College Hockey Update:  Last weekend’s conference tournaments presented a few top twenty matchups, and one has to ask, “what the heck happened to Minnesota-Duluth?” They were admittedly only ranked one spot above Denver, and had to play at Denver.  Nonetheless, after a close, come-from-behind Denver win Friday night I didn’t see a sweep coming, especially a shut-down by UMD resulting in a shut out.  But that’s the way it went, with UMD out of the NCHC tournament; Denver rose up two spots in the poll to #5, and UMD dropped two spots to #8. Nebraska-Omaha was also swept by visiting and previously unranked St. Cloud State, dropping UNO a couple of spots to #10, and placing St. Cloud in the top twenty at #18.  After winning Friday night, Boston College lost two in a row to Vermont, including the Eagles getting shut out in the last game.  BC dropped a couple of spots to #11, and Vermont edged up to #16.  And add to this Yale hosting Harvard; Yale lost by a goal on Friday night, won on Saturday night, but then lost by a goal again on Sunday.  Yale dropped like a rock, down seven spots to #19, and Harvard edged up to #17.

Meanwhile, North Dakota swept Colorado College and remained at #1; Mankato State swept Lake Superior State and remained at #2; Boston University swept Merrimack and remained at #3; and Michigan Tech swept Alabama-Huntsville and remained at #4.  Miami of Ohio beat Western Michigan on Friday, lost Saturday, then shut Western Michigan out on Sunday, and Miami dropped a peg to #6.  Quinnipiac did the same with their opponent, Union College, except the shut out part, and Quinnipiac jumped up four spots to #7.  Bowling Green swept Northern Michigan and also jumped up four spots, to #9.  UMass-Lowell did the won-friday-lost-saturday-won-sunday thing against Notre Dame, recording a big shutout win along the way on Friday night, and moved up two spots to #12.

Minnesota, not in tournament play, swept Penn State on the weekend and moved up two spots to #13.  Providence lost a close one Friday night to New Hampshire, then won a close one Saturday night, but it was New Hampshire winning a close Sunday game that advanced them in their tournament and sent Providence home to wonder “what next?” as Providence dropped four spots to #14,  Colgate swept Dartmouth and edged up to #15, and Robert Morris swept Niagara, and held at #20.

Last weekend Colgate had big help from junior forward Tylor Spink, of Williamstown, ONT., who scored a goal in Friday night’s 3-1 win, and had two assists in Saturday night’s 3-2 win, as Colgate swept Dartmouth and advanced to the ECAC semifinals, where they will play #22 St. Lawrence.  Tylor Spink is tied for first on the team in goals, with 14, and is first in assists with 17. The 5′ 11″ 185lb. forward has a twin brother, Tyson, who is tied for fifth in goals, with 7, and is tied for fourth in assists, with 13.  Colgate finds itself at 21-11-4, and is ranked #15.

So who will make the NCAA tournament?  The system used by the NCAA is not the poll.  There is a system that very accurately has projected the NCAA system, called the pairwise rankings. Right now the top five teams in the poll are the same five teams in the pairwise rankings although not in the exact same order. Then the teams ranked 6th to 19th in the poll are the same as the pairwise 6-19, but about four of the teams are in very different spots in the pairwise than in the poll.  It seems pretty safe to say the top ten ranked teams are just about a lock to be in the NCAA tournament.  Teams ranked from 11 to 22 all have a chance to make the NCAA tournament, and in general, the higher ranked in the poll the better the chance of making the NCAA tournament, with a few exceptions to this general rule.  Lower ranked teams winning a conference championship can really, really change things here.  For each lower ranked team that wins a conference championship and goes to the NCAA tournament, a team that would have gone, and “should have gone” to the NCAAs will get bounced out.  Right off the bat, Atlantic Hockey will send a team that will knock out whoever is #16.  Add to that the little six, who will send someone, and right now they only have one team that looks like they should go.  This could be another “wild card” in the mix.  And it could happen in any one of the other four conferences as well.  We’ll know a lot more after this very pivotal weekend of conference semifinal and championship games.

So here are the matches for the conference tournaments.  Five of the six conferences will play a semifinal game on Friday night with the winners advancing to the championship on Saturday.  The little six will have its bottom four teams play Thursday night to determine the two teams that will play in the semifinals Friday night against its two top teams, and then their championship on Saturday.  So . . . .

Thursday, little six play:

Ohio State vs. Penn State (game started about a half hour ago); and Wisconsin vs. Michigan. Winners pair up Friday against #13 Minnesota, and Michigan State.

Friday Tournaments:

Atlantic Hockey:  RIT vs. Canisius; Mercyhurst vs. #20 Robert Morris.

ECAC:  #17 Harvard vs. #7 Quinnipiac; #15 Colgate vs. #22 St. Lawrence.

Hockey East:  #23 New Hampshire vs. #3 Boston University; #16 Vermont vs. #12 UMass-Lowell.

NCHC:  #5 Denver vs. #6 Miami of Ohio; #18 St. Cloud State vs. #1 North Dakota.

WCHA:  Ferris State vs. #2 Mankato State; #9 Bowling Green vs. #4 Michigan Tech.

Here’s what will happen next for us readers:  I will send out the NCAA tournament bracket on Monday night.  Please make you picks and send to me right away, following the directions on how to send me your picks (in a single typewritten line), by the deadline, which will be on Thursday.

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results:

[table id=110 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom