This Week in the WCHA: March 19, 2009

[USCHO Newsbot]

Here it is. We're finally at the culmination of the WCHA season — the Final Five. I'll try not to ramble on too long as I'm sure you all want to head on out to the Xcel Energy Center ... or the bars. I don't judge. On Brawling, Fighting and General Mischief — Year Two Last week, we found out that the penalty crackdown worked ... sort of. This week, I want to finally revisit the numbers ...

Read more at uscho.com ... (http://www.uscho.com/news/id,16908/ThisWeekintheWCHAMarch192009.html)

[A Shot and a Goal]

As a longtime Denver season ticket holder I'd enjoy seeing the Pioneers win the WCHA Final Five event. However, I think it's unlikely that will happen, and furthermore, I think there's every bit as good a chance that the Pioneers will lose both games they play this weekend. Regardless, I look forward to seeing the games on television.

[pgb-ohio]

With regard to the 13 CHECKING penalties:
I'm guessing there's a pretty mundane explanation.

As a preliminary matter, remember that in Women's Hockey, body checking is a minor penalty. But that's the only difference between the Men's & Women's game in the NCAA rules. Under these circumstances, it makes sense that the same computerized stats package would be used for both the Men & the Women.

It's just a guess on my part, but I'm thinking that putting CHECKING in all capital letters was meant as a heads-up to staff people NOT to select that option when scoring Men's games. Unfortunately it looks like that mistake was made 13 times over the course of the season. Put another way, the mistake cropped up once every ten games.

What were the actual calls? Your guess -- cross-checking -- is as good as any. Unfortunately it could very plausibly be checking from behind, or hitting after the whistle. Short of contacting each of the refs involved, it's going to be pretty much impossible to get enough information to recode those calls. The refs themselves might not remember anyhow. I'm afraid you're stuck with a small "Other" category. While that's less than ideal, it's not a disaster.

[WCHAReigns]

Was at the Thursday night WCHA play-in game and while the lower seeded team won, I don't know what the difference between Maine and UM-Mpls is that the Gophers would drop two positions while Maine moves up without even playing in their tournament this weekend. Clearly, UM-Mpls showed some flaws last night in goal tending, defense,scoring, and coaching...their only goal was a deflection off a defender and they only showed up for the last half of the third period, I dont know why Maine would move ahead of them.
And why is CC and WI ranked lower than the UM-Mpls? Gophers are 1-3 and 1-2-1, respectively, against these two teams that finished higher than the Gophers in the WCHA conference standings....WI, #3, CC, #4, Gophers, #5.
Now that CC lost in the opening round to UM-Duluth, maybe they got what they deserved but they were ranked below the Gophers even before the opening round of tournament play. CC was picked in the preseason to win the WCHA MacNaughen Cup and was a strong contender all year. This always gives cause for the opposing fans to consider the Gophers overrated.
Now tonight we will see who the best WCHA goalie is! Staylock had the slight advantage in the stats but Eidsness was clealy the reason for the UND turnaround this season and WCHA championship. I suspect a UND Broadmoor trophy would displace Denver as the #4 team in the Pairwise and consequently a #1 seed in the West Regional, Mariucci Arena.

[SCSU Euro]

Was at the Thursday night WCHA play-in game and while the lower seeded team won, I don't know what the difference between Maine and UM-Mpls is that the Gophers would drop two positions while Maine moves up without even playing in their tournament this weekend. Clearly, UM-Mpls showed some flaws last night in goal tending, defense,scoring, and coaching...their only goal was a deflection off a defender and they only showed up for the last half of the third period, I dont know why Maine would move ahead of them.
And why is CC and WI ranked lower than the UM-Mpls? Gophers are 1-3 and 1-2-1, respectively, against these two teams that finished higher than the Gophers in the WCHA conference standings....WI, #3, CC, #4, Gophers, #5.
Now that CC lost in the opening round to UM-Duluth, maybe they got what they deserved but they were ranked below the Gophers even before the opening round of tournament play. CC was picked in the preseason to win the WCHA MacNaughen Cup and was a strong contender all year. This always gives cause for the opposing fans to consider the Gophers overrated.
Now tonight we will see who the best WCHA goalie is! Staylock had the slight advantage in the stats but Eidsness was clealy the reason for the UND turnaround this season and WCHA championship. I suspect a UND Broadmoor trophy would displace Denver as the #4 team in the Pairwise and consequently a #1 seed in the West Regional, Mariucci Arena.

Simple answer to all your "Whys?": Nothing's as simple as you think it is. Every win loss or tie affects EVERYONE else's strength of schedule, it affects records against TUCs, and if someone either drops out of being a TUC or into being one, that will REALLY can affect someone's PWR. And the computer doesn't care if they lost by 8 of by a fluke goal in triple OT, just win baby!

Also... CC and UW are rated lower because they played more games than just against the Gophers. Under you logic, MN should be real high because they beat St. Cloud 6-0-0, and SCSU beat DU 3-1-0 and DU beat... on and on. Its too complicated to get into all the specifics, just sit back, watch and enjoy hockey, and let the numbers fall where they may. Oh, and Stalock is a WAY better goalie than Eidsness right now, but Eidsness is on a better TEAM.

As for the article... interesting pick going with Denver with all their injury concerns. No mention of these though (that I saw, may have skimmed over it)... does she KNOW they're out?

Lastly, in looking at penalty stats, I can tell you exactly why the WCHA had 19 less unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Matt Stephenson graduated. :D