The College Hockey Discussion List Poll for January 26, 1994: 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. How the mighty have fallen. Defending NC$$ champion Maine, after an up-and- down season so far, has dropped out of the HOCKEY-L top 15 for the first time since the poll was started two and a half years ago. Michigan, Lake Superior, and Wisconsin are now the only teams to make an appearance in the HOCKEY-L poll every week since its inception. The Wolverines remain the unanimous choice for #1 in the poll, while Boston University was everybody's #2. Meanwhile, Minnesota, which was out of the top 15 as recently as two weeks ago, continues to climb back to the elite, as they jumped three spots. Michigan State, on the strength of a split at Michigan, also moved up three. Composite poll (25 responses): Last Record Pts. Week Range 1. Michigan (25) 23-2-1 375 1 1 2. Boston University 16-5 350 2 2 3. Northern Michigan 16-7-1 301 3 3-5 4. Harvard 11-3-2 270 5 3-9 Lake Superior 17-8-2 270 4 3-9 6. Michigan State 14-7-3 207 9 3-13 7. New Hampshire 15-7-1 194.5 6 4-15 8. Colorado College 15-7-2 175.5 7 4-13 9. Wisconsin 14-9-1 158.5 8 5-15 10. RPI 12-5-1 146.5 11 5-14 11. Mass Lowell 13-5-4 132.5 13 4-15 12. Minnesota 13-8-3 105 15 4-15 13. Northeastern 13-6-3 85.5 10 7-14 14. Brown 9-5-3 81 12 7-15 15. St. Cloud 11-8-3 41 -- 9-15 Others receiving votes: Maine, Alaska-Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Colgate, Alaska-Anchorage, Clarkson, Western Michigan Teams named on all responses: Michigan, Boston University, Lake Superior, Wisconsin, Mass Lowell Dropped out of Top 15: Maine (#14 last week), Alaska-Fairbanks (tied for #15) The East-West split was somewhat dominated by Eastern voters this week, but in at least one case, the Westerners made the most of their votes. St. Cloud got almost half its support from the seven Western voters and picked up the #15 spot in the poll. Also interesting to note is Mass Lowell's per- formance; the Chiefs were ranked three spots higher by the Westerners than the Easterners. Eastern responses: Western responses: 1. Michigan (18) 270 1. Michigan (7) 105 2. Boston University 252 2. Boston University 98 3. Northern Michigan 214 3. Northern Michigan 87 4. Lake Superior 199 4. Harvard 80 5. Harvard 190 5. Lake Superior 71 6. New Hampshire 154 6. Michigan State 66 7. Michigan State 141 7. Colorado College 59.5 8. Wisconsin 122 8. Mass Lowell 42.5 9. Colorado College 116 9. New Hampshire 40.5 10. RPI 114.5 10. Minnesota 37 11. Mass Lowell 90 11. Wisconsin 36.5 12. Minnesota 68 12. RPI 32 13. Northeastern 65.5 13. Northeastern 20 14. Brown 62 14. Brown 19 15. Maine 24 St. Cloud 19 Here is the composite of the HOCKEY-L, WMEB, and College Hockey USA polls. Michigan ranked #1 in all three, but one vote for BU for first place in the WMEB poll kept the Wolverines from being "everybody's" #1, which is what they had been for the past few weeks. HOCKEY-L WMEB CH USA Team Record Rank Rank Rank Michigan 23-2-1 1 1 1 Boston University 16-5 2 2 2 Northern Michigan 16-7-1 3 5 3 Harvard 11-3-2 4 3 4 Lake Superior 17-8-2 4 4 5 Michigan State 14-7-3 6 6 6 New Hampshire 15-7-1 7 8 7 Colorado College 15-7-2 8 9 8 Wisconsin 14-9-1 9 10 (14) RPI 12-5-1 10 (12) (13) Mass Lowell 13-5-4 11 (11) 9 Minnesota 13-8-3 12 7 10 Northeastern 13-6-3 13 (14) Brown 9-5-3 14 (14) (11) St. Cloud 11-8-3 15 (13) (11) The ratings composite has a few interesting disparities of its own. Chief among them is the Harvard "situation", where CHODR agrees with HOCKEY-L's placement of the Crimson in the #4 spot and TCHCR and RPICH don't even see them as an NC$$ playoff team at this point. RPICH and TCHCR tend to agree closely in general, but note that RPICH has Maine ten places ahead of TCHCR (both are ignoring the results of the three potential Maine forfeits). HOCKEY-L TCHCR RPICH CHODR Team Record Rank Rank Rank Rank Michigan 23-2-1 1 1 1 1 Boston University 16-5 2 3 2 2 Northern Michigan 16-7-1 3 2 4 5 Harvard 11-3-2 4 14 16 4 Lake Superior 17-8-2 4 7 11 3 Michigan State 14-7-3 6 8 9 8 New Hampshire 15-7-1 7 9 3 6 Colorado College 15-7-2 8 4 8 17 Wisconsin 14-9-1 9 5 6 10 RPI 12-5-1 10 15 13 7 Mass Lowell 13-5-4 11 13 10 19 Minnesota 13-8-3 12 6 7 20 Northeastern 13-6-3 13 11 5 14 Brown 9-5-3 14 18 14 13 St. Cloud 11-8-3 15 10 15 9 --------------------------------------------------------------- Alaska-Fairbanks 16-8-1 12 18 15 Maine 12-9-1 22 12 11 Boston College 10-9-2 24 17 12 Usually, the polls tend to seriously over-rate teams compared to where the various ratings place them, but in the case of New Hampshire, the reverse may be true. Note that the Wildcats are ranked three places higher in Tad- rate than they are in Tadpoll. Wisconsin has an even bigger disparity of *six* spots. Perhaps a preview of the inevitable arguing about team selec- tion and seedings at tournament time? Tadpoll: Tad-rate: 1. Michigan (3) 45 1. Michigan (3) 45 2. Boston University 42 2. Boston University 41 3. Northern Michigan 37 3. Northern Michigan 37 4. Harvard 36.5 4. New Hampshire 30 5. Lake Superior 34.5 5. Lake Superior 27 6. Michigan State 30 Wisconsin 27 7. New Hampshire 26 7. Michigan State 23 8. Colorado College 23 8. Colorado College 20 9. Minnesota 19 9. Minnesota 19 10. Mass Lowell 17 10. Northeastern 18 11. Wisconsin 14.5 11. Harvard 14 12. RPI 13 St. Cloud 14 13. Brown 8.5 13. RPI 13 St. Cloud 8.5 14. Maine 9 15. Northeastern 4.5 Mass Lowell 9 -- HOCKEY-L poll instructions are available in the archives. 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