January 27, 2025 • 42 mins
Hosts Jim Connelly (@jimmyconnelly), Derek Schooley (@derekschooley), and Ed Trefzger (@EdTrefzger) review games of the weekend and news of the week.
The spotlight starts on Boston College's sweep over Boston University in a home-and-home series, highlighted by a strange protocol penalty involving BU's goaltender Mikhail Yegorov. The crew also covers Michigan State's dominant weekend against Minnesota, discussing significant outcomes for the Big Ten standings.
They also note UMass Lowell's comeback weekend against Providence and Arizona State's split series with Colorado College. The podcast also highlights UConn's victory in the Connecticut Ice Tournament and Western Michigan's continued dominance. Detailed discussions focus on the implications of recent games for PairWise Rankings and potential tournament placements. The episode also explores the challenges for teams on the bubble and the intense competition within various tiers as the season progresses.
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division I Frozen Four, April 10 and 12 in St. Louis. Get your tickets now at ncaa.com/frozenfour
Times are approximate:
00:15 Introduction and sponsorship
00:38 BC vs BU: A weekend recap
01:37 Strange Protocol Penalty Incident
03:16 BU's goaltending
05:36 Michigan State's dominant performance
07:00 Big Ten standings and future outlook
08:45 UMass Lowell's Dramatic Weekend
10:40 Providence's Struggles and Upcoming Challenges
12:22 Arizona State vs. Colorado College Thriller
18:51 Western Michigan's Dominance
24:04 Cornell and Dartmouth's Heated Clash
31:15 Pairwise Rankings Analysis
43:30 Wrap-up
The spotlight starts on Boston College's sweep over Boston University in a home-and-home series, highlighted by a strange protocol penalty involving BU's goaltender Mikhail Yegorov. The crew also covers Michigan State's dominant weekend against Minnesota, discussing significant outcomes for the Big Ten standings.
They also note UMass Lowell's comeback weekend against Providence and Arizona State's split series with Colorado College. The podcast also highlights UConn's victory in the Connecticut Ice Tournament and Western Michigan's continued dominance. Detailed discussions focus on the implications of recent games for PairWise Rankings and potential tournament placements. The episode also explores the challenges for teams on the bubble and the intense competition within various tiers as the season progresses.
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division I Frozen Four, April 10 and 12 in St. Louis. Get your tickets now at ncaa.com/frozenfour
Times are approximate:
00:15 Introduction and sponsorship
00:38 BC vs BU: A weekend recap
01:37 Strange Protocol Penalty Incident
03:16 BU's goaltending
05:36 Michigan State's dominant performance
07:00 Big Ten standings and future outlook
08:45 UMass Lowell's Dramatic Weekend
10:40 Providence's Struggles and Upcoming Challenges
12:22 Arizona State vs. Colorado College Thriller
18:51 Western Michigan's Dominance
24:04 Cornell and Dartmouth's Heated Clash
31:15 Pairwise Rankings Analysis
43:30 Wrap-up
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Usccho dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to US Echo Weekend review for Monday, January twenty seventh,
twenty twenty five. This episode is sponsored by the NCAA
Men's Division one Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in
Saint Louis, Missouri. Get your tickets now at NCAA dot
com slash Frozen four. I'm ed Treshger alongside Jim Connolly
(00:35):
and Derek Scooley. That was a pretty interesting weekend. Some
big matchups, and probably the biggest one was a home
and home that happened in Boston as number one BC
swept number eight BU six to two and two nothing
and as Saturday also featured a crazy protocol penalty that
(00:56):
led to the only non empty net goal of the game.
And last year, protocol violations were being called very tightly,
like a second or two, but this was more than
a second.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Jim right, it was, and it was one of the
strangest things I've ever seen. I was on the call
for these games and it listen credit to BC. They
played two really good games. BU had a lead on Friday,
but BC scored the final five goals that six to
two number on Friday a little dece evening. There were
two MP netters in that one, but Ryan Leonard with
(01:33):
the hat trick in that game. The Saturday was strange.
So we'll start with the fact that Bu brought in
a goaltender at the break, kale Goora Mike Gora from
Saint Petersburg berg Rusher. He's played the last season and
a half in Omaha on the USHL and talking to
(01:54):
Jay Pandolfha wasn't very happy with Omaha as a place
for him. Plus they were looking for potentially some goaltending
help in the second half, not feeling that was the
strength of their team in the first half. So here
J Pandolpho throws you go off to the Wolves on
Saturday night and he faces the number one team of
the country. A minute and a half before Bu was
(02:17):
supposed to go on for warm ups.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
For some reason, your go off ran on the ice.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It was almost it almost looked like an NHL rookie
lab for your first game, where the players just let
you go first.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
But he was out there for a minute and a half.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
He was out there thirty seconds before the referees even
got on the ice. If anybody's watched the college game,
they get on I believe it. I can't remember the numbers,
but they get on at one point and then one
minute later the home team comes on. Ten seconds after that,
the visiting team comes on. The fact that your go
off was on the ice that early, it meant he
(02:53):
was more than ninety seconds early. The referees assessed a
protocol penalty. BC scores twenty four seconds into the game
on a Teddy Stieger goal, and that the game ends
a one nothing game. There was an empty netter again,
Ryan Leonard into an empty net with sixty three seconds left,
but that's the only actual goal of the game.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
That's the bad news for BU.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
The good news is they may have found their next
great goaltender though, because your girl off was phenomenal in
the game. Apt landing up that early goal on a
player that he couldn't really do anything about, he was phenomenal.
So maybe Bu's found their goaltending solution for the rest
of this year and that could really make them a contender.
It was a really tough situation on Saturday, though. One
(03:37):
of the strangest things in my years of broadcast that
I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Yeah, I saw the so called rookie l App and
then I saw Dala's interview afterwards. I didn't realize it
was a minute thirty. So they put times with yours.
The referees wanted thirty nine minutes. They thirt o'clock one
hour before the game. The referees want at thirty nine minutes.
The home team goes on a thirty eight and the
(04:03):
visiting team goes out at thirty seven to fifty. They
have to be up in twenty three minutes. We talk
about this at the beginning of the year with our freshmen.
We talked about with our goaltender. We've got a freshman Boalie.
That's really it's Scott rituals. We had to back him
off of being late things like that because they have
(04:25):
been really strict with it the last years.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So when I saw this bonocop finally, I.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Was thinking, we've got out fifteen seconds, twenty seconds. They
thought it'd be ready to do a rookie lab. But
for a minute thirty that's a long time.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
Even before the officials, I don't even know the rest
of the team would have been to stop.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Sometimes players walk out right when it's time to go out.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yes, strange penalty.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yes, they took flame corning his press conference that he
didn't communicate. But I don't think that really officials had
had a choice, like we had a we had a
power playoff open the.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Year last year with end the year last year with
last give him the year of the air Force. The
guy was fifteen seconds, like getting off the ice.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
For one, I think that it's pretty cut and dry
when you got to be on, when you got to
be off, I think they will be. I think they're
a little bit mean yet with you being late than
being gone, And I don't think they while I don't
really I think that I don't think they had a choice.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Number two Michigan State. They had a blowout nine to
three win on Friday, three to three tie on Saturday,
and they won the shootout over a number four Minnesota.
So that opened up a five point lead ahead of
Minnesota in the Big Ten standings. It also meant ten
to twelve points for the Spartans against the Gophers this year,
(05:57):
twelve points ahead of third place Ohio State. That Priday
game really seems like an aberration.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Do you are we looking at a Hoby the front
runner for the Hobby and Isaac Power with twenty goals
in thirty nine points.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, he's number one. Ryan Leonard's number two right now
in scoring. That seems like two of three of you're
at trick right there.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, you've got a Western and you've got an East.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Like my our longtime friend Mike pursued it being a
Michigan State alump really been Compania Howard and I went
and looked, Wow, with the number of goals he's got
at this junction, he could end up by the time
to get to the NCAA tournament close to thirty goals,
(06:44):
which is unheard of nowadays. So you're looking at potentially
the Western nominee for take five or six in a
big game against Minnesota, that big m kinnagainst Minnesota's massive
or Michigan State and Minnesota is still struggling and shootout
to him crazy.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I feel like that was such a statement weekend for
Michigan State. It's because you combine it with the fact
that they've gotten five and six already, as you mentioned,
at ten of twelve points against This really is becoming
a two horse race in the Big ten. I don't
feel like anybody will catch it, either Michigan State or Minnesota.
(07:22):
You're talking about Minnesota and Michigan State being the two teams,
and there's no comparison when you look at the way
that they played head to head to take two wins
and then get the extra point twice, ten out of
twelve points in the Big Ten standings, and then right now,
I don't want to say that Michigan State's running away
with this thing.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
They're not. They're running away with things, but they're getting close.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
It's five points is still something you can make up
in a weekend, but I don't feel it to make
up five points in a weekend.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Michigan State has to get swept.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
This is not a team that feels like they're that
capable of getting swept.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
I think the big thing that people under that don't
get is how big us we bid, especially with the
team that you're even with, so you just put a
big gap between them, and I think that's the one
thing it's hard to sweep. And college hockey now, even
if you have one big game, the team comes out
with desperation and it would have been it's I think
(08:21):
we've had three.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
That share two four and two or four two four
two against and it's hard.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
It's hard with when you're playing that man weekends to
get a sweepboard again.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Swapped number twelve. You mass Lowell ended a three game
losing streak, a three to three tie and they want
to shootout and one nothing win over Providence. The game
winning goal in the one nothing went on Saturday came
with just ten seconds remaining, which seems to have been
sort of the story of a few games this weekend.
But how about you mass Lowe. We've been talking about
(08:52):
what a turnaround it was from an uncharacteristically bad season
last year.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, and they were really rolling and then they
hit a speed bump with Maine very good main team,
and then the loss they took the Stonehill is one
that had to shake in your head.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
But what a bounce back.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And Providence not the team that they probably wanted to
see on their schedule, knowing that they needed to get
good weekend. Because somebody sent this statle on to me,
Norm bays it ins most losses in his coaching career
have actually come to Providence College. You have Boston College,
you know, Boston University in your league, and the team
his Ripper Hawks have lost to the most is Provident.
(09:34):
So they never led on Friday night came back from
two to nothing down and three to two down tied
to that game, they went in a shootout and then
the Lake Goual Pearson Brandon the Colgate transfer ten seconds left,
breaks off the glove of as Zach Borgiale goes in
the net, and you know, Lowell goes out and gets
(09:55):
five points. This weekend, So the Hockey East standings were
beginning to have this big separation between fourth and fifth.
Fifth was Providence and Lowell Tide, but they were seven
points in back of everybody else.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
They're now suddenly, you know, growing a little bit closer.
And here we you know, it.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Was one of those weekends if either team could take
five or six points, you'd put some you know, you'd
put some distance train the opponent and you'd also get
back into that race.
Speaker 7 (10:23):
For top four. That's what Lowell did this weekend. Dick
tucke East teams and I know that the Steve Metcalf
last week in all in the top ten. Right now,
Schools of the Peer sick.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
And we were really I was really concerned after that
s don't have lost for Wall. I thought that would
be a loss that they would come back to bite
them at the end and maybe it's still well, but
what a good bounce back for them to get that
kind of points against the hot Providence team when, like
we just talked about with sweeps, when you're getting and
(11:02):
when you're getting five or six points, you're really put
the distance or you're closing some ground quickly. And those
are massive, massive points for lolet. I think they probably
had a lot to prove to themselves after letting pairwise
points and get away from you don't want to say
league points, but pairwise points and a loss of their
(11:25):
record get away from them against ston'eh.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
The one other thing too, and Providence was red hot.
Now they have suddenly slowed. You know, they two losses
last weekend to Boston College. Now two games without a
win this weekend that you know, o three and one
in their last four after they had had you know,
that eight game winning streak. That's that it feels like
now they need that get right weekend. They'll have to
(11:50):
face a pretty good Yukon team this weekend. That's gonna
be a tough one.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I mean, you're talking to Yukon in the top four
right now, tied for fourth with that's.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
A massive statement for them.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
I know, we'll talk about the Kinnectic dice, but you've
got that's a that's going to be even a bigger
challenge for.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Providence number eleven. Arizona State number nineteen. Colorado College played
in the Desert in the NCCHC Arizona State one on
Friday four to one, and it looked like they were
going to do a repeat. Up four to one on
Saturday in the third CC had scored once already in
the third period and then scored four more times in
eight minutes to salvage the victory and split the series.
(12:31):
That was a much needed win for CC, and it
moved Arizona State down a little in the standings because
of Western Michigan sweep, which we'll get to.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
But that must have been a fun one.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
That's a crazy one.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I mean, you know, you're down four one, and it
was even one of those games like you know, down
four one, you just you know, usually scrape it back,
you get you know, sometimes you need two extra attacker
goals in there just to pull the game.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Even then you win in over time.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Oh, CC completely their comeback and still had five and
a half minutes left in the game. That was just
such an incredible eight minute span there in the third
period where they took control of the game on the road.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I mean, that's that's a statement game right there for CC.
How about Omaha, I'm just going to the standings.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
We've been pumping Arizona State's tires and being number one,
but Omaha now with the same amount of games, has
passed Arizona State in the standard. And you talk, I know,
we're going to talk about tiers. There's starting to be
at tiers in the NCCHC, and Arizona State's in that
upper tier unused to seeing. And granted, Denver, North Dakota
(13:43):
and Western have games in hand, but you're starting to
see it tiers. And even if Denver and on North
Dakota got all their points, they're still two points behind
Arizona State, three points behind Omaha.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
This is becoming a.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Challenge or Miami still can't get that win. They played
close on Saturday, and I'm sure nobody felt sorry for
anybody right now, but you got they got to get
some They got to get some one from somebody, don't
they Sooner or later.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You'd think so, well, there are going to be a
lot of if you excuse to play on words tiers
in the NCCHC when it comes to the postseason, if
things keep going the way they are, because right now
only two teams are in, we'll get to that in
our second segment tonight today we'll get to that in
our second segment, Number thirteen. Yukon won its first Connecticut
Ice tournament two to one win on Friday over number
(14:40):
fifteen Quinnipiac and a one nothing win over Sacred Heart
on Saturday in the championship. Ryan Taddle had both goals
for Yukon on Friday, including the game winning goal on
the power play with a half a second left on
the clock. Valer Music made twenty three saves for the
shoutout in the finals, and Derek mentioned this. But in
(15:00):
the month of January, Yukon went from eighteenth place to
fourth in the pairwise going six toh in one so
far this month. All of a sudden, Yukon in the
mix of things. From what I understand though from the
tournament that it was a terrific tournament. Sacred Heart has
just a gem of an arena there in the Martiri
(15:21):
Family arena, and Mike Kevanaugh was talking about how terrific
an event it was besides being very happy for his squad, just.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Looking at the crowds, they were phenomenal.
Speaker 8 (15:33):
All four schools.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
The team brought bands and Yukon brought them. It droves,
So you know that's this tournament will survive if it
gets good support from the fan base. It's just like
the bean Pot. It's just so early stages. You know,
there's a lot for this tournament to do in growth.
But I don't remember a team jumping this much to
(15:57):
the pair wise this quickly. Maybe I I kind of
remember Northeastern a few years ago being in the thirties
in January, maybe it was even late December, But this
is January one.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
You're eighteenth in the pairwise.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Before we even get to February one, you've jumped all
the way up to number four. Phenomenal, and now you
have two against Providence this weekend. You pull a couple
of wins Thera FY, you're going to solidify yourself in
that top four. It's unprecedented how quickly they've moved up.
And you know, this is a team that still has
(16:32):
never played in an NCAA turn. They're looking for their
first one, and right now they're in a position that
you have to think that they're probably going to get
into the NC double as you have to feel so
good for Mike Cavani on his squad.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
If you look at who they've played, and I think
that shows you why they've had such a big jump,
and they keep beating really good teams and they're one
blemish is a shootout loss at May and it's on
the road, so it was a tie.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
So I think that shows you. Back to your point
about the Connecticut Ice Tournament.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
I think one of the things that really makes set really,
like you said, survive and go, is I think they
know what they are right now. I think they tried
to play in Bridgeport, they were okay in crowds, playing
it on campus and rotating it from building to building.
I think that's a pretty cool way to go about it.
(17:26):
You're guaranteed to sell out at least one of the games.
You bring the other teams to at least one of
the games a day, and then the other one brings
fans and they for the semis and potentially for the finals.
So you're looking at big crowds for each game. And
I think that's a really neat way to do it.
By not growing it too big, not trying to put
it in a nine thousand keep it in the three
(17:48):
to four thousand seed arenas like Yukon and Quinnipiac and
Sacred Heart at Yale. Keep it in that, but have
it bang out the attendance, bang out the crowds, and
they say to have done that.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, and they can do that now that everybody has
a really nice rink. You've got the tradition of the
Yale Whale and brand new facilities for Yukon and Sacred
Heart and a very nice facility that's not that old
either for Quinnipiac. So yeah, the whole thing makes a
lot of sense and I hope they can keep it rolling.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And that was a standardroom crowd championship game.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
You're talking about a building that's at that list their
capacity at thirty six hundred forty one seventy seventy announced crowd.
I down it's Sacred Heart for that championship. So congratulations,
that's a great event. I want to see that to grow.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Number three, Western Michigan held serve. They had a pair
of wins over last place Miami in the NCCHC. Western
is top the NCCHC is still one point ahead of Omaha.
We talked about them, but Western Michigan has two games
in hand, so that's six straight victories for the Broncos
and they're now number six in the pair wise.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Let's see Alma Mater.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
So we've been saying in their praises for a whole
year and they took they did what they needed to do,
and you look at I talked about Miami before and they.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Got to get something. Only somebody gets eliminae from the tournament.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
I believe they show I think only eight of eight
of the team to make the tournament. So Miami is
obviously that one. So their games down the stretch are
going to be difficult, hard. They're going to play with
all their might because they are ahead of people in games.
They did play a lot of games early, so you're
going to see them play. It was like every game's
(19:34):
for playoff game to try to build for this young team,
and they got They got some challenges. I've got Arizona
State at home this coming week and then Colorall College
Denver to loose Western again if they're gonna Western took
care of business, but it wasn't as easy as it
should have been. On game two, Miami kept it close.
(19:56):
They're going to get somebody. I still believe they're going
to get somebody. And my I know that you said
that a team gets eliminated. I don't think a team
does get eliminated in the NCD.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I think eight and nine travel to the number one
seed and play like a play in game early in
the week before they play their best at three quarterfinal series.
So that could be where the upsets start happening. If
you're if you're Miami, you're right. They're playing teams very
tight right now. Every every game it seems that you
know they're in, but you know, still the single point
(20:28):
in the NCC standings that surprises me. I want to
go to the other side of this though, in Western Michigan,
and you know, we've been talking about Western for so long.
I feel like it's almost since you've been on this podcast.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Schools.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
You know, you're al Lamada and the ability to talk
about them. But they've been playing well in the years
that we've all been together here. Now it's what's the
next step. Will it be winning an NCC tournament well
or even a regular season They've never done that. If
they could win a regular season titled will it be
(21:01):
advancing in the NCAA Tournament because they haven't gotten to
that frozen four yet.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
You know they do a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well, I just that's I guess that's the building block, right,
It's what is the next step for this Western Michigan program?
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Can I say that, pump my own tires and say
that I am correct and I'm right on that one.
Following the regular season, the four higher seeds will host
four lower seeds. Number one seed will host number eight.
It even actually says, although the NCCH seed now has
nine members, only the top eight finishers in the regular
(21:35):
season standings will qualify for the NCC playoffs.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Does anybody else remember that format that was talked about
where they I think they did.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I think they announced it.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
I think they went back and changed it when Arizona
State got in the league.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
They announced it because you are correct.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
But then I remember talking with somebody that I knew
they went to eight.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
So I'm just quoting their website right now. I shouldn't
doubt a coach on that.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
If anybody's going to know how many teams make the
playoffs and each think it's a coach.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
So I shouldn't have doubted your schools.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Well.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
I think one of the things that everybody always talks about,
do the bottom teams deserve to be in? And I
think they do, And that's something that we've always fought for.
In Atlantic hockey, everybody deserves the playoff opportunity. No basketball
in their tournaments. Very rarely do they knock teams out.
Sometimes I do, but very rarely. Everybody deserves the playoff
(22:28):
opportunity in college hockey, whether it's one game. If you
can't win the one game at home against the bottom team,
and you probably didn't deserve to be there, or you
probably didn't deserve to You don't didn't deserve to advance.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
You weren't winning the conference championship if you can't beat
the last plays team.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Correct, and then you know what we were last year?
We went in, we beat Bentley, and what did the
number one seed.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Do to us?
Speaker 5 (22:50):
They swept us like they should. But everybody deserves that
opportunity within the playoffs. And the reason that I knew
that almost all the I think they're the only ones
now they might be the only ones that don't have
everybody in their playoffs.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Now, yeah, I think they really should. And here's why,
I think really only ECAC maybe CCHA, but I know
ECAC for sure has a balance schedule. Everybody plays everybody
else the rock amount of times. The rest of the
leagues do not, And if you're not playing the same schedule,
then you should let everybody in.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
You're one hundred percent right. Sometimes even this year, with that,
you're going to have sometimes teams play one more home
game than the other team.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
It's not balanced.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
So you are one hundred practice the schedule is balanced
and everything was all equal and all fair, then absolutely,
until it's all balanced, I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Ed one more before the break in. This one kind
of ended a little ugly. Actually there were two ugly endings,
but this one was the uglier one. Cornell and Dartmouth
had a heated game on Saturday night that boiled over
at the buzzer. Six players, three from each team were
assessed game disqualifications and they're going to miss at least
the next game. Dartmouth won that six to one, and
(24:09):
then this was after everything was done. There was a
bit of a melee. I only saw a little bit
of fan video, so maybe you guys can fill in
the picture.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, it's schools. I think you've seen them. I've seen
that same fan video head from the corner. That didn't
tell me much, But you saw attle More schools.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Yeah, So I saw it and I went on Hulu
and ESPN Plus and watched the end of it.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
There was a big cross check.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
They had a five month three at the end of
the game Dartmouth did and there was a bit. There
was a crosscheck and then a guy they got into it.
It all rope. It ended and then they pammed the
Dartmouth celebrating out in front of the line of me,
like literally up against the glass. All that, and then
(24:55):
next scene three or four corn All players sprinting down
and jumping into their pile, and it got a little testy.
You had the coaches on the ice trying to break
it up, and coaches with the referees and players, and
it was there were some legitimate punches on in that one.
(25:16):
I was I went I saw the same video of
you guys. I went on and looked at it. Didn't
It was a good little scuffle. I watched it twice.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
There was a little bit at the end of the
Holy Cross game at air Force, a little bit of
bumping that boiled over and a couple of players and
each team tossed with DQ's the same thing. Six '
three win in that one, a late empty net goal
for the Crusaders.
Speaker 8 (25:43):
You hate to see this one.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think the Air Force one maybe was not anywhere
near as much as what happened with Cornell and Dartmouth.
But you know, you got your playing for sixty minutes
with your emotions right on the edge, and maybe somebody
says something or somebody shoves somebody, and next thing you know,
you got a mess.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
I think you're also in the Air Force solely cross
type series that's one hundred and twenty minutes, so you're
when you're playing a series, it gets heated and no
matter what, Like Brian Riley and I talked about it,
we had some massive battles way back when, and Robert
Morris and their army and we had some big ones
(26:20):
and our Friday night game was tame. We both we
were talking about before the game, we'll go saying that
it's probably going to get a little nuts this game,
and it's hard to keep everybody's emotions in check, and
frustrations battle Cornell's case that they're frustrations battled, and they
were they lost six to one at home and they're
(26:41):
battling for their their pair wise lives right now, so
they they got frustrated, and like you said, a lot
of dequeues and then you look on the box for
the Air Force holy Cross and a couple more dequeus
and always after holy Cross sweeps Air Force, and usually
after losses, that's when things there was some bumping, like
(27:02):
you said, ed, but usually that happens to where things
just get out of hand for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It also I think it's the time of the year, right,
you know what's going What every game means, not that
October game is not mean. We say that all the time.
October games mean the same as March games. But it's
human instinct. When you are running out of opportunities to
make up ground or to win that game that you
need to that will move you up in the pair wise,
(27:30):
when you lose that opportunity, the human emotions come out.
And if you've been playing for two nights straight and
you've been banging and you know somebody's gotten under your skin,
the odds of something boiling over at the last minute happens.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
And when games get out of hand. It's even for us.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Well, we mentioned pairwise a few times. We're going to
talk about that when we return. This episode is sponsored
by the NCAA Men's d one Frozen four April tenth
and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
The NCAA Men's Frozen four, the pinnacle of men's collegiate
ice hawk Any.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
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Buy your seats today at NCAAA dot com. So that's
Frozen Pool.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
We're back with usc CHO Weekend Review. We're going to
take a look at the pair wise. This is the
time of year when things are really starting to solidify,
and Jim has helpfully separated things into four tiers. As
we talk about tears, there'll be tiers outside of these
four tiers. The top one Boston College, Michigan State. Both
(29:01):
of those teams are more than four hundreds of a
percentage point ahead of the closest challenger, and that's really
at this time of year, it's a massive difference. It's
really hard to knock either of those teams out of
the top two or even out of the top four.
Speaker 8 (29:15):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
You're talking about well below one percent chance that these
two teams are not both number one seeds, and the
odds of them being the number one in number two seeds.
Maybe it's BC is number one, maybe it's Michigan State
is number one. The odds of that happening in the
mid nineties ninety two percent chance that they're going to
(29:37):
be the top seeds. One of the these two teams
will be one and two in either order. They've just
separated themselves. So this tier. You know, when I really
look at BC and Michigan State, I don't see either
one of them being caught by anyone. And if they
punch your ticket, there's no way they're not making the tournament.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Yeah, you know what if you look at you brought
up this next show we do next week is February. Yes,
so we're here in the pair wise this is you always,
we always the dreaded p word potential and pair wise
we're here and you're seeing it. I mean, they're pretty
close to I don't know what the numbers are, and
(30:22):
you're the pair wise guru, but they're getting pretty close
to being a lock for number one and maybe even
starting to become a lock for number one and two.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Might be AC is seventy two percent to be the
number one seed, Michigan State is number is twenty seven
percent to be that number one seed. The only other
team that even have it a fighting chance, really you're
probably minnesot It's probably Minnesota that's the only other team
that can get into that No.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Overall spot. I'm going to go back to your Jimmy
Connolly math course.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Seventy two percent plus, would you say twenty seven percent?
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, that's ninety nine. I'll give Minnesota the last one percent.
I know that there's a number of teams that have,
you know, fractional fractional lots to get into that number ones.
But now it's it's it's either BC here Michigan State,
and number two is going to be either PCRE Michigan State.
Speaker 8 (31:17):
So you're saying there's a chance, there's.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Yeah, something about Mary. Maybe that was not something about Mary.
That was dummery yeah, I get all my Barrely movies
mixed up.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Second tier a bunch of teams trying to squeeze into
that third and fourth spot. Minnesota, Yukon we talked to,
they came out of nowhere this month, Maine, Western, Michigan,
and Denver. They're all pretty tight and they'll probably bump
around a little bit, but there is quite a drop
off from number seven Denver and number eight Providence, and
we may be seeing teams move in and out of
(31:54):
the top four all the way up to the last
night of the season when the championships are played.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
There's a big gap between seven and eight. So really,
right now, I look at it as a couple different battles. One,
you're looking at a battle of the three and four,
but then you're also looking at the battle of five six, okay,
because you want to make sure you're in that. And
then obviously seven wants to hold off eight the eight area.
(32:22):
So I think that there's a couple different battles in
there because you want to make sure that one, if
you're a two seed, you want to be playing the
lower band of the threes. So I think that's why
that's important, because you don't want to if everything's so
close between eight, nine and ten, you want to be
(32:43):
five or six playing eleven and twelve in that band.
So I think that's why there's a couple different battles
in there. You have the battle to be three and four,
and then you have the battle for five and six,
And I just I'm going off of my experience of
being on the committee to where I think that those
bands right there are going to be really important, especially
(33:04):
with the five and six compared to the seven and eight,
as everybody looked like.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
The interesting thing about that.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I was actually writing out some notes before this just
to start bracketology after we get off the air, and
there's so many teams from Hockey East and the number
two and number three seed bands that that everything you
just talked about, a number five seed might have to
play at number nine, which doesn't seem fair. Or five
(33:33):
should be playing twelve, you know, nine should be playing eight.
But there's there could be some things with conference matchups
in that first round that could screw up the kind
of the bracket integrity of it all.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
The other thing I wanted to point out too right now.
Four is Yukon, five is Western, six is me. But
Maine and Yukon, let's just use their head to head comparison.
You know, you feel like Maine has had a pretty
good seat. Is actually an incredible season, bought the game
that they played against Yukon and the fact that it
(34:05):
was a tie and a loss against Yukon, that that
actually could keep the it'll make it'll make it more
difficult for the Black Bears to pass Yukon in the
pairwise because of the fact that they're head to head
series went to Yukon.
Speaker 8 (34:18):
Well, let's look at the next tier.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
There's quite a drop off, as we mentioned, from Denver
to Providence, and you got three Hockey East teams in
that third tier, Providence U Mess Lowell, Boston University, and
then Big ten's Ohio State Jim. The numbers that you
put together, say eighty two to eighty six percent chance
of making the tournament. Now that's not a lot, but
(34:40):
it's getting pretty secure. And usually when we get to
this time of year, the top eight or so are
pretty much guaranteed to be in. These are the ones
on the edge. And when you look at Providence, you
Mess Loll and BU With all the Hockey East action
going on and bu perhaps getting another chance at BC
in a couple of weeks in the bean Pot. A
lot can happen for those teams right in their league,
(35:03):
but they're really at the point where it's going to
be hard for them to move up beyond eight.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Probably I think that that's just a somewhat safe, but
you go on a little bit of a run that
it's you know, moving from you know, nine to seven,
nine to six is not ridiculous. But right now, the
separations there. I look at this and I'll know Providence
actually I mentioned between eighty two eighty six, Providence is
(35:28):
a little bit above that. So let's put them on
better footing. But you mass will be Ohio State. All
those schools should feel pretty secure. But you can't go
on six game losing streaks right now, or you can't
you know, you go the month of February without a
win and put up three ties.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
That's not going to help.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Got to find ways to make sure that you're playing
probably above five hundred hockey the rest of the way
that actually you get any of those teams into the tournament.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Now, I mean, your guys opinion, if these all these
teams are Hockey East and they've got to play each
other potentially, would you, as the committee and Jimmy, you're
doing bracketology, would you move the highest four to the
lowest three to try to get rid of in our
conference matchups because of that there's so many potentials in
(36:22):
a conference match or would you keep the bands the same?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
You well, you can't move out of bands from you know,
you've been on the committee, I guess, but you know
that the NCAA tells the general public out there that's
one thing.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
We won't do.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
We won't move teams from number three bands the number four,
the number three to the two. But the one thing
they can do if you have more than four teams
from the same conference is you can ignore that rule
about conference matchups.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
All that said, we haven't seen that done.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
We've seen the committee have opportunities to still have a
first round conference matchup, and instead they've done what we
what you're referencing to that they you know, maybe take
you know, instead of a five playing the overall twelve,
the five plays the overall ten. Of the five plays
the overall nine. Doesn't feel like as fair of a matchup.
(37:12):
But I think outside of one playing sixteen, these committees
feel like any number one he could play any number four,
and any number two se could play any number three.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Do you agree? Schools?
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Yeah, you got to remember I did it during cod
We did it during COVID.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
That was one year.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Our other year was canceled and my other year was
pretty cut and dry.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
I only die.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
I was three years on the committee, so I lost
out on legitimate being able to see how they would
move people around from where to where. I think the
bigger problem I think that people are going to have
is the buildings that people go to. That's yeah, the
attendance where they put people in, and especially if you
(37:58):
got to stick away from Acky east up south east.
So I think that there's going to be a lot.
This is a year the committee is probably going to, oh,
this could be.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
A challenge for us. It could.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
And I think, you know the one reason that has
stood out since the beginning, Allentown. If you don't have
ten state in the fields out of town, the big problem.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, let's look at teams on the bubble, and that's Michigan,
Arizona State, Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota State, UMass, Dartmouth
and Cornell and I want to say about Quinnipiac, Dartmouth,
and Cornell, You're only going to get one of those
inside the bubble, if any. Right now, Quinnipiac is a
whisker above Arizona State, and if they were there at
(38:41):
the end of the season and lost in their tournament,
that would probably be enough to take them outside the bubble.
But there's a wide range of chances to make the field.
Michigan right now is at sixty five percent, Cornell about
seventeen percent. So no more than three of those teams
we mentioned to make the tournament. We're really looking at
(39:02):
a situation where we could see six from Hockey East,
four from the Big Ten, two or three from n
and then one from the other leagues. I don't I
don't think you get more than one in ECAC right now.
This is going Am I on track with that?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
You are? I think you are ed.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
I don't see a way to get more than one
from ACAC And unless Quinnepiac goes on a runner than
losing the conference semis or finals.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Again, I.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
There's some good name, there's some big name schools that
could be left out of this. You know, Arizona State's
one they're right on the bubble, Wisconsin below. It still
needs to make sure that they stay above five hundred.
You know, a finalist from a few years ago in
Minnesota State, you know, national champion from twenty twenty one UMass.
You know, there's some in Cornell that has been in
(39:55):
a lot of tournaments of late and had some success
in the first rounds. Haven't gotten to the frozen four.
But you know, so there's a lot of teams in there.
And we go back to the last segment there schools,
why does why do emotions boil over? You lost six
to one at home when you're trying to win a
game to get you back to the right side of
the pairwise bubble.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
That you know, that was Cornell's case on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
So I think out of that that group in that Michigan,
Arizona State, Winnipiac, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota State, UMass, Cornell,
and Dartmouth, that's nine teams max is three. So you're
talking at least six of those are going to stay
home and you get some upsets in the conference tournament.
You never know, that could be seven.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
You just named it off your Cornell's kind of taken
a little bit of a dive lately.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
They've dropped a lot. They were right on that bubble, and.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
I still think that they've got an opportunity to beat
one in piac. I still don't think they they're playing,
but you got the Mic Shaffer effect down the stretch.
You don't want to let him down. They don't you
want to get to the Unstillblay tournament for him. You
still de b at Army right now with Brian Riley,
and I think that's I still think you got a
(41:06):
little bit of a thing.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
But they've got to.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
Climb a little in their league. And right now they're
playing a first round matchup as well as Cornell Is
and they've got a trip to North Country, which we
all know this weekend is in. It's never really easy
going to the North Country.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, that's kind of our prognostication on the pair wise.
We'll keep an eye on it as things continue toward
the end of the season.
Speaker 8 (41:26):
We'll wrap it there.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
This episode has been sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division
One Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Get your tickets now at NCAA dot com, Slash Frozen
four for Jim Connelly, for Derek Scooley, I'm ed Trefsker
and this has been US Echo Weekend Review
Usccho dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to US Echo Weekend review for Monday, January twenty seventh,
twenty twenty five. This episode is sponsored by the NCAA
Men's Division one Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in
Saint Louis, Missouri. Get your tickets now at NCAA dot
com slash Frozen four. I'm ed Treshger alongside Jim Connolly
(00:35):
and Derek Scooley. That was a pretty interesting weekend. Some
big matchups, and probably the biggest one was a home
and home that happened in Boston as number one BC
swept number eight BU six to two and two nothing
and as Saturday also featured a crazy protocol penalty that
(00:56):
led to the only non empty net goal of the game.
And last year, protocol violations were being called very tightly,
like a second or two, but this was more than
a second.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Jim right, it was, and it was one of the
strangest things I've ever seen. I was on the call
for these games and it listen credit to BC. They
played two really good games. BU had a lead on Friday,
but BC scored the final five goals that six to
two number on Friday a little dece evening. There were
two MP netters in that one, but Ryan Leonard with
(01:33):
the hat trick in that game. The Saturday was strange.
So we'll start with the fact that Bu brought in
a goaltender at the break, kale Goora Mike Gora from
Saint Petersburg berg Rusher. He's played the last season and
a half in Omaha on the USHL and talking to
(01:54):
Jay Pandolfha wasn't very happy with Omaha as a place
for him. Plus they were looking for potentially some goaltending
help in the second half, not feeling that was the
strength of their team in the first half. So here
J Pandolpho throws you go off to the Wolves on
Saturday night and he faces the number one team of
the country. A minute and a half before Bu was
(02:17):
supposed to go on for warm ups.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
For some reason, your go off ran on the ice.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It was almost it almost looked like an NHL rookie
lab for your first game, where the players just let
you go first.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
But he was out there for a minute and a half.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
He was out there thirty seconds before the referees even
got on the ice. If anybody's watched the college game,
they get on I believe it. I can't remember the numbers,
but they get on at one point and then one
minute later the home team comes on. Ten seconds after that,
the visiting team comes on. The fact that your go
off was on the ice that early, it meant he
(02:53):
was more than ninety seconds early. The referees assessed a
protocol penalty. BC scores twenty four seconds into the game
on a Teddy Stieger goal, and that the game ends
a one nothing game. There was an empty netter again,
Ryan Leonard into an empty net with sixty three seconds left,
but that's the only actual goal of the game.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
That's the bad news for BU.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
The good news is they may have found their next
great goaltender though, because your girl off was phenomenal in
the game. Apt landing up that early goal on a
player that he couldn't really do anything about, he was phenomenal.
So maybe Bu's found their goaltending solution for the rest
of this year and that could really make them a contender.
It was a really tough situation on Saturday, though. One
(03:37):
of the strangest things in my years of broadcast that
I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Yeah, I saw the so called rookie l App and
then I saw Dala's interview afterwards. I didn't realize it
was a minute thirty. So they put times with yours.
The referees wanted thirty nine minutes. They thirt o'clock one
hour before the game. The referees want at thirty nine minutes.
The home team goes on a thirty eight and the
(04:03):
visiting team goes out at thirty seven to fifty. They
have to be up in twenty three minutes. We talk
about this at the beginning of the year with our freshmen.
We talked about with our goaltender. We've got a freshman Boalie.
That's really it's Scott rituals. We had to back him
off of being late things like that because they have
(04:25):
been really strict with it the last years.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So when I saw this bonocop finally, I.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Was thinking, we've got out fifteen seconds, twenty seconds. They
thought it'd be ready to do a rookie lab. But
for a minute thirty that's a long time.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
Even before the officials, I don't even know the rest
of the team would have been to stop.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Sometimes players walk out right when it's time to go out.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yes, strange penalty.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yes, they took flame corning his press conference that he
didn't communicate. But I don't think that really officials had
had a choice, like we had a we had a
power playoff open the.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Year last year with end the year last year with
last give him the year of the air Force. The
guy was fifteen seconds, like getting off the ice.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
For one, I think that it's pretty cut and dry
when you got to be on, when you got to
be off, I think they will be. I think they're
a little bit mean yet with you being late than
being gone, And I don't think they while I don't
really I think that I don't think they had a choice.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Number two Michigan State. They had a blowout nine to
three win on Friday, three to three tie on Saturday,
and they won the shootout over a number four Minnesota.
So that opened up a five point lead ahead of
Minnesota in the Big Ten standings. It also meant ten
to twelve points for the Spartans against the Gophers this year,
(05:57):
twelve points ahead of third place Ohio State. That Priday
game really seems like an aberration.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Do you are we looking at a Hoby the front
runner for the Hobby and Isaac Power with twenty goals
in thirty nine points.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, he's number one. Ryan Leonard's number two right now
in scoring. That seems like two of three of you're
at trick right there.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, you've got a Western and you've got an East.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Like my our longtime friend Mike pursued it being a
Michigan State alump really been Compania Howard and I went
and looked, Wow, with the number of goals he's got
at this junction, he could end up by the time
to get to the NCAA tournament close to thirty goals,
(06:44):
which is unheard of nowadays. So you're looking at potentially
the Western nominee for take five or six in a
big game against Minnesota, that big m kinnagainst Minnesota's massive
or Michigan State and Minnesota is still struggling and shootout
to him crazy.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I feel like that was such a statement weekend for
Michigan State. It's because you combine it with the fact
that they've gotten five and six already, as you mentioned,
at ten of twelve points against This really is becoming
a two horse race in the Big ten. I don't
feel like anybody will catch it, either Michigan State or Minnesota.
(07:22):
You're talking about Minnesota and Michigan State being the two teams,
and there's no comparison when you look at the way
that they played head to head to take two wins
and then get the extra point twice, ten out of
twelve points in the Big Ten standings, and then right now,
I don't want to say that Michigan State's running away
with this thing.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
They're not. They're running away with things, but they're getting close.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
It's five points is still something you can make up
in a weekend, but I don't feel it to make
up five points in a weekend.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Michigan State has to get swept.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
This is not a team that feels like they're that
capable of getting swept.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
I think the big thing that people under that don't
get is how big us we bid, especially with the
team that you're even with, so you just put a
big gap between them, and I think that's the one
thing it's hard to sweep. And college hockey now, even
if you have one big game, the team comes out
with desperation and it would have been it's I think
(08:21):
we've had three.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
That share two four and two or four two four
two against and it's hard.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
It's hard with when you're playing that man weekends to
get a sweepboard again.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Swapped number twelve. You mass Lowell ended a three game
losing streak, a three to three tie and they want
to shootout and one nothing win over Providence. The game
winning goal in the one nothing went on Saturday came
with just ten seconds remaining, which seems to have been
sort of the story of a few games this weekend.
But how about you mass Lowe. We've been talking about
(08:52):
what a turnaround it was from an uncharacteristically bad season
last year.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, and they were really rolling and then they
hit a speed bump with Maine very good main team,
and then the loss they took the Stonehill is one
that had to shake in your head.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
But what a bounce back.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And Providence not the team that they probably wanted to
see on their schedule, knowing that they needed to get
good weekend. Because somebody sent this statle on to me,
Norm bays it ins most losses in his coaching career
have actually come to Providence College. You have Boston College,
you know, Boston University in your league, and the team
his Ripper Hawks have lost to the most is Provident.
(09:34):
So they never led on Friday night came back from
two to nothing down and three to two down tied
to that game, they went in a shootout and then
the Lake Goual Pearson Brandon the Colgate transfer ten seconds left,
breaks off the glove of as Zach Borgiale goes in
the net, and you know, Lowell goes out and gets
(09:55):
five points. This weekend, So the Hockey East standings were
beginning to have this big separation between fourth and fifth.
Fifth was Providence and Lowell Tide, but they were seven
points in back of everybody else.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
They're now suddenly, you know, growing a little bit closer.
And here we you know, it.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Was one of those weekends if either team could take
five or six points, you'd put some you know, you'd
put some distance train the opponent and you'd also get
back into that race.
Speaker 7 (10:23):
For top four. That's what Lowell did this weekend. Dick
tucke East teams and I know that the Steve Metcalf
last week in all in the top ten. Right now,
Schools of the Peer sick.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
And we were really I was really concerned after that
s don't have lost for Wall. I thought that would
be a loss that they would come back to bite
them at the end and maybe it's still well, but
what a good bounce back for them to get that
kind of points against the hot Providence team when, like
we just talked about with sweeps, when you're getting and
(11:02):
when you're getting five or six points, you're really put
the distance or you're closing some ground quickly. And those
are massive, massive points for lolet. I think they probably
had a lot to prove to themselves after letting pairwise
points and get away from you don't want to say
league points, but pairwise points and a loss of their
(11:25):
record get away from them against ston'eh.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
The one other thing too, and Providence was red hot.
Now they have suddenly slowed. You know, they two losses
last weekend to Boston College. Now two games without a
win this weekend that you know, o three and one
in their last four after they had had you know,
that eight game winning streak. That's that it feels like
now they need that get right weekend. They'll have to
(11:50):
face a pretty good Yukon team this weekend. That's gonna
be a tough one.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I mean, you're talking to Yukon in the top four
right now, tied for fourth with that's.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
A massive statement for them.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
I know, we'll talk about the Kinnectic dice, but you've
got that's a that's going to be even a bigger
challenge for.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Providence number eleven. Arizona State number nineteen. Colorado College played
in the Desert in the NCCHC Arizona State one on
Friday four to one, and it looked like they were
going to do a repeat. Up four to one on
Saturday in the third CC had scored once already in
the third period and then scored four more times in
eight minutes to salvage the victory and split the series.
(12:31):
That was a much needed win for CC, and it
moved Arizona State down a little in the standings because
of Western Michigan sweep, which we'll get to.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
But that must have been a fun one.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
That's a crazy one.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I mean, you know, you're down four one, and it
was even one of those games like you know, down
four one, you just you know, usually scrape it back,
you get you know, sometimes you need two extra attacker
goals in there just to pull the game.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Even then you win in over time.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Oh, CC completely their comeback and still had five and
a half minutes left in the game. That was just
such an incredible eight minute span there in the third
period where they took control of the game on the road.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I mean, that's that's a statement game right there for CC.
How about Omaha, I'm just going to the standings.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
We've been pumping Arizona State's tires and being number one,
but Omaha now with the same amount of games, has
passed Arizona State in the standard. And you talk, I know,
we're going to talk about tiers. There's starting to be
at tiers in the NCCHC, and Arizona State's in that
upper tier unused to seeing. And granted, Denver, North Dakota
(13:43):
and Western have games in hand, but you're starting to
see it tiers. And even if Denver and on North
Dakota got all their points, they're still two points behind
Arizona State, three points behind Omaha.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
This is becoming a.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Challenge or Miami still can't get that win. They played
close on Saturday, and I'm sure nobody felt sorry for
anybody right now, but you got they got to get
some They got to get some one from somebody, don't
they Sooner or later.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You'd think so, well, there are going to be a
lot of if you excuse to play on words tiers
in the NCCHC when it comes to the postseason, if
things keep going the way they are, because right now
only two teams are in, we'll get to that in
our second segment tonight today we'll get to that in
our second segment, Number thirteen. Yukon won its first Connecticut
Ice tournament two to one win on Friday over number
(14:40):
fifteen Quinnipiac and a one nothing win over Sacred Heart
on Saturday in the championship. Ryan Taddle had both goals
for Yukon on Friday, including the game winning goal on
the power play with a half a second left on
the clock. Valer Music made twenty three saves for the
shoutout in the finals, and Derek mentioned this. But in
(15:00):
the month of January, Yukon went from eighteenth place to
fourth in the pairwise going six toh in one so
far this month. All of a sudden, Yukon in the
mix of things. From what I understand though from the
tournament that it was a terrific tournament. Sacred Heart has
just a gem of an arena there in the Martiri
(15:21):
Family arena, and Mike Kevanaugh was talking about how terrific
an event it was besides being very happy for his squad, just.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Looking at the crowds, they were phenomenal.
Speaker 8 (15:33):
All four schools.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
The team brought bands and Yukon brought them. It droves,
So you know that's this tournament will survive if it
gets good support from the fan base. It's just like
the bean Pot. It's just so early stages. You know,
there's a lot for this tournament to do in growth.
But I don't remember a team jumping this much to
(15:57):
the pair wise this quickly. Maybe I I kind of
remember Northeastern a few years ago being in the thirties
in January, maybe it was even late December, But this
is January one.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
You're eighteenth in the pairwise.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Before we even get to February one, you've jumped all
the way up to number four. Phenomenal, and now you
have two against Providence this weekend. You pull a couple
of wins Thera FY, you're going to solidify yourself in
that top four. It's unprecedented how quickly they've moved up.
And you know, this is a team that still has
(16:32):
never played in an NCAA turn. They're looking for their
first one, and right now they're in a position that
you have to think that they're probably going to get
into the NC double as you have to feel so
good for Mike Cavani on his squad.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
If you look at who they've played, and I think
that shows you why they've had such a big jump,
and they keep beating really good teams and they're one
blemish is a shootout loss at May and it's on
the road, so it was a tie.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
So I think that shows you. Back to your point
about the Connecticut Ice Tournament.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
I think one of the things that really makes set really,
like you said, survive and go, is I think they
know what they are right now. I think they tried
to play in Bridgeport, they were okay in crowds, playing
it on campus and rotating it from building to building.
I think that's a pretty cool way to go about it.
(17:26):
You're guaranteed to sell out at least one of the games.
You bring the other teams to at least one of
the games a day, and then the other one brings
fans and they for the semis and potentially for the finals.
So you're looking at big crowds for each game. And
I think that's a really neat way to do it.
By not growing it too big, not trying to put
it in a nine thousand keep it in the three
(17:48):
to four thousand seed arenas like Yukon and Quinnipiac and
Sacred Heart at Yale. Keep it in that, but have
it bang out the attendance, bang out the crowds, and
they say to have done that.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, and they can do that now that everybody has
a really nice rink. You've got the tradition of the
Yale Whale and brand new facilities for Yukon and Sacred
Heart and a very nice facility that's not that old
either for Quinnipiac. So yeah, the whole thing makes a
lot of sense and I hope they can keep it rolling.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And that was a standardroom crowd championship game.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
You're talking about a building that's at that list their
capacity at thirty six hundred forty one seventy seventy announced crowd.
I down it's Sacred Heart for that championship. So congratulations,
that's a great event. I want to see that to grow.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Number three, Western Michigan held serve. They had a pair
of wins over last place Miami in the NCCHC. Western
is top the NCCHC is still one point ahead of Omaha.
We talked about them, but Western Michigan has two games
in hand, so that's six straight victories for the Broncos
and they're now number six in the pair wise.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Let's see Alma Mater.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
So we've been saying in their praises for a whole
year and they took they did what they needed to do,
and you look at I talked about Miami before and they.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Got to get something. Only somebody gets eliminae from the tournament.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
I believe they show I think only eight of eight
of the team to make the tournament. So Miami is
obviously that one. So their games down the stretch are
going to be difficult, hard. They're going to play with
all their might because they are ahead of people in games.
They did play a lot of games early, so you're
going to see them play. It was like every game's
(19:34):
for playoff game to try to build for this young team,
and they got They got some challenges. I've got Arizona
State at home this coming week and then Colorall College
Denver to loose Western again if they're gonna Western took
care of business, but it wasn't as easy as it
should have been. On game two, Miami kept it close.
(19:56):
They're going to get somebody. I still believe they're going
to get somebody. And my I know that you said
that a team gets eliminated. I don't think a team
does get eliminated in the NCD.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I think eight and nine travel to the number one
seed and play like a play in game early in
the week before they play their best at three quarterfinal series.
So that could be where the upsets start happening. If
you're if you're Miami, you're right. They're playing teams very
tight right now. Every every game it seems that you
know they're in, but you know, still the single point
(20:28):
in the NCC standings that surprises me. I want to
go to the other side of this though, in Western Michigan,
and you know, we've been talking about Western for so long.
I feel like it's almost since you've been on this podcast.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Schools.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
You know, you're al Lamada and the ability to talk
about them. But they've been playing well in the years
that we've all been together here. Now it's what's the
next step. Will it be winning an NCC tournament well
or even a regular season They've never done that. If
they could win a regular season titled will it be
(21:01):
advancing in the NCAA Tournament because they haven't gotten to
that frozen four yet.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
You know they do a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well, I just that's I guess that's the building block, right,
It's what is the next step for this Western Michigan program?
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Can I say that, pump my own tires and say
that I am correct and I'm right on that one.
Following the regular season, the four higher seeds will host
four lower seeds. Number one seed will host number eight.
It even actually says, although the NCCH seed now has
nine members, only the top eight finishers in the regular
(21:35):
season standings will qualify for the NCC playoffs.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Does anybody else remember that format that was talked about
where they I think they did.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I think they announced it.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
I think they went back and changed it when Arizona
State got in the league.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
They announced it because you are correct.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
But then I remember talking with somebody that I knew
they went to eight.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
So I'm just quoting their website right now. I shouldn't
doubt a coach on that.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
If anybody's going to know how many teams make the
playoffs and each think it's a coach.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
So I shouldn't have doubted your schools.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Well.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
I think one of the things that everybody always talks about,
do the bottom teams deserve to be in? And I
think they do, And that's something that we've always fought for.
In Atlantic hockey, everybody deserves the playoff opportunity. No basketball
in their tournaments. Very rarely do they knock teams out.
Sometimes I do, but very rarely. Everybody deserves the playoff
(22:28):
opportunity in college hockey, whether it's one game. If you
can't win the one game at home against the bottom team,
and you probably didn't deserve to be there, or you
probably didn't deserve to You don't didn't deserve to advance.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
You weren't winning the conference championship if you can't beat
the last plays team.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Correct, and then you know what we were last year?
We went in, we beat Bentley, and what did the
number one seed.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Do to us?
Speaker 5 (22:50):
They swept us like they should. But everybody deserves that
opportunity within the playoffs. And the reason that I knew
that almost all the I think they're the only ones
now they might be the only ones that don't have
everybody in their playoffs.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Now, yeah, I think they really should. And here's why,
I think really only ECAC maybe CCHA, but I know
ECAC for sure has a balance schedule. Everybody plays everybody
else the rock amount of times. The rest of the
leagues do not, And if you're not playing the same schedule,
then you should let everybody in.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
You're one hundred percent right. Sometimes even this year, with that,
you're going to have sometimes teams play one more home
game than the other team.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
It's not balanced.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
So you are one hundred practice the schedule is balanced
and everything was all equal and all fair, then absolutely,
until it's all balanced, I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Ed one more before the break in. This one kind
of ended a little ugly. Actually there were two ugly endings,
but this one was the uglier one. Cornell and Dartmouth
had a heated game on Saturday night that boiled over
at the buzzer. Six players, three from each team were
assessed game disqualifications and they're going to miss at least
the next game. Dartmouth won that six to one, and
(24:09):
then this was after everything was done. There was a
bit of a melee. I only saw a little bit
of fan video, so maybe you guys can fill in
the picture.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, it's schools. I think you've seen them. I've seen
that same fan video head from the corner. That didn't
tell me much, But you saw attle More schools.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Yeah, So I saw it and I went on Hulu
and ESPN Plus and watched the end of it.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
There was a big cross check.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
They had a five month three at the end of
the game Dartmouth did and there was a bit. There
was a crosscheck and then a guy they got into it.
It all rope. It ended and then they pammed the
Dartmouth celebrating out in front of the line of me,
like literally up against the glass. All that, and then
(24:55):
next scene three or four corn All players sprinting down
and jumping into their pile, and it got a little testy.
You had the coaches on the ice trying to break
it up, and coaches with the referees and players, and
it was there were some legitimate punches on in that one.
(25:16):
I was I went I saw the same video of
you guys. I went on and looked at it. Didn't
It was a good little scuffle. I watched it twice.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
There was a little bit at the end of the
Holy Cross game at air Force, a little bit of
bumping that boiled over and a couple of players and
each team tossed with DQ's the same thing. Six '
three win in that one, a late empty net goal
for the Crusaders.
Speaker 8 (25:43):
You hate to see this one.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think the Air Force one maybe was not anywhere
near as much as what happened with Cornell and Dartmouth.
But you know, you got your playing for sixty minutes
with your emotions right on the edge, and maybe somebody
says something or somebody shoves somebody, and next thing you know,
you got a mess.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
I think you're also in the Air Force solely cross
type series that's one hundred and twenty minutes, so you're
when you're playing a series, it gets heated and no
matter what, Like Brian Riley and I talked about it,
we had some massive battles way back when, and Robert
Morris and their army and we had some big ones
(26:20):
and our Friday night game was tame. We both we
were talking about before the game, we'll go saying that
it's probably going to get a little nuts this game,
and it's hard to keep everybody's emotions in check, and
frustrations battle Cornell's case that they're frustrations battled, and they
were they lost six to one at home and they're
(26:41):
battling for their their pair wise lives right now, so
they they got frustrated, and like you said, a lot
of dequeues and then you look on the box for
the Air Force holy Cross and a couple more dequeus
and always after holy Cross sweeps Air Force, and usually
after losses, that's when things there was some bumping, like
(27:02):
you said, ed, but usually that happens to where things
just get out of hand for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It also I think it's the time of the year, right,
you know what's going What every game means, not that
October game is not mean. We say that all the time.
October games mean the same as March games. But it's
human instinct. When you are running out of opportunities to
make up ground or to win that game that you
need to that will move you up in the pair wise,
(27:30):
when you lose that opportunity, the human emotions come out.
And if you've been playing for two nights straight and
you've been banging and you know somebody's gotten under your skin,
the odds of something boiling over at the last minute happens.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
And when games get out of hand. It's even for us.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Well, we mentioned pairwise a few times. We're going to
talk about that when we return. This episode is sponsored
by the NCAA Men's d one Frozen four April tenth
and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
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Buy your seats today at NCAAA dot com. So that's
Frozen Pool.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
We're back with usc CHO Weekend Review. We're going to
take a look at the pair wise. This is the
time of year when things are really starting to solidify,
and Jim has helpfully separated things into four tiers. As
we talk about tears, there'll be tiers outside of these
four tiers. The top one Boston College, Michigan State. Both
(29:01):
of those teams are more than four hundreds of a
percentage point ahead of the closest challenger, and that's really
at this time of year, it's a massive difference. It's
really hard to knock either of those teams out of
the top two or even out of the top four.
Speaker 8 (29:15):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
You're talking about well below one percent chance that these
two teams are not both number one seeds, and the
odds of them being the number one in number two seeds.
Maybe it's BC is number one, maybe it's Michigan State
is number one. The odds of that happening in the
mid nineties ninety two percent chance that they're going to
(29:37):
be the top seeds. One of the these two teams
will be one and two in either order. They've just
separated themselves. So this tier. You know, when I really
look at BC and Michigan State, I don't see either
one of them being caught by anyone. And if they
punch your ticket, there's no way they're not making the tournament.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Yeah, you know what if you look at you brought
up this next show we do next week is February. Yes,
so we're here in the pair wise this is you always,
we always the dreaded p word potential and pair wise
we're here and you're seeing it. I mean, they're pretty
close to I don't know what the numbers are, and
(30:22):
you're the pair wise guru, but they're getting pretty close
to being a lock for number one and maybe even
starting to become a lock for number one and two.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Might be AC is seventy two percent to be the
number one seed, Michigan State is number is twenty seven
percent to be that number one seed. The only other
team that even have it a fighting chance, really you're
probably minnesot It's probably Minnesota that's the only other team
that can get into that No.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Overall spot. I'm going to go back to your Jimmy
Connolly math course.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Seventy two percent plus, would you say twenty seven percent?
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, that's ninety nine. I'll give Minnesota the last one percent.
I know that there's a number of teams that have,
you know, fractional fractional lots to get into that number ones.
But now it's it's it's either BC here Michigan State,
and number two is going to be either PCRE Michigan State.
Speaker 8 (31:17):
So you're saying there's a chance, there's.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Yeah, something about Mary. Maybe that was not something about Mary.
That was dummery yeah, I get all my Barrely movies
mixed up.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Second tier a bunch of teams trying to squeeze into
that third and fourth spot. Minnesota, Yukon we talked to,
they came out of nowhere this month, Maine, Western, Michigan,
and Denver. They're all pretty tight and they'll probably bump
around a little bit, but there is quite a drop
off from number seven Denver and number eight Providence, and
we may be seeing teams move in and out of
(31:54):
the top four all the way up to the last
night of the season when the championships are played.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
There's a big gap between seven and eight. So really,
right now, I look at it as a couple different battles. One,
you're looking at a battle of the three and four,
but then you're also looking at the battle of five six, okay,
because you want to make sure you're in that. And
then obviously seven wants to hold off eight the eight area.
(32:22):
So I think that there's a couple different battles in
there because you want to make sure that one, if
you're a two seed, you want to be playing the
lower band of the threes. So I think that's why
that's important, because you don't want to if everything's so
close between eight, nine and ten, you want to be
(32:43):
five or six playing eleven and twelve in that band.
So I think that's why there's a couple different battles
in there. You have the battle to be three and four,
and then you have the battle for five and six,
And I just I'm going off of my experience of
being on the committee to where I think that those
bands right there are going to be really important, especially
(33:04):
with the five and six compared to the seven and eight,
as everybody looked like.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
The interesting thing about that.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I was actually writing out some notes before this just
to start bracketology after we get off the air, and
there's so many teams from Hockey East and the number
two and number three seed bands that that everything you
just talked about, a number five seed might have to
play at number nine, which doesn't seem fair. Or five
(33:33):
should be playing twelve, you know, nine should be playing eight.
But there's there could be some things with conference matchups
in that first round that could screw up the kind
of the bracket integrity of it all.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
The other thing I wanted to point out too right now.
Four is Yukon, five is Western, six is me. But
Maine and Yukon, let's just use their head to head comparison.
You know, you feel like Maine has had a pretty
good seat. Is actually an incredible season, bought the game
that they played against Yukon and the fact that it
(34:05):
was a tie and a loss against Yukon, that that
actually could keep the it'll make it'll make it more
difficult for the Black Bears to pass Yukon in the
pairwise because of the fact that they're head to head
series went to Yukon.
Speaker 8 (34:18):
Well, let's look at the next tier.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
There's quite a drop off, as we mentioned, from Denver
to Providence, and you got three Hockey East teams in
that third tier, Providence U Mess Lowell, Boston University, and
then Big ten's Ohio State Jim. The numbers that you
put together, say eighty two to eighty six percent chance
of making the tournament. Now that's not a lot, but
(34:40):
it's getting pretty secure. And usually when we get to
this time of year, the top eight or so are
pretty much guaranteed to be in. These are the ones
on the edge. And when you look at Providence, you
Mess Loll and BU With all the Hockey East action
going on and bu perhaps getting another chance at BC
in a couple of weeks in the bean Pot. A
lot can happen for those teams right in their league,
(35:03):
but they're really at the point where it's going to
be hard for them to move up beyond eight.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Probably I think that that's just a somewhat safe, but
you go on a little bit of a run that
it's you know, moving from you know, nine to seven,
nine to six is not ridiculous. But right now, the
separations there. I look at this and I'll know Providence
actually I mentioned between eighty two eighty six, Providence is
(35:28):
a little bit above that. So let's put them on
better footing. But you mass will be Ohio State. All
those schools should feel pretty secure. But you can't go
on six game losing streaks right now, or you can't
you know, you go the month of February without a
win and put up three ties.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
That's not going to help.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Got to find ways to make sure that you're playing
probably above five hundred hockey the rest of the way
that actually you get any of those teams into the tournament.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Now, I mean, your guys opinion, if these all these
teams are Hockey East and they've got to play each
other potentially, would you, as the committee and Jimmy, you're
doing bracketology, would you move the highest four to the
lowest three to try to get rid of in our
conference matchups because of that there's so many potentials in
(36:22):
a conference match or would you keep the bands the same?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
You well, you can't move out of bands from you know,
you've been on the committee, I guess, but you know
that the NCAA tells the general public out there that's
one thing.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
We won't do.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
We won't move teams from number three bands the number four,
the number three to the two. But the one thing
they can do if you have more than four teams
from the same conference is you can ignore that rule
about conference matchups.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
All that said, we haven't seen that done.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
We've seen the committee have opportunities to still have a
first round conference matchup, and instead they've done what we
what you're referencing to that they you know, maybe take
you know, instead of a five playing the overall twelve,
the five plays the overall ten. Of the five plays
the overall nine. Doesn't feel like as fair of a matchup.
(37:12):
But I think outside of one playing sixteen, these committees
feel like any number one he could play any number four,
and any number two se could play any number three.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Do you agree? Schools?
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Yeah, you got to remember I did it during cod
We did it during COVID.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
That was one year.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Our other year was canceled and my other year was
pretty cut and dry.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
I only die.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
I was three years on the committee, so I lost
out on legitimate being able to see how they would
move people around from where to where. I think the
bigger problem I think that people are going to have
is the buildings that people go to. That's yeah, the
attendance where they put people in, and especially if you
(37:58):
got to stick away from Acky east up south east.
So I think that there's going to be a lot.
This is a year the committee is probably going to, oh,
this could be.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
A challenge for us. It could.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
And I think, you know the one reason that has
stood out since the beginning, Allentown. If you don't have
ten state in the fields out of town, the big problem.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, let's look at teams on the bubble, and that's Michigan,
Arizona State, Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota State, UMass, Dartmouth
and Cornell and I want to say about Quinnipiac, Dartmouth,
and Cornell, You're only going to get one of those
inside the bubble, if any. Right now, Quinnipiac is a
whisker above Arizona State, and if they were there at
(38:41):
the end of the season and lost in their tournament,
that would probably be enough to take them outside the bubble.
But there's a wide range of chances to make the field.
Michigan right now is at sixty five percent, Cornell about
seventeen percent. So no more than three of those teams
we mentioned to make the tournament. We're really looking at
(39:02):
a situation where we could see six from Hockey East,
four from the Big Ten, two or three from n
and then one from the other leagues. I don't I
don't think you get more than one in ECAC right now.
This is going Am I on track with that?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
You are? I think you are ed.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
I don't see a way to get more than one
from ACAC And unless Quinnepiac goes on a runner than
losing the conference semis or finals.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Again, I.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
There's some good name, there's some big name schools that
could be left out of this. You know, Arizona State's
one they're right on the bubble, Wisconsin below. It still
needs to make sure that they stay above five hundred.
You know, a finalist from a few years ago in
Minnesota State, you know, national champion from twenty twenty one UMass.
You know, there's some in Cornell that has been in
(39:55):
a lot of tournaments of late and had some success
in the first rounds. Haven't gotten to the frozen four.
But you know, so there's a lot of teams in there.
And we go back to the last segment there schools,
why does why do emotions boil over? You lost six
to one at home when you're trying to win a
game to get you back to the right side of
the pairwise bubble.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
That you know, that was Cornell's case on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
So I think out of that that group in that Michigan,
Arizona State, Winnipiac, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota State, UMass, Cornell,
and Dartmouth, that's nine teams max is three. So you're
talking at least six of those are going to stay
home and you get some upsets in the conference tournament.
You never know, that could be seven.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
You just named it off your Cornell's kind of taken
a little bit of a dive lately.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
They've dropped a lot. They were right on that bubble, and.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
I still think that they've got an opportunity to beat
one in piac. I still don't think they they're playing,
but you got the Mic Shaffer effect down the stretch.
You don't want to let him down. They don't you
want to get to the Unstillblay tournament for him. You
still de b at Army right now with Brian Riley,
and I think that's I still think you got a
(41:06):
little bit of a thing.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
But they've got to.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
Climb a little in their league. And right now they're
playing a first round matchup as well as Cornell Is
and they've got a trip to North Country, which we
all know this weekend is in. It's never really easy
going to the North Country.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, that's kind of our prognostication on the pair wise.
We'll keep an eye on it as things continue toward
the end of the season.
Speaker 8 (41:26):
We'll wrap it there.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
This episode has been sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division
One Frozen four April tenth and twelfth in Saint Louis.
Get your tickets now at NCAA dot com, Slash Frozen
four for Jim Connelly, for Derek Scooley, I'm ed Trefsker
and this has been US Echo Weekend Review
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