Our half-year odyssey is nearly over, and the long hockey winter of summer is almost upon us. It seems like our final standings are set in stone... or are they? See below for our special final week rule that could open everything up again.

Fantasy Standings, 2019-03-19

No change in the top thirteen teams in the standings this week. Grant Salzano’s 1.21 GigaWatts is still in the lead, but Gregg Cockrill’s Moose has closed the gap significantly, from 12 points two weeks ago to 3.5 points now. Nate Vaughan’s I’m Going To Be Perfectly Frankel has slightly extended the margin for third place over once-dominant The House Of Seven Gabels, although House of Seven Gabels remains the highest-ranked team named after a player who’s still in. This could all change this week of course, thanks to our special final week rule that could open everything up again.

What Happened Last Week?

My colleague Gabriella Fundaro already has a great summary up of the four national quarter-final games. Basically: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Cornell, and Clarkson won; Syracuse, Princeton, Northeastern and BC lost.

Related

Frozen Four field is set: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Clarkson, and Cornell advance

All the lower-seeded teams could go home proud.

Syracuse only lost 4-0 to a Wisconsin team that was very strongly fancied (and had in fact beaten them 6-1 and 9-1 earlier in the season). Part of the difference was the strong play of second goalie Ady Cohen (Syracuse, $12.5, 12.45 SP, 1.75 WP, 0 picks) in net: was some of the rest down to Wisconsin’s traditional late-season offensive slump? Wisconsin’s offense was finally led by the players we’d been expecting to lead all year, Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, $47.1, 47.1 SP, 1.6 WP, 13 picks) and Emily Clark (Wisconsin, $25.8, 25.8 SP, 1.6 WP, 4 picks), and Kristen Campbell (Wisconsin, $40.2, 40.15 SP, 1.5 WP, 13 picks) had the only shutout of the weekend.

Princeton lost 5-2 to Minnesota, but it was a 2-2 tie until past the halfway mark in the third period, and the last two Gophers goals were empty netters. Senior Steph Neatby (Princeton, $16.1, 16.1 SP, 1.4 WP, 0 picks) got the start in net, freshman phenom Sarah Fillier (Princeton, $53.9, 53.9 SP, 2 WP, 7 picks) had two points, and freshman vice-phenom Maggie Connors (Princeton, $41.4, 41.4 SP, 1 WP, 4 picks) was back from whatever kept her out of the ECAC semi-final. The Minnesota offense was also finally led by the the players we’d been expecting to lead all year, Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, $26.4, 25.3 SP, 4 WP, 6 picks), Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, $36.9, 35.7 SP, 2.6 WP, 6 picks), and Amy Potomak (Minnesota, $29.6, 28.5 SP, 2.1 WP, 1 pick).

Cornell can go home proud because they won, of course. Northeastern’s Alina Mueller (Northeastern, $48.3, 47.7 SP, 0 WP, 15 picks) missed the game with an upper-body injury sustained during the Hockey East finals week and a reconfigured Northeastern struggled to click during the first period, with Cornell moving to a 2-0 lead. In the third period, Northeastern pulled both goals back to send the game to overtime where Gillis Frechette (Cornell, $10.5, 10.5 SP, 1 WP, 0 picks) received a nice pass, deked furiously, and stuck a backhander in the side of the net to send Cornell to their first Frozen Four since 2012. Frechette has scored nine of her thirteen points of the season in the last eight games. Marlene Boissonnault (Cornell, $28.5, 28.45 SP, 1.15 WP, 0 picks) got the start in net for Cornell after having been pulled in the ECAC semifinal and not playing the ECAC final. Skylar Fontaine (Northeastern, $54.8, 54.3 SP, 1.8 WP, 5 picks) kept alive the debate of whether she’s the best skater on Northeastern after Alina Mueller or simply the best skater on Northeastern, period.

BC gave Clarkson all they could handle in the first period and led 1-0 for most of the game, before Clarkson gave BC all they could handle in the second and third periods. It looked like the eccentric BC Interruption prediction, that Clarkson would be the better team but BC would score more goals, was going to come true, but of course Josiane Pozzebon (Clarkson, $36, 34.5 SP, 1.9 WP, 0 picks) tied the game up with three minutes to go. Then, I don’t want to twitterbrag, but:

Great podcast! But you both missed the obvious call for the game result, which is that whatever the actual score is it will be an overtime win for Clarkson on a goal by Loren Gabel.

— wwhyte (@wwhyte) March 16, 2019

And of course it was an overtime win for Clarkson on a goal by... well, Elizabeth Giguère actually, but Loren Gabel was right there next to her.

Related

BC Women’s Hockey Falls 2-1 (OT) To Clarkson In NCAA Tournament, Ending Season

And that’s it! I seem to remember these weekly recaps used to be a lot longer, but I suppose you can only work with what you have.

Weekly Awards

Individual Awards

Most points: Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, 4 points this week (WP), 25.3 points this season (SP)), from Kelly Pannek (2.6 WP) and Devon Facchinato (2.2 WP)

Most overlooked (highest scoring player that no-one picked): Devon Facchinato (Cornell, 2.2 WP, 11.5 SP)

Biggest boost (highest scoring player that only one manager picked): Amy Potomak (Minnesota, 2.1 WP, 28.5 SP)

Biggest contribution (highest value of points this week * number of teams they’re on): Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, 4 points * 6 picks = 24 total contribution)

Best Freshman: Amy Potomak (Minnesota, 2.1 WP, 28.5 SP)

Best Sophomore: Devon Facchinato (Cornell, 2.2 WP, 11.5 SP)

Best Junior: Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, 4 WP, 25.3 SP)

Best Senior: Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, 2.6 WP, 35.7 SP)

Best D: Devon Facchinato (Cornell, 2.2 WP, 11.5 SP)

Best F: Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, 4 WP, 25.3 SP)

Best Goalie: Kassidy Sauvé (Clarkson, 1.9 WP, 52.15 SP)

Team of the Week

Roster: Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, F, 4), Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, F, 2.6), Devon Facchinato (Cornell, D, 2.2), Amy Potomak (Minnesota, F, 2.1), Sarah Fillier (Princeton, F, 2), Josiane Pozzebon (Clarkson, D, 1.9), Kassidy Sauvé (Clarkson, G, 1.9), Skylar Fontaine (Northeastern, D, 1.8), Ady Cohen (Syracuse, G, 1.75), Emma Keenan (Clarkson, D, 1.7), Willow Slobodzian (Cornell, D, 1.7), Grace Graham (Cornell, F, 1.6), Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, F, 1.6), Emily Clark (Wisconsin, F, 1.6), Kristen Campbell (Wisconsin, G, 1.5)

Score: 29.95

Cost: 509.40

That special final week rule I was talking about

As I’ve already noted, this week we have a special trade rule: you can trade up to THREE players, and you don’t have a limit of three players from any one school, you have a limit of FOUR players from any one school.

But! We also have a special final week rule that could open everything up again — the Final Jeopardy rule. As well as sending me your trade, you can if you wish send me a wager. Your wager is the following two pieces of information:

• The number of points you want to bet. This must be between 0 and the number of points you have.
• The player you want to bet them on. You have to own this player, but you can of course trade to get her./

At the end of the weekend:

• If that player scored most points this weekend, you add the number of points you bet.
• If that player didn’t score more points this weekend, you subtract the number of points you bet./

(In other words, it’s exactly the Final Jeopardy rules, with the answer being “This player scored the most fantasy points in the weekend of the 2019 Frozen Four”, except you don’t have to phrase your wager as a question, because honestly that’s annoying even when Jeopardy does it.)

Deadline for trades and wagers is Thursday March 21st 2019 at 11:59 Eastern. I’ve been fairly lenient about late trades this season, but if you’re putting in a wager you must get it to me by the deadline — once I’ve started posting the wagers I won’t accept any more, because seeing other people’s wagers might affect yours. I hope to have time later this week to do one final trade tips post looking at who might be a good target for your wager.

Puck drop for Minnesota v Cornell is 4 p.m. Friday. Let’s do that hockey!