College Hockey:
A wild weekend

By Jayson Moy • Senior Writer • March 13, 2011

It was a crazy weekend for sure.

But, we’re a little closer to finding out who may be moving on in the NCAA Tournament.

We’ll keep updating the blog as we go on this week, replacing the usual Bracketology with some insights during the week.

Some things that I believe:

The TUC line is set except for one team. Northeastern. If Northeastern wins one game, it will be above .5000 in the RPI, making the Huskies a TUC. It helps some teams a little bit.

RIT, Air Force, Holy Cross, Connecticut, Cornell, Colgate, Northeastern, Bemidji State and Alaska-Anchorage need to win their tournaments to get into the NCAA Tournament.

The bubble consists of Western Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha, Colorado College, Dartmouth, Rensselaer, Boston University and Maine.

We’ll go more into detail as the week moves on.

In the meantime, here is how I see it right now.

East Regional (Bridgeport)

16 RIT vs. 1 Yale

9 Union vs. 8 Merrimack

West Regional (St. Louis)

13 Nebraska-Omaha vs. 4 Michigan

12 Western Michigan vs. 6 Denver

Midwest Regional (Green Bay)

15 Dartmouth vs. 2 North Dakota

10 Notre Dame vs. 7 Minnesota-Duluth

Northeast Regional (Manchester)

14 Colorado College vs. 3 Boston College

11 New Hampshire vs. 5 Miami

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Css228
LET’S GO RED!!!!!!!!!!
Bklein09
Love this bracket for Michigan!
Go Blue!
- Anonymous
  UNO will happily will take on the rodents again that they split with already this season in their barn.
  If UNO had been in the CCHA, still, this season, THEY would have likely been the CCHA conference champions.
  It’s great fun to argue about stuff that you can’t substantiate, isn’t it?
  - streaker
    Typical ignorant UNO fan response. By your logic, you ‘should’ have won the WCHA, too but didn’t. (Splitting w/UND, UMD and Denver.) I see, though, one good season and you have already (vicariously) inherited the WCHA superiority complex-i.e. we’re already better than Michigan, Miami, Notre Dame etc… even as a bubble team. Quite becoming on a program that is was all talk in the CCHA and has started their playoff history in the WCHA the same way. That was quite a “substantiative” statement against BSU.
    - Nyqi
      Don’t lump all WCHA fans into this guys thinking. I am UND fan and I like our chances but I don’t ever want to play Michigan, they always have a lot of talent. Here’s to hoping that Michigan won’t make the FF.
      - cis
        As a DU fan I hate to say that I don’t want to play UND – they’re very good. Although, some Jesse Martin payback would be nice…..
      - Jason
        Hopefully they will meet next weekend though. Would be a very good measuring stick going into the NCAA for both teams I think.
      - streaker
        Nyqi:
        UNO fans wrote checks while in the CCHA that their program couldn’t cash. Some things never change. At least the pillars of the W can back their talk.
        I doubt that you’ll ever hear that Michigan would want to avoid anyone in the NCAA’s… it’s been fun. Gotta beat the best to be the best. :)
  - DU_Fan
    As one of the “rodents” you were lucky to split with, you better hope UNO makes it to the dance. If CC wins their first game against UAA they will drop you down a notch in the PWR. Depending on this weekend a drop to #16, and out, is entirely possible. Not a good feeling sitting on the sidelines hoping things fall into place, is it????
- DU_Fan
  I love this bracket for DU!!! Michigan not as tough away from Yost as people give them credit for. Let them have to beat 2 WCHA teams to advance.
  Go Pioneers!!!!!!!!!
  - Beau Beman
    your pioneers would have to get by WMU first and the wcha isnt as good as you think
    - DU_Fan
      When was the last time WMU won a hockey championship?? Oops, that would be never… I know the WCHA is no good, an obvious mistake having them get 4 or 5 teams to the regionals. Like I stated before, each league has teams that are good, and teams that are weaker. I don’t believe in TUC, when schedules are made you have no way of knowing if your future opponent will have an up or down year.
      - streaker
        That’s fine, DU fan. But the last two times Michigan has played Denver in the NCAA’s the Wolverines have won. Matter of fact, in 1999, they came from three goals behind in Worcester to do it. Just goes to show they don’t have to be at Yost to beat W teams. Cheers! :)
      - DU_Fan
        1999, one year after their last title. Been a long time since they made it to a final. Try to end that drought soon. :-)
      - Hockey God
        There are teams that are in the TUC every year. Schedule them.
      - bashful
        Pretty difficult to schedule a WCHA team when WCHA team’s won’t schedule very many games against teams from other conferences. North Dakota played four non-WCHA teams this season. Contrast that with Rensselaer’s games against nine non-ECAC teams. The conference that won’t schedule non-conference teams is not the ECAC.
Beau Beman
ya cuz UNO always was always a powerhouse in the ccha
Jdorf40
I still can’t believe Yale is going to be #1 overall. The NCAA needs to re-evaluate the BCS..I mean PairWise system.
- Monsjic
  Colgate over Union! Yeah Yale is real battle tested, what a joke.
- I will pay for your ticket
  Why don’t you get on a plane to Indianapolis and picket the NCAA headquarters?
  The National Collegiate Athletic Association
  700 W. Washington Street
  P.O. Box 6222
  Indianapolis, Indiana 46206-6222
- Dartmouth guy
  Stop your whining. Every year we hear how big and tough the west is. Then they end up looking human in the NCAAs against the east teams. Same deal every year. Yale is legit. Wait till you see them play and then give me your opinion.
  - Hockey God
    I’ve seen them play, they’re not.
Anonymous
LOL @ Miami. “Manchester…AGAIN?” “BC in our Regional…AGAIN?”
- Monsjic
  Yeah, I think this regional is wrong.
Guest
Poor UNO … going from a PWR of 6 to 13 in one weekend becasue they’re ch-ch-choke artists. Now their AD is dropping football and the (national champion) wrestling team? What’s going on over there, Omaha?
Stanner’57
two sleepers to watch..WMU (where did they come from?) and CC (who seem to choke anywhere near the NCAA)
- Irish Spectre
  “…CC (who seem to choke anywhere near the NCAA)”
  …then CC is in very good company in the forms of UNH and Miami!!
  Maybe the BC equipment manager will pack a bunch of barf bags as a courtesy for the competition.
Monsjic
I don’t know, if this pans out like Men’s Basketball, who knows who might be in. The VCU or UAB of this bracket…Minnesota.
- Anonymous
  That’s an insult to UAB!
Anonymous
Looks like it would be a stroll to St Paul for Michigan.
Slyfoxman7
woo if Union still manages a northeast tournament appearance I’d be so happy after a disgraceful loss to Colgate.
Guest
If Cornell loses two games, there’s a chance that they drop below the TUC line
- Css228
  But will Cornell lose two games?
Oldschool68
Can’t help but note that that list of “chokers” seems to be dominated by teams that play on Olympic sheets at home (and obviously, NHL size sheets in the NCAAs). CC,UNH, (Miami excepted) , the Gophers (since the new Mariucci), NMU since their NCAA championship … just a thought.
- Jdorf40
  I never noticed that actually. Nice observation!
- guest
  Umm… Minnesota played their home games on the Olympic sheet at the new Mariucci in 02 and won the NC on an NHL sized sheet at the Xcel and in 03 on an NHL sized sheet at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.
  - Oldschool68
    Agreed on both 02 and 03. I was actually at both games. Both of them kind of end up as “asterisk” games. The 02 game was in St Paul so the “playing at home” thing kinda muddles it up. The 03 game was between the Gophers and another “big ice” team, UNH, so something had to give. I certainly didn’t mean for this to be a scientific study or anything, but I had a conversation with a Minn. high school coach last year who brought up the issue of recruiting to that sort of rink, particularly with regard to defensemen and defensive forwards. As I said earlier, I just think it’s interesting.
Righty
Is there any way BC does not get a #1 seed?
- the GOAL
  If Merrimack wins the HEA Tournament BC will go to a 2 seed and probaly end up in Bridgeport or Green Bay putting Merrimack in Manchester.
Jdorf40
So NoDak plays 31 games against TUC and Yale plays 15 with BC playing 16.
I’d be fired up if I was Michigan coming in as the 4 seed. If they can just get out of their regional, they should have the best opportunity to play in the championship if this seeding is accurate. Yale, Merrimack, Union or RIT…hmmm, I’d say that as a 4 seed, it can’t get much better than this.
- enough already
  As a Cornell fan I’ll say to you what was said to us back in 2003 when we got Minnesota State Mankato in the first round instead of the CHA or AHA autobid: quit your whining. If your team is as good as you say it is they will have no problem making it to the Frozen Four or to the title.
  - Jdorf40
    I agree with your statement to a degree. But if you tell me that being seeded lower doesn’t make a difference, you’re insane and not very bright either. BC and North Dakota are the two best teams in the country. It will be a shame if they both make the Frozen Four and meet in the semis.
    - enough already
      Seeding only matters so much. If you think the Pairwise is faulty at the top right now I could argue that in any given year it’s picks the wrong teams at #7 and #8 and that therefore the #1 and #2 teams are getting the wrong team in the second round. And that assumes that the committee doesn’t arbitrarily move seeds within a band for attendance or avoiding intraconference first round games.
      And if you are confident that UND and BC are the best teams then they would have to meet sooner or later. Would I rather it be in the title game? Sure. But it’s hardly a “shame”. What difference does it really make other than possibly making the title game slightly less dramatic – which by the way, is kind of disrespectful to whoever does win the other side of the bracket. God forbid if it actually is Yale (not that I think it will be). If it were Yale would you finally give them an ounce of respect? Would you say they don’t deserve to be in the title game? Also, you could try to make the argument that the winner of this hypothetical semifinal would be worn out before the title game. At least they get a day of rest. Cornell didn’t get a day off in the 2003 regional. If I recall Jayson Moy suggested afterward that all the committee had to do was break their “band” rule and swap the 12 and 13 seeds to get one of the WCHA teams out of the 4 seed group an thus give Cornell the 16 seed while still avoiding intraconference matchup. So I get your point but I have almost zero sympathy.
      Calling me insane and/or stupid doesn’t help your argument any either. Makes you look really, really biased simply because things aren’t going your way right now. Some of you guys love to attack “whining” by the other teams fans but are completely oblivious to when you are doing it yourself.
- bashful
  So, do you know how many of those 31 games against TUCs were played against teams that now have losing records? Twelve. How much does it say for North Dakota’s strength of schedule to tally its games against teams with losing records?
Plastikjeebus
I just did the Pairwise Predictor and had UND winning the WCHA Final Five and Yale losing to Cornell and Yale is Still #1!!! How is that possible????????
- guest1
  Troll.
  - Plastikjeebus
    What are you talking about ‘guest 1′ What does troll mean?
- Bobby_Orr
  Simple. Yale beat CC. UND split with CC. If UND sweeps BC, Yale is no longer #1. It boils down to the nearly complete lack of interplay between east and west and out-of-conference games. So, we are left with imperfect brackets that will eventually lead to 1 team that can win 4 games in a row to close out their season. We’ll call them the national champion.
  - HanSq
    Plastikjeebus knows all this. He/she asked the same question a dozen times yesterday and it was thoroughly explained.
    - Plastikjeebus
      But if Yale doesnt win their conference tourney and UND does and Yale is still #1 what is the point of conference play and tourneys?? Denver got hurt by sweeping, should they have the option of not playing!?! What if a team is #1 for the first 10 weeks then loses 6 games in a row, why wouldnt the team that originally beat them to start their slide get any credit for beating a #1 team?
    - B.D.
      Yeah, but is like seeing a bad guy pumpd with 16 high velocity rounds and still be able to get up. You can have someone explain that each of the rounds hit nothing vital, but you are still STUNNED that it occurred.
      Its like that.
Guest
WMU potentially getting a higher seed than CC is a joke. The Pairwise blows.
Guest
So, ECAC fans are all hot and bothered about something called Union, but they got beat this weekend by Crest, oops I mean Colgate. I’d be willing to bet that the Eden Prairie, MN high school team who just won the MN High School State tourney could beat Colgate and probably a few other teams in the weak ECAC. And, don’t come back to me with rips on the lowly MN Gophers, I’m not a fan.
- Plastikjeebus
  I agree! and I am not a gopher fan either but Basketball has it figured in for stronger conferences, why cant hockey?
- Dartmouth guy
  Care to guess what the record of the ECAC was against the WCHA this year? 8-8-4. That’s right, .500. I think it’s safe to say that Eden Prairie might have a tough time against Colgate.
  You all are just baffled why Yale is ranked so high. It’s not that complicated — they are good!
  - Stealthgecko
    #35th in SOS? Can hardly find a team they played that was any good. You cant even compare the teams until they play. When you have Yale playing unranked teams all season and UND consistantly playing ranked teams….. just would stand to figure they might have a little more credability.
    - Guest
      You cant even compare the teams until they play.
      So you would prefer to throw out the system thats been used for years just to favor your team or league?
- Guest
  I would love to see that ever happen. That was the stupidest comment i have ever seen. Be realistic, and if ya didnt know EP barely won that game ;)
  - Guest
    Fine, Duluth East would beat Colgate also.
http://twitter.com/topherbaron Topher Baron
Saw UNO play Duluth a couple weeks ago. They worked hard but were lucky to have even split with Duluth. They were outshot but managed to make their shots count due to UMD’s questionable goaltending. Either way, I would not want to UNO in the tournament. They’re going to be fired up after the disappointing series loss to Bemidji.
All that aside, everyone is high on CC, but I’m predicting them to lose to Alaska first round. And WMU, solid young team, and a couple goal scorers that can keep them with anybody in the coming weeks.
All in all, who cares what your team’s seed or draw is. If they’re the best, they need to prove it. It’s all relative, as some teams are going to seem to have and easier road. But it’s obvious that anybody can beat anybody on a given night, and that’s why we play the game
eaglehockeyfan
Yale sucks….the best team in the tourney is Boston College
Cdhtrout
MIami is the hottest and most dominate team over the 10-12 games. They are peaking at the right time.they put up 4 to 5 goal every night. Miami and UND should be the most feared teams in the field.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HVM5QWREKL5ZTSPY6HF2V2UPO4 Neil
WMU has the talent….this season they swept Union..Split with Notre Dame and had a 14 game undefeated streak..forget about Ohio, Alaska, and all the other ranked teams….hmmm..USCHO just doesn’t cover them like they do with all those East teams..also take into account that WMU beat Ferris…a tough team with an amazing goaltender Nagle, pretty sure he will be in the NHL someday..away from Yost.. Michigan seems to be less confident..loss at Minn, Ohio, Alaska and MSU…I hope to see that team at JLA..
bleedn green
I would just love to see BC and UND get it on in a three game series, and be done with it. And as a sioux fan, I could live with the results win or lose. It would be great hockey.
MCFan!
GO Merrimack!
Which every team wins this weekend at the Garden, will win it all this year!
Hockey East is STACKED just like every year haha!
bashful
The difficulty for other conferences to schedule WCHA teams is partly because the WCHA schedules allow for very few non-conference teams. I’m a UAA fan (and RPI alum) and UAA only played three non-WCHA teams this season – and one of those teams was traditional in-state rival UAF (Alaska). That left only two slots for non-WCHA teams (Union and Air Force this year). If the WCHA fans keep complaining that other conferences don’t play their teams, they should urge their teams to schedule non-conference games. This could be done by reducing the overall number of conference games to free up slots for non-conference games.
Secondly, for those WCHA fans crowing about North Dakota having played 31 games against TUC, step back and count how many of those TUCs have losing records. What does it really say about your team’s schedule strength that it played several teams with losing records? Saint Cloud, UAA, and Bemidji State all have losing records but are TUCs, but North Dakota fans somehow boast that their schedule against these teams is of some great significance.