Maine center Nolan Renwick, left, and Denver defenseman Tory Pitner tangle in front of the net during a men’s hockey game Friday at Alfond Arena in Orono. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
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 20 votes, as well as hit on a few items of interest in the sport.
Here’s how I voted in this week’s USCHO.com poll.
- Michigan State
- Boston College
- Minnesota
- Providence
- Western Michigan
- Maine
- Denver
- Minnesota State
- UMass Lowell
- Colorado College
- North Dakota
- St. Cloud State
- Michigan
- Ohio State
- Arizona State
- Boston University
- Cornell
- Augustana
- UNH
- Quinnipiac
Black Bears hold their own against the defending champs. Maine split a pair of games at Alfond Arena over the weekend against Denver in one of the most anticipated nonconference series of the season. Each game was decided by a 2-1 score, showing it’s the little details that determine the winner in games between evenly matched teams. Maine played arguably its most complete game of the season in Saturday’s win. With Maine and Denver splitting, I slid each up one spot this week and dropped Colorado College, which lost a pair of games to Augustana, to No. 10.
A win over another top-10 team is good for Maine in the PairWise rankings, the system used by the NCAA to determine tournament seeding. The Black Bears play another series with big PairWise implications this weekend, jumping back into Hockey East play with a pair of games at UMass Lowell. I have the River Hawks at No. 9 on my ballot, and they placed No. 8 in the complete poll. UMass Lowell might be the most improved team in the country. At 12-4-2, the River Hawks have already surpassed last season’s win total (8-24-4). Maine likely needs to maintain the intensity it showed in Saturday’s win over Denver to be successful.
BC back at it. Boston College returns to action this weekend after a month off with a home-and-home series against Merrimack. But it’s not like the entire lineup will be rusty; six BC players skated for the Team USA team that won the world junior championship Sunday night with a 4-3 overtime victory over Finland. Teddy Stiga of BC scored the winner to give the U.S. its second straight title, and Ryan Leonard was named tournament MVP after scoring five goals and five assists. Gabe Perreault had three goals and seven assists for Team USA, and James Hagens had five goals and four assists.
Augustana knocks off another ranked opponent. Augustana placed just outside this week’s poll, with enough points to place 21st, eight points behind No. 20 Quinnipiac. I had the Vikings ranked No. 18 on my ballot. Augustana earned a pair of big wins over the weekend at Colorado College, 5-1 and 3-2. Those wins improved Augustana to 7-2-1 over its last 10 games, and gave the Vikings five wins over opponents ranked at the time of the game. Right now, Augustana has to be considered one of the favorites in the CCHA, with Minnesota State.
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