Bracketology: Too close to call

Welcome back to The Ice Garden’s Bracketology column.  You can follow along from home using the PWR calculator the BCI’s Grant Salzano created from scratch here on the site. It allows you to edit past and future results to see potential rankings.

This weekend is the end of the regular season and with it comes the conference tournaments next weekend. The Tournament Predictor will be going live to let you set the brackets even more accurately. It is freshly updated with a new look and some great formatting to handle the new CHA format.

Home Ice Locks

Wisconsin

Nothing has changed for Wisconsin and no one stepped up to join them yet.

Home Ice Contenders

These are the teams that are in line to host alongside Wisconsin:

Boston College

St. Lawrence

Minnesota-Duluth

Clarkson

Minnesota

This weekend could’ve opened up things for a few of these team,s but instead things only got tighter. No. 2 and 6 are separated by a mere .008 in the RPI.  Minnesota is back to hosting but is playing Wisconsin this weekend, which would lock them up if they sweep or cost them home ice if not.  Boston College is travelling at the moment but a run in the HEA tournament could reverse that.

At Large Contenders

There is a huge disconnect between the top 6 and the rest of the country, so it is doubtful anyone here or below will be hosting.

Colgate

Robert Morris

Cornell

Quinnipiac

Princeton

Northeastern

Like the top 6, the next half dozen are also extremely tight — only .016 apart, or about a game and a half separation.  Right now Cornell and Robert Morris are the safest.  The Big Red and Colgate get to play the top of the ECAC to either cement a place in the dance or have to rely on the conference tournament.  Northeastern pulled off a big upset over BC but still needs to do some work.

Current Bracket

1.     Wisconsin v 8. Robert Morris

2.     Minnesota-Duluth v 7. Cornell

3.     Minnesota v 6. Clarkson

4.     St. Lawrence v 5. Boston College

here were some big changes.  Minnesota is back to hosting which causes all sorts of nightmares for the committee.

Likely Current Bracket

1.     Wisconsin v 8. Robert Morris

2.     Minnesota-Duluth v 7. Cornell

3.     Minnesota v 5. Boston College

4.     St. Lawrence v 6. Clarkson

With the precedent set last year flipping Northeastern with Princeton, sending Clarkson to St Lawrence while flying Boston College to Minneapolis seems likely for the moment. It would create some good matchups and save money on a cheaper flight from Boston and the shorter bus for Clarkson

Matchup of the Week

Wisconsin @ Minnesota (2/18, 2/19)

Wisconsin is the WCHA champ and Minnesota needs only a point to lock up second place.  This matchup has been the best in the nation for a long time.  This is going to be entertaining and will be a big factor in the home ice discussion.