We’ve been oddly silent lately. Perhaps it’s the numerous beerfests in the Northeast. Maybe a hundred inches of snow in Upstate NY, or the two inch sheet of ice I removed from my car this morning. Yet, despite all of this wintery goodness, all of us in hockey land know that this is the calm before the storm.

For those keeping a close eye on the various indicators that lead to the NCAA tournament, none seem more volatile this year than the esteemed Pairwise Rankings, and with nearly every game flipping rankings below sixth place, I firmly believe that we’re going to have some spectacular controversies that will either lead to a move to the KRACH, or yet another “tweaking” of the PWR that will “fix” the problems from the previous year, but probably open up a new array of issues for the following season.

With just two weeks to go in the regular season, the NCAA field is WIDE open. While the top four teams in the PWR can be pretty confident that they’re in the tourney when it’s all set and done, none of them are assured of a #1 seed yet. Ties every weekend for the last month aren’t helping anyone stand out either. Once we get outside of this group, things get even more wild. You find a group of “second tier” PWR teams hitting their stride, and regardless of how many wins they rifle off you don’t see them going to a #1 seed. Teams like Clarkson, Boston University and North Dakota are looking particularly dangerous right now.

Then things get REALLY interesting because PWR spots 12-18 are filled with teams separated by only four comparisons. We’ve got a 20 game winner already in Miami, in this group and a 12 game winner in Cornell. We’ve got a team with a losing record in the 13-14-5 Michigan Tech Huskies. Traditional power Boston College is sitting on the bubble tied for 14th with their new Hockey East breathren Vermont, although this evening’s victory over Maine certainly helps their cause. On the outside looking in? 13-15-2 Wisconsin?! And lets not even get me going on the insanity that will occur if Wisconsin takes 3 or 4 points from St. Cloud this weekend.

If a .500 team (or near .500) makes the tournament on an at-large bid, the world will just implode. Second, it’s not often powerhouse teams like Boston College or Wisconsin are on the short-end of the tournament selection process. Their fans will not be happy. With all of the juggling near the bubble, Niagara still has a chance to be an at-large.

It’s time to do some PWR watching, and it’s time for fans all over the country to start biting their nails. Very few teams are safe as we head into the post-season tournament. Just some random thoughts on the good ole PWR.

Adam has done a spectacular job in covering the hullabaloo  involving UAA and their Coach Dave Shiyak. It appears to be a tough situation for everyone involved. The big issue is that because Shiyak is a Canadian citizen and must apply for permanent residency,  “the university has to prove there are no American candidates willing, able and qualified for his job.”
So the question in my mind is this: Is making sure Anchorage doesn’t erupt into a riot of epic proportions a qualification? If so it looks like Shiyak is the only one that can do this. Otherwise, it looks like everyone is going to be in a difficult and unhappy position.

Ask anyone to explain to you what’s going on in the NCAA this weekend, and they’ll probably say “they can’t explain it.” Are these wins upsets? Is this parity? Bad games? A bad season? Who the heck knows.

Tonight we saw Minnesota fall to a North Dakota team that is desperately hanging on to their NCAA tournament hopes. How bizarre is it that I reference a Sioux team and post-season desperation in the same sentence? A quick glance at the PWR by the way, and it looks like North Dakota was suddenly shot.. up to #7 in the rankings. Insane!

On top of that you’ve got Minnesota who was on a ridiculous unbeaten streak, suddenly 3-3-0 in their last six, and each of those victories have been one goal squeakers against Minnesota State, Wisconsin and Denver… by the way Denver is the only one who would make the NCAA field right now.

We also saw Hockey East get flipped around again this evening. The historical, momentous Vermont Catamounts skated to a 1-1 tie with Merrimack. That was the least surprising twist of the evening. A streaking BU team was halted in its tracks by BC giving up five goals to the Eagles at Agganis. But if we really want to talk about upsets, Northeastern came out of the booth and just wailed on Maine dropping a six spot on them to win 6-1 AT Alfond.

In actuality, things in the rest of college hockey went down pretty much as expected, but weekend after weekend we continue to see insane twists. Something in my gut tells me that this year’s NCAA Tournament is going to be one of the greatest of all time…. In the meantime, lets keep an eye on the Denver / St. Cloud foray going on right now. It wouldn’t surprise me if both teams busted out double-digit scoring this evening.. that’s the way things work this year.

I’m sorry to rain on everyone’s parade, but I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid that the rest of the college hockey media is serving up after Vermont’s sweep of Boston College this weekend.

College Hockey News called it “signature.” which is the description I disagree with the least. USCHO called defined it using the words “upset,” “momentous,” and “historical.” Inside College Hockey wrote something on a cocktail napkin. Regardless, the hooplah in my mind is fairly ridiculous.

Vermont took down a traditional Hockey East power yes. But the 12-9-1 Boston College Eagles, are not the same Eagles from last year. Their play has been erratic. Big wins and big losses.

Upset?! This upset is like an #9 seed beating a #8 seed this year.
Momentous?! You mean like winning 27 games in a season?

This is a team that lost to Michigan Tech, at home, twice, and has been swept by UNH with a ten goal differential in three games.  Vermont is a team trying to establish itself among the Big Four of Hockey East, but the reality is until the Cats win the league title, they will still be playing second fiddle.

Sorry Bemidji and Niagara. My bad. After all the hype and suggesting at-large berth for all, Bemidji was swept by Michigan Tech, and Niagara was swept by Denver. Both teams are on thin ice now with only a few non-conference games left. They’ll both need to consider running the tables to have any hope of getting in outside of the being the CHA champ, as they’ll both play fairly weak schedules after this weekend. Expect both the Quinnipiac/Niagara series and the Bemidji/North Dakota to take on a playoff like feel as all of these teams are currently on the PWR bubble.

Same goes for Minnesota and St. Cloud. who both had unbeaten streaks snapped. Wisconsin continued to claw their way back by defeating the Gophers 2-1, but fell the following night 1-0. St. Cloud fell to Minnesota State 6-4, and then in a bizarre twist, skating to a 0-0 tie.

More RIT please! After Sacred Heart took out Cornell, we all thought they were the team to run away with Atlantic Hockey. Wrong. The sophomore Tigers come out and sweep Sacred Heart 4-0, 6-3 to take sole possession of the conference WITH game in hand. Of their remaining twelve games only two are against teams above .500. The Atlantic is theirs to take, and if it happens, expect the whole “ineligible for the NCAA tournament” threads to appear on hockey forums across the country.

Quinnipiac is sitting pretty on stop of the Ecac but Clarkson and St. Lawrence are both lurking with FIVE games in hand. Clarkson missed a prime opportunity to pick up some ground as Cornell and Colgate both took a point off of them, while St. Lawrence pulled a sweep. The Saints are winning when it counts.

The Battle for Ohio continues with Miami and Ohio State meeting in a big series as Ohio State continues to win and make up ground in the CCHA. Miami looks to get back to the consistent winning play they had before the holiday break and not let Notre Dame put any more space between them.

Congrats to Boston University for being the CHN Team of the Week. They had a huge weekend in a sweep over Maine. John Curry stopped 70 shots on the weekend, coming up big for BU.

We don’t mention Women’s Hockey much around here even though we should. Mercyhurst and Wisconsin have been simply dominant. And if you’re into the some traditional rivalries, the Clarkson and RPI programs will face each other, with RPI making significant strides in their second season. In addition, very competitive programs at Boston college and Boston University will be facing each other in yet another Commonwealth Ave. battle. If you haven’t had a chance to catch the Women’s game, this weekend might be a good time to take a look.

How about Northeastern and Harvard? A win over BC and a tie with BU for Northeastern, the CHN Team of the Week. Meanwhile the Crimson quietly put together a 4-1-0 record in their last five heading into finals. Is the Boston University Invitational Tournament suddenly wide open in February?

Bemidji and Niagara continue to win. Bemidji now in 8th, Niagara in 16th. Don’t look now, but Sacred Heart with a gaudy 13-4-4 record is a TUC and slowly climbing as well.

Bad luck for my Golden Knights last weekend. In an exhibition an errant high-stick lead to a DQ for Nick Dodge who was named the CSTV/Hockey Commissioners Association “Player of the Month” for December. Clarkson was playing McGill in an exhibition when Dodge’s stick caught the face of a player. McGill players are not required to wear cages. Dodge is out against Colgate.

I asked Brett is Minnesota could be the OSU of college hockey today. He asked me: “Isn’t OSU the OSU of college hockey?” Touche. Speaking of OSU, they’re 4-0-1 in their last five with two more against Miami coming up. Left for dead after a brutal stretch where they went 1-6-2 against the likes of LSSU and Minnesota, they’ve picked up the pace.

Are the Gophers beatable? 22 in a row unbeaten is what we fans in the East like to call “impressive.”

Speaking of hockey in the East. How can you not be interested in Syracuse joining college hockey. Then we can have more forum threads across the country about a potential Big Ten / Big East rivalry. Louisville Hockey Rules!

Congrats to Robert Morris for beating a strong Notre Dame team. A huge win for a young program. A quick glance as the schedule shows victories over Niagara, Bemidji and Notre Dame, all potential NCAA tournament teams. Dare I say it, with a little more consistency you could be looking at a tournament team sooner rather than later.

How about Denver and Colorado College? After what appear to be a slow start, they’re fighting at the top of the WCHA with Minnesota and St. Cloud. The Gophers better not get too comfortable, SCSU is only six points behind with plenty of season left. If you told me Wisconsin and North Dakota would be tied for 5th with losing records at this point in the season I would’ve certainly waved you away.

Earlier today Adam unleashed his fury upon the shootout after Team USA’s loss to Canada in the World Junior Championships, which ended earlier today by North Dakota’s Jonathan Toews. (Singlehandedly might I add thanks to the IIHF’s ridiculous “you can shoot all you want” rule, but that’s a different rant.)

I’m in the camp that shootouts should never EVER be used to determine the champion of any tournament, that even means you World Cup. There is nothing more exciting than sudden death overtime and that’s the way it is. Unfortunately you’re not going get that green lighted by any sport that plays a grueling sport such as hockey in the regular season.

While I tend to agree with Adam usually, I’m on the opposite side of the red line on this one. I think shootouts are great for regular season hockey. Nothing burns me more through the 82 games of the NHL season and the 35+ games of college hockey than sitting through 65 minutes in a tie. It is simply unsatisfying. The question is there a middle ground? Do we start with 4 on 4? Then go 3 on 3? Do we go NHL style and give a point for the tie, but an extra point for the shootout win? After each shot does the goalie have to remove an article of padding? I don’t care how you do it, there’s gotta be a winner.

And one more thing, if you think ties are great, tell me after you see little Timmy after a 1-1 tie. He’s not exactly jumping up and down telling Grandpa about how the Gophers pulled out a 1-1 tie, don’t let anyone fool you. Timmy would rather see Phil Kessel roof one on the seventh shot and go home a winner. Purists will pick on me but hey I got two points not one. Bottom line. Ties suck. People like winners.

It’s the beginning of the year, we’re half way through the season and we all started staring intently at the PWR (and KRACH) last weekend. Last weekend marked the last real “full-fledged” non-conference weekend with a lot of significant interconference matchups in holiday tournaments.

Two teams that everyone will need to keep an eye on for the rest of the season are Bemidji State and Niagara. The Beavers currently rank 14th in the PWR, and currently have series against North Dakota and Michigan Tech upcoming. Games that could not only break the hearts of Sioux and Huskies’ fans, but also teams below the Beavers in the PWR.

How so? Bemidji sits in second in the CHA behind Niagara. If the Purple Eagles can take the conference tournament, and Bemidji plays well the rest of the season someone else from the Big Four may be sitting out. Niagara doesn’t have to face Bemidji again this season after winning one and tying the Beavers in the other three. The Purple Eagles do have a couple of big series coming up themselves facing Denver and Quinnipiac, it’s too tough to tell now if they could move up in the comparisons for an at-large if they won the vast majority of their games, but lets not rule it out.

We’re done eating turkey and ham, unwrapping gifts, and watching meaningless bowl games. It’s back to hockey and the CHN Staff has nailed down a pretty solid preview of this year’s holiday tournaments.

If I had to choose which one to go with, I’d actually have to get into a little Paper / Rock / Scissors action with the Florida College Classic (UNH, Cornell, Maine, and Western Michigan), the Ledyard Bank Tournament (North Dakota, Dartmouth, Boston University and St. Lawrence) and the Great Lakes Invitiational (Michigan State, Harvard, Michigan, and Michigan Tech). All have their own appeal, and a victory in these tournaments will likely send the winner off and running for the rest of the season, something that is sorely needed especially in the case of the Ledyard Tourney participants who are really looking for that spark and consistently to lock down a strong NCAA bid.

There’s also the mandatory nod to the Seawolves and Nanooks going at it again this weekend in Anchorage. Chippy will likely be the word to use other than balmy as it’s a comfy 20 in Anchorage as opposed to the -40’s they were seeing to the north just a week ago.

You’ll be also able to catch quite a few of these games on that amazing “television” that many people received for the holidays this year. This is the time of year where coverage really starts ramping up across the country now that football season is essentially over. Be sure to enjoy it!

It took most of the season, but the PUCK Rankings finally had enough of North Dakota’s play and booted them from the charts. In a pretty slow week of hockey Denver makes the biggest leap from #11 to #8, putting them right next to Colorado College. For two teams that looked pretty slow out of the gate, fans in Colorado must be pretty happy, not only to see successful squads, but some more meaningful rivary games in the future. Lots of streaking or very hot teams in the rankings right now. It will be interesting to see how teams come out of the gate after two and even three week layoffs… refreshed? or rusty?

CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
December 18th, 2006

Bumped:North Dakota