Here is what Comley said a week ago as posted by Keith Instone, straight from the archives: Finally, he said they will try hard to avoid having two teams from the same conference play in the first round. But he said they would NOT fiddle around to avoid intra-league matchups in the SECOND round. So, you could see Minnesota face a CCHA team in the first round, with the winner playing Colorado College. Do I need say more? Seems to me that sending the number 3 Eastern team kicking and screaming out of its region is doing A HELL OF A LOT OF FIDDLING AROUND, just to avoid second round intra-league matchups. Almost all of the controversy has involved the side-effects of the committee doing EXACTLY the kind of fiddling they said they wouldn't do. DaveH HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.