Playoffs start for some, others chase championship on final regular season weekend

Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski from USCHO.com look around NCAA women's hockey as the regular season ends and the playoffs begin. Cornell wrapped up the ECAC Hockey championship, leaving Boston University and UConn to battle for the Hockey East crown and Long Island and Sacred Heart to chase the NEWHA title.

The PairWise Rankings look a little different this week, and that has changed some potential NCAA tournament matchups.

Nicole and Todd weigh in on the question of whether the Women's Frozen Four should be held in NHL arenas. Read Nicole's column on the subject here.

The five conference tournaments all have different formats and dates. Read up on those here.

The show wraps up with a look at the first weekend of the Atlantic Hockey America and ECAC Hockey tournaments and the final weekend of the regular season for Hockey East, NEWHA and the WCHA.

The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for our mailbag? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [e-mail].

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Uscho dot com. Hi everyone, Welcome to the podcast. My
name is Todd Miluski. I'm here as always with Nicole Hasey,
and we are here to look ahead to the first
week of playoffs and a couple of conferences, to the
last week of the regular season. In three other conferences,

(00:27):
we have champions decided, we have champions that will be decided.
It's all coming together for us, Nicole as we expect
as we get towards the tail end of February. Uh
ECAC and Atlantic Hockey start their playoffs this weekend. Love
to see that getting started. It's gonna be entertaining. But
I also think there's gonna be some entertainment happening in

(00:50):
the final weekend of the regular season in a couple
of these conferences, as we get the championships decided and
you know positions, you know, home ice claimed on the
final weekend here, Yeah, I you know, for.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I feel like I jinxed things when I was so
excited about that final weekend Hockey East matchup, because now
be you, if they score a point this weekend, they
earn their titles. So they're playing Yukon in two games. Obviously,
you CON's not fully out of it, but I was
so excited for coming down head to head. So I
guess I, you know, learned my lesson there, should have
known better. But yeah, it's bittersweet, like by this time

(01:30):
of the season, I'm always like a little worned out.
I mean, obviously though the players are, but it's just
a lot. It's a long season, right, But also like, man,
weren't that into the regular season? When did that happen?
I feel like I just got back from Finland and like,
you know, like we still got some time. It's the
second half.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
And I think people talking about this all the time
that as soon as you get back from the holidays,
you know, as soon as January comes around, it's it's
eight weeks rushed right to finish the regular season and
you don't really have time to know process that or
ramp your way back up into it because that's the

(02:05):
stretch run as soon as that happens. And that's kind
of crazy to think about, but it's also, you know,
the way it's always been, So it's it's, you know,
something you have to handle, and the best teams kind
of figure it out quickly and don't you know, work
their way back in slowly in January, because February happens fast.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, I just eight weeks feels like a long time,
like O two months, but like, no, that went so fast,
and you know every week has had you know, it's
up to and downs and so like it's it yeah, little,
you know, little mind blowing to feel like oh I
were in the last week into the regular season.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah. But before we get to that, let's take a
look back at what we saw in last week's play.
And I want to start in Minnesota because Friday night
at Ritter Arena in Minneapolis was one of the I
don't know, weirdest, most entertaining final three minutes a half
minutes of a game. And I didn't get to see
it live. You did, but I went back and watched

(03:04):
all that, and holy cow, was that worth going back
and watching Saint Cloud say coming up with a four
to three win over Minnesota their first win at Ritter
Arena ever, which I hadn't realized but I guess makes
sense now. Haven't had a lot of really great years
at Saint Cloud, but congrats to them for that. The
Gophers rallied from a two to zero deficit the tight

(03:27):
early in the third period, and then it got crazy
as you get down into the finish. Sophia Sunderlin for
Saint Cloud three fifteen left, Ella Hubert don't be honest,
sorry for Saint Cloud three to fifteen left Ella Huber
with an extra attacker for the Gophers with one twenty
nine left, But then Ella Annik winner for Saint Cloud

(03:48):
off of a Gopher's turnover and the offensive zone goes
the other way. She scores thirty seconds left, and that
really was. It wasn't even done then. I mean, Gophers
the polic goalie and get it, as I remember, get
it chance at least and get the puck around the net.
But man, that was entertaining to watch.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It was. I think I feel like people should know, Like,
so Todd usually is covering uh, you know, the men's
hockey Wisconsin men's hockey team, and so stuff's happening. I'm
texting him like so and so upset so and so,
or like did you see the score and so? Like
I was like, oh my god, that was the best
and he's like, yeah, obviously I didn't see it, but
I won't go back.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And it's right. It's usually I'm seeing these things happen
as they come across X or Twitter or Blue Sky
or whatever I'm on that night, and I was like, oh, okay,
I gotta file that away to check out what happened there.
But the cole then chimes in with it, oh exclamatory
texts and with clues me in a little bit more there.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, as I said, you, like, you
don't often see like a team pull their goalie get
the equalizer and that's like there's still ninety seconds left
and a whole bunch is still gonna happen. So yeah,
it just that whole the whole game was interesting, right,
but like the final what are we talking like nine
minutes Aba Lindsay ties the game to four Minnesota at

(05:01):
ten fifty one. Then from there like it was like
we were was the a mini eam for the next
nine minutes and it was amazing. It was a lot
of fun. So folks, if you didn't watch it and
you have a big ten plus extraction, it's worth the
time to go back and do. But yeah, way to
go Saint Cloud. Just in the like the perseverance, you know,
they go up too. Oh they have that going in

(05:23):
the first eight minutes they're up to nothing, and Minnesota
just you know, starts chipping away at it one in
the second one or that one from Able Lindsay and
the third, and like Saint Cloud keeping with it and
being able to reply and respond and you know, that
sort of stuff we've been talking about all season from
teams that are you know, lower ranked or lower down
in the standings to be able to withstand some of

(05:43):
this stuff and not get in their heads and not
put their heads down, but just keep fighting and clawing
and scratching. And yeah, it was, uh, like you said it,
just some of the most fun hockey. I mean, I
imagine if you are attached to either of those two teams,
it was maybe not as to a fun you were
not laughing or smiling the way that we were. But yeah,

(06:04):
just a just a silly, fun, crazy end to a
really good hockey game. And also I would say, like
I kind of was, I was wondering if there would
be a weekend split just because of the way Saint
Cloud has been playing, but I definitely would to put
money on Saint Cloud winning at home. So because we
talked about the ice sheet and things like that, so
interesting to me that it was slipped it was a

(06:25):
weekend split, but Sat Cloud won in Minneapolis and Minnesota
one in Saint Cloud. And as you mentioned that first
win at Ritter for the Huskies. The other thing is
apparently that was the first ever four game losing streak
for Minnesota, which is a bonkers They were going back,
like as the game was going on, Dan Hammond and
they were going back through the various history books to

(06:48):
look at things. And then Minnesota when they won Saturday's
game was their eight hundredth program win. So just a
whole lot jam packed into that weekend.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Serious, Yeah, in Saint Cloud led that game on Saturday,
the second game of the series, won nothing in the
third period, Audrey Wethington tied it for the Gophers and
Emma Connor got the winner for Minnesota, those goals coming
two minutes apart. And so that was a really kind
of quick flip of momentum there, you know, Saint Cloud
going you know, twenty minutes and going to the third

(07:19):
period twenty minutes away from what would just be a
landmark suite for that program. Not able to get it
done because Minnesota and in a moment that I think
will be important for them as the playoffs get going
finds a way, because that's what you have to do

(07:40):
in the playoffs. You have to find a way. You're
gonna be in positions, especially when you get, you know,
into the semi finals or the championship of your conference
and then in the NCAA tournament you're playing really good teams,
you're gonna have you're gonna be put into uncomfortable situations.
And the Gophers were able to find a way out
of that on Saturday. And I think that's especially after

(08:02):
what happened Friday. Having the lows and the highs and
the Lows to come back and do that on Saturday,
I think tells us a little bit that, you know,
the Gophers were in a rough patch there, but they
still are a team we need to pay attention to.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, And I think, like converse to what I was
saying about, you know, Saint Cloud being able to come
back on Friday, like, kudos to the Gophers were sticking
with it. And I think too, I mean that's some
of that has just that experience of having been there,
of being a team that is used to fighting for
and in the postseason, and that is not something Saint
Cloud's done. You know, it's just it. That's one of

(08:38):
those differences when you're talking about the number three team
in the country and the number what are they ten
or eleven? Just like that's that's one of those steps
to what it means to be a top tier team,
to be an elite team that's constantly playing for postseason.
And I think that's just one of those things that
we saw that like Saint Cloud had what it was,
sixty one hundred minutes in them, but not one hundred
and twenty. Yeah, you know, so, Yeah, it's one of

(09:01):
those things where when you kind of talk about the
details and the little things that separate programs, it's I
feel like it's a good micro cause of what that
is when we're talking about it. Those those intangibles of
being able to pull stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Like that out definitely can be and especially when you
talk about over the course of a season, you know,
it's a long season. There's a lot of games evolved
over a lot of months, and to be able to,
you know, when you're getting towards the end of it,
to summon that up is really important. Let's move over
to ECAC. Cornell wraps up the championship on Friday with

(09:34):
a six two win over Brown. Gaby Rude with a
goal and two assists for Cornell and that one, so
they wrap up the ECAC title. Colgate finished his second,
Saint Lawrence third, Clarkson fourth, they get the four first
round buys. Any surprises there for you, I think that
was kind of where it was trending going into the weekend,
and we didn't see a whole lot of movement of

(09:56):
you know, challenging the status quo as it was.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I mean maybe that that game was that Cornell Brown
game was to two with less like thirty seconds left
in the second and so they score Deleney flaming scorers
at nineteen twenty one of the second and then Cornell
scores three unanswered and the third, so that one, that
game was more of a nail bier for Cornell, and
then they go on and tie and get a shootout

(10:21):
loss in the second game of their weekend, So good
for them. Kind of the same thing, dig deep you got,
you know, when you're back's against the wall, you big
players need to stand up. And yeah, I thought, you know,
I was not accecting a six to two final score
watching this game heading into the second intermission, right but yeah,
it's that that third period was the difference maker. And

(10:42):
again like you don't know what's going to happen, and
that you don't know that Sunday doesn't go different had
they lost here, but like that period is the difference
in them winning the championship that weeken.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Right, Yeah, And another result that that stood out to
me Friday, Dartmouth, which finishes eleventh place, gets a two
nothing win over Saint Lawrence, which finishes in third place.
So that does tell you that, you know, even as
we get towards the end of the season and and
things get tougher, you're you're not gonna get teams to

(11:14):
roll over. And so Dartmouth gets a big win there.
Mikhaela Hesheva with a thirty six save shutout for Dartmouth
and setting them up for a they're going on the
road and the first round of the playoffs. But now
they they go in with a little bit of good

(11:35):
feeling anyway for uh starting a run that you know,
it's when you're eleventh and a twelve team conference, it's
gonna be a tough road. So let's see if that
that makes a difference for darb.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, I mean We've talked about it a little bit
in some of the freshman goalie conversations, but like Mikhaila
Hesheva is, what is like, you know, the record is
an ideal, she's but she's got eight hundred saves and
a nine twenty three safe percentage and they have what
like I'm sorry, I'm looking at two different screens here,
four wins or some five twenty and three. Yeah, so

(12:10):
as a freshman came in a nine to twenty three
saved percentage when your team has five wins like she
she has been massive. So she oh she has four,
she's four twenty and three, has two shutouts.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
I just it feels like that was a good defining
win for them in terms of like something to build on,
and it just seems clear, I mean, unsurprising with you know,
what they have there and what they're being able to build.
But I just think you're seeing what like a peak
of the future for them, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
I just with Mark Croll there, we know how great
Moore is, and I just yeah, I wanted to shut
out Michaela because I just think she's had a really
stillar season kind of quietly because the team had. The
success hasn't come sort of on the scoreboard for that team.
But what we know is that teams building on a
goaltenders is the first start. So if they can you know,

(13:05):
start to bring offense into it next season, I think
it'll be really important. But yeah, I met Michayla you know,
at you eight teams a couple of years ago when
was really impressed with her back then, and I just
think she she quietly had a really amazing freshman year
and if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't have noticed.
There've been, you know, quite a few really good goaltenders

(13:26):
this year, few really good freshman goaltenders. But just wanted
to shout that out because, yeah, like I said, eight
eight hundred saves her shot face must be massive, but
nine twenty three percentage with that what they've faced is
really really impressive.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Another interesting result, as we you know, kind of peeked
ahead a little bit Rpigan at four to three win
over Princeton on Saturday, and those two teams face off
in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Playoffs, which
is a single game, and so you're talking about, Okay,
there's a team that you know, has a little bit
of success anyway going into that matchup and has the

(14:06):
last win in that series. So don't take that for
granted either. I mean, we're seeing this a couple of times.
And I was talking today with people from Wisconsin about
the fact that they're going to be playing Bamidgie State
in the final weekend of the regular season and then
Bamigie State is coming to Madison for the first round
of the playoffs, and it kind of seems a little
bit like a a pro playoff kind of series where

(14:29):
you played two games somewhere, you travel and you play
two games somewhere else, and it's you're gonna get really
familiar with the team. Well, rense Lair and Princeton are
obviously already really familiar with themselves going into a huge game.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, Princeton is such an interesting team this year because
they have some amazing offensive talent and just like there's
been such ebbs and flows to their game, and like
when they're on, they're so on, and it you know,
we don't get to watch as much, and you know,
obviously can't see them week in and week out, but
it would be interesting to go back and sort of
study what is working and what isn't for them just

(15:03):
because individually, like Sarah Paul's having a great season, is
he Wonders having great season. We talked about them, you know,
out of the break with their amazing scoring output, So
props to RPI for that. And yeah, like you said,
I mean, there's no where to hide when you're playing,
like you were talking with Wisconsin in Pamidgy right, Like
it's already pretty much the case that those teams know

(15:26):
each other really well, and like obviously there's some coaching
changes and things, but like, yeah, there's just no where
to hide, there's no secrets. It's it's like an interesting
chess match. And I feel like that's what's going to
happen to your with RPI and Princeton too, Like Princeton
got to see what RPI exploited, but you know RPI
is going to come back with more more. No have
the momentum and the confidence, like we just beat this team.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Let's turn to Hockey East, which you mentioned before, is
you know, is coming down to the last weekend, but
there is a little bit of a gap now because
Boston University went into last weekend with a one point
lead over Yukon. They now have a five point lead
because they got four points from a home and home
series with U n H, whereas Yukon got zero from
a home and home series with Providence, And that's gonna

(16:11):
end up. You know, if Yukon comes short, comes up
short of of the title, that weekend is going to
sting because of the recency. And you know, knowing you're
going into the final weekend with a chance to play
be you if you're within you know, a two point
margin or something like that, you know, it's it's right

(16:32):
there for you. Now, they they still have a chance
to win the championship. They just need to win two
games in regulation, you know, no no overtime points or anything.
Any anything that goes to overtime for BU gets them championship.
So uh that's that's all it takes there. But uh B,
you got a two to one win at U n

(16:53):
H on Friday and then a two two tie back
at Walter Brown Arena on Saturday, with UNH winning the
shoot out in that one. Providence three to one win
at Yukon on Friday, four two win back at Schneider
on Saturday, So a really key set of results there
in the chase for a championship that has you looking

(17:13):
really good going in the final two games.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Provins apparently came back from break and was like, uh,
we might not be making any tournament, but we're gonna
sure as heck make sure you don't win it either.
I mean they have they have two losses in the
second half and one is in overtime. But they swept
Northeastern like they honestly, I mean, we're looking back, I
can't I don't remember exactly, but it kind of feels
like looking at their schedule, they just they ended the

(17:37):
posts or like the championship hopes of like several teams
in a row, like they swept North Eastern. They took
a win in an overtime loss against Boston College when
BC was twelfth in the country. Uh, they did lose
to Bubu was the only one that kind of came
out of it. And then they swept Yukon Like that's
that's what Providence is done with their January and February.
And I could have appreciate the like the sort of

(18:00):
pettiness of that, just like Nope, we're gonna like you
gotta get through us, and we're not gonna let you
have that title easily. And they really have shown out here,
like really impressed the stuff from them to week in
and week out really and it's unusual in Hockey East
to play two games with the same team in one season,
like that's e one weekend that they don't do a
ton of series. So the fact that they were going back,

(18:21):
you know, like they beat Northeastern five to one and
went back and beat them at three to two the
next day. You know, they did the same thing with
yukon this weekend.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
I impressed with what Providence did. They're on a roll.
They have all the momentum, like they're there's somebody I
will be keeping my eye on in the Hockey East tournament,
particularly because that is all one and done.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah. Yeah, that definitely changes things because if you're able
to get hot and win four games, there you go,
that's it's not even four games. Three games. I I
lose track of everything here. It would be three games
for them because they've uh one into the by area. Well,

(19:05):
yes it would be. Yes, I'm gonna say it is. Yes,
they're gonna be I don't have it in front of me,
but I think confident from from UH Hockey sends out
a playoff primer every week and it's it's incredible stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
So I will praise this up and down until every
conference does it. But yes, not only is it like
the pre up picture with team like the points and
possible seeds remaining opponents, but it gives a full tiebreaker
and then it also like, this thing is seven pages
long because it's cut every tie break and finishing scenario
for every team and just like, goodness, friends, this is

(19:42):
so much work and it makes our life so much easier.
So she got a big shout out for that, because
it is. It's real nice to have this in front
of us.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
I pulled that out. Providence can finish anywhere from second
to fifth, so they're locked into a bye, but not
necessarily locked into a home ie spot. So uh, that's
where that we'll get into that a little bit more
when we talk about what's coming this week later in
the show. Major happenings in NEUHA last weekend impacting the
title race, where Long Island and Post played Thursday and Friday,

(20:14):
and then Franklin Pierce and Sacred Heart played Friday and Saturday.
So those are the two series that played into the
title race and having them split up made it kind
of an interesting watch of where the standings were. So
Long Island won the Thursday game against Posts, Long Island,
which was in the lead for the regular season championship

(20:39):
by one point I believe going into last weekend over
Sacred Heart. So they won Thursday five to three over Post.
But Post comes back on Friday and gets a three
to two win over Long Island, so opens the door
a little bit for Sacred Heart to you know, close
the gap or or well, yeah, close to gain No,

(21:01):
thank you, Sacred Heart. Well, Franklin Pierce is the one
that said no, because Franklin Pierce won four to two
and two to nothing on Friday and Saturday. Franklin Pierce
ran out to a two goal lead a couple of times.
On Friday, Sacred Heart cut at the one, but Franklin
Pierce was able to just kind of keep extending and

(21:23):
keep that lead, end up winning four to two and
then then the two nothing WI win on Saturday. Gwen
Bowler thirty six saves for the shutout. Massive, massive set
of results there leaves not only are we talking about
Long Island at fifty two points, Sacred Heart at forty
eight now going into the final weekend. But Franklin Pierce

(21:44):
is knocking on the door of second place there too,
forty five points, three points behind Sacred Heart. So and
then the stone Hill is tied at forty five points
as well. So that's a lot closer than I anticipated
being going last weekend because of some of the results
we've seen over the last few weeks where the leaders
haven't gotten full points and haven't separated themselves out from

(22:07):
the rest of them back No.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
But you know, like way to go post they're the
second to last team and standings and kind of like
we talked about St. Michael's a few weeks ago. Yeah,
post just was like, yeah, this isn't gonna be easy
for you. And they they faced one of either Lau
or Sacred Heart this upcoming weekend, so they also are
going to continue to have something to say about this

(22:29):
postseason run. But yeah, I you know, to be fair,
I was harping on Hockey East about nobody wants to
win this conference and boy, how doy this new hub
and like, well us neither LAU left the door open
for Sacred Heart, and Franklin Pierce was like, too bad.
So sad. And I what I love about that is
Franklin Pierce did this at the end of last season too,
and so they're like the cardiac kids here at the

(22:50):
end of this season, and I'd be scared of that
in the postseason as well. They had all those overtime
skin out of their neck wins last year, so they're
it's amazing to watch and just to have seen that,
like all of a sudden, the chaos has ensued here
in these last couple of weeks, and you, huh.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
We all love chaos, right, especially as we get towards
the end of February and into March, because that's the
best time of the year, and you're if it all
plays out to chalk that you know it's not fun.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
No. I sat on the Victory Press this morning, like
I'm like Elmo in front of the fire, like give
me all the chaos. I feel like it makes me
feel like I have no like I've been doing this
how many years and I have no idea what the
outcomes are gonna be. But well it's fun, like it is.
Chaos is raining and it's like team Chaos for the win.
I'll take it. It's always a good time. To be watching,

(23:40):
like it makes for the best hockey.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
So we're getting into the time of overtimes and full
overtimes now too, and so that's always interesting to watch
as you as you see a game that's gone to overtime,
it's like, okay, check back on that. But it might
be a couple of hours because some games and there's
always that chance that you're going to multiple overtimes in
the playoffs, So it adds that dynamic too, which may

(24:04):
not be great for people who have invested interest in
those games, especially if it's part of a series, or
if it's game one of a potential game three and
you're going three overtimes. Ooh, that makes that next day
kind of rough. But as neutral observers fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, even though one and done's right, like you're like, oh,
we didn't have to play a three dame series. We'll
get a rest. Actually you're gonna play multiple games on
one day. Yeah, Honestly, this is maybe recency bias, but
this has been the most fun kind of final weeks
that I remember in recent years. Like you said, you
know to some extent, and people you know have complained

(24:41):
to me that, like we know who's gonna end up
in the tournament and blah blah blah. But like, man,
has this been fun? Like I don't remember looking down
the table and being like, wow, I don't know who's
gonna win seventh place, and I'm excited to figure it out.
And so yeah, I just the bottom teams really having
such the bottom teams at the standings having such an
impact on the top teams and the outcomes. I don't know,

(25:03):
it's like, you know, we just keep calling it chaos,
but I just I don't remember sort of like rubbing
my hands together and enjoying it quite so much in
those final few weeks in recent years. So this is
it's been really entertaining, a really great hockey And I
love that teams who like ostensibly their season is all
but over, are still still fighting and clawing for everything

(25:23):
they can do.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Right, all right, We're going to take a quick break.
When we come back, we're going to talk about some
of the changes in the pairwise from last week and
what it means for a potential bracketology look, and then
what's a coming ahead for the first week in the
playoffs slash last week of the regular season. Stay with
us on the podcast Welcome back to the podcast. Todd

(25:49):
Maluski here, when Nicole Hasey, let's take a look at
this week's pairwise rankings as they stand. We're here talking
on February eighteenth, so any games that happened after that
will impact these standings. But Wisconsin and Ohio State is
still in the number one and two spots. But then
a change in number three and four, Cornell moving ahead

(26:11):
of Minnesota into number three, leaving the Gophers at four,
Colgate at five, Minnesota d Luth at six, Pence State
up the seventh, Saint Lawrence down to eighth, Quinnipiac nine,
and then the at large or the automatic bid teams
as we have them for Hockey East and New Ha

(26:31):
being Boston University and Long Island. Those teams standing in
for the conference champion, the playoff champions that will get
the automatic bids. We don't know that yet, so we
just use those teams as the highest seeds or highest
romany seed or team leading their standings in that conference.

(26:51):
So if you want to put that into a bracket,
it leaves us with an interesting thing that we have
to fix because eight Saint Lawrence versus nine Quinnipiac would
be a first round matchup that we have to get
rid of the way that seems like it makes most
senses swapping nine Quinnipiac with ten Boston University, which leaves
eight Saint Lawrence against ten BU and that game at

(27:15):
number ona Wisconsin, then Sevenpence State against nine Quinnipiac at
number two Ohiose State, six Minnesota Dluth versus eleven Long
Island at number three Cornell, and then the five to
four matchup Colgate at Minnesota. So there's there's the changes there,
meaning you're sending Dluth on the road along a road

(27:39):
to go play at Cornell instead of right down the
road at Briger Arena. I don't know that Duluth would
necessarily say no to that, given like what we've talked
about I think last week, with their history of trying
to have to get through Minnesota to get to the
Frozen four. But still ways away from knowing if that's

(28:02):
gonna be the case, whether Duluth stays in a sixth spot,
A lot can change there in these next weeks. And
because like you mentioned, after Friday's games, there was even
a different look for the pair wise when Saint Cloud
had defeated Minnesota moved up into the ninth spot, which
could change a lot of things here in terms of

(28:24):
who gets in and who doesn't.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, and that was after the Saint Lawrence lost too, Right, Basically,
Friday nights pair wise was super interesting and then sort
of resettled again after Saturday's outcomes. So mostly what it
showed us is how much we're going to keep seeing
like big movement off of one result. And you know
you mentioned Minnesota, delute, they're like they are in sixth.

(28:48):
They believe that one of the quote unquote bigger leads
in a like what a one point four four point lead?
I mean several of these places are separate by tenths
of a point. Yeah, at the moment, Saint cloud Is
is less than two tens of a point behind Quinnipiac
UH in NPI. So again, what will get interesting here
is the teams, all the top teams from the conferences

(29:10):
that are over have buys this first week. Well, you
know w C H A, I keep forgetting who's still playing.
Ec A C and H are done. So Hockey East
w C h A DOH are still playing, And so
you will see just some big movement based on the
fact that some teams are playing and some aren't. And
again there's like teams that are idle can their NPI

(29:31):
can still change because it is a math what's the
word that I function that goes out through all of
the games that they played and their opponents opponents a
that all sort of fi filters in there. So yeah, I,
like you've said before, I'm a little shocked. We still
see so much movement that like one game can can
cause sort of those kinds of ripples. But yeah, several

(29:54):
of these teams are are tens of a point a part. Uh,
you know, Minnesota's now just it's what to tensible point
behind Cornell, so that could change that They made up
a lot of ground by coming back and getting that
Saturday win. So yeah, we're both looking at where teams
will finish in their conference and what that means for
their conference tournament rankings and seeds, but also like what

(30:17):
affects those have on the pair wise, which is fascinating
at this point.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, it's going to be. And when you talk about
the gaps between say, you know, Minnesota at fifty nine
point eight and fourth and Colgate in fifty nine point
five and fifth, that of course, meaning who plays, who
hosts that game That can change with especially if you're

(30:42):
you're you'll lose your semi final game and then have
to sit and wait and don't get it say in
what happens on the Saturday of conference championship weekend. That
could be a lot of nervous waiting there.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Right, It's it's the twofold, right, because losing is bad enough,
and then you you're like you're no longer on the
run for the autovid and you're not kidding win points
and all that stuff, but also ben being idle. So
it's just this is the part where like your I'm score,
I've been scored watching for two weeks, and like that's
how I know. Friday's Barawyes was so much fun because
it was like ooh, like look at what that one

(31:18):
that one thing did. And so because we're seeing those
ripple effects and because so many of these positions are
so close, I mean literally like a point and a
half is a big gap for a team right now,
which seems crazy. You know, it's like, oh they've got
a point and a half, they might be a little secure.
And again, like I think I've talked about this in here.

(31:41):
I wrote about it on Victory Press, but like it
really puts in perspective that seven point lead that Wisconsin
has above Ohio State, Like that's the same amount. Like
the difference between Wisconsin and Ohio State is about the
same as Ohio State down to like thirteen fourteen fifteen
an MPI. Like, so we're talking somewhere between ten and fifteen,
t are seven points apart together like that, it's just

(32:04):
everything is so close and so like Razor's edge, and
so you know, we start talking a few weeks ago
about like one period, one goal can make a difference,
but like seriously, that's what we're talking about right.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Now, totally that right now. Yeah, so that'll be something
to watch as we go on the next few weeks.
I want to call it a couple of things that
have appeared on us c h O dot com in
the last week or so. First off, there was we've
been talking about how every league playoff is different, have
a league tournament is different, And so I threw together

(32:38):
just the how when sometimes where the five conference tournaments
and then the NCAA tournament work in terms of timing
all that kind of stuff. Find that in us EHO
dot com if you're interested in when the conference tournaments
get played and what the formats are. But then also
last Friday, Nicole had a piece that up about an

(33:03):
interesting Instagram post recently kind of flowed the idea of
is it time to move the women's Frozen Ford to
bigger buildings capitalizing on what the successes that have been
seen with the bean pot in the last couple of
years playing at TD Garden. And I know you had

(33:24):
some thoughts on that. I have thoughts on that, but
you wrote it. Let's let's hear what you thought about
just the idea and and kind of what lies underneath
that idea too, is really kind of what it gets
What it gets down to is that it's not necessarily
just that as an idea, but there's more to it

(33:45):
about what gets done for the Women's Frozen for Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
I mean, maybe I want to start by saying, like
I absolutely am in support of women's college hockey and
the Women's Frozen for growing. What I was trying to
you when talking about this was sort of highlight things
that people aren't all that aren't really dug into this
might know about what goes into deciding where that goes
all of the things behind the scenes. So I definitely

(34:12):
worried it, like sent this to you and a few
other people, like getting feedback because I don't want to
I don't want to poo poo the idea, Like it's
not about like I don't want that to happen. But
there's just like structural things, there's lack of support from
the NCAA. There's a lot of stuff, and so it's
sort of not as simple as like put it there
and people will go. Part of the problem is that

(34:34):
like we have these things every year and people aren't going.
Attendance has been trending upwards. To me, you know, it
was great that we were New Year five thousand University
in New Hampshire last year because generally the East Coast
Frozen Fours haven't been super well attended. And so this
idea that like, well it was in Boston, a bunch
of people went to the bean Pot. People would go,

(34:54):
but like we have been within a car buster train
ride of both New York City and Boston several times
in the last few years for Frozen Fours, and like
that hasn't led to larger attendance. So that's one of
those things that like trying to put myself in the
headspace of the NCAA. They're gonna be like, no, because
it's there and you're you're already not going. But also

(35:17):
just digging into the the inequality stuff. I mean, we've
been talking about this for a few years. You know,
there was the viral posts from women's basketball showing the
inequality of what was happening at the basketball women's tournament
sort of during the COVID years, and they were, you know,
using like a single dumb bill in a hotel ballroom
and it was bad. And so that started this conversation

(35:38):
about gender inequality and gender equity within the NCAA, and
there was a called the Chaplain Gender Equity Report. I
wrote about this back in twenty twenty one. All the
stuff that I wrote about it, it's linked in this column,
which again is on usho dot com. It's actually women's
hockey has its d one Hockey has its own homepage.
If you had a d usho dot com, they'll take
you to the d one men's page. Either need to

(35:59):
click over women or at usho dot com backslash d
one women just to get to the women's hockey homepage.
But anyway, Like I linked to the Instagram posts, you
can see it in there, and then read some of
the things that I talked about with what like digging
into what the Equity report said about the the inequalities
for the NCAA and what they do for men's men's

(36:21):
college hockey and women's college hockey. All this can get
really into the weeds. I'm trying to like top line
this for you, but for me, what I was focused
on when we were talking about this is so the
NCAA has fixed a lot of things on the women's side,
or at least improve them, right, Like the tournament expanded,
the idea of limiting flights was taken from the criteria

(36:42):
for setting postseason like there have been massive improvements that
came about because this Equity report called out like these
massive inequalities. Even things like roster size was different for
the women, so those things several things have changed. But
there were in that cap and report some numbers, some
spending numbers that to me were really important to this conversation,

(37:05):
which they spent sixty five thousand dollars more on signage
for the men's Frozen four than the women's. They spend
nearly it was one hundred and ninety five one hundred
and ninety three thousand dollars each year a promotional expensive
related to the men's tournament, but eleven thousand dollars a
year for the women And there were eleven NCAA staff
members who contribute to the men's tournament, including three championship staff,
a media coordinator, and several external operation staff members. The

(37:26):
women's tournament, however, only has two championship staff members assisting
with it. So using those numbers, I reached out to
the NCAA and said, it's been four years, like, are
there any changes to these numbers? The reply got really
didn't answer that question. It told me all of the
things that we already know that they changed. Here are
the things we improved. The roster changed, we expanded the tournament, YadA, YadA.
So they kind of brushed past all that sort of stuff.

(37:49):
There are more staff members now, so credit where that's due.
I guess there's now seven staff members for the women's tournament,
they tell me, But in terms of spending on advertising
and signage and all that sort of stuff, I don't know.
They didn't reply to that part. And so to me,
that's one of those, like moving the Women's Frozen four
in isolation, and like not having the support around it,

(38:13):
not having a big enough staff, not advertising it within
the city. Not the Men's Frozen four is a destination event.
Like you can talk a little bit more about this,
but like people buy their tickets as soon as they
go on sale. They don't care if their team's gonna go.
And when you go to a Men's Frozen four, people
all wear their team's gear, whether or not their team
is in the tournament. Like I know, friends they go
play bingo to like check off how many jerseys they see,

(38:36):
And so that's just not the case for the Women's
Frozen for. It's not an event, it's two games. Things
have improved the tiniest bit now that they made the
PATTYK has a public event, and I think there's usually
like a kid's UH clinic on the.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Autumn.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
It's the tie like bless their hearts. It's the tiniest,
you know, little bit of an improvement. But yeah, so
for me, all of that is to say, like moving
the Women's Frozen for without having the support just feels
like this absolutely massive step and also sort of destined
for failure and a bit of a like we told you,
so if the NCAA, if it were to move and

(39:16):
it didn't go well, like the repercussions of that sort
of failure I think would be really bad within the NCAA.
So for me, like the fight is for all of
that other stuff, so that like the groundwork is in
place and it wouldn't be that much of a leap
from what we're doing now into a bigger place.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
I think that's what what you wrote and what you
said there is really gets to the heart of it,
is that it's not necessarily about the the what everyone sees,
you know, where it is, what kind of building it is,
what the crowd is, those kind of those kind of things.
It's about what happens behind the scenes to make the

(39:54):
event work and work well. And I feel like in
the last couple of years we've seen and you've you've
seen it more than I have. But just kind of
going from you know, say twenty eighteen to last year
or twenty three, comparing years, it does feel like there's
there's a lot different now than there was five or

(40:16):
six years ago. In terms of you mentioned that the
Pattycast ceremony that I think that's been a great addition,
and just having that be a public event a great
play in there having a And I've gotten this impression
from players to that that it's it's taken more seriously

(40:38):
on the you know, when you get to the building,
do you are you recognized? Are you? You know? Is
does it look like a championship building? And I feel like,
and I've seen some of these examples, it does look
more like they've prepared this as a championship building. The
locker rooms are kind of dressed up or you know,
have that have the you know, the signage, the branding

(41:01):
of the event to make it kind of seem like
you see some of the pictures now of in uh
you know double IHF events where the locker rooms are
made up with the logos of you know, these teams
are even at the four nations that are going on
right now, that it's it's all redone with with that
kind of sigence that's being done now. I don't think
that was done to that degree five years ago.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
But the counterpoint to that is it's all sort of internal.
It is in the building. You have to get to
the building sure to know that. So yeah, and like
you said from the player side, I think they are
treated more professionally or there's more sort of pump to
like having made that step right and made the championship.
I would agree with that, but I.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Think you do credit them for those kind of things,
And it's really it's it's finding the next layer of
improvement that's going to work and work within the boundaries
or the framework of what's what's here now, because I
don't see this working right now in an NHL building.

(42:04):
That's just my impression of this. I feel like, if
you're still only getting five thousand people in an eighteen
thousand seat arena, I don't know if that's a win,
and I don't know that you can guarantee in a
lot of places, you know, maybe Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Yeah, So somebody replied to me on one of these
one of the either Blue Sky or exitbout this that
they would they wish this year's Women's Frozen four was
in Mariucci and not Ridder. Mariucci's ten thousand and Ridder
will be sold out. So like that to me is
very interesting and like would be a good sort of
like toe dip into like what could be done here,

(42:45):
because I do think I don't know if it would
fill Mariucci, but I do think it's interesting, like having
that right next door on site if you're not, it's
it's a huge step, and yet it's a much smaller
step than uh NHL arena, right, And like we could
I could get in the weeds with you guys about

(43:06):
things like all the other things that are happening that time,
how like NHL aren't your arenas aren't available, like TD Arena,
TD Big Well, I don't know the Boston NHL Arena
hosts the Men's Hockey East Championship, Like that's not happening,
that's not going away, and that's the same weekend as
the women's Frozen for so like that building is that's
like a moot point.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
There's buildings hosting March Madness Games men's and women's side,
and other.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Men's right tournament, men's conference tournament championships, so like, and
then also there's the so like if the men's Frozen
forward recent somewhat recently started going to maybe to non
traditional hockey cities, and like one of the most successful,
based on what other media and attendees have told me,
is like Tampa on like the first time that it

(43:52):
was held in Tampa. It was hosted by Wisconsin, and
that means Wisconsin is providing all the staffing, all the
behind the scenes stuff, like they're the host university. So
all that sort of like background structure has to be
hosted by somebody. I went and looked like, isn't Vegas
hosted by North Dakota. Yeah, so all these universities are
putting a bunch behind these events and other cities, and

(44:18):
there's a cost to that first of all, and so
like until there could be proof the tickets sale like
that there would be a return on that investment. I
think it's going to be difficult to say like a
university should kind of put up or shut up about
hosting in a bigger arena. That's why I think something
like Mariucci is a really interesting because you're not there's

(44:39):
not the same cost of renting the reader. There's not
the same cost of taking a whole staff and providing
sort of the structure underneath. So yeah, I you know,
obviously it's way too late to have that conversation, but
I wish there would have been thought to putting it.
This women's rosen for in Minneapolis at Mariucci, because I
definitely think it would have been a little bit of
a good test. And then the other thing I would

(45:00):
say is that, like there were complaints in this Instagram
post about like it being the Frozen Fours being awarded
to Penn State or being awarded to delude and how
those places are difficult to get to. I don't think
that there are like thirty or twenty or maybe even
fifteen bids to host a Frozen four right now. I
think they're being awarded to the people that are asking

(45:20):
to host them. I don't think a tons of places
are going away disappointed they didn't get awarded a bid.
I would say that. I would also say that, like
purely from an event standpoint, both Penn State and Minnesota
Duluth hosted two of the best Frozen Fours in my
experience of I think this will be my tenth year going.

(45:42):
I've been every year, including the COVID year and Eerie
so put on like the most professional, like the city
knew it was happening. Like that's the part of the
thing is like what I was saying that all the
signages is in the one building. When we were at
New Hampshire last your Portsmouth is eleven miles away to
where the hotels, that's where everybody was staying. And like

(46:04):
I would go out with friends who were in town
to watch the games, and they all had their jerseys on,
and nobody in Portsmith knew what was happening. And like
even once they explained that they were there for the
women's Frozen form, pretty much everyone still assumed it was
men's hockey. But like walking around Portsmouth it with nothing
but people in jerseys, Like we just we saw tons
of people in Kogate and Ohio state in Wisconsin, and
so in Clerkson. And so that's the difference. That's the

(46:29):
step that has to happen, is that there has to
be situational awareness where the city knows that it is
hosting this event and like get to buy in and
you know we I talk about in this article. The
NCAA treats the Men's Frozen four like a destination event,
and there are like if you go to their website
for the Men's Frozen four, there's like information and hotels,
there's information on other things to do in town, Like

(46:49):
there's this whole they create packages, there's a fan fest,
and there's just none of that for the women right now,
and so like those are the things that need to
like take a step up and be more improved before
I think you can successfully have this transition that makes
this more of an event where you know, ten thousand
people are going to go and you can fill phillerinas

(47:10):
in the same way, because it's just you're just not
getting a larger community buy in right now.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
So a couple of things have come to mind along
thinking about this along the way. One of them is
that there's been a lot of I don't think it's
ever gotten to the point of really being considered or studied.
But what if you put the men's and women's Frozen
fours in the same location on different days? You do
you know, you have Thursday Day, the women continue to

(47:38):
be Friday Sunday, the men being Thursday Saturday, and then
they just trade off and it's you know, it's a thought.
I think it has potential to bring more people in,
but it also has potential to turn some of the
the the fans who might want to go to just

(48:00):
a women's Frozen four off from having pay the rates
that it's going to cost to go to a place
where the hotels are you know, raising them because it's
a it's already a destination event, like you're talking about,
there's there's that kind of crowd already there, and so,
uh that has that has come to mind a couple

(48:21):
of times, and I like I I would be planning
on like how it would actually work and and what
you could do to intertwine those and and you know,
you don't necessarily know you're going to have any common
teams between those two events. But even then, if you
have eight different teams, you have a lot more geographic

(48:42):
areas covered, and so maybe there's a little more I
know this team, and so I might be interested in
going to that even if I haven't ever before.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
And men's college hockey has a larger footprints sort of
of the country, right, like it goes further west.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Right, it's not huge, but yeah, no, right farther west.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
So uh, part of me doesn't hate the idea, and
part of me is like there's just something sort of
inherently like why do they they we don't need each other.
I don't know, Yeah, like there's but there there's something there.
I don't hate the idea and at least makes me
think like me and should we be doing this for
like an icebreaker or for a holiday tournament or something
to again maybe test the waters.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Right. The other thing is the what's worked really well
for the Volleyball National Championship that they they put their
Coaches Convention and really it's it's the entire volleyball world
or country convention, uh wherever the that's part of hosting
the Volleyball Championships, you also have to host the volleyball

(49:49):
Convention and so that brings in so many people to
that area that it becomes an event that you're what's
it called, like, you're your sports you know, you're whatever city,
sports foundation or sports uh you know has interest in

(50:10):
bringing in because it's going to mean a lot of
hotel rooms and a lot of money and a lot
of convention space. Now, I don't think we're going to
see the American Hockey Coaches Association Convention move to where
the women's frozen for is because they love Florida late
the time of the year that they get to then
go to Naples or wherever, and timing.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Would have to change, Like we don't even commissioners coming
to the women's roof because their men's conference tournaments.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
But like the idea of having some kind of event
that could yeah, well, whether it's a youth tournament, I mean,
and now you know, it also does raise the risk
of making those hotel rooms a lot more expensive. But
if you're talking about in Minneapolis or a Boston or
a larger area, that's you know, a little bit easier

(50:57):
of a of an area to find telerooms for. But
if you have a girls hockey youth event that's part
of that weekend, I feel like that could bring in
you know, a lot of people that want to be
there and want to see that that product as as

(51:19):
just part of that event. And so I don't know
if that's ever come up as a possibility either, but
I'd love to see that that explored too.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Here's what I'll say, And I am incredibly cynical about
the NCAA, and I'm saying this without a ton of cynicism.
I don't think anybody there has put a ton of
thought into making the women's frozen for a bigger event
or a destination event or things like that. Like we
were was it last year when we suggested that maybe

(51:51):
all the quarterfinals shouldn't have the same puck drop so
that fans can actually watch all of these NCAA tournament
games because they're all happening at the same time. And
we told that too at the NCAA sort of look
befuddled for a moment, like that had never been considered
because they let the host team pick the time that
the puck is going to drop, and invariably that's all

(52:13):
at the same time. It's a Saturday afternoon when they're
going to be able to sell their tickets and not
have other stuff going on on their campuses. So I
just don't think that they have a whole like it's
a very internalized view for them, like they are creating
a championship for the players, and because it's not a
revenue event, they kind of don't care about the rest

(52:35):
of it. So the focus has been on improving it
for the players, and like credit given, we do think
that they've done that, but I don't know that like
there's been a single thought, much less a creative thought
about like brainstorm about what could be done to grow
this as an event and make it a bigger thing.
Like I just don't think they even understood sort of

(52:56):
the moment in women's hockey and like what they could
be taking advantage of I mean, the complete lack of
crossover with anything PWHL is like your number one sign
that like they don't they're not seeing this as something
that could be happening, right, Like so the what is it?
This ccha is at the EXL the weekend of the
Frozen four of the front frostert home but like what ANDHD,

(53:17):
sorry man hockey guys, this is I know they're hosting
a tournament there, that's but like couldn't the Frost be
playing at Mariucci maybe or like there's just there's things
that I think could and should be happening. I felt
the same in New Hampshire last year, like there was
nothing with the Fleet. Several Fleet players came to the

(53:38):
championship game like they were there because they're alumni of
the program, but like there was no crossover, there was
no official anything happening. It's like that's just such a
huge missed opportunity, Like they made the trip to New
Hampshire all on their own, when that could have been
like there could have been on ice thing, there could
have been a signature, Like just there's been no thought
to any of this in terms of a marketing and

(54:01):
growth mindset, and like, while I get that the NCAA
is supposed to be athlete first and like the focus
is on the student athletes, like obviously creating destivation events
is also what they do, they just haven't thought about
it with women's college hockey, and I don't know what
needs to be done to get them to do that.
I mean, I felt like we were making in roads

(54:22):
with the contact we had last year about persons not
doing with that job anymore, and so like I felt
like they hurt us when we were like, hey, all
the games shouldn't be happening at the same time. And
I actually asked in my email to the NCAA about this, like, hey,
we had this conversation last year about like not just
letting the teams pick a time, and like people are
interested in college hockey and want to watch these games,
and you're making it impossible for them to do that,

(54:45):
And they didn't even answer that they like, at no
point did that question even become become a part of
the response. Like I've pasted the whole response I received
into the email or into this column that I wrote.
So yeah, I all, that's a whole huge amount of
words to say that like, there's just so many barriers
to this, and so to me, that is not something

(55:07):
I think that can happen immediately. I think there needs
to be pressure put on the NCAA. There needs to
be conversations with them and force them to sort of
reckon with like you are missing the moment with this
and get them to see that there's more things that
could be done.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
It.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
For me, it isn't It doesn't have to immediately become
similar to the men's rosen fore and frankly, we have
to stop thinking that that's the template and where women's
sports need to go. But like like you said, there
could be there's so many ways that this could grow
and become more in an event than just the games
and could be a celebration of the sport. When you

(55:45):
were talking about the meetings when we were in Utica
for Women's World Championships last year, the USA Hockey held
some coaching symposiums and some training. They were doing work
with coaches from like non traditional areas and getting them
to connect and helping them create a network so that
like people that sort of live in the middle of

(56:06):
I would literally talk to women that's like I live
three hundred miles from anybody in Montana, but I run
our program for girls and so things like that, holding
classes or learning or workshops again a reason for people
to come and connect and make it more a celebration
and don't even know what the order, but to make

(56:27):
it the sport be the focus and growing it as
a whole. And I just don't know. Again, I just
don't think anybody the NCAA has thought about it like that,
and so that fundamentally has to change before anything else can.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Yeah, well, we'd love to hear what you think about
this too. Reach out to us. You can find our
contact information, email, social accounts in the show notes, So
hit us up with that and let us know what
you think about what maybe the future should hold for
the women's rosen for because I think, you know, fan

(57:01):
import is just as important because if you're asking people
to show up and try to travel and show up
for something, you should probably listen to what they want.
So that's it should be part of what the NCAA does.
I know they do that on the men's side. There's
surveys every year. I hope they're doing that on the
women's side.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
For you know, have we even gotten media surveys the
last couple of years. I don't think we have. I
don't think we did last year. Yeah, I guess the
point is all of that is to say is like
I wanted to write this because I think like these
things need to be not everybody has the background information,
not everybody's been to a bunch of frozen fours. And

(57:40):
also like this is how we make change. Like I
wanted to sort of amplify the conversation of that Instagram
post and like have this more out in the open
and like let the NCA know that we're talking about this,
and like we see where they're still falling short, and like, goodness,
we all just want this to be better. And it's
it's like it feels some of this stuff feels easy
in terms of having some of these conversations and really

(58:03):
just reframing how they're approaching this tournament and what their
goals are with it.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Right, Okay, we're going to take another break. When we
come back, we're going to look ahead at the final
week of the regular season for three of the league's
and the first week of the playoffs for the other two.
Stay with us on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast,

(58:30):
Todd Molusky and Nicole Hosney here to wrap up this
week's show with a look at what's coming up this week,
the playoffs starting in Atlantic Hockey and ECAC Hockey. Let's
start there Atlantic Hockey with single game first round between
the bottom four teams in the standings of the six

(58:51):
team league. So we have Linnenwood at rit and we
have Robert Morris at Syracuse, both of those games on Saturday.
The the the gap in the standings would tell you
that you know these are they're the teams Syracuse and
r T. The home team's there earned their spots to

(59:13):
host these games. Lindenwood and Robert Morris have been pretty
far down the standings for most of the season. Uh.
You get in this point though that I don't know
that you hate some part of you hates these first
round games that are a single elimination, but part of
it is like, yeah, let's let's not drag this out more.

(59:36):
Let's put everything on the line in one game and
get the two teams set up the semifinals next next week.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Yeah. I mean, depending on what comforts are talking about,
I would have maybe have different thoughts, but I agree
with you. Yeah, like there's there's such a big separation here.
I'm glad that everybody gets a chance, but yeah, I mean,
I we the outcome here seems you know, Robert Morris
has two conference wins. Lynn Wood has four. It's just,
you know, not been a great year for either one

(01:00:05):
of them. They're not particularly prolific on offense, Liddedwood more
so than Robert Morris. But yeah, I expect, but you know,
I think as we've been talking about, like at this point,
expecting unexpected, know that anybody can beat anybody else we've seen.
You know, we were just you and I were just
talking before we come back for this this third you know,

(01:00:26):
like in other conference as the players or teams with
one or two wins, we're taking top teams to overtime.
So to me, I'm not ready to write anybody off
or think that anything is given. But there does seem
to be sort of a very clear line here between
these two these two sets of teams.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
And Syracuse and rat swept both of the series is
this season against the teams that they're playing, So it
would be an upset, a pretty big upset to see
anything different happen there. But in the playoffs, we remember
and we love the opposet team, so that's that's always
out there as a possibility. So over in ECAC hockey again,

(01:01:05):
single games in the first round leading into a best
of three quarterfinal series next week. So but one game,
one of them happening Friday. That's RPI at Princeton. We
talked about that earlier as being a rematch of a
game that RPI just won, although that was at home,
that game being last week, and then on Saturday, Harvard

(01:01:27):
at Quinnipiac, Dartmouth at Yale, Union at Brown. I think
that Dartmouth Yale game is one too to pay attention to,
just from you've seen some better results from Dartmouth. We've
seen some good results from the Yale though, too, So
I don't I wouldn't discount Yale as being like, you know,
a team that's you know, there to be upset or
anything like that. But I do think you have to

(01:01:49):
give Dartmouth a little bit of credit for what they
were able to do last week.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, and you know, Yale's the team that tied Cornell
on Saturday. So what I will say is, you know,
I already talked about mikhaila Hesheva. But Yale's also got
a really great goalie, Piatukorich, and so that to me
is a goalie showdown and who's going to be able
to find a solution. And I don't expect that one
to be high scoring, and so I think that's going

(01:02:14):
to be a patient game and probably special teams is
going to play a part. So yeah, that one I
think could be Unfortunately, I don't want to jinxity thing,
but that could be one of those longer games you
were talking about in terms of who who plays the
just the best and who finds the opportunity to find
the back of the dead.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Yes, all right, so then let's look at the three
leagues that are into the final week of the regular seasons.
Let's start with Hockey East, where, like we mentioned before,
the championship will come down to Boston University or Yukon.
Yukon needing to sweep all six points from that series
to win to move past BEU to win the championship.

(01:02:55):
But you can get just one point to claim the
title there. But then you're also talking about some races
for well third place, be you in Profitence or b
I'm sorry, BC, and Providence are tied at forty six points,
Northeastern is at forty three, and then you have a
pretty big gap back to Maine in six. So there's

(01:03:18):
a one spot left to be claimed in the top six,
that being between Maine and New Hampshire. Maine hosts Holy
Cross for two games. New Hampshire plays at BC or
has a home and home but against BC. One of
those teams is going to avoid the opening round game

(01:03:39):
on Wednesday. Next Wednesday, one of them will be in.
We'll get to host that game, but we'll have to
play it. So there's there's a lot to be played
for there, not just at the top, but also as
you go through the standings to see who claims will spot.
And that's one of the reasons why I do kind
of like the Hockey East format of it moves quick.

(01:04:02):
They do. They do an opening round on a Wednesday,
they play the quarter finals that Saturday, they do the
semifinals the following Wednesday, and then they play the championship
the following Saturday, all single elimination, So it moves fast,
but it also allows for different levels of opportunities, whether

(01:04:23):
it's avoiding that first round, getting home rice for the
first round, getting home ice for the semi finals, and
it's it's an interesting format and I think it works
pretty well for them given the geography that they have
that they really have only you know, main being the
team farthest distant from the core there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Yeah, it works. I mean even if we take out
the fact the stealings right now where everything is so closed,
just in general, it really works for them because generally
their standings are wide open right like we don't really
know where anyone's They're always very close. There doesn't seem
to be. I mean, Northeastern a few years ago obviously
dominated at the top, but I still felt like below

(01:05:04):
that it was still bunched together for the most part,
and teams where like anybody could take any given weekend.
Now you put in the fact that it's much closer
this year and that one and done is just like
pitch perfect for what happens in Hockey East and how
close things are, and that's what like, that's why I
really like it. Like you said it, the geography works
for them as well. It was interesting when you were

(01:05:25):
talking about like possible Blong games and having to come
out for game two or you know, a game three
and a one in a three. But I also was
thinking of Hockey East too, like doing one of those
long games to having to play again on Wednesday, Like
at least if you do it kind of is combined
to a weekend with the other conferences, but with Hockey East,
it's like also in the middle of classes and like
some travel. I mean, you know, some of it's close,

(01:05:47):
some of it's a little bit forever, and so yeah,
I just think the possibility for chaos in the Hockey
East tournament is a plus. Really excited about it. Just
think there's gonna be a lot of coming down to
one play one, you know, whether or not special teams
comes into it, how the goalies play. I just think
there's a lot more hinging here because of the teams

(01:06:10):
are so close and because we've seen them all sort
of beat up on each other. One thing I did
want to point out, just again thanks to Brian, is
that when we're talking three way tides and you were
looking in the middle there, Boston College does have the
tiebreaker over alvidence pretty much an all scenario. So if
those two end up tied in whatever position, I think
that they have that tiebreaker.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
Again BC home and home with New Hampshire Providence home
and home. With Merrimac and Merrimack being the only team
that has its position locked in, they will finish tenth
and last in Hockey East. Everyone else can move up.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Or down significally. Yukon can be one to four, EC
can be two to five, Providence can be two to five,
or the Eastern three to five. Like, there's there're plenty
of chances for this to like significantly change what that
bracket looks like.

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
Yes, indeed, wha final weekend of the regular season. We
know Wisconsin has already won the championship. There we have
Minnesota Dluth at Minnesota. We have sink Cloud State at
Ohio State. Second not locked up, fourth is locked up.

(01:07:24):
I'm trying to think through things in my head here
where they But wha standings are? I should have done that?

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Minnesota Duluth has forty eight, Minnesota has fifty one, and
they're playing each other.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
So the top four are locked in. Sink Cloud is
farther down in fifth. They can't make up any more ground.
But Dluth can pass Minnesota for third. D Luth in
theory could pass Ohio State for second. They're five points behind,
but that would require a couple of sweeps there. I

(01:08:01):
guess if I'm you know, crystal balling this, I'm I'm
not thinking that we're seeing anything different after this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
I feel like, no, I assume there'll be some splits, right, Like,
I mean, the most crucial one is that Minnesota Minnesota Duluth.
And yeah, I'm I think it's gonna be a split,
that's my guess. Uh, it depends on Minnesota Duluth's offense.
I think they've they've been so great on defense and
have you know, at times not been able to put
a ton of goals up. And so for them, it's

(01:08:29):
it's about being able to score. But yeah, I and
and the other thing that like for them, like I
don't think any of these teams care much about where
they end up in w c CHA cities like they
are pairwise watching and the points again we talked about
we're so close, Like there's just so much on the line,
and so that just changes the tenor of what's you know,

(01:08:50):
like what would be already be a little bit of
a rivalry game is now now just has so many
more consequences.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Yeah, so that should be fun to watch through the weekend.
New ha is The also is playing its final week
of the regular season, that championship coming down the Long Island,
Sacred Heart, Long Island playing Saint Anselm in two games,
Sacred Heart playing Post in two games, and that being

(01:09:19):
really l I used to win or you know, l
I used to lose, if you want to look at it,
that the other way four points ahead with the two
games remaining.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
And again like Sacred Heart, Sacred Card can win and
also drop to third because Franklin Pierce is only three
points behind. And so if yeah, it's it's one of
those where like there's there's a lot of chances for
teams to play spoiler this weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
There. Stonehill's right there too, So yes, I see we.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Both have done that. It's skipped over the fact that
they're tied.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Sorry, friends, it's that part of the season here where
we're starting this kind of all the numbers together. Yeah,
with that table, the.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
Twelve tab I have opened, uh posed to be looking
you know, they're like, hey, worked for last weekend, We'll
go ahead and play spoiler again this weekend. So yeah,
it's games that like on the surface, you would have
looked in like, oh, the second to last team in
the standings. That's who they're playing, Like that's a sweep, Like, no,
no easy games here, and so that's that's what makes
this fun.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Yeah, yeah, there's give me a lot of that. And
this is a great weekend of scoreboard watching and uh,
you know, tuning in the different games throughout the day
on Friday and when you get those Friday afternoon games
and can kind of have that on while you're working
or whatever, those that's uh uh that's a pretty fun
time to uh to have that going join me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Friends, that's what I will be doing, if not follow
along on Blue Sky in X because yeah, that's it's
we got games starting at like one Northeastern Vermonta's at
one Central. Yeah, they're the Wisconsin, the Midgey States at
three o'clock. Yeah, we got games all day.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
That's like great Friday be you against Yukon is Yeah,
so that's a one with a lot of weight. You know,
you could wrap up the championship right away on Friday
or send it to Yukon, could send it into the
final day of the season.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
So there's nothing worse than everybody playing at the same
time and you don't have enough screens and Also, they
all go to intermission at the same time, so I'll
love seeing these a little more spread out. And yeah,
Saturday we had games starting at noon or noon Central,
so yeah, I will have all the links to everything
over at Victory Press that will come out on Thursday,
so makes it easy to find where everything is to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
Sounds good. All right, there's Lenny to digest here this week,
so we hope you've enjoyed everything that we've thrown at you. Again,
reach out at the social accounts that are in the
show notes or the email address there, and if you
have any questions or thoughts, send them our way. But otherwise,

(01:11:58):
enjoy the games this weekend and enjoy the start of
the play or the last week of the regular season,
depending on what you're watching. We'll be back next week
to talk it all over and then look ahead to
what's to come for Nicle. I'm Todd. Thanks for listening
to the podcast.