While I agree it was MOST unfortunate that the pairings were announced before the WCHA championship game was played, I must disagree slightly with Erik saying these tournaments have no bearing on seedings. With a loss to Maine on Sunday, I am pretty sure BU would have been placed 3rd or 4th and BC would have received a bye. That win had to figure significantly in the decision process and proved perhaps to be the difference between 2nd and 3rd position. However, the choice of Cornell over St. Lawrence would tend to support the opinion that the tourneys are relatively unimportant. While WCHA fans must have been somewhat disconcerted, I must ask why the WCHA played its games on Sunday/Monday as opposed to earlier in the weekend? Was there some scheduling difficulty at the Civic Center or was this by choice of the league? It is a shame, but it would probably also be inconvenient for Alaska-Anchorage to find out Tuesday that they had a game in Boston on Friday. Mark Daly [log in to unmask]