Another week, another career milestone reached. We also look ahead at some intriguing matchups that can play huge roles in the pairwise and conference tournaments. Speaking of the pairwise, we also discuss that briefly and the effect these upcoming games can have on it.
Gustavus’ Katie McCoy
Gustavus has yet another player breaking records, this time it’s goaltender Katie McCoy who’s having a stellar season thus far. Holding a record of 17-3 with a .943 save-percentage. Most recently she recorded her 25th career shutout victory, passing Danielle Justice (2004-2008) for the most in Gustavus program history and ranks 5th all-time in NCAA D-III Women’s hockey history. Currently, she’s 2nd in career shutouts for active D-III women’s goalies, trailing only UW-Eau Claire’s Stephanie Martin who currently has 27 in her illustrious career.
Gustavus hosts Concordia (Minn.) this weekend for a pair of games on February 10/11 at 7pm/2pm CT where the Gusties will be celebrating Senior Day on Saturday.
Looking Ahead
As the season comes to a close, that means these games can have more weight to them in terms of conference seeding and pairwise rankings since there’s less and less you can do to improve your RPI (ratings percentage index) once the games become scarcer. These last two weeks out west we have some massive conference matchups that can mean so much for certain programs depending on the result.
NCHA
To start, let’s look at the NCHA who’s had a coming out party as of the past few years, having multiple teams hold relatively high rankings nationally and one being consistently top-5. This weekend, #5 Adrian (19-2) visits Aurora (17-3-1) for a two-game weekend series which will hold big NCHA implications as Aurora will have completed all of their conference games. Aurora would lock up the #2 spot behind St. Norbert if they were to sweep Adrian, but Adrian needs to win only one game to then challenge St. Norbert for the top spot in the conference.
For Aurora, this series isn’t necessarily a must-win, they’ll have at worst the 3-seed and sitting at #18 in pairwise, they have a very little, if any, chance of getting an at-large bid when things are all said and done. Adrian on the other hand, wanting revenge against the Spartans after they eliminated them in the NCHA semifinals last season, look to gain momentum for the end of the year showdown with current top-seeded St. Norbert.
Norbert (17-3-3 overall, 13-0-1 conference), currently five points ahead of Adrian and four of Aurora, needs to only win one game vs Adrian to win the regular season title; if Adrian wins out or splits with Aurora and sweeps SNC, they’ll win the NCHA regular season title. Adrian visits SNC for a two-game series the last weekend of the regular season February 17-18. Adrian is nearly a lock for an at-large bid even if disaster strikes, Aurora will need to win the conference tournament, and St. Norbert is on the border for an at-large considering what remains in front of them. It should be a fun two weeks.
WIAC
Now we have the WIAC, which unfortunately their conference tournament means nothing in terms of an automatic bid, but for a team like UW-Eau Claire, it’s a necessity as they need to get as much pairwise credit as possible. Currently, UW-River Falls (20-2) holds command of an at-large bid, sitting at #3 in pairwise. Meanwhile, UW-Eau Claire (17-3-1) is fighting for a bid, sitting at #11 in pairwise, needing to win their next two games before their two-game, home/away, season series finale vs UW-River Falls. If the Blugolds can split the series with UWRF, then meet them in the title game of the WIAC and it’s not really known whether a win would be needed to secure an at-large bid or whether they could obtain one by winning 1 of 3 games vs RF. It’ll be interesting to see considering UWEC’s RPI will go up significantly just based on the fact they’ll have three games vs the #3 ranked pairwise team added to their resume late in the year.
It’ll be an interesting last few weeks as UW-River Falls has an at-large bid locked up, meanwhile UW-Eau Claire’s fate is in their hands as they’re getting a trio of games vs UWRF which can project them into the NCAA tournament field.
MIAC
Gustavus (18-3-0 overall, 13-1-0 conference) has the regular season title in their sights, four league games remaining, holding a five-point lead over Augsburg and seven over St. Olaf. In the MIAC, unless a team other than Gustavus wins the conference title, Gustavus will be the only team headed to the NCAA tournament and no at-large bids will come from this conference as in the pairwise rankings, the next highest team besides the Gusties is Augsburg at #16 which at this point in the year is too low for them to make a charge up considering who’s in front of them.
I’m not saying the MIAC is decided, but I’m saying the regular season title is going to Gustavus and anything can happen in the tournament, but I’d still bet on Gustavus to be the lone MIAC team in the NCAA tournament.
