Colorado College dropped five spots Monday to 15th in the USCHO.com poll, and it fell four places to 14th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll and the Inside College Hockey power rankings – the result of a pair of losses over the weekend at Bemidji State.

Ferris State is first in both polls, with Boston University second. Minnesota-Duluth ranks third in the USA Today poll and fourth in the USCHO.com poll; each poll has Minnesota seventh and Denver 10th; and North Dakota is 14th in the USCHO.com poll and 15th in the USA Today poll. Air Force got votes in both polls, on an eight-game unbeaten streak.

The Tigers (15-11-2, 12-9-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) are tied for fourth in the WCHA with Nebraska-Omaha (13-11-6, 10-7-5) as the Mavericks head to World Arena this weekend with a 1-2-2 record in their past five games after a victory and a tie at Michigan Tech. CC trails Minnesota by five points, Minnesota-Duluth by four points and Denver by three points, and it holds home ice for the WCHA playoffs by two points.

Seven Tigers have injuries – goaltender Josh Thorimbert; forwards Nick Dineen, Dakota Eveland, Michael Morin and Scott Winkler; and defensemen Mike Boivin and Eamonn McDermott. It’s possible that Thorimbert, Dineen, Winkler and McDermott could return against Nebraska-Omaha, as well as Boivin, however, Boivin had a concussion Friday, so he might need more than a week to recover. Eveland and Morin aren’t close to returning.

Contact Brian Gomez: 719-636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com. Facebook: Brian Gomez. Twitter: @gazettehockey. Google+: Brian Gomez. YouTube: Colorado College Hockey, Covered by The Gazette. For the CC homepage, visit www.gazette.com/sections/sports/cchockey. For the CC blog, visit http://cchockey.freedomblogging.com.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.