Paul Gentile:
 
>If the season was over ... the ECAC and WCHA would be sending 4 teams each to the
>tourney. (Barring any playoff surprises.)
 
        I feel guilty about starting this kind of conversation so
early in the season, but as long as we're into it...
 
>Tourney seedings (including John Whelan's observations).
 
>   West                         East
>1 Michigan      CCHA         1 N. Hampshire HockeyEast
>2 Minnesota     WCHA         2 Vermont      ECAC
>3 N. Dakota     WCHA         3 Clarkson     ECAC
>4 Mich. State   CCHA         4 Colorado     WCHA
>5 Cornell       ECAC         5 St. Cloud    WCHA
>6 Princeton     ECAC         6 Boston Univ. HockeyEast
 
>Pretty interesting! B.U. vs Clarkson again??? I wouldn't mind seeing Colorado in
>Worcestor, but playing St. Cloud???
 
        The selection committee has in the past gone to great lengths
to avoid intra-conference matchups, so I'd say that if the final
rankings ended up this way, they would almost certainly switch
Clarkson and CC, to avoid the SCSU-CC all-WCHA first-round game.
(This would also avert a possible Clarkson-Vermont matchup in the
second round.)  Likewise, they would probably also switch NoDak and
MSU to avoid Michigan-MSU or NoDak-Minnesota in the second round.
(They did a lot of this last year.)  Given that, it might also make
sense to switch Cornell and Princeton, which would make the brackets:
 
Princeton/Cornell (ECAC)                   Boston University (HE)
North Dakota (WCHA)                        Colorado College (WCHA)
             Michigan (CCHA)     Vermont (ECAC)
 
             Minnesota (WCHA)    New Hampshire (HE)
Michigan State (CCHA)                      Clarkson (ECAC)
Cornell/Princeton (ECAC)                   St. Cloud State (WCHA)
 
        But really, any speculation at this point is very premature.
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
1997 Frozen Four: Sec 438, Row U, Seat 11
LET'S GO RED!
 
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