It’s natural for everyone to be thinking either regular-season standings or worrying about how their team will do in the conference playoffs. What is easy to lose sight of is the extremely cluttered national tournament picture.<\/p>\n
Right now, the PairWise rankings are as volitile as ever. Some perrenial powerhouses are living day to day on the tournament bubble. Here’s a look at some of the teams sitting both inside and outside of that bubble:<\/p>\n
Boston College:<\/strong> At one point this season, BC was ranked #1 in the country. Now they’re a bad couple of weeks away from their season ending. The Eagles face New Hampshire for two games this weekend to close the\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0regular season. After that, they could be looking at a playoff matchup with either Vermont or Maine with a scenario of advance or lights out.<\/p>\n Colorado College: <\/strong>Just a game over .500, CC is in the midst of a six-game winless drought and barely keeping its head above water in the race for the tournament. With two games against Denver this weekend, it could be make or break time for the Tigers.<\/p>\n Michigan State: <\/strong>There’s no question its win or go home for Michigan State in the CCHA quarterfinals. A 1-4-1 record down the stretch including a 0-2-1 record at home in its last three have sent the Spartans spiraling downward.<\/p>\n Cornell: <\/strong>At this point, you almost have to believe that Cornell will need to win its conference tournament to reach the NCAAs. Though the Big Red earned a first-round playoff bye, they’ll want to face (and beat) a team with a strong RPI in the quarterfinals and semifinals if there’s any hope for an at-large bid.<\/p>\n Adding to this list of powerhouses that have to be concerned about their NCAA position, there’s also a list of somewhat newcomers who could open a few eyes with tournament berths:<\/p>\n Michigan Tech:<\/strong> After I wrote my Blog last week regarding landmines, I received plenty of feedback that the one team overlooked was Michigan Tech. Exploding out of nowhere, if the seaosn ended today, the Huskies would be in the NCAA tournament. Sitting in the final spot on the bubble, though, they’ll have to keep up their winning ways if they hope to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1981.<\/p>\n Vermont: <\/strong>Its been a decade since the Catamounts have reached the NCAA tournament, but thanks to some quality road wins at Miami and St. Lawrence and league wins over Boston College (2), Boston University (2), Maine and UMass, Vermont is sitting square on the tournament bubble. They almost have to advance to the Hockey East final four to have any chance.<\/p>\n Massachusetts:<\/strong> Probably one of the biggest weekends in UMass hockey history is about to commence as the Minutemen will host Maine in a two-game series with home ice in the Hockey East playoffs on the line. Also at stake is a possible berth in the NCAA tournament. Should UMass sweep, it’s likely they’ll catapult a few teams to the positive side of the NCAA bubble.<\/p>\n \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Impressive Performance by Ehn<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s an update on a player who\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0I talked about earlier this season who gets little recognition. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Air Force junior forward Eric Ehn has quietly become one of the most potent offensive players in the nation, currently first among all Division I players with 60 points in just 36 games. his scoring is balanced – 24 goals (fifth in D-I) and 36 assists (second in D-I). Ehn has led his team to the most wins in school history (16; previous record was 14) and its first-ever home ice playoff berth.<\/p>\n What some people don’t recognize is the lifestyle that Ehn lives. Ehn receives no coddling because he is an athlete. Instead, like\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0all of his classmates, he is awake at the crack of dawn for military exercises, accomplishing that on top of a rigorous class schedule and, of course, the commitment to his hockey team.<\/p>\n With Air Force the third seed in this year’s Atlantic Hockey playoffs, it’s conceivable that his club could earn the league’s berth to the NCAA playoffs, a place where Ehn could display his prowess with a national audience.<\/p>\n This is the second time this season that I’ve written about Ehn in this space. Sure there are players that deserve as much recognition, particularly the talented T.J. Hensick from Michigan who continues to light things up night in and night out. But in Ehn’s case, this recognition sadly doesn’t come often enough because he doesn’t play on a high-profile club.<\/p>\n Let’s hope, though, when Hobey and All-American ballots are distributed, Ehn’s name won’t be left off.<\/p>\n League Playoffs… Drop the Puck<\/strong><\/p>\n In the strange revamp of league playoffs in recent years, this upcoming weekend is a strange one around the college hockey world. What was generally the final weekend of the regular season will be a full-out playoff series for two leagues, a rest for most of the teams in one league and a last-ditch effort for positioning in the three remaining conferences.<\/p>\n The CCHA and ECACHL will begin their playoffs with opening round, best-of-three series between seeds five through 12. Atlantic Hockey will give all of its teams except two a rest as Canisius and American International battle for a play-in spot.<\/p>\n The rest of the country will continue on with business as usual.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Two regular-season titles remains up for grabs in the CHA and WCHA. Niagara has already clinched at least a share of the title and needs but a single point from a two-game series against Alabama-Huntsville to clinch the championship outright. Minnesota needed just a tie last weekend against St. Cloud but a sweep by the Huskies leave them three points behind the Gophers with two games to play for each.<\/p>\n There are also some very key matchups for positioning and home ice. In Hockey East, a single point separates Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont with the Minutemen and Black Bears meeting in Amherst (Vermont host Mass.-Lowell in a two-game series).<\/p>\n In the WCHA, the home ice race is even more confusing with four points separating North Dakota, Colorado College, Michigan Tech and Wisconsin (Minnesota State is within that group as well but has completed its regular-season schedule). North Dakota and CC hold the upper hand, but the Sioux face St. Cloud and the Tigers sqaure off against Denver each realizing a sweep will guarantee home ice for either.<\/p>\n Wisconsin has the best matchup this weekend taking on ninth-place Minnesota-Duluth, but also has the most ground to make up, needing to leap frog Tech and CC to get into fifth place.<\/p>\n Notables<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s natural for everyone to be thinking either regular-season standings or worrying about how their team will do in the conference playoffs. What is easy to lose sight of is the extremely cluttered national tournament picture. Right now, the PairWise rankings are as volitile as ever. Some perrenial powerhouses are living day to day on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1441],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n