d1w d1women

Well, aside from incorrectly picking the Clarkson series, and incorrectly picking the St. Lawrence-Dartmouth, OSU-Minnesota-Duluth, and North Dakota-Bemidji series to go three games (though I did get the winners right), I did pretty well in picking the first week of playoff action. I even got the scores right in both Minnesota-St. Cloud games. I went … Read more

The first tournament volley Teams compete all season attempting to gain home ice for the postseason, and in the quarterfinal rounds in three conferences, that advantage proved decisive in 80 percent of the matchups. The only teams to buck the trend were found in ECAC Hockey. St. Lawrence, one of the country’s hottest teams over … Read more

Young girls who play hockey dream of competing in college, and maybe if they’re good enough, taking part in the Olympics some day. But before those dreams start to take shape for girls growing up in Minnesota, they dream of playing in the State High School Hockey Tournament. Perhaps they’ve had a relative or friend … Read more

Well, I ended up winning the regular season picks race over Arlan by one game, thanks to Princeton beating RPI. It didn’t matter that I got the split dates wrong for Minnesota against North Dakota. Both Arlan and I went 15-3-2 (.761) in the final weekend of regular season action. On the regular season, I … Read more

Bring on the postseason! Here is how the four leagues shape up next weekend. CHA Mercyhurst earned the laurels in the CHA with a win and a draw versus Robert Morris over the weekend. That pushes Mercyhurst’s mark to a perfect 10 regular-season titles in the CHA in 10 seasons of the conference. The Lakers … Read more

Well, thanks to my correctly predicting the Providence sweep, I was able to hold off Arlan, who correctly predicted an RPI upset of Dartmouth. Last week, both Arlan and I went 16-2-1 (.868), which moved me to 173-61-22 on the season (.718) and Arlan to 172-62-22 (.714). I think we both did pretty darn well; … Read more

Get the engravers ready After much anticipation, we’ve reached the point of the season where hardware will be handed out with increasing regularity. Northeastern secured its first Beanpot title since 1998. This year, overtime was kind to the Huskies, as they advanced past Boston College via a shootout in the semifinals, and then outlasted Boston … Read more

Thanks to Northeastern’s come-from-behind OT win over Boston University in the Beanpot final, I managed to stay one game ahead of Arlan, who gained ground on me thanks to my getting the splits wrong on Ohio State-Minnesota-Duluth and incorrectly picking Bemidji State to get a split with North Dakota. I went 14-7-1 (.659) to drop … Read more

We may be experiencing some turbulence If at any point you don’t like the prospective composition of the NCAA at-large field, then wait five minutes, because it will probably change. Thanks to the volatile nature of the PairWise Rankings, teams are bouncing around like an unfrozen puck. Boston University’s rebound in particular started a ripple … Read more

We had kind of a rough week last weekend, but Arlan gained ground by successfully picking Boston University to beat Harvard. I went 10-6 (.625) to move to 143-52-20 (.711) on the year, while Arlan went 11-5 (.687) to move to 141-54-20 (.702) .Can I hold him off? After discussing some of the final spots … Read more

Another record falls in Madison On January 29, 2011, Wisconsin set an NCAA attendance record for a women’s game with a crowd of 10,668. Saturday night, the Badgers bested their own mark, as 12,402 fans turned out to watch their team edge Bemidji State, 1-0, in the program’s third annual Fill the Bowl promotion. It … Read more

Aside from a few puzzling results, Arlan and I both did pretty well last weekend, each going 14-3-3 (.775). The puzzlers were Boston University crushing Boston College, and Robert Morris beating Mercyhurst (See this week’s Wednesday Women column). On the season, I am 133-46-20 (.718), while Arlan is right behind at 130-49-20 (.703). Some interesting … Read more

Sixty minutes not enough at the top of the rankings Ten games went to overtime over the past week. Of the top 12 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index, the Teams Under Consideration, nine played a contest that stretched beyond regulation. Wisconsin, the team at the top of the PairWise Rankings, needed an extra minute … Read more

Well, after a real off week, Arlan and I were back in form last weekend. While I correctly called an Ohio State-Bemidji split, I got the days wrong again. However, I did get the days right on the Minnesota-Duluth vs. Minnesota series, so yay me. Last week, I went 12-4-2 (.722) to improve to 119-43-17 … Read more

Weekly countdown Did you ever want to be a disc jockey? It always seemed like a pretty sweet gig to me, sit around and play music, something I usually do for free anyway. Once a week you do a song countdown, where you relate an interesting anecdote about the song or artist. I can do … Read more

With all the upsets last weekend, both Arlan and I struggled big-time. I think it might have been the worst weekend ever for me picking games, as we both went 7-6-4 (.529). That moves my record on the year to 107-39-15 (.711), while Arlan is right behind me at 105-41-15 (.698). We’re pretty much going … Read more

In every season, there is a week or two where everything seems to play out opposite of what one would expect. The first full week of action in 2012 was such a time. Of the USCHO top 10, eight teams were in action against opponents ranked below them. Six of those resulted in ties or … Read more

Most teams get back into action over the coming week, but a quartet got an early start by closing out 2011 with Friday and Saturday games. The WCHA’s fifth and sixth place teams, Ohio State and Bemidji State respectively, wrapped up the nonconference portion of their schedules with differing results. Both were missing players due … Read more