University of Maine men’s hockey coach Ben Barr will have his team ready for home games against Northeastern and UMass this weekend after enjoying time off. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

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.

No changes in my top four this week:

1. Boston College
2. Michigan State
3. Western Michigan
4. Minnesota
5. Denver
6. Maine
7. Arizona State
8. Providence
9. UConn
10. Michigan
11. Ohio State
12. Minnesota State
13. UMass Lowell
14. Boston University
15. Quinnipiac
16. Michigan Tech
17. Dartmouth
18. Augustana
19. Cornell
20. Omaha

Maine stays put: The Black Bears were off last weekend, and hopefully they used the practice time to work on their offense. Since returning from the break, the Black Bears have averaged just two goals per game. At 15-5-3, Maine — ranked fourth in the PairWise rankings that are used to set and seed the NCAA tournament field — is still in good shape for a postseason invite. Still, the Black Bears have to pick it up offensively down the stretch in the regular season. They have a chance to pick up some important Hockey East wins this weekend, hosting Northeastern on Friday and UMass on Sunday.

UConn is on a heater: The hottest team in Storrs, Connecticut, isn’t one of UConn’s powerhouse basketball teams. It’s the men’s hockey team, 6-0-1 in January. The Huskies won the Connecticut Ice tournament over the weekend, beating ranked Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart, a team receiving votes in the poll. UConn now sits tied with Maine for fourth place in the PairWise rankings. The Huskies play a home-and-home with Providence this weekend. The Friars are coming off a tie and a loss against UMass Lowell. The race for Hockey East tournament seeding is on.

Omaha is back in my top 20: The Mavericks swept a pair of games at St. Cloud State over the weekend, running their winning streak to six. The hot streak jumped Omaha into second place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. With ECAC teams continuing to pummel each other each weekend, Omaha’s run is enough for me to slide the Mavericks into the No. 20 spot. Omaha hosts Denver for two games this weekend, so we’ll see if it can keep it up against one of the best teams in the country.