Good morning -

I hope this answers Jim's questions.

>  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.

>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 believe
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.
It was also mentioned in the Ann Arbor News and the Michigan Daily.

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 in to the CCHA championship, but won the tournament to
get an automatic bid.

Alton