OTTAWA (CIS) – The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds top the CIS men’s hockey rankings for the fourth consecutive week.
The V-Reds (23-5-0) once again received 12 first-place votes from the 17-member media panel, with the five remaining nods going to the No. 2 Alberta Golden Bears (23-4-1).
Rounding out the 16th national poll of the campaign are the No. 3 Western Mustangs (21-5-2 / 2-0 playoffs), No. 4 UQTR Patriotes (21-6-1 / 2-0), No. 5 Saint Mary’s Huskies (18-7-3), No. 6 Saskatchewan Huskies (19-8-1), No. 7 Manitoba Bisons (17-7-4 / 2-0), No. 8 Acadia Axemen (17-9-2 / 2-1), No. 9 Carleton Ravens (19-7-2 / 2-0) and No. 10 Calgary Dinos (17-11-0 / 2-1).
UNB, Alberta, Saint Mary’s and Saskatchewan all enjoyed a bye last week as the playoffs got under way in the three CIS conferences.
Western (vs. UOIT), UQTR (vs. Ryerson), Manitoba (vs. Regina) and Carleton (vs. Queen’s) swept their best-of-three opening round series, while Acadia (vs. Moncton) and Calgary (vs. UBC) needed three games to advance.
Post-season action resumes this week with best-of-five semifinals in the AUS and best-of-three semis in the OUA East, OUA West and Canada West.
The top-ranked Varsity Reds, who closed out conference play with eight consecutive wins, open their playoff run against the UPEI Panthers, who scored a pair of one-goal victories over StFX in the AUS quarter-finals.
Following a month-long playoff season, the top six teams in the nation will gather at the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon from March 14 to 17 for the PotashCorp University Cup championship, presented by Co-op. New national champions will be crowned next month as the 2012 titlist McGill Redmen were eliminated by Nipissing on Sunday.
Below is a complete post-season schedule for this week (all times LOCAL).
Wednesday, Feb. 20
19:00 Acadia at Saint Mary’s (Game 1 best-of-5 AUS
semifinal)
19:00 UQTR at Nipissing (Game 1 best-of-3 OUA East semifinal)
19:00 Ottawa at Carleton (Game 1 best-of-3 OUA East semifinal)
Thursday, Feb. 21
19:00 Acadia at Saint Mary’s (Game 2 best-of-5 AUS
semifinal)
19:00 UPEI at UNB (Game 1 best-of-5 AUS semifinal)
19:00 Waterloo at Western (Game 1 best-of-3 OUA West semifinal)
19:00 Guelph at Windsor (Game 1 best-of-3 OUA West semifinal)
Friday, Feb. 22
19:00 UPEI at UNB (Game 2 best-of-5 AUS semifinal)
19:00 Carleton at Ottawa (Game 2 best-of-3 OUA East semifinal)
19:00 Manitoba at Saskatchewan (Game 1 best-of-3 Canada West
semifinal)
19:00 Calgary at Alberta (Game 1 best-of-3 Canada West
semifinal)
Saturday, Feb. 23
14:00 Nipissing at UQTR (Game 2 best-of-3 OUA East semifinal)
18:00 Calgary at Alberta (Game 2 best-of-3 Canada West
semifinal)
19:00 Saint Mary’s at Acadia (Game 3 best-of-5 AUS
semifinal)
19:30 Windsor at Guelph (Game 2 best-of-3 OUA West semifinal)
19:30 Western at Waterloo (Game 2 best-of-3 OUA West semifinal)
19:00 Manitoba at Saskatchewan (Game 2 best-of-3 Canada West
semifinal)
Sunday, Feb. 24
18:00 Calgary at Alberta (If necessary: Game 3 best-of-3 Canada
West semifinal)
19:00 Saint Mary’s at Acadia (If necessary: Game 4 best-of-5
AUS semifinal)
19:00 Waterloo at Western (If necessary: Game 3 best-of-3 OUA West
semifinal)
19:00 Ottawa at Carleton (If necessary: Game 3 best-of-3 OUA East
semifinal)
19:00 Manitoba at Saskatchewan (If necessary: Game 3 best-of-3
Canada West semifinal)
19:30 Nipissing at UQTR (If necessary: Game 3 best-of-3 OUA East
semifinal)
19:30 Guelph at Windsor (If necessary: Game 3 best-of-3 OUA West
semifinal)
Monday, Feb. 25
19:00 UNB at UPEI (Game 3 best-of-5 AUS semifinal)
CIS MEN’S HOCKEY TOP 10 (#16)
Voting is based on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis, with a 1st place vote worth 10 points. The CIS Men’s Ice Hockey Top Ten Committee is made up of media members from across Canada.
(regular season record) / votes (first-place votes) / (previous
rankings)
1. UNB (23-5-0) / 165 points (12) / (1)
2. Alberta (23-4-1) / 158 (5) / (2)
3. Western (21-5-2 / 2-0) / 129 / (3)
4. UQTR (21-6-1 / 2-0) / 108 / (4)
5. Saint Mary’s (18-7-3) / 106 / (5)
6. Saskatchewan (19-8-1) / 89 / (6)
7. Manitoba (17-7-4 / 2-0) / 58 / (7)
8. Acadia (17-9-2 / 2-1) / 54 / (8)
9. Carleton (19-7-2 / 2-0) / 35 / (9)
10. Calgary (17-11-0 / 2-1) / 16 / (10)
Other teams receiving votes: Windsor (7), UPEI (6), Ottawa (3), Waterloo (1).
-CIS-