WCHA Takes Top Three Spots; Minnesota Remains No. 1 On USA Today/USA Hockey
March 1, 2005
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Duluth kept the top two spots on this week's USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women's College Hockey Poll after the two teams split a regular-season-ending Western Collegiate Hockey Association series last weekend (Feb. 26-27) in Duluth, Minn. Meanwhile, the University of Wisconsin swept St. Cloud State University to move up a position to No. 3.
Harvard University, Dartmouth College and St. Lawrence University, all members of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League, hold Nos. 4-6 on the poll. No. 4 Harvard posted wins over No. 5 Dartmouth and unranked University of Vermont to extend its unbeaten streak to 15 games and clinch the ECACHL regular-season title for the third consecutive year.
Although the WCHA and ECACHL have finished regular-season play and will begin their conference playoffs this weekend, the Hockey East Association's regular-season winner is still to be determined. With a 3-3 tie between the University of New Hampshire and Providence College on Saturday (Feb. 26) in New Hampshire, followed by a 4-3 Providence win over UNH in Rhode Island on Sunday (Feb. 27), the two teams are tied for first in the HEA standings with two games remaining apiece.
NOTES: No. 2 Minnesota Duluth's Caroline Ouellette, a top 10 finalist for the 2005 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, scored the shorthanded game-winner in the Bulldogs' 4-2 win over No. 1 Minnesota to break the Gophers' 15-game unbeaten streak ... No. 10 Princeton University senior April Brown tallied a natural hat trick in the Tigers' 9-1 win over Union College on Friday (Feb. 25). The goals were her first of the season and were scored within a period of five minutes ... Minnesota's streak of 20 straight weeks at No. 1 is second only to Dartmouth's streak of 21 weeks in 2000-01 ... Golden Gopher forwards Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell, two of the 10 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, lead the nation in scoring with 93 (34 goals, 59 assists) and 87 (37 goals, 50 assists) points, respectively.
ABOUT THE POLL: The eighth annual USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women's College Hockey Poll is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association. The poll includes input from coaches and journalists representing each of the six NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences, as well as composite votes from officers of the American Hockey Coaches Association and USA Hockey Magazine, the official publication of USA Hockey.
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine
Women's College Hockey Poll - #20
(first-place votes in parentheses)
Last Week Record Weeks 1. University of Minnesota, 190 (19) 1 30-2-2 20 2. University of Minnesota Duluth, 170 2 24-4-2 20 3. University of Wisconsin, 142 4 26-7-1 20 4. Harvard University, 130 5 20-6-3 20 5. Dartmouth College, 125 3 23-5-0 20 6. St. Lawrence University, 98 6 24-5-5 20 7. Mercyhurst College, 75 7 24-6-2 18 8. University of New Hampshire, 46 8 19-7-6 20 9. Providence College, 39 NR 17-10-5 11 10. Princeton University, 19 9 16-8-5 16
Others receiving votes: Brown University, 7; University of Connecticut, 3;
Colgate University, 1.
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