> My memory fails (second thing to go!), and I do not have a media guide for
> the years past, but - didn't PC win here last fall?
 
Last year Maine swept PC 6-1 and 3-2 at home and 7-4 at PC. The year before
that, we beat PC here 6-3 and swept the series with 6-2 and 7-2 wins there.
The year before that we swept 6-3 and 4-1 here and beat PC 5-4 there.  I'll
let the really gung ho take it from there! :-)
 
> When was the last time Maine won the Hockey East Tournament?  Who are the
> possible/ probable opponents if we do end up going to beautiful MN?  I
> haven't looked at the possible western pairings.  Other than travel and the
> bye, would this neccessarily be a bad thing?  Maybe Magic Wayne could come up
> with some ideas of who might play whom?  He amazes me with his numbers!
 
With a lead in like that, how can I resist?  ;-)
 
As you know, we lost to BC each of the past two seasons, 3-2; last year was
in the semifinals and the year before in the HEA finals.  In '97 we were,
er, missing from the HEA tournament.  In '96, we were again in the finals
and, again, in a 3-2 game, lost to PC.  In '95, we were the #1 seed and
lost to PC in the semi-finals, 7-3, coming back to win the consolation
game.  (I'm probably the only person in the world to *like* consolation
games!).
 
    As an aside, '95 was quite a year, as we faced BU in the NCAA
    Championship game, physically and mentally exhausted after 3 overtimes
    of magic with Michigan.  My then 4-year-old son attended the whole
    thing and he and mother were just as exhausted!  Further aside, one of
    our all-time favorite's on that team was Chris Imes.  Chris is still
    playing hockey (in Europe) and expects to get married this spring!
 
In the '94 HEA Tournament we, after some discussion, were seeded #8 and
lost in the quarterfinals to BU. In '93, I hope everyone remembers the best
Maine team ever: Kariya, Montgomery, Ingraham, Snow, Imes, and lots of
others. Monty was the HEA Tournament MVP that year, as we took the
Lamoriello Cup with a 5-2 win over BU.  That was 2 in a row, as Scott
Pellerin and crew beat UNH 4-1 in '92.  (Bonus memory for Cathy :-)).
 
As to the NCAA picture; can you wait until a week from Sunday evening? ;-)
 
It's way to early to look at NCAA seedings and whether Maine will go to
Pepsi Arena in Albany or Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.
 
We can say fairly confidently that Maine will get a bid to the NCAAs.
Maine assured that by getting exactly 3 points last week, IMHO. (3 points
last week means that PC is assured to be an NCAA "team under consideration"
with at least a .500 record ... and a team that loses its comparison with
Maine, no matter what happens this weekend).
 
IMHO, Maine doesn't necessarily have to win the HEA tournament to get an
NCAA bye, but may have to play in the Championship game to have a chance
for one.
 
Briefly ...   yea, right ...
 
The only auto-byes are for those teams that win both their conference
regular season and tournament, excluding MAAC and CHA. A bye also is the
only guarantee of staying in your region.
 
The top ranked team(s) from each region, after auto-byes, get the (2) byes.
Without a bye, you play a preliminary game in the NCAA regional, for the
right to play a rested bye team.
 
Backtracking ... this year 12 teams will be invited to the NCAAs.  HEA,
ECAC, CCHA and WCHA regular season and tournament champions get automatic
bids. After that, the remaining 4-8 bids come from a (known, more-or-less
published) calculation of all "teams under consideration".  This
calculation matches in effect  the "PWR" published at
 
      http://uscollegehockey.com/
 
Seedings are more complicated, as they take into effect many other
considerations.  For example, host teams stay in their region.  Teams that
will draw many fans will tend to stay in their region.  1st round matchups
of teams in the same conference are avoided, and where possible, 2nd-round
matchups within a conference are avoided.  Depending on the number of
East/West teams, an East team may be "moved West".  There are other
considerations I'll not list here.  Finally, initial seedings in each
region will have their 5th and 6th place seeds transferred to the other
regional (this to avoid conference matchups and give best overall Frozen
Four).  If this was a Worcester regional one might be fairly confident that
an expected large Maine fan turnout would keep Maine in the East regional,
but I don't think that's true of a regional in Albany.
 
Go Maine!
 
Hope this helps, wayne
 
 
Wayne Smith -- [log in to unmask] -- Old Town Landing, ME