Playoff Predictions, Week 2

If at first you don't succeed, try again. So here I am, one week after going 0-for-4 on my predictions for the opening weekend. In my defense, I don't think anyone thought Brown could beat (much less sweep) Harvard, and Dartmouth losing to RPI at home was a shocker.

I think the series this weekend are a little easier to call. Princeton, Cornell, and Yale have been the three best teams in the ECAC this year. In that order, they traded stretches atop the standings. But all three teams ran into some trouble. Princeton ran fast out of the gate before losing four consecutive ECAC games in January. Cornell vaulted to #2 in the national polls in February before playing a stretch of really bad hockey. Yale started a little slow and then played well in the middle of the season, which gave them enough of a cushion to limp into first place, going 1-2-1 over the last two weekends. They would have finished second if Cornell had been able to beat them in New Haven.

St. Lawrence is in an interesting situation, since their position in the PairWise Rankings (14th) means they can potentially receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if they reach the ECAC championship game.

Enough introduction, here are the matchups (note the reseeding after each round):

#8 Brown at #1 Yale. Sorry Brown, but I don't think they have it in them for another big upset. While Harvard played well for stretches this season, Yale was the best college hockey team I saw this year. One of the games might be close. Yale in 2

#7 RPI at #2 Cornell. I was very happy about this matchup. Cornell has had RPI's number recently, winning their last five contests. RPI did not look good at Lynah or the Houston Field House. Still, RPI is a physical team with nothing to lose, and this might give us some trouble in one of the games. Might be like last year's home playoff series, in which Cornell needed 3 to beat Dartmouth but you never really felt like they were going to lose the series. RPI takes Saturday's game, and then Eric Burgdoerfer gets 17 penalty mins in the decider. Cornell in 3

#6 Union at #3 Princeton. How did Onion win last weekend? Princeton won the ECAC tournament last year and they're going back to Albany this year. Union will enjoy being away from shitty Schenectday for this weekend, but they won't make the short trip down the river next weekend to the Times Union Center. Princeton in 2

#5 Quinnipiac at #4 St. Lawrence. This is like a 7 hour drive for Quinnipiac fans; they must be happy. St. Lawrence played a very solid game against us in Canton, and I think they'll be able to shut down Quinnipiac fairly effectively. SLU(t) has a lot riding on this series, with a win bringing them closer to their first trip to NCAAs since 2001. Quinnipiac is a bit of a wild card, since Brandon Wong could score 3 goals tonight and run away with the game. I still like SLU(t), since they're at home. St. Lawrence in 2.

I hope I get at least one right this week, otherwise it'll be a long offseason. Let's Go Red tonight!

Side note: Playoff tickets should not be included in the student season ticket package. There will be tons of empty seats this weekend, since people are going home for spring break. Let students buy them if they want, otherwise sell them to townies. A lot of students are having to eat the cost of tickets this weekend because they can't sell them.