Gophers remain No. 1, Quinnipiac closes the gap

After a splitting a home-and-home series with Minnesota State-Mankato over the weekend, the Gophers men's hockey team remained No. 1 in the USCHO.com Poll, but not by a comfy margin.

Minnesota received 48 first-place votes compared to No. 2 Quinnipiac’s two last week, but the Gophers received only 28 this week. Quinnipiac remains in second and has 22 first-place votes.

MSU dropped one spot to No. 15 after the split with the Gophers. Other Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams joining Minnesota and MSU in the 20-team poll are No. 7 North Dakota, No. 10 Denver, No. 12 St. Cloud State, No. 14 Nebraska-Omaha and No. 19 Wisconsin.

The Gophers also remained No. 1 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll. WCHA teams joining the Gophers in the 15-team poll are No. 8 UND, No. 10 Denver, No. 13 SCSU, No. 14 Omaha and No. 15 MSU.

Minnesota will take this weekend off and return to action in two weeks when it travels to St. Cloud, Minn., to face the conference-leading Huskies. The Gophers will play a team that is currently ranked in the USCHO poll in three of their remaining five regular-season series. Two of those three series will be on the road.