Hockey vs Penn State Open Thread

Submitted by GoBluenoser on
Going for the sweep tonight at Yost. Already up 1 zip on a tally from Dancs

SF Wolverine

January 20th, 2018 at 9:57 PM ^

Absent some weird conference winners, this puts us in for the present.  Incredible turn to the season these last two weeks.  Lots of hard hockey to go, but this team seems to have a lot more jump and are skating hard all game.

stephenrjking

January 20th, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^

We're back to being tied with them (behind on the RPI tiebreaker). Don't recall who else was dropped besides PSU, but it's pretty obvious why passed PSU.

EDIT: This temporary move is pretty easy to explain. Minnesota passed both Penn State and Northeastern (lost 3-0 to UMass) last night, PSU due to the RPI tiebreaker. We just jumped PSU tonight, and were temporarily ahead of Northeastern until the results of their game (beat UMass 5-0) caught up. Close RPI comparisons pivoting around each other. 

We are actually being kept artificially close to Minnesota because we own the PWR comparison with them more or less permanently due to our head-to-head record. They, however, have a superior RPI and get the PWR ranking tiebreaker (important: RPI settles both ties in the PWR comparison, and in the rankings, each a separate transaction) when we have the same number of comparisons. 

stephenrjking

January 20th, 2018 at 11:11 PM ^

We dropped a spot, passed by Northeastern.

EDIT: Minnesota continues to climb as other late results come in; losses by Providence and North Dakota (finishing the wrong end of the broom here in Duluth, as UMD defends the belt) move Minnie past both in RPI and thus Pairwise and up the rankings. Note again (see my edited comment above) that Michigan continues to own its comparison with Minnesota, but they have a significantly better RPI and that allows them to achieve rankings we cannot yet reach.

enlightenedbum

January 20th, 2018 at 10:00 PM ^

M now third in the Big Ten.  One point ahead of PSU, who we have the tiebreaker over now.  One point behind OSU, who is off this weekend.  We have them next week in Columbus.  They also have two games in hand on us.  Second seed is vital because they get to host MSU in the first round, rather than having to play another member of the five team middle.

ND basically has the #1 seed and first round bye wrapped up.  Need 4 points in their last seven games.

SF Wolverine

January 20th, 2018 at 10:01 PM ^

OSU/Wiscy/MSU.  Four road games.  Seems like we need to get through those 4-2;  Then close with home and home against the Domers and a pair here against ASU.  Finish 7-3 and I'd guess we are a lock.  6-4 might even get it dome if we can get one against ND

stephenrjking

January 20th, 2018 at 10:27 PM ^

Passed PSU, but not Minny--the RPI tiebreaker still against us. Oddly, the key factor here is our loss to BG, which gives them the PWR comparison and leaves us equal to Minnesota in comparisons. A sweep of MSU would (at this moment) be enough to flip that comparison. 

I shouldn't speculate much beyond that, though, with a lot of hockey left to play and a shortage of knowledge on my own part. This conversation is screaming for Alton to clarify things.

 

mfan_in_ohio

January 20th, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^

BG wins the comparison with us based on common opponent record. The way they calculate that is to add the winning percentages of each team against common opponents, not total win-loss. Our common opponents are Ferris and MSU, so our total winning percentage is 1.167 (.500 vs. Ferris, .667 vs MSU). BG swept Ferris and split with MSU, so they are at 1.500. No matter how many times we beat Sparty, we can't bring our number up to 1.500. We could win the rest of our games and BG could lose the rest of theirs, but if they don't play and lose to Ferris in their conference tournament they will win the comparison against us.

EDIT: I wrote all that and then realized that you meant the comparison with Minnesota. Oh well. Anyway, at this point I think if we beat the teams we should (sweep ASU, win 3/4 against MSU and Wisconsin), and get points against OSU and ND we should be in good shape. It has really helped that the B1G teams had a strong nonconference season.