The UMaine men’s hockey team celebrates a 7-1 Hockey East quarterfinal victory over UMass-Lowell on Saturday. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
Maine Trust for Local News sports columnist Travis Lazarczyk is a voter in the U.S. College Hockey Online men’s poll. Each week he’ll share his top 20, as well as hit on some items of interest in the sport.
With Boston College’s loss to Northeastern in the Hockey East quarterfinals, I have a new No. 1 this week:
- Michigan State
- Western Michigan
- Maine
- Boston College
- Minnesota
- Denver
- UConn
- Boston University
- Providence
- Ohio State
- Penn State
- UMass
- Arizona State
- Minnesota State
- Quinnipiac
- Michigan
- North Dakota
- Clarkson
- Holy Cross
- Dartmouth
Maine heads back to TD Garden: With Saturday’s 7-1 win over UMass Lowell, the Black Bears earned a spot in the Hockey East semifinals for a second straight season. It’s the first time Maine reached the league semifinals in consecutive seasons since 2005-06. The Black Bears haven’t won the tournament since 2004, but enter Thursday’s game against Northeastern as the highest remaining seed. Saturday’s win was Maine’s most complete game in the second half of the season. That, coupled with Boston College’s loss to Northeastern, was enough for me to move Michigan State back to No. 1 on my ballot and slide Maine up one spot to No. 3. While Boston College is still No. 1 in the PairWise rankings due to its overall body of work, the weekly poll is a snapshot, and right now success in the conference tournament means something. It’s why I dropped Minnesota a few spots last week after the Gophers were eliminated from the Big Ten tournament. It’s why I keep UConn a few spots ahead of Providence, after the Huskies beat the Friars in the Hockey East semis on Friday.
This week’s edition of Fun with the PairWise: No matter what happens in the CCHA championship game, Minnesota State has clinched a spot in the tournament. The Mavericks are set to play St. Thomas in the conference final Friday, but since St. Thomas is still in its transition period from Division III to Division I, the Tommies aren’t eligible for the NCAA tournament until next season. Win or lose, Minnesota State will be the CCHA’s automatic qualifier. For teams on the bubble, that’s good news. Minnesota State is No. 16 in the latest PairWise rankings, the system used by the NCAA to determine NCAA tournament selection. With 16 teams advancing to the NCAA tournament, the Mavericks aren’t moving into the top 16 and taking a spot from a team that fails to win its conference tournament.
Fun with the PairWise, Part II: There are nine teams playing next weekend on the bubble or outside the top 16 of the PairWise that could swipe a spot should it win its conference title. In Hockey East, Northeastern (No. 22) is the team everyone on the bubble is rooting against because Maine (No. 3), Boston University (No. 6), and UConn (No. 7) have spots locked up. In the ECAC, top seed Quinnipiac is No. 12 in the PairWise and would not knock a bubble team out with a conference title. A conference win by any of the other teams left: Clarkson (tied at No. 19) Cornell (tied at No. 19) or Dartmouth (No. 21) could also jeopardize Quinnipiac’s spot.
The winner of Saturday’s Atlantic Hockey Association final between Holy Cross (No. 24) and Bentley (No. 25) will knock the No. 15 team off the bubble and into the offseason. As of now, that’s Arizona State. The Sun Devils can help themselves by winning the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament. Arizona State takes on Denver (No. 9) in one semifinal Friday. In the other, it’s Western Michigan (No. 5) versus North Dakota (No. 17). While Western Michigan is fighting for a possible top seed at an NCAA regional, North Dakota is playing to get into the tournament. The team cheering against Arizona State the most is Michigan. The Wolverines are No. 14 in the PairWise and would lose their grip on a tournament spot should the Sun Devils win the automatic qualifier.
In the Big Ten, Michigan State (No. 2) and Ohio State (No. 9) are both safe, no matter which wins the championship game Saturday.
By the time all the conference championships are determined Saturday night, we should know which 16 teams are on to the NCAA tournament. For the committee, the hard part will be seeding teams to avoid first-round inter-conference matchups.
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