CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
March 6th, 2007

Bumped: Vermont

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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!

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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.

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To all you fans of teams in the 8-13 places in the Pairwise, don’t get too comfortable.. Just because a couple of losses might not bump you below 14th, doesn’t mean a conference tournament champion won’t come from below that spot. An upset here or there and they might be taking the top twelve!

Man the Pairwise is fun.

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CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
February 26th, 2007  

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I jumped into the comments of a recent post on Western College Hockey taking some to task for not wanting to help teams like Bemidji State for the wrong reasons. Good to see Chris and The Rink Rat on the same side as well.

Bottom line for me is, worrying about conference strength especially in terms of PWR and KRACH when making scheduling decisions or who should be in is a recipe for disaster in college hockey. This is currently forced upon teams and creates a huge gap of the haves and have-nots. Sooner or later, someone will have to step up and begin to bring all of NCAA Hockey into balance, or will risk having the same sort of situation as college football, where to give any “second tier” team a chance, they’ll need a special provision. I think there’s an opportunity to fix this somewhere and raise the level of hockey across the board.

It’s time to band behind the schools that want to stay in college hockey, and those who want to join the ranks and bring up the game as a whole. I only wish there were more schools that wanted to pour time, money and effort into being successful college squads.

Speaking of the PWR. Lots of interesting things to look at. Who would’ve thought RIT was going to play such a role this season. The Tigers are tip-toeing the 25 spot on the RPI despite, and despite being ineligible for the post-season, these last few games could flip some comparisons for teams above them. RIT is also hunting for its first banner at the Division I level as they try to capture the Atlantic Hockey regular season title. All eyes are also on the Western Michigan / LSSU series. Western sits in 24th in the RPI and LSSU is in 27th. The cliff could make a big difference this year.

Teams 12 through 20 on the PWR. It’s do or die time. It’s already the playoffs for these teams, a loss this weekend makes every game in the playoffs a must win. The Vermont / BU and Wisconsin / Michigan Tech series are looking pretty threatening for all involved. BU can take a couple of bullets, but the other three it’s go time. This group includes St. Lawrence who with a win will seal the ECACHL conference championship. Regardless of that accomplishment, they still need help in the playoffs to get that bid.

While everyone is looking at the bubble, there’s a phenomenal matchup at the top of the heap with Minnesota and St. Cloud going at it. SCSU is coming off a rough 1-2-2 stretch, but is still in the hunt for that #1 seed. If they can take three points from the Gophers, they’ll be well on their way. A huge test for both teams just a couple of weeks before the playoffs.

Both North Dakota and Denver want to come away with no less than a split this weekend. Both are middle of the PWR pack, and a sweep would definitely put extra pressure on the loser heading into the end of the season.

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CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
February 21st, 2007  

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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.

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CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
February 5th, 2007

Bumped: Niagara

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