UMaine’s Taylor Makar, left, battles American International College’s Brett Rylance for a loose puck during a game earlier this season. Makar broke his scoring drought with a goal in Maine’s 2-2 tie with UConn on Saturday. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

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. 

Some shuffling at the top of my ballot this week:

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

A new No. 1: Boston College swept a pair of games from Providence, another top 10 opponent, so it looks like whatever was troubling the Eagles in their loss to Merrimack last week is a memory. Meanwhile, Michigan State split a pair of games with rival Michigan. With that in mind, I moved BC to the top spot, Michigan State to No. 2, and Western Michigan up to No. 3 from No. 5. The Broncos went to North Dakota and swept a pair, and that’s never easy. Because Hockey East is a meat grinder this season, BC will be tested again this week with two games against Boston University. With their sweep of UNH, I moved the Terriers up to No. 11.

Maine continues to tread water: We knew the Black Bears’ schedule toughened up after the break. Maine is 3-3-1 since returning from its holiday sabbatical. The concerning trend for the Black Bears is the lack of scoring punch. Maine scored more than two goals in just one of those seven games, a 3-1 win at UMass Lowell in which the third goal came on an empty net. A loss and a tie to a good UConn team isn’t as concerning as Maine’s overall lack of scoring depth in recent games. There were a few positive signs this weekend, however. Oskar Komarov and Taylor Makar each broke a long scoring drought in Saturday’s 2-2 tie with the Huskies, and Charlie Russell broke his with a goal in Friday’s 4-2 loss. Maine is off this weekend, then jumps back into competitive Hockey East play at home against Northeastern Jan. 31, and home against UMass on Feb. 2. The Black Bears enter their conference bye weekend tied for second in the league with BC, although with a pair of wins over Maine, the Eagles hold the tiebreaker.

Michigan Tech climbs onto my ballot: Each week, I find ranking teams 15-20 the most difficult aspect of voting. Very rarely does one of the teams I had in those spots the previous week go out and sweep a weekend series over another top 20 team. Most of the time it’s trying to rearrange a handful of teams who are playing OK, but not great. Who’s hot? Who’s not? It changes week to week. For example, Dartmouth went 2-0 with wins at Union and RPI to improve to 10-6-2, 7-3-1 in ECAC play, so I slid the Big Green back on to my ballot at No. 17. Michigan Tech went 1-1 against No. 12 Minnesota State. The Huskies are 13-9-2, 9-5-2 in the CCHA, so for now, that slots them at No. 20 on my ballot. I fully expect that all to change again next week, as I split hairs over every win and loss.

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