Here is the preseason version of the College Hockey Discussion List Poll: Teams were given 15 points for a first-place vote, 14 for a second-place vote, and so on down to 1 point for a fifteenth-place vote. Total first- place votes are in parentheses. As they did for most of last season, Maine takes the top spot in the HOCKEY-L preseason poll. Composite poll (11 responses): 1991-92 Record Pts. 1. Maine (4) 31-4-2 151 2. Minnesota (3) 33-11 141 3. Michigan (1) 32-9-3 118 Lake Superior 30-9-4 118 5. Boston University (2) 22-9-4 115 6. Clarkson 22-10-1 101 7. Michigan State 25-11-8 100 8. Wisconsin 27-14-2 93 9. Northern Michigan (1) 25-14-3 84 10. Providence 21-13-2 39 11. Harvard 14-7-6 31 12. RPI 14-15-4 29 13. Western Michigan 16-14-6 26 14. Alaska-Anchorage 27-8-1 23 Minnesota-Duluth 15-20-2 23 Others receiving votes: New Hampshire, Boston College, Illinois- Chicago, St. Lawrence, Ferris State, Bowling Green, North Dakota, Miami, Yale, Colorado College, St. Cloud Teams named on all responses: Maine, Minnesota, Lake Superior, Boston University, Michigan State, Wisconsin Those of you who saw the poll last year will remember the Eastern-Western split of the composite poll that I did, and here's a similar one for the preseason composite: Eastern responses: Western responses: 1. Maine (3) 81 1. Maine (1) 70 2. Minnesota (1) 80 2. Minnesota (2) 61 3. Boston University (2) 67 3. Lake Superior 57 Clarkson 67 4. Michigan (1) 55 5. Michigan 63 5. Boston University 48 6. Lake Superior 61 Michigan State 48 7. Wisconsin 54 7. Wisconsin 39 8. Michigan State 52 8. Northern Michigan (1) 37 9. Northern Michigan 47 9. Clarkson 34 10. Providence 17 10. Western Michigan 17 11. Harvard 23 11. Alaska-Anchorage 16 12. RPI 22 12. Providence 13 13. Boston College 14 13. New Hampshire 12 Minnesota-Duluth 14 14. Minnesota-Duluth 9 15. Illinois-Chicago 11 15. Ferris State 8 Harvard 8 Here's a comparison between the HOCKEY-L poll and The Sporting News' recently published Top 20. HOCKEY-L TSN Team Record Rank Rank Maine (4) 31-4-2 1 2 Minnesota (3) 33-11 2 3 Michigan (1) 32-9-3 3 1 Lake Superior 30-9-4 3 6 Boston University (2) 22-9-4 5 4 Clarkson 22-10-1 6 5 Michigan State 25-11-8 7 8 Wisconsin 27-14-2 8 12 Northern Michigan (1) 25-14-3 9 15 Providence 21-13-2 10 14 Harvard 14-7-6 11 11 RPI 14-15-4 12 19 Western Michigan 16-14-6 13 Alaska-Anchorage 27-8-1 14 Minnesota-Duluth 15-20-2 14 9 I'll start doing the usual weekly HOCKEY-L poll in a couple weeks, when a number of teams will have played a for-real game or two. More info on that later... -- To vote in the HOCKEY-L poll, send your response to: [log in to unmask] The deadline for responses is Tuesday at nidnight. The poll is released every Wednesday morning. Questions about the poll should be sent to [log in to unmask] .