grind out a pair of wins: I didn’t jump Maine up to No. 5 because it won Hockey East games at Alfond Arena this past weekend over Northeastern and UMass. I jumped the Black Bears up a spot because of the way they did it, mixing and matching lines to overcome injuries and the one-game suspension of Ross Mitton for Friday’s game. Despite those obstacles, Maine climbed into second place in Hockey East. A tough road trip to Providence, which I have No. 7 this week, is in store this weekend.
Quinnipiac is the ECAC’s torchbearer: This week the Bobcats are the only ECAC team I included on my ballot. I just couldn’t make the case for anyone else. The Bobcats are ranked No. 11 in the PairWise, which mimics the criteria used by the NCAA to select the tournament field. No other ECAC team is in the top 20. I considered Colgate. The Raiders are 4-1 in their last five games, 14-10-2 overall, and coming off wins at Clarkson and St. Lawrence. I’ll see how Colgate does this weekend against Union and RPI before reconsidering.
The Big Ten is tightening up: Hockey East has been the toughest conference this season but the Big Ten is a close second. The league has six teams in the top 20 of the PairWise rankings, and I have three of them in my top 10. The big matchup in the Big Ten this weekend is Michigan vs. Michigan State, who play a home-and-home series Friday and Saturday. Ohio State plays a pair at Notre Dame, while Penn State and Wisconsin, two teams knocking on the door of my top 20, play Friday and Saturday.
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