CIS Men's Hockey Top 10 (#13): Redmen ranked second for fourth straight week
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OTTAWA -- The º«¹úÂãÎè Redmen, with a 22-2-2 record, remained as the No.2-ranked team in the CIS men's hockey rankings despite losing last week.
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The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds top for the fifth straight week. The V-Reds (20-5-0) saw their 10-game regular season winning streak come to an end on Saturday when they dropped a 3-1 decision to the reigning University Cup champion Saint Mary's Huskies but still received all but one first-place votes and 179 points from the 18-member media panel.
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º«¹úÂãÎè earned the remaining first place nod and 142 points to stay at No. 2 for the fourth consecutive week.
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The Alberta Golden Bears (15-5-2) leapfrog the Western Ontario Mustangs (20-2-4) for third place in the new poll, while Saint Mary's (16-9-1) moves up one spot following a perfect weekend, including the big win over top-ranked UNB.
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Rounding out the 13th national poll of the campaign are the Saskatchewan Huskies (15-7-0), down one position to No. 6; the St. Francis Xavier X-Men (15-10-1), who stay put at No. 7; and a trio of teams unranked a week ago including the No. 8 Carleton Ravens (17-7-2), No. 9 Calgary Dinos (13-8-2) and No. 10 Acadia Axemen (14-8-3).
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This week marks the end of the regular season in the Atlantic and Ontario conferences.
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In the AUS, UNB, which defeated StFX 2-1 last Friday before losing to Saint Mary's, has already clinched first place in the standings. The Varsity Reds wrap up the schedule with three games in four nights against St. Thomas (3-18-4) on Wednesday, No. 10 Acadia on Friday and Dalhousie (11-14-0) on Saturday.
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No. 5 Saint Mary's holds a two-point lead in second place over both No. 7 StFX and Acadia going into the final weekend of AUS action. Acadia has three contests remaining, one more than its two rivals.
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In the OUA, º«¹úÂãÎè and Western have long secured first place in the East and West divisions, respectively, but top spot in the overall conference standings is still up for grabs as the Redmen enter the weekend with 46 points compared to 44 for the Mustangs.
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No. 2 º«¹úÂãÎè was blanked 3-0 by Carleton in its lone outing of the past week, after losing 4-0 to the Ravens in its previous contest, on Jan. 29. It marked the first time in 107 years (1903-04 season) that º«¹úÂãÎè suffered back-to-back shutouts in conference play.
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No. 4 Western also lost by shutout last weekend, 3-0 to UOIT on Saturday. The Mustangs were coming off a 4-3 win over Windsor on Friday.
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Both teams will welcome back a number of star players for the final weekend of the campaign. Three Redmen and six Mustangs spent the last three weeks with the Canadian squad that claimed bronze at the Winter Universiade in Turkey.
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In Canada West, the regular season doesn't end until Feb. 26 and nothing is decided in the standings.
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No. 3 Alberta, which is coming off a two-game sweep of Regina, 5-3 and 4-1, leads the way thanks to a 32-point tally with six games left on the schedule. Sixth-ranked Saskatchewan has 30 points with six matches remaining, while No. 9 Calgary has 28 points with five games left.
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CIS MEN'S HOCKEY TOP 10 (#13)
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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.
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(regular season record) / votes (first-place votes) / (previous rankings)
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1. UNB (20-5-0) / 179 pts (17) / (1)
2. º«¹úÂãÎè (22-2-2) / 142 (1) / (2)
3.
Alberta (15-5-2) / 130 / (4)
4. Western Ontario (20-2-4) / 117 / (3)
5. Saint Mary's (16-9-1) / 111 / (6)
6. Saskatchewan (15-7-0) / 107 / (5)
7. St. Francis Xavier (15-10-1) / 74 / (7)
8. Carleton (17-7-2) / 45 / (NR)
9. Calgary (13-8-2) / 30 / (NR)
10. Acadia (14-8-3) / 21 / (NR)
Other teams receiving votes: UPEI (10), Manitoba (10), Guelph (6),
Nipissing (5), Wilfrid Laurier (3).
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About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
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Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-one universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit .
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-CIS-
For more information contact:
Michel Bélanger
Manager, Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Off: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334
belanger [at] universitysport.ca
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