With the regular season about half over (already?), I thought I'd amuse myself
by taking a look at how the various Division I teams have performed in front of
the home folks.
So far, the happiest fans in college hockey should be those at Harvard,
Minnesota-Duluth, and St. Lawrence, because those three teams have won all
of their home games, going 8-0, 8-0, and 5-0 respectively. Two other teams
have also gone undefeated at their own rinks: Maine at 9-0-1 for a winning
percentage of 0.950 (in Division I games, 7-0-1, 0.938), and Miami at 5-0-1,
0.917.
Every team has won at least once at home, with Colgate becoming the last
team to finally enter the home win column back on December 11 with their
victory over Plattsburgh. Percentage-wise, Dartmouth and Notre Dame are
tied for the worst home record, as they are each at 1-4 for a percentage of
0.200. Colgate, however, has not yet beaten a Division I team at home (or
on the road, for that matter), and their record at home in Division I
competition is 0-3-2, which is also a 0.200 mark. (Army is also winless at
home against other Division I teams, going 0-2, but the Cadets are playing
very few Division I teams this year -- too few to be considered for the NC$$
tournament, regardless of their record)
The road records are a different story, which is to be expected since most
teams fare better in their own rink than on the road (but not all... see
below). Two teams have not lost a road game this season: Maine, of course,
as the Black Bears have gone 12-0, and Alaska-Fairbanks (4-0). However, all
four of the Nanooks' road games have been against non-Division I teams --
two at Mankato State and two at Alabama-Huntsville (although to be fair,
both of these teams were supposed to be in Division I this year). Thus,
Maine can lay undisputed claim to the title of best road team in the
country, and by a pretty good margin. The next best road record is the
6-2-1 mark (0.722) shared by Boston University and Michigan.
At the other end of the scale, Colorado College has gone 0-9 away from home
this year, and Union has gone 0-5. Two other teams are winless on the road:
Air Force at 0-8-1 (0.056), and RPI at 0-3-1 (0.125). Colgate is winless in
road games against Division I teams (0-5). Alaska-Anchorage has not played
a Division I team on the road yet.
While it is natural for a team to have better luck at home than in hostile
territory, some of them have gone a little overboard this year. The most
extreme example is the RPI Engineers, who boast a 0.833 winning percentage
(7-1-1) at home versus a 0.125 mark on the road -- a huge difference of
0.708 (the average margin so far is about 0.193). The top ten margins
between home record and road record:
Home Road
Team Record Record Difference
RPI 7-1-1 (0.833) 0-3-1 (0.125) 0.708 (1)
Vermont 5-1-1 (0.786) 1-6-1 (0.188) 0.598 (2)
Northern Michigan 4-1-2 (0.714) 2-10-1 (0.192) 0.522
St. Lawrence 5-0 (1.000) 4-4-1 (0.500) 0.500
Colorado College 4-4 (0.500) 0-9 (0.000) 0.500
Denver 8-2-1 (0.773) 2-5 (0.286) 0.487 (3)
Minnesota-Duluth 8-0 (1.000) 5-4-1 (0.550) 0.450
North Dakota 6-3-1 (0.650) 2-8 (0.200) 0.450
Air Force 3-3 (0.500) 0-8-1 (0.056) 0.444
Western Michigan 7-1-1 (0.833) 4-6 (0.400) 0.433
(1) RPI's home record includes a 1-1 mark as the host team in the RPI
Invitational
(2) Vermont's Division I home record is 4-1-1 (0.750), giving a margin of
0.562
(3) Denver's home record includes a 2-0 mark as the host team in the Denver
Cup
There are ten Division I teams that have bucked the trend and have played
better on the road than at home. This includes Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-
Fairbanks, neither of which has played a Division I team away from home. Of
the remaining eight teams, the one with the widest margin between winning
percentages on the road and at home is UMass-Lowell, which has gone 6-3
(0.667) on the road compared with 4-5 (0.444) on its home ice -- a margin of
0.233. Dartmouth is also worth mentioning here, since the Big Green's two
wins at the UNH Holiday Tournament boosted their road record to 2-3 (0.400),
which is 0.200 better than their home record of 1-4 (0.200). The other six
road-liking teams are St. Cloud, Notre Dame, Boston College, Maine, Minne-
sota, and Boston University, and none of them have a margin bigger than
0.071.
One other note regarding home records. Currently, the WCHA can boast of
something that the other three leagues cannot: all of their teams are
playing at or above the 0.500 level at home, including affiliate Alaska-
Anchorage. In WCHA league games, only Colorado College is below 0.500, and
they are under by only one game, at 3-4. Another possible reason why the
race in that league has been tight this season.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"February 2... The troubled airline industry announces that fares will hence-
forth be based on a complex formula involving the outcomes of collegiate
hockey games."
-- Dave Barry, "1992 in Review"
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