Hi -

  Who says HOCKEY-L is dead !?!?  I post a question at 11:21 and up pops
the answer at 11:58 - way cool !! :-)

On Tue, 20 Feb 2001 [log in to unmask] wrote:
>> As I recall, the higher ranked CCHA team (A) was meeting its lower
>> seeded rival (B) in a best 2 of 3 quarterfinal series.
>
> Team A was Michigan, Team B was Bowling Green.  It was March 12 & 13,
> 1999. Bowling Green was 17-16-3.

  Gaack - this happened only *2* years ago !!  I may be getting old, but
I thought I could forestall senility for at least another decade .... Next
thing you know I won't even remember what street I live on.  Sigh ....

  Alton, thanks so much for your quick/complete reply - this is everything
I need to highlight this little quirk in the PWR system ....

>> As the series began, Team B was only marginally a TUC (Team Under
>> Consideration) at 1 game over 0.500, but the host Team A had already
>> beaten Team B in all 4 of its regular season meetings.
>
> All three:
> 10/30/98  Michigan, 5-2
> 12/ 5/98  Michigan, 5-2
>  1/21/99  Michigan, 5-4
>
>> So, my question to the List is this: did this actually happen as I
>> remember it ??  What were the teams/dates ??  Or was this analysis only
>> discussed AFTER the games played out, i.e., some astute stats guru
>> noticed post-facto that Team A's 2-1 series win was actually a whole
>> lot better than had it won 2-0.
>
> I do remember this being discussed before the series in question. I be-
> lieve this was even mentioned to Red Berenson before the series on his
> radio show, and he made it clear that he would not consider losing a
> game on purpose.

  Good for him !!  I always believed Berenson to be a splashy, er I mean
CLASSY guy (even though library walls everywhere tremble in fear when he
walks by :-) and I can't imagine he would ever countenance losing a game
on purpose.  I see he recently coached his 700th game for Michigan - quite
an accomplishment for a guy reluctantly coaxed back to his alma mater to
rescue the program from mediocrity, yet here he is with head held high lo
these many years on ....

> I think you do misremember the ultimate fact, though:  Michigan did sweep
> the series (3-2 and 9-3), and hurt its PWR only marginally.  Michigan was
> a bubble team going into the CCHA championship, but won the tournament to
> get an automatic bid.

  That's certainly the best way to silence the critics who say you don't
belong, a belief disproved in spades in Worcester when UNH needed overtime
to finally eliminate the Wolverines 2-1 ....

  Cheers and thanks again - Jim