This Week in College Hockey

Submitted by Canadian on

I am hoping to turn this into a regular series of posts including a recap post earlier in the week. I just hope to make this into something college hockey fans on this site can turn to and be updated and slightly informed on what is going on around the country. In the preview posts I will list out all games involving the pairwise top 20, B1G games, and Michigan Opponents (past and future).

Lets try this out:

Week 18:

Friday, January 23 (all rankings are Pairwise ranks as of 1/22 and all times in EST)

5:00 #5 Minnesota-Duluth  vs  #38 Bemidji State

7:00 #29 Ohio State @  #41 Michigan State

7:00 #27 Northern Michigan @  #22 Penn State

7:00 #50 Air Force @  #58 American International

7:00 #26 Alaska @  #11 Michigan Tech

7:00 #8 Boston University @  #12 Vermont

7:00 #36 New Hampshire @  #49 Maine

7:00 #36 Dartmouth @ #16 Colgate

7:00 #7 Harvard @  #30 Cornell

7:00 #10 Yale @ #23 St. Lawrence

7:00 #50 Massachusetts @ #16 Merrimack

7:00 #53 Lake Superior @ #3 Bowling Green

7:15 #14 Providence @ #9 UMass-Lowell

7:30 #12 Denver @ #6 Miami

8:00 #1 Minnesota State vs #19 Minnesota

8:00 #42 Colorado College @ #4 North Dakota

9:00 #15 Michigan @ #54 Wisconsin

Key Games:

- Penn State steps out of conference play to host a top 30 opponent at Pegula with the chance to help out their conference members RPI marginally.

- UMass-Lowell (a top 10 team Michigan beat on the road earlier this season) has a chance to knock off a top15 opponent at home.

- Ohio State travels to East Lansing in a matchup of middle of the road B1G teams.

- Michigan travels out to Madison and NEEDS to sweep all 6 points to keep their at-large bid hopes alive if they were to falter at the B1G Tournament. Wisconsin goaltender Joel Rumpel will provide a tough test for Michigan's high powered offense but the key to this series is Michigan playing solid defense.

- Huge Tournament taking place in St. Paul Minnesota. It is known as the North Star College Cup and features 3 teams in the top 20 of the Pairwise rankings heading into the weekend. For Michigan fans we should be rooting for Minnesota to win the tournament for the 2nd consecutive year (just started last year) and the first step to do that is beating the #1 team in the nation Friday night. The setup is just like the GLI in that you play one game and then the losers play in a 3rd place game and the winners meet up in a championship game; so it is possible Minnesota could pick up 2 Top 5 wins this weekend which would be a help for not only their resume but help Michigan's too.

Saturday January 24

4:30 #27 Northern Michigan @ #22 Penn State

5:00 North Star College Cup 3rd Place Game

7:00 #29 Ohio State @ #41 Michigan State

7:00 #9 UMass-Lowell @ #14 Providence

7:00 #26 Alaska @ #11 Michigan Tech

7:00 #50 Air Force @ #58 American International

7:00 #8 Boston University @ #12 Vermont

7:00 #7 Harvard @ #16 Colgate

7:00 #16 Merrimack @ #50 Massachusetts

7:00 #12 Denver @ #6 Miami

7:00 #53 Lake Superior @ #3 Bowling Green

7:30 #39 Rensselaer @ #33 Union

8:00 North Star College Cup Championship Game

8:00 #15 Michigan @ #54 Wisconsin

8:00 #42 Colorado College @ #4 North Dakota

New Key Games:

- UMass-Lowell flips around for the second half of the home and home with #14 Providence and a road win for a team that Michigan beat is helpful

- Air Force travels and faces #58 American International. hey Michigan beat AIT and why not hope they can win a game against a fellow bottom 10 team??

- RPI goes on the road for a one game weekend against a slightly higher ranked Union squad. For Michigan fans it will be a nice gift for RPI to pick up the road win. GO ENGINEERS!

- Hopefully Minnesota is in the championship of the North Star College Cup and facing #5 Minnesota-Duluth. It is important for Minnesota to win at least one game this weekend and to do so they will need to beat a top 5 opponent or Bemidji State (#38) if they meet up in 3rd place game. Obviously Top 5 win(s) for a team Michigan holds a 2-0-0 record against would be a boost for the RPIs of B1G teams (most importantly Michigan).

Tuesday January 27

7:00 #16 Merrimack @ #34 Connecticut

any relevance??

yes. While the RPI difference between Michigan and Merrimack is small the record among common opponents leans Michigan's way which at worst would leave them in a 1-1 tie (1 point for RPI in Merrimack's favor and 1 point for common opponents in Michigan's favor) leaving it impossible for Merrimack to pass Michigan in the Pairwise rankings (they could be tied with Merrimack holding tiebreaker (RPI)). GO UCONN!!

3 things Michigan "needs"

- Penn State defending home ice

- Minnesota going no worse than 1-1

- Michigan 6 point sweep.

 

link to pairwise rankings http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pairwise-rankings/d-i-men/

Comments

Canadian

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:01 PM ^

While I think NU could be successful it doesn't look like this proposal includes a facility to seat the numbers for anything bigger than youth hockey.
I am surprised and disappointed there hasn't been any movement amongst B1G schools in terms of adding a hockey program. I know it's expensive but I think that it could be successful in places like Northwestern, Illinois and hell even Rutgers. I know shortly after RU announced they were joining the B1G there was some hope from people at Rutgers they would add Hockey to Varsity status.

justingoblue

January 23rd, 2015 at 6:01 PM ^

It's pretty simple, really. The demographics in elite hockey skew towards very well off, educated families, especially outside of Michigan, Minnesota and Massachusetts (although it's generally the case in those places as well). An awful lot of elite youth hockey players come from an upper middle class background where tutors and SAT coaches and parents who have been through the education system are common, not to mention all of the other demographic predictors on their side.

There are AAA clubs where it can run $15,000 per year for a U14 or U16 team, and some teams/places it can get significantly more expensive than that. Those dues aren't even factoring in equipment or time commitment from the parents, and most players are playing in spring leagues, going to summer camps and getting at least semi-private coaching in the offseason.

This definitely isn't every elite hockey player, but it's the same reason any sport that costs a lot of money to play will generally be successful at top notch schools.

justingoblue

January 23rd, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^

The United Center is already significantly farther away and harder to get to from Evanston than Allstate is, and the Sears Centre (while even farther away) is probably a much better fit for Northwestern than a 20k+ seat NHL stadium.

As for using their practice facility, I'd bet a lot that the current facility the Blackhawks use (The Edge in Bensenville) has more seating than this new one will. They'll use the new rink to host youth leagues and maybe some Blackhawks Alumni Association backed tournaments and showcases; it won't be a place to play high level games.

VCavman24

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:13 PM ^

Around the bubble all of the teams are very close together. Michigan was ranked #17 Wednesday morning and then after a 2-1 BC win over Merrimack we moved up to #15.

Canadian

January 22nd, 2015 at 9:06 PM ^

Yes going into the bc Merrimack game last night Michigan was tied in the 16rh spot with Colgate. But with BC winning that improves Michigan's RPI as they lost to BC in December. With the slight bump in RPI they broke the tie with Colgate and BC jumped Minnesota (who was #18). Obviously with Merrimack losing they dropped a bit which caused a few other teams to slide up a spot.

gwkrlghl

January 22nd, 2015 at 8:39 PM ^

One thing I've always hated about the live scoreboards on USCHO and CHN are that they never have the rankings next to the names. I love college hockey, but I don't know where everyone's ranked. I see Yale beat Merrimack 2-1 and I'm like "Is that an upset? Should I be surprised?"

So I'm thankful you posted the rankings here

MaizeJacket

January 23rd, 2015 at 10:28 AM ^

for people like me who did not grow up with college hockey but are trying to get into it.  One nice writeup of all the weekend's action and how it pertains to Michigan.  Good work, Canadian, I'll be here every week.

Canadian

January 23rd, 2015 at 6:34 PM ^

the plan is to be here twice a week. once on tuesday/wednesday to recap the previous week and update league standings and rankings. the second will be out on thursdays/fridays like this one. I will try and improve as i go along hope you do come back and ask the questions that you don't otherwise have the oppotunity to ask.