Hockey Moves Up to No. 19 in USCHO Poll
2/14/2012 12:00:00 AM | Hockey
Feb. 13, 2012
OXFORD, Ohio - Coming off its fourth sweep of the season, Miami Hockey rose one spot in the USCHO.com Poll that was released Monday, coming in at No. 19, marking the fifth straight week the RedHawks have been ranked. Miami has been in the poll a total of 10 times in 19 weeks this year.
The 'Hawks (17-13-2, 11-11-2-1 CCHA) earned 147 points in the poll after a pair of wins over Alabama-Huntsville, improving on the 93 points they earned in last week's poll at No. 20. Miami traded places with CCHA foe Northern Michigan, who fell to 20th and received 132 points.
Ferris State, also of the CCHA, rocketed to the top of the polls for the first time in school history after sweeping then-No. 9 Notre Dame. The Bulldogs earned 940 points and 27 first-place votes after ranking sixth last week. Boston University lost the top spot and slipped to second after a loss to UMass with 905 points while still picking up six first-place votes. Boston College earned 13 first-place votes and moved up to third while Minnesota-Duluth fell a spot to fourth. UMD and No. 5 Michigan each earned one first-place vote.
UMass-Lowell is up to No. 6 with one first-place vote while Minnesota also has a first-place vote despite falling five spots to No. 7 after being swept by new No. 10 Denver. Union jumped up to eighth in the polls while Merrimack sits in ninth. The Pioneers gained four places to rank 10th after the sweep of the Golden Gophers.
Maine continued its climb up the rankings, coming in at No. 11 followed by Cornell in 12th. Note Dame, Miami's opponent this weekend, dropped four spots to No. 13 after being swept by Ferris State. North Dakota improved two spots to No. 14 despite splitting with Minnesota-Duluth while Colorado College slid five spots to No. 15 after being swept by Bemidji State.
The bottom five spots in the 20-team poll all belong to the CCHA. Michigan State is ranked 16th after splitting with the Wolverines while Ohio State, who Miami faces to close the regular season, dropped two more spots to No. 17 after splitting with No. 18 Western Michigan, who earned 150 points, just three more than the RedHawks and 18 more than No. 20 NMU. A total of eight CCHA teams are ranked in the USCHO.com Poll, which can be found here.
In other polls, Miami remained 17th in the Inside College Hockey (INCH) Power Rankings and received votes in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll, totaling nine points, which would rank them 19th if the poll expanded beyond 15 teams. In the all-important PairWise Rankings, which help determine NCAA Tournament berths, the 'Hawks are 13th, improving five spots from last week.
Miami hosts No. 13/13 Notre Dame Friday and Saturday at Steve Cady Arena in a critical CCHA series.
--MURedHawks.com--
