Maine Trust for Local News sports columnist Travis Lazarczyk is a voter in the U.S. College Hockey Online men’s poll. Each week he will share his top 20 votes, as well as hit on a few items of interest in the sport.

Here’s how I voted this week in the USCHO poll. Of note: There’s no poll next week due to the holiday break. We all vote again on Monday, Dec. 30.

1. Michigan State
2. Boston College
3. Minnesota
4. Maine
5. Denver
6. Western Michigan
7. Providence
8. Colorado College
9. Minnesota State
10. UMass Lowell
11. North Dakota
12. St. Cloud State
13. Michigan
14. Boston University
15. Ohio State
16. Cornell
17. Quinnipiac
18. Arizona State
19. Dartmouth
20. Clarkson

Shuffling things up at the top. Michigan State earned a tie and a victory at Minnesota this weekend, and that was enough to move the Spartans back into the top spot after I had the Golden Gophers there the previous week. Early in the week, Boston College took a 3-2 win over No. 10 UMass Lowell, so I jumped the Eagles over Minnesota to No. 2, and put the Gophers at No. 3. Maine doesn’t play again until a Dec. 29 nonconference game against Bentley at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena, so I left the Black Bears at No. 4. Denver split with Colorado College, so I left the Pioneers at No. 5 and nudged the Tigers up one spot to No. 8. Michigan State and Minnesota have two more regular-season games, at Michigan State’s Ron Mason Rink on Jan. 24-25.

North Dakota is on a heater. A couple of weeks ago, I actually left North Dakota off my ballot. In hindsight, that was a shortsighted move. The way I saw it at the time, the Fighting Hawks had recently dropped a pair of games to Denver, and lost and tied in a home-and-home weekend with Bemidji State. Surely there were at least 20 teams better than North Dakota at that point, I thought when I submitted my ballot on Dec. 2. Foolish me. The next weekend North Dakota swept a pair of games at Miami, and I put the Hawks back in my top 20 at No. 17. This past weekend North Dakota swept two from St. Cloud State, a team I slotted at No. 8 last week (St. Cloud was No. 9 in the overall poll). I was wrong on North Dakota, and this week I have the Hawks at No. 11.

Parity in the ECAC. It feels like it’s going to be difficult all season to get a feel for the ECAC teams. So far this season, the teams at the top have been beating each other up, with mixed results in nonconference games. Cornell took a pair of games from North Dakota in early November but has played .500 hockey since. Dartmouth has wins over Quinnipiac and Cornell, but losses to St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Quinnipiac stumbled early, but the Bobcats are 5-1-1 in their last seven. I have four ECAC teams in my top 20: Cornell, Quinnipiac, Dartmouth and Clarkson. I have each between 16 and 20, and it’s hard for me to determine if I have any of them too low or too high. It doesn’t feel like anybody is going to pull away from the pack in the ECAC, and that should lead to interesting games over the second half of the season.