Once again, it's time to announce this year's Pick the Post-season
Tournaments contest! Try out your prognosticating skills by predicting
the game results and champions of each of the six Division I conference
tournaments!
This year's contest will be in two parts. The ECAC, Hockey East, WCHA,
Atlantic Hockey, and Big Ten regular seasons have ended, while the NCHC will
continue through this weekend. So this part of the contest will deal only
with the ECAC, Hockey East, WCHA, Atlantic Hockey, and the Big Ten. After
next weekend, I'll send out a separate mailing for the NCHC.
As in the past, I'll be running two contests in one. The first will give
higher weighting to the latter stages of the tournaments, and the second
will give equal weight to all results (see under Scoring below). There
will be contest #1 and #2 winners for each of the six tournaments, plus #1
and #2 overall Prognosticating Gods.
Just to preserve their immortality, last year's winners were:
Contest #1 Contest #2
ECAC: William Sangrey William Sangrey
Hockey East: Charlie Shub Charlie Shub
WCHA: Jim Dixon Jim Dixon
NCHC: Scott Kaplan Tony Buffa
Atlantic Hockey: Mark Lewin Mark Lewin
Big Ten: Jim Dixon Jim Dixon
Overall: Scott Kaplan Mark Lewin
The first playoff games are on Thursday, March 1st at 7:00 PM EST, so the
deadline for this part of the contest will be Thursday, March 1st at 6:00 PM
EST.
The tournament formats are as follows:
ECAC:
All twelve teams make the playoffs. The top four seeds receive a bye into
the quarterfinals, while the remaining eight meet in the first round in a
best-of-three series. Seeds 5 through 8 host the first-round games. All
games are played "to conclusion".
The four first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
The top four seeds host the quarterfinal round, which is a best-of-three
series. The lowest-remaining seed plays at #1, the second-lowest at #2,
and so on.
The four quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two
seeds meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game. There is no
consolation game.
Hockey East:
All eleven teams make the playoffs. The top five seeds receive a bye into
the quarterfinals, while the remaining six meet in the first round in a
best-of-three series. Seeds 6 through 8 host the first-round games. All
games are played "to conclusion".
The three first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
The top four seeds host the quarterfinal round, which is a best-of-three
series. Among the first-round winners, the lowest-remaining seed plays at
#1, the second-lowest at #2, and so on. The #5 seed plays at #4.
The four quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two
seeds meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game. There is no
consolation game.
WCHA:
The top eight teams meet in the quarterfinals, with the top four seeds
hosting a best-of-three series. All games are played "to conclusion".
The four winners advance and are reseeded.
The semifinal round is also a best-of-three series, in which the highest
seed hosts the lowest seed, while the second-highest seed hosts the
third seed.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher
seed hosts. There is no consolation game.
Atlantic Hockey:
All eleven teams make the playoffs. The top five seeds receive a bye into
the quarterfinals, while the remaining six meet in the first round in a
best-of-three series. Seeds 6 through 8 host the first-round games. All
games are played "to conclusion".
The three first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
The top four seeds host the quarterfinal round, which is a best-of-three
series. Among the first-round winners, the lowest-remaining seed plays at
#1, the second-lowest at #2, and so on. The #5 seed plays at #4.
The four quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two
seeds meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game. There is no
consolation game.
Big Ten:
All seven teams make the playoffs. The top seed receives a bye into the
semifinals, while the remaining six meet in the quarterfinal round in a
best-of-three series. Seeds 2 through 4 host the quarterfinals. All
games are played "to conclusion".
The three quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
In the semifinal round, the #1 seed hosts the lowest seed in one semifinal
game, while the next-highest seed hosts the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher
seed hosts. There is no consolation game.
NCHC (starts next week):
All eight teams make the playoffs. The top four seeds host the quarter-
finals, which are a best-of-three series. All games are played "to
conclusion".
The four winners advance and are reseeded.
The highest and lowest seed meet in one semifinal, while the other two
seeds meet in the other semifinal.
The semifinal losers meet in the consolation game.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
Scoring:
Contest #1:
Each correct first round/quarterfinal winner is worth 3 points. Giving the
correct number of games in the series is worth an additional point. Sorry,
but if you get the winner wrong, you get zippo, even if you get the number
of games right.
Correct semifinal game winners are worth 8 points, except for the WCHA,
which has a best-of-three semifinal series. Similar to the quarterfinal
scoring above, predicting the semifinal winner is worth 7 points, and
giving the correct number of games in the series is worth an additional
point.
Correct consolation game winners are worth 4 points. (NCHC only) Note
that it is possible for a consolation game to end in a tie. In this case,
if you picked either of the tied teams to be the consolation-game winner,
you will get 2 points.
Correct championship game winners are worth 16 points.
So the maximum total points for each league would be:
ECAC 64
Hockey East 60
WCHA 48
Atlantic Hockey 60
Big Ten 44
NCHC 52
There will also be two tiebreakers for each conference. The first will be
the predicted final score of the championship game, with the closest score
winning. For example, if you predict 5-2 and the actual score is 4-2,
you're one off; if the actual score is 4-3, you're two off.
The second tiebreaker will be the total number of goals scored in the
entire tournament.
If there is a tie for the overall winner, the tiebreaker will be who
performed best in the greater number of individual tournaments.
Contest #2:
Each correct result from each round is worth 2 points. So you get 2 points
for each quarterfinal/first round winner you pick (regardless of whether or
not you forecast the correct number of games), 2 points for each semifinal
winner you pick, and so on.
If a consolation game ends in a tie, anyone who picked either of the tied
teams to be the consolation-game winner will receive 1 point.
The maximum total points for each league would be:
ECAC 22
Hockey East 20
WCHA 14
Atlantic Hockey 20
Big Ten 12
NCHC 16
Tiebreakers will be the same as for Contest #1.
An official entry form will follow as soon as I post this. Questions,
comments, and entries can be sent to [log in to unmask] . Simply
hitting "reply" MAY NOT WORK -- be sure to check the Email address before
you send.
Thanks and good luck!
Bill Fenwick
[log in to unmask]
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