ECACHL Women's Teams Have Five Ranked in Top 10

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The ECAC Hockey League has five of its teams ranked among the nation's top 10 women's teams, according to the latest USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. Four of those same teams are among the top 10 in this week's USCHO.com polls. Dartmouth and Harvard earned the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively, in both polls, while St. Lawrence was sixth and Brown eighth on both lists. UA Today voters put Princeton into the No. 10 spot.

Minnesota continues to hold the No. 1 spot in both polls with 150 points in the USCHO.com poll and 190 points in the USA Today poll. The Golden Gophers were a unanimous No. 1 pick on both lists. Dartmouth had 132 points and 170 points, respectively, while Harvard had 114 and 144. The Saints flipped positions in the polls with Minnesota-Duluth, going from fifth to sixth, while Brown moved up one spot to the No. 8 position with 37 and 38 points.

Princeton, which was among those receiving votes last week, popped into the USA Today top 10 with 22 points this week - 12 more points than in last week's poll.

Colgate makes its first appearance of the year among schools receiving votes. The Raiders split over the weekend with Providence, moving the Friars from the No. 8 spot to 10th in the USCHO poll and from 8th to receiving votes in the USA Today rankings.

Harvard, St. Lawrence and Dartmouth comprised three of last year's NCAA Frozen Four teams.

St. Lawrence (2-0-0 overall) and Harvard (2003-04: 30-4-1 overall) finished the regular season tied for first place in the ECACHL last season with identical 15-3-0 league records and then faced each other throughout the playoffs with the Crimson coming out on top in both the league tournament and the NCAA Frozen Four. Dartmouth (2003-04: 24-8-2 overall) entered the ECACHL tournament after posting a 14-3-1 mark in the league for third place. The Big Green drew eventual champion Minnesota in the NCAA semifinals.

Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown and Princeton just opened practice over the weekend and will face their first NCAA competition in the next few weeks.