December 2, 2003

Men's Icers Drop Out of Top 15 in National Polls

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After earning just a 3-3 tie at home against Mercyhurst this past Saturday, the Cornell men’s hockey team dropped out of the USCHO.com top 15 for the first time in well over a year. The Red, which was ranked No. 13 last week, will host No. 12 Brown and Harvard this weekend.

The top three teams in the national rankings remained unchanged from a week ago, as North Dakota holds the top spot followed by Boston College and Maine. The Fighting Sioux stayed at No. 1 after having the week off. Meanwhile, the Eagles earned a pair of victories — a 4-1 win over Dartmouth and a 42 decision over Northeastern.

Colorado College and New Hampshire flip-flopped this week, with the Tigers moving past the Wildcats to No. 4. Colorado College secured home wins against Air Force and Findlay, while UNH lost to UMass-Lowell before rallying to beat upstart RPI. The Wildcats will have another tough week ahead of them, though, as they head to the North Country to face Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

After throttling intrastate rival Bowling Green, 7-0, Ohio State moved up three spots to No. 6 in the country. St. Cloud State checked in at seventh after taking three points from Alaska Anchorage, closely followed by No. 8 Denver. Like Colorado College, Denver earned wins over Air Force and Findlay, helping it rise two spots in the polls. UMass dropped to ninth after a win over Vermont, and a tie and loss against Nebraska-Omaha. Rounding out the top 10 was Michigan, which lost both its games — a 3-1 defeat to Wisconsin and a 4-2 loss to defending national champion Minnesota.

Wisconsin, which was unranked last week, moved all the way up to No. 11 after impressive wins at Michigan and Michigan State. Brown also moved up significantly, after a tie at crosstown Providence and big home victories over North Country foes Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

Fellow Ivy team Dartmouth dropped two slots to No. 13 after a disappointing showing at Boston College. The Green lost its first game of the year, a 4-1 decision at the hands of the Eagles. Dartmouth bounced back with a tie the next night, though.

The Fighting Irish moved into the top 15 with a sweep of Northern Michigan, Boston University rounded out the poll.

In all, six ECAC teams received votes this week, with Brown and Dartmouth in the top 15. Harvard, Cornell, RPI and Clarkson also received votes.

Archived article by Alex Ip