Doug Peterson writes:
 
>I had noticed how tired the team that played the first night looks the second
>night versus the bye teams
 
Actually I didn't see evidence of that at the Knick.  Clarkson actually played
better as the game went on, and LSSU was relentless right to the end, but I'm
not going to quibble (actually I guess I have.)
 
>It's one thing to give them a physical advantage, if that's indeed what has be
been going on.
 
OK, this is a good issue for discussion.  On the surface it looks self-evident--
since all four bye teams won on Saturday night there must be an unfair physical
advantage rewarded to the bye teams by not playing on Friday night.  This is
not an easy hypothesis to validate however.
 
In my memory, there is only one game in recent years where the Friday night team
visibly tired in the Saturday game, UML vs. Minneosota in 1994.  As I recall
Lowell pressed the attack well into the third against the rested Gophers, but
ran out of gas in the overtime as Minnesota got the winning goal as a result of
the exhaustion of the Chief players.
 
Also, one team in recent history has gone from the Friday night game to the
national championship--LSSU, again in 1994.
 
Looking at this year's Saturday and Sunday afternoon games, the widest margin
of victory was Minnesota's two goal difference against the River Hawks.  Vermont
won it's game on a goal within the last two minutes, Clarkson nearly clawed back
into a tie with BU in the last two, and Michigan scored the winning goal in the
last three.  (correction: Colorado's two goal differential)
 
Playing two nights in a row is something that every D-1 school does the entire
season.  While a sweep of both nights is a comparatively rare event, even when
two games are played in the same arena, it might see that the random nature of
hockey might be the cause rather than the fatigue factor.  Perhaps evidence of
who wins the Saturday night match-up more frequently, the home team or the
visitor, might support the exhaustion theory.  But I suspect the Saturday night
victor is most frequently the one that lost on the previous night.
 
Finally, examing all four bye teams, it can hardly be argued that there winning
Saturday night was an unexpected event.  Vermont would be the only team whose
victory might be termed an upset, if you assume the PWR rating of each team
provides a method to forecast the expected result for the Saturday night games.
 
The unexpected can happen in the games involving the bye teams: remember the
Saturday Night Massacre in 1992?  Without more evidence linking that physical
play of the teams in the Regional finals to the games' outcomes, it remains
difficult to prove that the Friday night teams suffer an unfair disadvantage
against the bye teams.  I agree however it should be examined.
*********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                     RPI Engineers--An Underachieving Team
[log in to unmask]        Go Cats Go!
 
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