Announcing 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 five Division I conference tournaments!
This year's contest will be in two parts. The ECAC, CCHA, and Atlantic
Hockey regular seasons have ended, while the other two leagues will
continue through this weekend. So this part of the contest will deal only
with the ECAC, CCHA, and Atlantic Hockey. After next weekend, I'll send
out a separate mailing for Hockey East and the WCHA.
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 Superheroes.
Just to preserve their immortality, last year's winners were:
Contest #1 Contest #2
ECAC: Mark Lewin Mark Lewin
Hockey East: Tony Buffa Tony Buffa
CCHA: Scott Kaplan Scott Kaplan
WCHA: Nathan Hampton Nathan Hampton
Atlantic Hockey: Wayne Smith Wayne Smith
CHA: Bill Fenwick Bill Fenwick
Overall: Tony Buffa Nick Markham
The first playoff games are on Friday, March 4th at 7:00 PM EST, so the
deadline for this part of the contest will be Friday, March 4th 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 losers meet in the consolation game.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
CCHA:
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 losers meet in the consolation game.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game.
Atlantic Hockey:
All twelve teams make the playoffs. Seeding for the first round is based
on Atlantic Hockey's East and West scheduling regions, with the top two
seeds in each region receiving byes into the quarterfinals. The four
lowest seeds in each region meet in the first round, with #3 hosting #6 and
#4 hosting #5. They play a single game "to conclusion".
The winners advance to the quarterfinal round, and all remaining teams are
reseeded based on where they placed in the standings (regardless of
scheduling region). In the quarterfinal round, the lowest-remaining seed
plays at #1 and the second-lowest plays at #2, with #3 hosting #6 and #4
hosting #5. This round is a best-of-three series.
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 (starts next week):
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 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 (starts next week):
All twelve teams make the playoffs. In the first round, the top six seeds
host a best-of-three series. All games are played "to conclusion".
The six winners advance and are reseeded.
The four lowest seeds meet in Finals Qualifier games, with #3 playing #6
and #4 playing #5. The winners advance to the semifinals to play the two
higher seeds. The championship round is bracketed, meaning the #3-#6
winner will play the #2 seed in the semifinals and the #4-#5 winner will
play #1.
The semifinal winners meet in the championship game. There is no
consolation game.
Scoring:
Contest #1:
Each correct quarterfinal/first-round 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. Since the Atlantic Hockey first round is a single-game
format, there are no bonus points there.
Correct play-in game winners are worth 4 points. (WCHA only)
Correct semifinal game winners are worth 8 points.
Correct consolation game winners are worth 4 points. (ECAC and CCHA 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:
ECACH 68
Hockey East 48
CCHA 64
WCHA 64
Atlantic Hockey 60
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:
ECACH 24
Hockey East 14
CCHA 22
WCHA 22
Atlantic Hockey 22
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 DJF 5/27/94
Cornell '86 and '95 JCF 12/2/97
LET'S GO RED!!
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