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 six Division I conference tournaments!

This year's contest will be in three parts.  The ECACH, Hockey East, and
Atlantic Hockey regular seasons have ended, while the WCHA and NCHC will
continue through this weekend, and the Big Ten will continue for the next
two weeks.  (Aah, you Westerners... always late :-)  So this part of the
contest will deal only with the ECACH, Hockey East, and Atlantic Hockey.
After next weekend, I'll send out a separate mailing for the WCHA and NCHC,
with the third part to follow for the Big Ten in two weeks.

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
ECACH:             William Sangrey        Wayne Smith
Hockey East:       Scott Kaplan           Scott Kaplan
CCHA:              Bill Fenwick           Bill Fenwick
WCHA:              Sean Keller            Sean Keller
Atlantic Hockey:   CHODR                  CHODR
Overall:           Sean Keller            Sean Keller, CHODR, and Bill
                                          Fenwick

The first playoff games are on Friday, March 7th at 7:00 PM EST, so the
deadline for this part of the contest will be Friday, March 7th at 6:00 PM
EST.

The tournament formats are as follows:

ECACH:

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
single-game elimination.  Seeds 6 through 8 host the first-round game.
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.


Atlantic Hockey:

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.


WCHA (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.


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.

Big Ten (starts in two weeks):

All six teams make the playoffs.  The top two seeds receive a bye into the
semifinals, while the remaining four meet in play-in games, with the #3 seed
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 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.  Since the Hockey East first round is a single game, rather
than a series, there is no bonus point there.  The Big Ten has no
quarterfinal/first round; their tournament starts with the play-in games.

Correct play-in game winners are worth 4 points.  (Big Ten only)

Correct semifinal game winners are worth 8 points.

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:

ECACH            64
Hockey East      60
WCHA             48
NCHC             52
Atlantic Hockey  64
Big Ten          40

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            22
Hockey East      18
WCHA             14
NCHC             16
Atlantic Hockey  22
Big Ten          10

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
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