Since Jeff asked for a new thread, here it is: http://www.uscollegehockey.com/ East -- #1 Cornell vs. #4 MN State, #2 BC vs. #3 Ohio State Northeast -- #1 UNH vs. #4 St. Cloud, #2 BU vs. #3 Harvard Midwest -- #1 CC vs. #4 Wayne State, #2 Maine vs. #3 Michigan West -- #1 Minnesota vs. #4 Mercyherst, #2 Ferris St vs. #3 UND The big questions to me are: -- Can CC (or Maine) beat Michigan in Ann Arbor? -- Should UNH and BU be in the same bracket? -- Did the selectors do Minnesota any favors by putting both North Dakota and Ferris in their bracket? Really, Cornell looks to have the easiest trip to the Frozen Four. But with that said, as a BC alum I'd have to say that I'm thrilled with this. To stay in Providence is a huge advantage, especially considering that the other possibilities were to play in Michigan or face UNH again in Worcester.
What I don't buy is how Cornell, ranked #1, draws the fourteenth seed in the tournament. But this looks to be a great tournament, with possibly better ratings and attendence than last year. What can I say? I'm pulling for the only Catholic school in the bracket, Boston College.
Cornell is #1 in the country according to the pairwise rankings, while BC is #8 and Ohio State is #9. That's where they gave Cornell the advantage. Yes they could have given Cornell Mercyherst or Wayne State, but there might have been some other issue there -- maybe they played those teams in the regular season, or some other issue. I don't know.
There's something very amusing about having my wife's alma mater, Wayne State, make it into the tourney while MSU does not. For those of you who've never heard of Wayne State, it's actually a pretty major university in downtown Detroit, (enroll. 30K +) in a brutal part of town, and they finished the season tied for third in their league, making it into the tourney by winning the conference tournament. They recently renamed themselves from the Tartars to the Warriors, because, well, not many of the student body look like they're of Scottish descent... They'll be cannon fodder for Colorado College, no doubt, but good for them.
CC or Maine should be able to beat Michigan, although playing at Yost seems to give the Wolv's a certain advantage, esp in the NCAAs. BU is the host for the Northeast Bracket, so to avoid UNH and BU being in the same bracket, UNH would have gone to Yost and CC would have been sent out east. Not really an option since CC was the #2 team in the PRI. I'm not sure why Cornell couldnt have been put into the Northeast. I'm sure Ferris could give Minnesota a run for their money. I have, sadly, almost given up on the Sioux, but maybe (hopefully) Dean can light a fire under them this weekend.
Northern Michigan was robbed! I was actually impressed that USCollegeHockey.com did such a good job of predicting the brackets (and, more impressively, explaining exactly why).
I read on USCHO.com something that reinforces my belief thay every effort is made to avoid teams in the same conference meeting in the opening round. To accomplish this, MSU-Mankato as a 4 seed could not go to Minneapolis (Minn.) or Ann Arbor (CC). Hence they get moved east to play Cornell, though I would have had them play UNH and St. Cloud play Cornell. Mankato can be very tough. If they get goaltending and don't have big game jitters like they did in the first game at CC, they are very capable of pulling the upset.
I'm glad where we are. Unfortuunately, we'll fail to sell out the venue... I prefer us entering this tourney with some thing to prove, makes them hungrier. Seems more our style.
Are any of the games going to be televised? Most importantly, to me, the CC games, on any cable channel?
Fox Sports Detroit will carry the CC game. If you've got Directv and the Sports Package, you can get lots of games Fri / Sat on the various regionals: http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?threadid=24457 Traditionally, these games are not subject to blackout rules.
It sounds like a lot of the 1st round games may not be televised, although it does sound like a lot of the 2 round games will be. In New England, NESN is carrying all 4 2nd round games, but as of a couple hours ago, BU-Harvard (Friday 4pm) was the only 1st round being aired in Boston. I am hoping the UNH game Friday is televised. Otherwise, I will have to figure out how to persuade my wife to move our regular Friday night dinner out to the Centrum.
The UM games, at least, should be webcast at: http://www.mgoblue.com/section_display.cfm?section_id=190&top=2&level=2
Sweet, I do have that package (for FSW, of course). Thanks for the info..... EDIT: Is it just me, or does the college hockey board (which was linked above) have the most current messages on the first page? In other words, if you want to see the original message in the thread, you have to go to the last page and the last message? What kind of bizarre backass backwards system is that?
Yep, it kinda sucks. That and the lack of oversight that (for example) turns a UNH-St. Cloud pregame thread into a flame war between Minnesota and BC fans are why I've never bothered to actually register over there. In other news, the UNH-St. Cloud game will be broadcast on NH Public Television (Channel 11 on most New England cable systems). Apparently, the broadcast of 1st round games is strictly a local decision (i.e., anyone can bid for the right to carry the NCAA Productions feed), so if you're near one of the schools in the tournament, contact local TV stations that carry their games or other local sports.
I really have to question the inclusion of Mercyhurst, Wayne State, and St. Cloud. UMD, among others, deserves to be there instead of one of those, IMO. Other than those three, though, it looks like a pretty good field. I can't see anyone beating the Gophs at Mariucci.
Mercyhurst and Wayne State won their college tournaments. Niagara upset someone (UNH?) a few years ago coming out so it's not completely out of the question that a huge upset can happen. I see CC stampeding over Wayne State though. Adam, you game for seeing CC-Minny Round 6 in the Semis? I am. BTW, there was speculation in the Denver Papers, well what little college hockey they cover, that Duluth was out and St. Cloud would be in before the pairings were even announced. Duluth's pairwise ranking was too low, like 22nd. Anyone else think Mankato could pull the shocker of the tourney?
I know, I know...but there are high school teams here that could win those leagues. Works for me. If all goes as planned, I'll be in Buffalo cheering them on. That's understandable, but they had such a great season, and it just seems like they deserve some sort of reward. I felt their play in the Final Five should've counted for something... Anyway, here's to some WCHA success in the regionals.
The bottem line on UMD and St. Cloud is that UMD had an easy schedule in the WCHA this year, and their non-conference schedule was quite unimpressive, while SCSU had the 2nd toughest schedule in the country, behind only BU. As long as the WCHA has an unbalanced conference schedule, things like this are bound to happen. Yes (sigh!) that was UNH, the year after they lost in OT to Maine in the final. If this happens, how pissed will the Cornell fans be that they didn't get Wayne State or Mercyhurst? Cornell has the top seed in the entire tournament (and #1 ranking), yet they play what looks to be the toughest of the #4 seeds. As was pointed out in an article on USCHO (http://www.uscho.com/news/2003/03/24_006604.php), if the committee had been willing to flip a strong 4 and the weakest 3 seed (St. Cloud and Ohio State, respectively), Cornell would have gotten Mercyhurst, and BC and UNH would have played teams of similar strength to the ones they play now.
Could it have been that since Cornell is from the so-called "EZAC" the committe wasnt as concerned that they get to play the #16 seed?
Not likely, Cornell finished #1 in both the Pairwise rankings and the RPI, so it was cut and dried that they were going to be the top seed. The issue was that the last 2 at large teams (Mankato and St. Cloud) are both WCHA, as are the 2 #1s in the West and Midwest Regionals. The selection committe for hockey has a very firm rule against teams from the same conference playing in the 1st round. They also have a rule that 1st round games should be 1-16, 2-15, 3-14 and so on as determined by the Pairwise rankings, but that is more a suggestion than a rule. If last weekend's game hadn't gone exactly as they did, the WCHA wouldn't have 2 #1 seeds; they probably wouldn't have the 2 at large #4s either, and Cornell probably would have still finished as one of the top 2 #1s, which would have given them the cupcake game they wanted.
Day 1 results: BU 6, Harvard 4 Ferris St. 5, UND 2 Minnesota 9, Mercyherst 2 UNH 5, St. Cloud State 2 Day 2 games: BU vs. UNH - Northeast final Minnesota vs. Ferris - West final Cornell vs. MN State - East semi BC vs. Ohio State - East semi Michigan vs. Maine - Midwest semi Colorado College vs. Wayne St. - Midwest semi
For those of you in the Boston area, the BC-Ohio State game will be on Channel 38. I watched both Northeast games. The scores give much of the story. In the 1st game, Fields, as he often does, seemed to get stronger as the game went on. St. Cloud looked like a decent team, but they just took too many penalties. Before anyone takes the Minnesota-Mercyherst score as proof that the MAAC and CHA champs don't deserve automatic spots, keep in mind that less than 10 years ago, another Lakers team (Lake Superior State) won the title game by a 9-2 score.
And the Empire Sports Network, channel 626 on Directv. They seem to be the only network showing both that game and the Cornell / MN St game today. Lots of Fox Sports Nets are showing the Midwest Regional.
We've just moved into our new house so I've been off line for a while. The final four will be UNH, BC, Minnesota and Michigan. UNH will beat Minnesota in the final. BU-Harvard was a hell of a game. Dominick Moore will shine in the NHL. Saviano and Collins were brilliant for New Hampshire. I was going to head to Provie today for BC-Ohio State but those days are now over...at least for a bit.