College Hockey fan poll

Inside College Hockey and The College Hockey Blog have posted their weekly power rankings and the USCHO.com poll will follow this afternoon. It looks like the cool thing to do this week is to give props to Northeastern. While I am very cool with this, as NU is one of my two favorite non-BC teams [hint: the other is #1 in America], I think it's a bit premature to put NU above BU just one week after BU pasted them.

MEN
1. Minnesota - A split at Denver is always a solid weekend. The Gophers have clearly established themselves at #1.

2. Notre Dame - I discounted the Irish early on this season, but I have learned my lesson. Their combined two-game 14-2 pasting of Bowling Green was a message to the CCHA.

3. Boston University - BU hit a rough patch this week, losing two to Vermont, but I doubt their struggles will last long. Credit to Vermont.

4. Northeastern - Boston's far superior urban university picked up two more wins this week, including one against a plummeting UNH team. Thiessen is one of the best goalies in America.

5. Minnesota State - Am I the only person on the Maverick bandwagon? I feel like I consistently have them much higher in my rankings than anyone else does. Two more wins for MSU-M this weekend, although it was just Michigan Tech.

6. Boston College - It looks like BC may be starting that Slump Thing again. It's not full-blown Slump Thing yet, but we may be getting there. Either way, I really am not concerned. I'm a little concerned with Muse right now, but we'll see how he does with the chips on the table. I bet he returns to his freshman year form.

7. Colorado College - CC is another solid team that is struggling along with the growing pains of its sophomore goalie. I suspect they will be back in the top 5 soon.

8. Princeton - The keepers of the Hobey Baker flame had another 4-point weekend in the ECAC. A matchup with Northeastern in Troy on Friday will tell us a lot about both teams.

9. Denver University - DU stopped the bleeding with a Saturday victory over #1 Minnesota.

10. Air Force - This week is the big one for still-unbeaten Air Force: games against Colorado College and Denver.

11. Vermont - Another team I initially doubted. Hey, I admit when I'm wrong. Vermont is cruising right now, and picked up an impressive sweep at Agganis Arena.

12. UMass-Lowell - Despite their loss to rampaging Northeastern, I still project Lowell to end up #4 in Hockey East this year when all is said and done. They destroyed Providence, but to be fair, everyone is doing that these days.

13. Cornell - Two wins last week including one over a very solid Harvard team. Cornell and Princeton are shaping up to have a great battle in the ECAC. Cornell has two with North Dakota this week in a monster series for both teams.

14. Miami - With two wins against Michigan, Miami is quietly working their way back up the rankings after a rough start.

15. Nebraska-Omaha - Sorry UNH. Nebraska-Omaha sneaks into the top 15 from completely off my radar after scoring 10 goals in 2 games in a sweep of Michigan State. I didn't even notice until this weekend, but they're 9-2-1.

WOMEN

1. Wisconsin
2. Minnesota
3. Boston University
4. St. Lawrence
5. Dartmouth
6. UNH
7. BC
8. Harvard
9. Clarkson
10. Minn-Duluth