Just a friendly reminder not to get to excited about where your team stands in the Pairwise until the end of the night. As much fun as it is to watch your team jump four spots or if you scream in terror watching your team drop six spots, until that game out West is over with, you’re just freaking yourself out.

Big games today. Alaska-Anchorage tries to keep its NCAA hopes alive against Minnesota after pulling a Game 2 upset last night. SCSU attempts to advance to the Final Five against a stingy Minnesota-Duluth team.

Four teams are fighting for their NCAA tournament lives as Colorado College and Michigan Tech try to inch their way to the happy side of the bubble. The loser is done for the year, the winner still has hope.

In College Hockey America a team with a losing record will advance to the NCAA tournament as the string of upsets continue. Robert Morris (14-18-2) will take on Alabama-Huntsville (12-19-3) for the CHA’s Championship and the auto-bid that comes with it at 3:00 ET. The teams have split the season series 3-3. The game will be televised on CSTV. Keep in mind, no PWR ramifications here in terms of either team becoming a TUC.

It was the biggest game of the year, and with Niagara getting bounced by Alabama-Hunstville (and what a story that would be with the CHA’s future hanging in the balance) so much for Niagara and the TUC cliff.

Michigan State and St. Lawrence are happy recipients, but still need to keep winning. Niagara’s loss also shifted the PWR at the top too, sorting out the tie at the top, bumping North Dakota up and doing a few other wild things.

Game on!

Lots of outstanding hockey last night, including a bunch of upsets. If you haven’t taken a look at CHN’s Tourney Watch be sure to take a look and catch up what happened around the league.

As many of us are doing, we head straight over to the Pairwise to see what’s going on. Who is in, who is out.

Most of the hockey world has been basing their PWR on the assumption that there will be a PWR bonus of .003 added for quality road wins. Here’s where things is frighteningly scary.. a PWR bonus of .002 will leave drastically switch things up thanks to Niagara perilously leaving on the edge of the TUC Cliff, which could effect a lot of seedings and some NCAA berths. Lets how for controversy’s sake they choose a nice round number like 0.0025… that way everyone can scream when they find out Niagara would become a TUC at 0.0026…

If there was no bonus, and no upset champions:
Last two in: UMass, St. Lawrence
Last two out: Maine, Michigan Tech

If there was a .003 bonus, and no upset champions:
Last two in: UMass, Michigan State
Last two out: Michigan Tech, St. Lawrence
*Niagara now a TUC

If there was a .002 bonus, and no upset champions:
Last two in: Denver, UMass
Last two out: St. Lawrence, Michigan Tech
*Niagara no longer a TUC

So, despite the fact that the playoffs are gearing up, it’s been a quiet week for us here as we’re rabidly anticipating the games ahead, and I believe every outlet has already shown you ever possible projection possible. Because the PWR is an objective system, I find quiet joy in scoreboard watching, listening to webcasts, and reading forum score updates especially in the first two rounds. While most teams can get it done on the ice themselves, some are at the hands of games that in any other sport would be declared meaningless. Can you imagine how many people would actually watch a Cubs / Pirates game in September or a Flyers / Kings game in late April if it meant their team would make the playoffs? This is one of the oddities and the best things about College Hockey. As much as some people hate it, that Wayne State game is going to mean something, there’s a reason to watch and care.

After last night’s action in Hockey East, UNH righted the ship and blanked Providence, giving a sigh of relief to the fans at the Whitt. BC blanked Northeastern, and the big one, Vermont takes Game #1 from Boston University 3-2. Big time ramifications, as tonight’s game goes into must win for BU. A Terrier loss tonight, puts BU on the bubble, with a bunch of teams around them that have the potential to make noise in the playoffs and are just fractions off in the RPI. A couple of comparison flips, maybe an upset champion in one of the leagues, and some people are staying home.

Don’t forget the D-III tournament is underway with Middlebury and Bethel advancing to 2nd round games that will be played on Saturday. Middlebury, Manhattanville, St. Norbert and Oswego are all hosting quarterfinal matchups this weekend, and the NCAA Women’s Tournament gets under way as well!

CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
March 6th, 2007

Bumped: Vermont

Don’t forget, just because we’re working our way up to the D-I Men’s Tournament that there’s not a lot of great hockey going on elsewhere.

In Division III, the brackets are set, and the puck drops tomorrow for the Men as surprse SUNYAC champion Fredonia takes on defending national champion Middlebury, and Bethel faces Wisconsin-River Falls. Quarterfinal matchups open up on Saturday. Here the bracket plus you may want to check out Chris Lerch’s blog. He does an admirable job at keeping up with the D3 game, trying to take you through their Pool A, B’s and c’s, NCAA rankings and all of that good stuff. The finals are at Wessman Arena in Wisconsin.

The women are set to go as well in both Division I and Division III. The Division I bracket contains one of the most powerhouse lineups I’ve ever seen, including the 33-1-4 defending champions Wisconsin and 32-1-3 Mercyhurst. The record of the teams in the tournament: 216-42-25. The Frozen Four takes place in Lake Placid, one of the best hockey tournament towns in the country if not the world. Division III has seven teams, including an undefeated Plattsburgh State team who will host the championships, and will wait for the first-round to clear up before knowing their opponents. RIT is in as well leading to a hugely successful season for both the Men’s and Women’s teams.

Lots of good hockey to go around, with broadband viewing available at many of the venues. Get out the door and do it up!

Looks like we’ve got quite a photo pool starting to build up in the College Ice Hockey Fans group over on Flickr. Some excellent shots out there. If you have some photos to contribute or are looking for some good photos of your favorite team, check it out.