(The following was written for the benefit of a couple of friends of mine (a friend and a girlfriend), but I thought I would post it to the list since I added some commentary. Is my understanding of the BU-PC series during league play correct?) Before I forget. I was watching College Hockey USA on SportsChannel and they put up a number for Albany tix. 518-487-2088. Anyway, here are the tournament seedings. There is a lot of grumbling going on in a lot of towns, but it is especially loud in Providence right now. Despite beating BU in the standings of Hockey East, taking their league series 2-1, and advancing further in the Hockey East playoffs than BU, Providence still does not get a bid. At least last year, we could say we took the standings and head-to-head series with St. Lawrence to quiet the disgruntled Saint fans in Canton. BU's Jack Parker is on the selection committee (I think), and this one looks fishier than last year's allegations about Kennedy's presence for us. The other disgruntled people are mostly in the West where none of the conference tournament winners got first round byes. LSSU finished second to Michigan during the regular season by only a pooint or two (thanks to being swept by Ohio State in Columbus) and then beat UM 3-1 in the finals of the CCHA tournament and received a #3 seed in the West for their trouble. Michigan still somehow gets #1 West anyway despite splitting the regular season series with LSSU and losing the aforementioned championship game. The Gophers of Minnesota still get the #2 seed in the West despite being upended by NMU in the title game of the WCHA. This makes a little more sense though as NMU was third in the regular season, lost the season series with Minn and the Gophers won the regular season title by a huge number of points.. If there were justice: 1W Minnesota 2W LSSU 3W Michigan and BU or Clarkson would sit at home and Providence would be in the tourney as a low east seed. (Since they always take 2 per conference, Clarkson goes and BU should not have made it.) The only other sniping that may occur is from New Hampshire. While it is true that as regular season and tournament ECAC champs last year, Clarkson deserved a bye and was severely slighted having to play in the first round, SLU really didn't have the kind of season deserving of the bye. They barely escpaed #10 seed RPI in the semis of the ECAC tourny and finished secoond in the regular season race. Probably UNH has a firmer grip on the bye argument, but it is a close call. (A lot closer than the West anyway.) No surprise that Alaska-Anchorage is seeded #6 in the East as that means they play #3 West and thus get a location a little closer to home than Providence. > > Others may provide us with more details, but announced tonight were > > West East > -----------+---------------- > 1. Mich | 1. Maine > 2. Minn | 2. StLaw > 3. LSSU | 3. UNH > 4. NMU | 4. BU > 5. MiSt | 5. Clarkson > 6. Wisc | 6. A-A > > The 5/6 seeds will travel to the *other* regional. Thus the 1st game > of the regionals will be > > West East > > NMU-Clarkson BU-MichSt > LSSU-A/A UNH-Wisc > > In each case, the winners will advance to the regional final games. > > 1 vs winner of game with 4th seed > 2 vs winner of game with 3rd seed > > Best of luck to all for a great tournament! > > Wayne Smith > The College Hockey Discussion List administrator > BITNET/CREN: wts@maine > internet: [log in to unmask] > -- Dave [log in to unmask] Cornell '91 OSU Med '95 Let's Go Red!