This post has been updated.
Cornell men’s hockey is tied with North Dakota atop the latest USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey national polls.
It’s the Red’s first time atop the national rankings in almost two years: Cornell was No. 1 in the January 29, 2018 polls before crashing back down to earth with a home loss to Rensselaer days later.
The Red, which earned 21 out of 50 first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll, tied with North Dakota (17 first-place votes) for the top spot in the poll, released on Monday, after spending two weeks at No. 2 behind the Fighting Hawks. Minnesota State, which came in at No. 3, picked up the remaining 12 first-place votes.
In the USA Hockey poll, released later on Monday, Cornell holds sole possession of the No. 1 spot, just ahead of North Dakota.
After a three-point weekend in the Capital Region paired with North Dakota’s weekend split against Nebraska-Omaha, Cornell also clings to the top spot in the PairWise Rankings, the metric used to determine NCAA Tournament placement.
Cornell is joined by three other ECAC teams in the USCHO top 20. Minnesota State, Denver and Boston College round out the top five.
Boasting the nation’s best winning percentage (.867), Cornell plays nine of its final 14 games at home after playing 11 of its first 15 games away from Lynah Rink.
Cornell hosts No. 17 Northern Michigan for a pair of contests at Lynah Rink this weekend. The games will be the Red’s final nonconference games of the season.
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USCHO.com Poll
Rank/Team/(First-Place Votes)/Record/Points/Last Poll
1 Cornell (21) 12-1-2 956 2
1 North Dakota (17) 17-2-2 956 1
3 Minnesota State (12) 20-3-1 928 3
4 Denver 15-4-3 823 5
5 Boston College 13-5-0 788 4
6 Penn State 16-6-0 743 6
7 Clarkson 15-4-2 708 7
8 Minnesota Duluth 12-6-2 623 9
9 Ohio State 14-6-2 612 8
10 Massachusetts 14-7-1 564 10
11 Providence 13-5-5 517 12
12 Northeastern 13-6-2 448 11
13 UMass Lowell 12-5-4 382 13
14 Arizona State 13-8-3 338 15
15 Bowling Green 13-9-2 249 16
16 Harvard 8-5-2 198 18
17 Northern Michigan 13-7-2 194 19
18 Notre Dame 10-9-3 145 14
19 Michigan Tech 13-10-2 121 17
20 Michigan State 11-10-1 58 20
20 Quinnipiac 12-8-1 58 NR