YAY!

Hockey-L is alive!!!

And for those of you coming to St. Paul for the Frozen Four stay tuned to the festivities to be announced here on Hockey-L!!! 

Carol, QoGH
Hockey-L Cruise Director 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 3, 2024, at 9:00 PM, Anthony Buffa at Charter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Bill, and thanks so much for doing this again. I guess I am one of the people who missed it last year but then again I’m retired and this is fun!
> 
> Tony.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>>> On Mar 3, 2024, at 5:51 PM, Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> 
>>  I opted not to do this last season due to the lack of activity on HOCKEY-L,
>> and then I heard from a few people who wondered what happened with the
>> contest, so I’m giving it a try this year.
>> 
>> Once again, it's time to announce 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 ECAC, CCHA, Atlantic
>> Hockey, and Big Ten regular seasons have ended, while Hockey East and the
>> NCHC will continue through this weekend.  So this part of the contest will
>> deal only with the ECAC, CCHA, Atlantic Hockey, and Big Ten.  After next
>> weekend, I'll send out separate mailings for Hockey East (their tournament
>> starts mid-week) and the NCHC.
>> 
>> 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 Gods.
>> 
>> Just to preserve their immortality, the winners from two years ago were:
>> 
>>                     Contest #1             Contest #2
>> ECAC:               Sean Keller            Sean Keller
>> Hockey East:        Sean Keller            Sean Keller
>> CCHA:               Andy Weise             Andy Weise
>> NCHC:               Scott Kaplan           Scott Kaplan
>> Atlantic Hockey:    Jim Dixon              Scott Kaplan
>> Big Ten:            Andy Weise             Sean Keller
>> Overall:            Sean Keller            Sean Keller
>> 
>> The first playoff games are on Friday, March 8th at 7:00 PM EST, so the
>> deadline for this part of the contest will be Friday, March 8th at 6:00 PM
>> EST.
>> 
>> I confess I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize that Atlantic Hockey
>> already started their post-season on March 2nd with the first-round games.
>> So anyone who picks Atlantic Hockey can start with this weekend’s quarter-
>> final round and I’ll give you 9 free first-round points for Contest #1 and 6
>> free first-round points for Contest #2.
>> 
>> The tournament formats are as follows:
>> 
>> ECAC:
>> 
>> 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
>> single game.  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.
>> 
>> CCHA:
>> 
>> All eight teams make the playoffs. (Augustana is a provisional member of the
>> CCHA and is not eligible for the post-season) The top four seeds host the
>> quarterfinals, which are a best-of-three series.  All games are played "to
>> conclusion".
>> The four winners advance and are reseeded.
>> The semifinal round is a single game, in which the highest-remaining seed
>> hosts the lowest seed, while the second-highest seed hosts the third seed.
>> The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher seed
>> hosts.
>> 
>> Atlantic Hockey:
>> 
>> 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.  Seeds 6 through 8 host the first-round games.  All games are
>> played "to conclusion".
>> 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 semifinal round is a best-of-three series, in which the highest-remaining
>> seed hosts the lowest seed, while the second-highest seed hosts the third
>> seed.
>> The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher seed
>> hosts.
>> 
>> Big Ten:
>> 
>> All seven teams make the playoffs.  The top seed receives a bye into the
>> semifinals, while the remaining six meet in the quarterfinal round in a
>> best-of-three series.  Seeds 2 through 4 host the quarterfinals.  All games
>> are played "to conclusion".
>> The three quarterfinal winners advance and are reseeded.
>> In the semifinal round, the #1 seed hosts the lowest seed in one semifinal
>> game, while the next-highest seed hosts the other semifinal.
>> The semifinal winners meet in the championship game, which the higher seed
>> hosts.
>> 
>> Hockey East (starts next week):
>> 
>> 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.  Seeds 6 through 8 host the first-round games.  All games are
>> played "to conclusion".
>> The three first-round winners advance and are reseeded.
>> The top four seeds host the single-game quarterfinal round.  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.
>> 
>> 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 winners meet in the championship game.
>> 
>> 
>> Scoring:
>> 
>> Contest #1:
>> 
>> Each correct first round/quarterfinal winner is worth 3 points.  For those
>> rounds that are a series, giving the correct number of games played 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.
>> 
>> Correct semifinal game winners are worth 8 points, except for Atlantic
>> Hockey, which has a best-of-three semifinal series.  Similar to the quarter-
>> final scoring above, predicting the semifinal series winner is worth 7
>> points, and giving the correct number of games in the series is worth an
>> additional point.
>> 
>> Correct championship game winners are worth 16 points.
>> 
>> So the maximum total points for each league would be:
>> 
>> ECAC             60
>> CCHA             48
>> Atlantic Hockey  57  (9 free)
>> Big Ten          44
>> Hockey East      53
>> NCHC             48
>> 
>> 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.  (For Atlantic Hockey, do not include the first-round games)
>> 
>> 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.
>> 
>> The maximum total points for each league would be:
>> 
>> ECAC             22
>> CCHA             14
>> Atlantic Hockey  20  (6 free)
>> Big Ten          12
>> Hockey East      20
>> NCHC             14
>> 
>> Tiebreakers will be the same as for Contest #1.
>> 
>> An official entry form will follow soon after 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                                                 DJF   5/27/94
>> Cornell '86 and '95                                          JCF   12/2/97
>> LET'S GO RED!!