I'll start with the question.  I know it gets asked every year, for all
conferences, but I couldn't find the answer on USCHO, so I thought I'd ask
here:  what are the tiebreaking procedures for seeding the WCHA teams in the
post-season tournament?  It looks like they'll need it, with things as
bunched up as they are.
 
About the WCHA:  mail it in:  the Sioux win the McNaughton Cup.  I know, I
know, "they play the games for a reason"; "on any given day, any team can
beat any other team"; ya-da-ya-da-ya-da.  North Dakota has the easiest
schedule remaining and their main competition (CC) has the 4th toughest.  The
"remote" competition (Minn and Wisc) have the 6th and 2nd toughest schedules,
respectively.  Unless the boys from North Dakota self-destruct, the Cup is
theirs.
 
The rest, however, is *really* interesting.  Given the playoff format,
finishing 2nd or 3rd in the league is basically the same, as are finishing
4th and 5th.  The top 5 get home ice for the first round (yeah, I know about
last year, but none of the teams will VOLUNTER to go on the road!), then
there is the 5th-4th playoff game for the right to take on the #1 remaining
seed, which means at best 3 games in 3 days vs the winner of the #2/#3 game
which will have played one less game.
 
I see the battle for 3rd/4th being a catfight between CC, UM, and UW, with
the probably finish being CC in 2nd, UM in 3rd, and UW in 4th.  The battle
for last home playoff spot (#5/#6) should come down to DU and SCSU, with
maybe UMD in the mix.  Sorry Pioneer fans, but I see SCSU's easier schedule
(second easiest in the league) helping them overtake Denver (who has the
hardest schedule) for 5th.
 
I've seen a few posts showing how 4 WCHA teams would make the NC$$
round-of-12 if the season ended now, but there is too much in-fighting yet to
be played.  Of the top teams, only North Dakota has an easy ride:  CC must
play UM, @UW, and h-h with DU; UM plays @CC and home vs UW and UMD; UW is
@SCSU and UM, and home vs CC and DU; and poor DU is @UMD, @UW, h-h vs CC, and
hosts NoDak.  There is a lot of carnage yet to occur, and it could
collectively lower the WCHA team's RPIs enough to bump at least one, if not
two out.
 
The league has also shaped out to be a 1-6-3 league:  NoDak on top, 6 good
teams, and three teams having off-seasons.  So the first round playoff with
#7 @ #4 could be another opportunity to limit the WCHA to at most 3 NCAA
teams.
 
I mentioned at week 2 that there seemed to be a lot of parity in the WCHA
this year, and that's holding true.  Other than NoDak, UAA and the schools
from the UP, there is little difference between the teams, and a hot goalie
(can you say "Jaime Ram?") or one or two players having a couple of off weeks
(currently happening at Minn) or suspended weeks (Wisc) could be the
difference between ice-dancing in March or ref-ing broom-ball tournaments.
 
Any thoughts?
 
Steve G
 
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