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’ll share his top 20, as well hit on a few items of interest in the sport.

I have a new No. 1 this week:

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

Black Bears finally find an offensive spark: Maine had not scored at least four goals in a game since a 4-2 win over Stonehill on Dec. 8, the final game before the Christmas break. Saturday against UNH, the Black Bears scored four goals in the third period to take a 5-2 win. Josh Nadeau had a hand in all four goals, scoring one and assisting on the other three, giving him seven goals and 14 assists this season and pulling into a tie with Frank Djurasevic and Charlie Russell for third on the team in scoring. If the third-period eruption Saturday was a sign that the Black Bears have figured out something offensively, it came at the right time. Maine has five games left in the regular season. The Black Bears play at UConn on Friday. They’re home for a pair against Vermont on Feb. 28 and March 1, then close the regular season with two at UMass on March 7-8. The Hockey East regular-season title is in play for Maine, which is tied with Boston College for the top spot (although with two wins over Maine, BC owns the tiebreaker). Ranked No. 4 in the PairWise standings, a No. 1 seed at one of the four regionals in the NCAA tournament is within reach of the Black Bears. I kept the Black Bears at No. 4 on my ballot this week, despite movement among the teams I have ranked above them.

A new No. 1: Boston College, the unanimous No. 1 team last week, went 1-2, falling to Boston University in the Beanpot championship, then dropping a game to UMass on Friday. Michigan State did not play, and Minnesota had a loss and tie with Michigan. So I slid Western Michigan into the top spot. The Broncos swept a pair of games from a good Omaha team, making them 11-1 since the start of January. Western Michigan has a tough road trip this weekend ­— two games at Arizona State, in a battle between the No. 1 and 2 teams in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, but the Broncos are the hottest team in the country. Each poll is a snapshot of that week, and this week, I see Western Michigan as the No. 1 team.

Hockey East games to watch: Fourth through eighth-place in the Hockey East standings are separated by just five points, so every game can shuffle things up. Maine at UConn is the only conference game Friday between two ranked teams. Fans can watch it on NESN. Saturday, the biggest game is UMass Lowell at Providence. The River Hawks are currently in fourth place, holding down the final home seed for the quarterfinals. Providence sits in seventh place, but just two points behind Lowell. Eighth-place UMass can help itself with wins in its home-and-home series this weekend with UNH. The Wildcats are last in Hockey East, six points behind 10th-place Northeastern.