Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Conference Races Heat Up

Conference Races Heat Up

By Jared Shafran, College Hockey, Inc.

With the regular season winding down, the battles for conference supremacy in college hockey are heating up. Three conferences (Atlantic Hockey, ECAC Hockey and the CCHA) wrap up their regular seasons this weekend, while Hockey East and WCHA have two weeks left.

The most wide-open race seems to be in the CCHA, where with one weekend to go, there are only two teams locked into a position ? Miami at number 3 and Bowling Green at 11. Notre Dame is currently leading the pack by the slimmest of margins, with a one-point advantage over Michigan. The Irish play fourth-place Western Michigan and control their own destiny. The Wolverines’ opponent is Northern Michigan, which is currently hanging on to the 5 seed and final bye for the first round. Ferris State, just one point behind NMU, will play two games at Ohio State to close the regular season. The Buckeyes are in the most uncertain position as they can finish anywhere from 4-9 in the standings. They can end up with a bye, hosting a first-round series, or traveling for their first-round matchup.

Also with one weekend left, ECAC Hockey is another tight race. First-place Union currently controls its own destiny, leading Yale by one point and facing Quinnipiac and Princeton this weekend. The Bulldogs will take on Colgate and Cornell on back-to-back nights. The 3 and 4 seeds are still up for grabs and the teams looking to secure the final two byes in the first round include Cornell, Dartmouth, RPI and Princeton. Brown, St. Lawrence, Harvard and Colgate are currently slated to hit the road in the first round, although the Bears and Saints could still move up into the top 8 with help.

RIT is the only school to have already clinched a regular-season crown as the Tigers have won the Atlantic Hockey regular season title for the fourth time in five years. That’s just about all that’s been decided in Atlantic Hockey, which is also in its last weekend of regular season play. Robert Morris, Air Force, Holy Cross and Niagara are all in a fight for a bye in the first round and are only separated by two points. The biggest matchup of the final weekend is Robert Morris and Air Force, who will play two games in Colorado Springs at the home of the Falcons.

In Hockey East it’s a three-team race for the regular season title with two weeks left to play. After Northeastern took 3 points from BC over the weekend, the Eagles dropped two points behind UNH for the top spot. That also allowed Merrimack, which swept UMass, to position itself in a tie for second place with BC. The Warriors have two games at Maine this weekend and will finish the season with a home-and-home series with Providence. The Friars are currently on the outside looking in as they stand 3 points behind UMass and Vermont, who are tied for 7th place. Depending on this weekend’s results, it could be a repeat of last season when the title came down to the final weekend and a home-and-home series between UNH and BC to decide it all.

The WCHA also has two more weekends left in regular season play and North Dakota, the nation?s new number 1 team, is leading the way, two points ahead of Denver. But just as in most conferences, little has been decided yet. Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha are just one point behind the Pioneers and three behind the Sioux for first place. Wisconsin and Minnesota have the edge for the last two first-round home-ice positions, but five of the six teams behind them still have a chance to play at home to start the playoffs.