Glen Keeney writes:
>I'm not sure very much should be made of raw percentage wins of one
>conference vs another, especially without taking into account which
>teams represented which conference.  If the bottom teams of conference A
>play the top teams of conference B, B will probably look pretty good.
>
>Maybe someone would like to list the team pairings between ECAC and HE
>for this year?
 
    First, here are the 42 HE-ECAC games that were played this year:
 
10/26/90 Colgate             6 at Lowell              4 NC
         Providence          4 at St Lawrence         2 NC
         New Hampshire       5 at Vermont             4 NC
10/27/90 Colgate             4 at Northeastern        2 NC
         Boston University   9 at RPI                 7 NC
         Providence          7 at Vermont             3 NC
11/2/90  Vermont             1 at Boston College      5 NC
         Northeastern        5 at Clarkson            9 NC
         Lowell              3 at St Lawrence         6 NC
11/3/90  Colgate             9 at Boston University   6 NC
         Lowell              4 at Clarkson            9 NC
         RPI                 5 at Providence          6 NC 3ot US Air Tournament
 Championship
         Northeastern        2 at St Lawrence         9 NC
11/20/90 Providence          7 at Brown               1 NC
         Boston University   4 at Harvard             0 NC
11/23/90 Harvard             1 at Boston College      2 NC
         New Hampshire       2 at Clarkson            4 NC
11/24/90 Northeastern        3 at Cornell             8 NC
         Boston University   7 at Princeton           2 NC
         New Hampshire       4 at St Lawrence         2 NC
11/25/90 Boston College      4 at RPI                 5 NC
12/7/90  RPI                 3 at New Hampshire       4 NC
12/21/90 Brown               5 at Maine               7 NC    Dexter Shoe
 Classic (Orono, ME)
12/22/90 Clarkson            4 at Maine               8 NC    Dexter Shoe
 Classic Championship
12/23/90 Dartmouth           3 vs Merrimack           6 NC    Nissan/Jeep
 Classic Consolation
12/28/90 Colgate             3 vs Lowell              4 NC 4ot Syracuse
 Invitational (Syracuse, NY)
12/29/90 New Hampshire       6 vs Dartmouth           3 NC    Sheraton/USAir
 Classic (Burlington, VT)
         Northeastern        3 at Vermont             4 NC    Sheraton/USAir
 Classic (Burlington, VT)
12/30/90 Northeastern        4 vs Dartmouth           6 NC    Sheraton/USAir
 Classic Consolation
         New Hampshire       7 at Vermont             6 NC    Sheraton/USAir
 Classic Championship
1/11/91  St Lawrence         0 at Boston College      5 NC
         Clarkson            5 at Boston University   3 NC
1/12/91  Clarkson            5 at Boston College      8 NC
         St Lawrence         3 at Boston University   5 NC
         RPI                 4 at Lowell              3 NC ot
1/19/91  Dartmouth           1 at Lowell              7 NC
1/22/91  Boston College      8 at Dartmouth           2 NC
         Yale                3 at New Hampshire       5 NC
1/29/91  Boston College      5 at Cornell             4 NC
         Lowell              7 at Yale                2 NC
2/4/91   Harvard             2 vs Boston University   8 NC    Beanpot (Boston,
 MA)
2/11/91  Northeastern        5 vs Harvard             0 NC    Beanpot
 Consolation
 
    I broke down the results into 4 categories: HE top 5 v. ECAC top 5,
    ECAC top 5 v. HE bottom 3, HE top 5 v. ECAC bottom 7, and ECAC bottom 7
    v. HE bottom 3.  I decided to include BC, BU, Maine, Providence, and UNH
    as the HE's top teams; the remaining three were considered HE bottom teams.
    For the ECAC, I included Clarkson, Cornell, SLU, Harvard, and RPI as top
    teams, and the remaining seven were bottom teams.  Results:
 
                                      W-L-T
    HE top 5 v. ECAC top 5           13-3-0  .813
    HE top 5 v. ECAC bottom 7        10-1-0  .909
    HE bottom 3 v. ECAC top 5         1-6-0  .143
    HE bottom 3 v. ECAC bottom 7      4-4-0  .500
 
    HE top 5 v. ECAC                 23-4-0  .852
    HE bottom 3 v. ECAC               5-10-0 .333
    ECAC top 5 v. HE                  9-14-0 .391
    ECAC bottom 7 v. HE               5-14-0 .263
 
    Also, don't forget that five of eight, or 62.5% of HE teams are
    included as "top" teams, while the ECAC has five of 12 or 41.7%. This
    was done because PC and UNH tied for 4th in HE, and Harvard and RPI
    tied for 4th in the ECAC. If we decide to go strictly with each
    league's top 50% teams, with UNH going to the bottom half since they
    lost the tiebreaker and finished 5th, the results are:
 
                                        W-L-T
    HE top half v. ECAC top half       13-2-0  .867
    HE top half v. ECAC bottom half     4-1-0  .800
    HE bottom half v. ECAC top half     5-8-0  .385
    HE bottom half v. ECAC bottom half  6-3-0  .667
 
    HE top half v. ECAC                17-3-0  .850
    HE bottom half v. ECAC             11-11-0 .500
    ECAC top half v. HE                10-18-0 .357
    ECAC bottom half v. HE              4-10-0 .286
 
    HE's top half beat up on the ECAC, both good and bad teams, and the
    bottom half held its own at .500.  In contrast, both the top and bottom
    half of the ECAC were under .400.  I was a little surprised at this,
    because Clarkson has done well this year.  Subtracting their record (4-2),
    the top half of the ECAC is just 6-16-0 (.273).  This supports what
    Bill Fenwick said about the league being especially weak this year.
 
    Note that a large percentage of the games (15 of 42, or 36%) were played
    between the top half teams in each conference.  And, the bottom half of HE
    played 22 games against the ECAC, as opposed to 20 for the top half.  But
    28 of the 42 games (67%) involved the top half of the ECAC.  The numbers
    would appear to support what I have said about Hockey East being a stronger
    conference top-to-bottom than the ECAC.
 
 
    - mike