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 two parts. The ECAC, Hockey East, WCHA, Atlantic Hockey, and Big Ten regular seasons have ended, while the NCHC will continue through this weekend. So this part of the contest will deal only with the ECAC, Hockey East, WCHA, Atlantic Hockey, and the Big Ten. After next weekend, I'll send out a separate mailing for 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, last year's winners were: Contest #1 Contest #2 ECAC: William Sangrey William Sangrey Hockey East: Charlie Shub Charlie Shub WCHA: Jim Dixon Jim Dixon NCHC: Scott Kaplan Tony Buffa Atlantic Hockey: Mark Lewin Mark Lewin Big Ten: Jim Dixon Jim Dixon Overall: Scott Kaplan Mark Lewin The first playoff games are on Thursday, March 1st at 7:00 PM EST, so the deadline for this part of the contest will be Thursday, March 1st at 6:00 PM EST. 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 best-of-three series. 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. There is no consolation game. Hockey East: 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 best-of-three series. 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 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. There is no consolation game. WCHA: The top eight teams meet in the quarterfinals, with the top four seeds hosting a best-of-three series. All games are played "to conclusion". The four winners advance and are reseeded. The semifinal round is also a best-of-three series, in which the highest 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. There is no consolation game. 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 best-of-three series. 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 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. There is no consolation game. 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. There is no consolation 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 losers meet in the consolation game. The semifinal winners meet in the championship game. Scoring: Contest #1: Each correct first round/quarterfinal winner is worth 3 points. Giving the correct number of games 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 the WCHA, which has a best-of-three semifinal series. Similar to the quarterfinal scoring above, predicting the semifinal winner is worth 7 points, and giving the correct number of games in the series is worth an additional point. Correct consolation game winners are worth 4 points. (NCHC only) Note that it is possible for a consolation game to end in a tie. In this case, if you picked either of the tied teams to be the consolation-game winner, you will get 2 points. Correct championship game winners are worth 16 points. So the maximum total points for each league would be: ECAC 64 Hockey East 60 WCHA 48 Atlantic Hockey 60 Big Ten 44 NCHC 52 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. 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. If a consolation game ends in a tie, anyone who picked either of the tied teams to be the consolation-game winner will receive 1 point. The maximum total points for each league would be: ECAC 22 Hockey East 20 WCHA 14 Atlantic Hockey 20 Big Ten 12 NCHC 16 Tiebreakers will be the same as for Contest #1. An official entry form will follow as soon as 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 [log in to unmask]