Official 2006-2007 College Hockey Thread

[ajml]

UNH, not surprisingly, gets the #1 seed in Manchester but they have to go through BC, who has beaten them all 3 times they have played pretty easily (and of course Miami OH first). Hopefully that changes somehow.

[MicroBob]

Well, my analysis was way off.
Miami appears to have grabbed the last of the at-larges.

After they were swept at home in their opening round of the CCHA tourney I didn't think they had much of a chance.

They were having a really great season before they faded in the last month or so.
Thrilled they got in. Wow.

Miami was 15th in the pairwise computer rankings after those losses.
But a couple other teams fell behind them somehow. Namely Denver who finished 14th.

WCHA 4 seed Denver lost to 7 seed Wisconsin in the opening round of the WCHA tourney.

So Miami lucked-out a bit and had just enough points to make it in.
4 teams from the CCHA.

Really unusual for the WCHA to only get 3 teams in (MINN, NoDak, St. Cloud). They usually get 4 or 5 teams in.

WCHA has won the last 5 national championships afterall.
2006 - Wisconsin
2005 - Denver
2004 - Denver
2003 - Minnesota
2002 - Minnesota


Miami still hasn't won a game in the NCAA tournament.
Some close calls in there and some unlucky bounces.
Will certainly have their work cut out for them trying to bounce back from a long layoff during which they couldn't be sure if they would get to keep playing or not...and now having to play New Hampshire on their home-ice in Manchester.


If I remember correctly, UNH has the wider olympic-size ice-sheet. And the Miami kids don't get to see that a whole lot in the CCHA.

[MicroBob]

Semifinal # 1 - THURSDAY 04/05 4:00 PM Live ESPN2
Semifinal # 2 - THURSDAY 04/05 8:00 PM Live ESPN2
Hobey Baker Award FRIDAY 04/06 7:00 - 7:30 PM Live ESPNU
Pontiac Frozen Four Skills Challenge FRIDAY 04/06 8:30 - 10:00 PM Live ESPNU
National Championship - SATURDAY 04row= 7:00 PM Live ESPN

[JordanIB]

Cornell gets shipped West 2 years in a row, yet Clarkson (understandable, given the #1) and SLU(t) BOTH get to stay East this year?

[censored].

[MicroBob]

ESPN2 selection show guys were mentioning how really tough the Denver region appears to be.

Minnesota plays Air Force who they should be able to handle easily.
Michigan and North Dakota are the 2-3 game and a rematch of last year. And Minnie gets the winner of that won, right after NoDak knocked off the Gophers in the conference championship game.

In Grand Rapids, 1 seed Notre Dame gets the luxury of Ala-Huntsville in the opening round. UAH finished 11-18 or something but they won their conference tournament as the bottom seed (5th out of 5) beating 4 seed Wayne St, 1 seed Niagara, and 3 seed Robert Morris.

So UAH is in but they ain't no Holy Cross and won't pull off a huge upset as happened last yr (HC stunned Minnesota in the opening round).
Boston U vs. Michigan state in the 2-3 game. They'll beat up on each other somewhat and ND possibly coasts through UAH to await the winner.
Slight home-away-from-home advantage for Michigan State playing in Grand Rapids though. But Notre Dame is playing so well I think they get through.

Clarkson vs. UMass in 1-4 in Rochester. UMass got really hot to end the season with 6 straight wins before losing in the conference tourney in 2 OT's vs. New Hampshire which isn't exactly a loss to be embarassed about.
They also beat Maine freaking 4 games in a row.
Clarkson finished the yr 9-1-1 but not sure the ECAC wins are as significant as UMass's run in the Hockey East.

St. Cloud vs. Maine in the 2-3 game there.
Maine didn't end the season so hot.
St. Cloud didn't either going 2-4-1 in their last 7 games. they had a 7-2 loss vs. North Dakota in there and barely got past Min-Duluth in their best 3 series (3ot's in game 3).
Neither team peaking going into that game.


New Hampshire vs. Miami in New Hampshire will be really tough for a Miami team that just squeaked in.
BC vs. St Lawrence in the 2-3 game. BC is the hottest team in the country.
10-0 including Hockey East tourney title.
And some of those wins haven't even been close.
7-1 over Northeastern, 6-2 over Boston U, 5-2 over UNH.

BC has a very good chance to win the whole thing if they keep playing like that.

[JordanIB]

[ QUOTE ]
Clarkson finished the yr 9-1-1 but not sure the ECAC wins are as significant as UMass's run in the Hockey East

[/ QUOTE ]

Sigh...the old refrain. If I had a nickel for every time I heard this...!

First in 2003 when Cornell went to the Frozen Four. Heck, that year many pundits said how much trouble we would have in Round 1 vs. the fast-paced play of the WCHA's high-flying Mankato team.

Then in 2005 when Cornell had no shot playing out West against a Minnesota team playing on home ice...another 1 goal loss, this time in OT when we were basically controlling play the final 15-20 minutes of play.

Then again in 2006, when we again would not be able to handle one of the WCHA's best in Colorado College (beat them), and then would again have little chance against a #1 seed playing on home ice, and this time taking the eventual champion into triple overtime, for another 1 goal loss.

Yes, some of these are losses, and yes, from the middle of the pack to the bottom other conferences are likely stronger, but at least as the Big Red have shown in recent years, the top team or 2 in the conference can most certainly hang with anybody in the nation.

But then again, maybe it was just Cornell, because Hahvahd recent NCAA performance could be used to make the exact reverse argument [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[SL__72]

The Gophers beat NDSU in OT...?

[MicroBob]

Whoops. Got that backwards. Minnie won the WCHA title.

Also - they are not NDSU. just NoDak or UND I think.
There is a different school called North Dakota State.

[MicroBob]

Yeah, I know the ECAC is kind of sensitive about such statements and such statements have been around for a loooong time.

I feel like Cornell is, in general, an exception to that rule and believe they would perform well season-in and season-out if they were in the Hockey East.

With their awesome fan support as well as tradition of success it's obvious that they have been able to bring in the players necessary to make some quality teams.


But the ECAC just isn't as strong as the Hockey East top to bottom imo and part of that is due to the scholarship situation certainly.
Still debateable I guess because the bottom-feeders in Hockey East aren't exactly top-notch programs either.
but I'm pretty sure there's a reason why Vermont wanted to switch from the ECAC to the Hockey East (I don't know all the details behind that though).

A team like UMass beating Maine 4 straight and beating other hockey-east teams simply impressees me more than a Clarkson run against the likes of Brown, Yale, Union, Quinnipiac, etc so I'm just not as convinced SOLELY on their performance within their own league I guess.

Look, I've travelled with Miami up to a handful of those ECAC schools back in the day.
Dartmouth handed our ass to us.
Colgate humbled us at the Syracuse tourney.
We got swept at Clarkson one year I believe.

I really do have all kinds of respect for the ECAC.

And this Clarkson team does appear to potentially be for real based on their performance against the 'big 3' conferences.
2 wins and 1 loss vs. Lake Superior including a championship at the Badger Showdown tournament, beat Miami, beat Wisconsin and BG, beat Providence, tied UMass.
They did get clobbered at St. Cloud though.

Their wins weren't exactly against Minnesota, but Lake St is a decent team, Miami and UMass are both going to the tourney, and Wisconsin is still no slouch.

The bigger point is that, with the exception of their slip at St. Cloud, they came through their non-conference schedule against reasonable competition with flying colors.


I guess I over-stated the lack of importance of their late-season win-streak because there were quite a few bottom-feeder teams in there. Just how their schedule worked out.

But looking into them further it certainly wouldn't surprise me to see them make a run.

Especially with a reasonably favorable bracket imo.

St. Lawrence I'm not sure I'm as convinced can do similar though.
BC is SUPER hot. And after that there's the possibility of having to play UNH on their home-ice.

[ajml]

Microbob- You are correct UNH does have the olympic sized ice. However, their home ice is in Durham, NH not at the Verizon center in Manchester where the tournament is so the ice is the normal sized. I think the wide home ice hurts their ability to attract top tier defenseman but brings them small, fast forwards, as that has been their makeup since they opened their new arena.

They have a very solid this season but Miami has a chance, UNH wrapped up Hockey East a few weeks ago and since then have played very poorly. Also, half the team is sick with supposedly a bad stomach flu, (one of their top forwards missed both games last week) we'll see if everyone is better this weekend. Despite being a UNH season-ticket holder I think BC comes out of this bracket they have been playing unbelievably well this past month.

Side note- I dont care about either program but for their first NCAA berth UMass really got ripped off getting a 4 to Maine's 3 seed, they finished higher than them in the regular season standings and then swept them in the tournament (and beat them the last 4 times they played this year) WTF??