UND No.1 in men’s NCAA preseason poll

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — Defending NCAA men’s hockey champion North Dakota tops the first preseason poll of the season.

UND received 43 of the 50 first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll. The team the Fighting Hawks beat in last year’s national title game, Quinnipiac, is second in the poll, with one-first place vote.

Boston received five first-place votes and is No. 4 in the poll, and Boston College got one first-place vote and is fifth. Denver is third despite getting no top votes.

The rest of the top 10 is Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Massachusetts-Lowell, Notre Dame and Providence.

The USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine preseason poll is to be released on Monday.

UND will raise its eighth national title banner before Saturday’s exhibition game against Manitoba.