Mavericks ranked 6th

The first U.S. College Hockey Online poll of the season — preseason, rather — was released on Monday, and Minnesota State is ranked sixth in the country to start the year. The Mavericks, who also received one first-place vote, were seventh in last year's final rankings and first at the start of the NCAA tournament.

I am a voter on this weekly poll and struggled with putting together a top 20. Proving I wasn't alone, there were 10 different teams that received at least one of 50 possible first place votes. Also, 35 of the 60 teams that play Division I men's hockey received at least one vote. Crazy.

Here's what the poll looked like (first-place votes in parenthesis; WCHA teams in bold):

1. Boston College (19) 907 points

2. Minnesota-Duluth (12) 836 

3. Boston University (6) 820 

4. North Dakota (1) 766 

5. Denver 739 

6. Minnesota State (1) 699 

7. Providence (6) 642 

8. Harvard (1) 592 

9. Minnesota (1) 530 

10. Nebraska Omaha 505 

11. Miami (1) 461 

12. Yale 432

13. Michigan 417 

14. UMass-Lowell (2) 398 

15. Michigan Tech 390 

16. Bowling Green 316 

17. St. Cloud State 236 

18. Quinnipiac 228 

19. St. Lawrence 156 

20. Colgate 129 

Others receiving votes: Robert Morris 63, Notre Dame 45, RIT 39, Michigan State 37, Northeastern 31, Vermont 23, Penn State 19, New Hampshire 18, Ferris State 11, Wisconsin 5, Bemidji State 4, Union 3, Alaska 1, Brown 1, Dartmouth 1.