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!!