University of Maine men’s hockey players celebrate a goal over Boston University during a game Friday in Orono. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Maine Trust for Local News sports columnist Travis Lazarczyk is a voter in the US College Hockey Online men’s hockey 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 my ballot this week:

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

Where do the Black Bears fit: I moved Maine back up from No. 7 to No. 5 this week, after a win and tie with Boston University (Maine lost the shootout in Saturday’s tie for an extra point in the Hockey East standings). Maine was 20 seconds from a sweep, but BU’s Shane Lachance tied Saturday’s game in the final minute. It was the second game in as many weeks in which Maine let a third-period lead slip away, and that’s the only reason I hesitated in moving the Black Bears up two spots, if at all. It came down to this: Cornell and Colorado College, the two teams I had directly ahead of Maine last week, each lost and tied this weekend. While the Black Bears did let one slip away and settled for a tie, they also looked very strong in Friday’s 5-2 win over the Terriers, and that has to count for something. Maine has one game next weekend, at rival UNH Friday. It’s the Black Bears’ last Hockey East game until Jan. 10, when they play at UMass Lowell, which leads me to…

The River Hawks are soaring: UMass-Lowell is off to a 4-1 start in Hockey East play, 8-2 overall. The River Hawks completed a sweep at Vermont this weekend, outscoring the Catamounts 8-2 in the process. I had UMass Lowell at No. 15 last week after splitting a pair of games with BU. I moved them up one spot to No. 14 this week. That’s five teams from Hockey East in my top 14, which points to how deep and competitive this conference is.

Three new teams crack my top 20: UMass split a pair of games with No. 10 Providence, Clarkson earned wins over RPI and Union, which I had No. 19 last week, and Quinnipiac, which began the season in the top 10, got back on track with wins over Brown and Yale. To make room for those three, I dropped out Notre Dame, which lost a pair to Michigan State; Union, which split with St. Lawrence and Clarkson; and Harvard, which lost and tied to Colgate. This is my first season voting in the poll, and I expect those last few spots are going to vary a lot from week to week. There’s a lot of parity in college hockey, and it will be reflected week to week in my vote.