jimdahl

Friday morning's reading if CC and Mankato win TeamPWR PossibilitiesOverallBy number of winsQuinnipiac#1 100.0%Tournament invites: 100.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #1100.0%100.0%100.0%Tournament invites:100.0%100.0%100.0%UMN#2 100.0%Tournament invites: 100.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #2100.0%100.0%100.0%Tournament invites:100.0%100.0%100.0%Miami#3 45.0%#4 34.7% #5 15.5% #6 4.3% #7 0.5% #8 0.0% Tournament invites: 100.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #327.6%37.6%87.1% #441.3%43.1%12.9% #523.1%15.7% #67.0%3.3% #70.9%0.3% #80.0% Tournament invites:100.0%100.0%100.0%Boston College#3 17.0%#4 15.3% #5 22.1% #6 22.8% #7 15.8% #8 5.4% #9 1.4% #10 0.3% #11 0.1% Tournament invites: 100.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #3 67.9% #46.2%19.2%29.7% #522.8%40.3%2.4% #630.8%29.5% #726.6%9.9% #810.1%1.1% #92.7% #100.5% #110.2% Tournament invites:100.0%100.0%100.0%Yale#3 3.0%#4 15.4% #5 15.7% #6 14.8% #7 12.6% #8 7.6% #9 3.9% #10 3.6% #11 4.7% #12 6.1% #13 7.5% #14 5.0% #15 0.1% #16 0.0% Tournament invites: 97.1% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #3 11.9% #4 4.7%53.5% #50.1%20.3%28.8% #61.8%30.9%5.1% #73.3%27.2%0.7% #87.3%12.5% #97.8%3.2% #109.6%1.0% #1113.7%0.2% #1218.4%0.0% #1322.5% #1415.0% #150.4% #160.0% Tournament invites:91.3%100.0%100.0%Mass.-Lowell#3 20.3%#4 7.9% #5 16.0% #6 23.8% #7 18.4% #8 10.0% #9 2.9% #10 0.6% #11 0.0% Tournament invites: 100.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #3 2.7%78.7% #40.7%16.8%13.3% #512.7%30.6%8.0% #631.6%31.7%0.0% #729.3%15.1% #818.8%2.5% #95.5%0.6% #101.2% #110.1% Tournament invites:100.0%100.0%100.0%UND#5 2.1%#6 5.0% #7 17.4% #8 23.6% #9 28.4% #10 18.5% #11 4.9% #12 0.2% Tournament invites: 100.0% n/aNew Hampshire#5 0.3%#6 4.9% #7 13.4% #8 35.8% #9 35.6% #10 9.7% #11 0.2% Tournament invites: 100.0% n/aNotre Dame#3 4.5%#4 5.5% #5 2.3% #6 0.9% #7 1.1% #8 1.6% #9 4.1% #10 19.6% #11 17.1% #12 6.9% #13 9.9% #14 6.6% #15 9.1% #16 8.7% #17 2.0% #18 0.2% Tournament invites: 81.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #3 18.1% #4 0.2%21.9% #5 0.6%8.7% #6 1.3%2.1% #7 4.4% #8 6.4%0.0% #90.5%12.6%2.7% #1015.1%17.5%30.5% #1123.2%6.7%15.4% #129.4%8.2%0.6% #133.0%33.5% #149.0%8.4% #1518.1%0.3% #1617.3% #174.0% #180.3% Tournament invites:62.6%98.6%100.0%Mankato#3 10.0%#4 11.7% #5 8.7% #6 9.2% #7 10.7% #8 8.8% #9 14.6% #10 15.5% #11 8.7% #12 2.0% Tournament invites: 100.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #3 39.9% #40.3%8.4%37.9% #50.9%15.9%17.3% #64.0%24.1%4.9% #710.0%23.1% #812.4%10.3% #923.2%12.1% #1028.1%5.5% #1117.1%0.6% #124.0% Tournament invites:100.0%100.0%100.0%Niagara#4 3.6%#5 8.3% #6 8.1% #7 7.3% #8 6.5% #9 2.5% #10 5.8% #11 17.5% #12 23.3% #13 15.6% #14 1.6% Tournament invites: 96.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #4 14.3% #5 0.3%32.9% #6 3.1%29.1% #7 12.2%17.0% #8 19.8%6.1% #9 9.3%0.6% #102.6%18.1% #1121.0%27.9% #1242.2%8.8% #1331.0%0.6% #143.1% Tournament invites:92.0%100.0%100.0%SCSU#3 0.2%#4 6.0% #5 9.1% #6 6.3% #7 2.8% #8 0.7% #9 2.0% #10 8.3% #11 10.6% #12 23.2% #13 24.9% #14 6.1% Tournament invites: 94.3% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #3 0.9% #4 23.8% #5 36.3% #6 25.3% #7 11.0% #8 0.2%2.4% #9 7.9%0.2% #10 33.1% #113.4%35.4% #1235.6%21.4% #1348.8%2.0% #1412.1% Tournament invites:89.3%98.4%100.0%Denver#8 0.1%#9 4.6% #10 17.8% #11 33.4% #12 30.4% #13 13.6% #14 0.1% Tournament invites: 97.8% n/aWestern Michigan#13 15.0%#14 59.3% #15 23.3% #16 2.5% Tournament invites: 55.8% n/aUnion#10 0.3%#11 2.8% #12 7.8% #13 9.8% #14 12.2% #15 30.8% #16 25.1% #17 5.9% #18 3.3% #19 1.4% #20 0.5% Tournament invites: 41.8% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #10 1.4% #11 11.3% #12 31.2% #13 0.7%38.2% #145.7%14.1%17.9% #1527.0%52.2% #1634.0%33.0% #1717.6% #189.9% #194.3% #201.5% Tournament invites:16.3%27.3%100.0%UW#17 7.7%#18 20.5% #19 25.5% #20 22.8% #21 17.1% #22 6.1% #23 0.3% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aProvidence#13 0.0%#14 1.0% #15 9.3% #16 11.8% #17 8.1% #18 12.6% #19 12.5% #20 11.9% #21 9.9% #22 8.0% #23 8.1% #24 4.5% #25 2.0% #26 0.2% Tournament invites: 25.1% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #13 0.2% #14 4.0% #15 37.3% #16 2.7%44.3% #170.4%20.3%11.3% #184.9%37.8%2.9% #1910.8%28.2% #2019.3%9.1% #2118.9%1.6% #2215.9%0.2% #2316.3% #249.1% #254.0% #260.5% Tournament invites:0.0%0.3%100.0%Boston University#13 3.0%#14 5.1% #15 13.1% #16 7.4% #17 9.1% #18 17.5% #19 23.3% #20 12.9% #21 5.9% #22 2.5% #23 0.3% Tournament invites: 25.6% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #13 12.0% #14 0.1%20.4% #15 1.2%51.1% #16 12.9%16.6% #171.9%32.7% #1819.8%30.3% #1936.6%19.8% #2024.5%2.7% #2111.5%0.4% #225.0% #230.6% Tournament invites:0.0%2.4%100.0%Rensselaer#13 0.7%#14 3.0% #15 14.3% #16 43.1% #17 33.9% #18 4.5% #19 0.5% #20 0.0% Tournament invites: 10.6% n/aAlaska#16 0.1%#17 1.6% #18 6.6% #19 11.4% #20 12.5% #21 12.0% #22 13.5% #23 17.7% #24 14.6% #25 8.2% #26 1.8% #27 0.1% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aCornell#18 0.5%#19 3.2% #20 4.4% #21 6.4% #22 13.0% #23 22.4% #24 25.4% #25 19.1% #26 5.6% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aBrown#16 0.3%#17 4.4% #18 9.0% #19 10.8% #20 16.0% #21 15.2% #22 12.1% #23 6.6% #24 7.4% #25 6.0% #26 9.3% #27 2.7% #28 0.1% Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #16 1.4% #17 17.4% #18 1.1%34.3% #190.3%8.6%28.7% #204.3%25.4%16.1% #217.8%29.1%2.2% #229.1%21.8%0.0% #2310.4%7.4% #2413.9%6.5% #2518.0%0.0% #2627.8% #278.2% #280.2% Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%Dartmouth#18 0.4%#19 3.1% #20 10.5% #21 22.1% #22 29.7% #23 22.0% #24 10.2% #25 1.9% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aRobert Morris#16 1.2%#17 26.3% #18 21.5% #19 1.7% #20 1.1% #21 2.7% #22 5.4% #23 7.3% #24 14.0% #25 14.8% #26 3.8% #27 0.1% Tournament invites: n/aCC#18 0.9%#19 2.3% #20 3.7% #21 4.7% #22 5.8% #23 8.9% #24 12.8% #25 28.2% #26 27.4% #27 5.3% Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #18 3.4% #19 9.3% #20 14.8% #21 0.8%18.2% #22 6.3%16.7% #230.8%11.9%22.4% #245.1%27.4%13.5% #2535.5%40.2%1.6% #2648.0%13.5%0.1% #2710.6% Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%Ohio State#17 0.9%#18 2.6% #19 4.1% #20 3.5% #21 4.1% #22 3.6% #23 4.6% #24 3.4% #25 5.9% #26 4.4% #27 8.0% #28 23.2% #29 23.8% #30 0.5% #31 6.2% #32 1.2% Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #17 3.7% #18 10.2% #19 16.5% #20 14.1% #21 0.8%15.5% #22 1.5%13.0% #23 5.8%12.8% #24 8.1%5.4% #25 17.3%6.3% #26 15.4%2.3% #27 32.0% #2837.4%17.8% #2946.8%1.3% #300.9% #3112.3% #322.5% Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%Ferris State#26 3.6%#27 43.1% #28 40.6% #29 11.8% #30 0.9% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aSt. Lawrence#25 0.0%#26 24.6% #27 29.7% #28 28.3% #29 14.7% #30 2.7% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aNebraska-Omaha#28 0.0%#29 28.8% #30 49.0% #31 13.8% #32 8.3% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aMichigan#21 0.0%#22 0.2% #23 1.1% #24 5.0% #25 9.0% #26 9.3% #27 4.2% #28 7.8% #29 10.2% #30 2.7% #31 0.6% #32 0.0% Non-TUC 49.8% Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #21 0.2% #22 0.7% #23 4.6% #24 20.0% #25 35.9% #26 37.3% #27 15.4%1.3% #28 31.3% #29 40.9% #30 10.6% #310.3%1.8% #320.1% Non-TUC99.6%0.0%0.0%Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%Connecticut#22 0.1%#23 0.6% #24 2.8% #25 4.7% #26 10.1% #27 6.7% #28 0.0% #29 7.7% #30 11.6% #31 2.7% #32 3.1% Non-TUC 49.9% Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2 #22 0.4% #23 2.3% #24 11.4% #25 18.9% #26 40.2% #27 26.8% #28 0.1% #29 30.6% #30 46.5% #310.1%10.5% #320.1%12.2% Non-TUC99.8%0.0%0.0%Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%Holy Cross#29 3.1%#30 32.6% #31 51.9% #32 12.4% Tournament invites: 0.0% n/aCanisiusNon-TUC 100.0%Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2Non-TUC100.0%100.0%100.0%Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%MercyhurstNon-TUC 100.0%Tournament invites: 25.0% PWRWin 0Win 1Win 2Non-TUC100.0%100.0%100.0%Tournament invites:0.0%0.0%100.0%

As there are only two games Thursday, it's pretty easy to run the combinations and see what things will look like Friday morning. Here's the interesting stuff: Mankato -- can lock up an invite with a win Notre Dame -- if UND/Mankato win, can now clinch with just one win Niagara -- with any outcome other than CC/UW winning, can now clinch with just one win St Cloud -- with any outcome other than CC/Mankato winning, can now clinch with just one win Wisconsin -- out unless they win RPI -- drops from about a 10% chance to about 5% if Mankato loses Robert Morris -- already slim chance plummets (though not quite to 0) if CC wins Alaska -- out if CC wins Colorado College -- out unless they win

If Wisconsin had won that game, their outlook would look like this: UW #4 0.2% #5 0.6% #6 1.3% #7 1.6% #8 2.2% #9 3.3% #10 2.7% #11 2.0% #12 2.3% #13 3.0% #14 3.7% #15 4.6% #16 12.8% #17 24.0% #18 20.5% #19 11.8% #20 3.0% #21 0.5% #22 0.0% Tournament invites: 22.7% PWR Win 0 Win 1 Win 2 Win 3 #4 1.6% #5 4.9% #6 10.1% #7 12.7% #8 17.9% #9 26.5% #10 2.2% 19.0% #11 9.7% 6.0% #12 17.3% 1.2% #13 23.6% 0.2% #14 0.5% 28.9% 0.0% #15 9.3% 18.2% #16 9.9% 31.3% 0.2% #17 29.5% 37.0% #18 32.4% 17.2% #19 21.2% 4.6% #20 5.8% 0.2% #21 1.1% #22 0.0% Tournament invites: 0.5% 4.6% 70.0% 100.0%[/code]

Exactly. The things that hurt UND's PWR the most are teams just below it winning -- Niagara, St. Cloud, Mankato, Notre Dame. While those push down UND's PWR, they also result in autobids going to teams that would have made it at-large anyway. I've updated the blog post with the complete table based on wins. Remaining PWR/tournament possibilities

Thanks, I'm in the process of transitioning from just doing "win none" and "win all" to a column for each remaining game. The table in the post accidentally included the new headers despite still being the old data. The three columns in that table are "Overall", "Win none" and "Win all". I'm still working on all the in-between scenarios and hope to have that soon.

Be careful what you wish for... the easiest path is for a bunch of autoqualifiers to chew up spots. For the WCHA, one obvious one is Colorado College. The other ingredient is for teams ahead of Denver to do well and stay ahead of Denver (or a couple right below them to climb up). e.g. Atlantic Hockey Semifinal #1: Canisius def. Niagara Atlantic Hockey Semifinal #2: Mercyhurst def. Connecticut Atlantic Hockey Championship: Canisius def. Mercyhurst CCHA Semifinal #1: Michigan def. Miami CCHA Semifinal #2: Ohio State def. Notre Dame CCHA Championship: Michigan def. Ohio State ECAC Semifinal #1: Brown def. Quinnipiac ECAC Semifinal #2: Union def. Yale ECAC Championship: Brown def. Union ECAC Consolation: Yale def. Quinnipiac Hockey East Semifinal #1: Providence def. Mass.-Lowell Hockey East Semifinal #2: Boston University def. Boston College Hockey East Championship: Boston University def. Providence WCHA Semifinal #1: St. Cloud State def. Minnesota State WCHA Semifinal #2: Colorado College def. Minnesota WCHA Championship: Colorado College def. St. Cloud State WCHA Play-in #1: Colorado College def. North Dakota WCHA Play-in #2: Minnesota State def. Wisconsin Would have BU, Brown, CC, Michigan, and Canisius steal spots, denying Denver despite being #12. Sorry about the lack of link, CHN's link feature doesn't seem to be working right now.

So they do. It seems in manually transcribing these I grabbed the #6 from the "wins 1" column. Let me try again (I'll also go back and fix the original): UND wins 0 #5 2% #6 7% #7 22% #8 23% #9 25% #10 16% #11 4% #12 <1%

North Dakota seemingly a lock for NCAAs Here's a little more detail: UND wins 0 #5 2% #6 7% #7 22% #8 23% #9 25% #10 16% #11 4% #12 <1% UND wins 1 #5 7% #6 23% #7 32% #8 23% #9 10% #10 4% #11 1% #12 <1% UND wins 2 #4 6% #5 19% #6 29% #7 26% #8 13% #9 5% #10 1% #11 <1% UND wins 3 #3 19% #4 46% #5 33% #6 2%

At the risk of repeating myself, no partisan politics. Seriously.

Leave the partisan politics out of this please.

It looks if UND loses tonight we leave the weekend #11 or #12. If UND wins, #6-#9. So, a loss is somewhat unlikely to knock UND out of playoff contention, though big moves can happen when you're not playing, see Alaska this weekend (as predicted in the blog).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8iDSxaBZWI&feature=youtu.be

While undoubtedly not a coicidence that it happened during a busy time, the slowdow of the last half hour or so seems to be related to a crashed web server module. Rebooted the whole thing, things seem better now, I'll keep an eye on it.

And this is it... TeamCurrent PointsConference Series RemainingPossible Final RankingsSCSU 35 1 1st-T3rd Has secured home ice in WCHA playoffs Can clinch 3rd with 1 point this weekend Can clinch T-1st with 2 points this weekend Can clinch 1st with 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 1 point this weekend UND 33 1 1st-T6th Can clinch T-4th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 3rd with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-2nd with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-2nd with fewer than 1 point this weekend UMN 33 1 1st-T6th Can clinch T-4th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 3rd with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-2nd with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-2nd with fewer than 1 point this weekend UW 31 1 T1st-7th Can clinch T-6th with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-4th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch T-3rd with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-2nd with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-3rd with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish 4th with fewer than 1 point this weekend Mankato 31 1 T1st-7th Can clinch T-6th with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-4th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 3rd with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-2nd with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-3rd with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish 4th with fewer than 1 point this weekend Nebraska-Omaha 30 1 T2nd-7th Can clinch T-6th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 5th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-2nd with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-3rd with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish 4th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-4th with fewer than 1 point this weekend Denver 29 1 T3rd-7th Can no longer finish T-3rd with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 4th with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-4th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-6th with fewer than 1 point this weekend CC 24 1 8th-9th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Can clinch T-8th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 8th with 2 points this weekend UMD 21 1 8th-T10th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Can clinch T-9th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 9th with 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish 8th with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-8th with fewer than 3 points this weekend MTech 18 1 9th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Can clinch T-10th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 10th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 9th with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-9th with fewer than 3 points this weekend Bemidji State 17 1 T9th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Can no longer finish T-9th with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 10th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-10th with fewer than 1 point this weekend AA 10 1 12th-12th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs

UND Student Senate passes vote of no confidence of Shirvani

There was an excellent question on this week's post UND need win to maintain lofty ranking: Here's my (pretty technical) shot at an answer. (You almost certainly need UND PWR comparisons to follow along)

Now I remember why I stopped doing this. Even with only two series remaining, it's so wide open as to almost be uninteresting. Seven teams can still finish 1st, but every one of them could also miss getting home ice. Sheesh. TeamCurrent PointsConference Series RemainingPossible Final RankingsSCSU 33 2 1st-7th Can clinch T-6th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 4th with 2 points this weekend UMN 31 2 1st-7th Can clinch T-6th with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-5th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 4th with 4 points this weekend UND 30 2 1st-T7th Can clinch 7th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch T-6th with 4 points this weekend Nebraska-Omaha 30 2 1st-T7th Can clinch 7th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 6th with 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 1 point this weekend Mankato 29 2 1st-8th Can clinch 7th with 1 point this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 1 point this weekend UW 27 2 1st-8th Can clinch T-7th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 7th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-3rd with fewer than 1 point this weekend Denver 27 2 1st-8th Can clinch T-7th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 7th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-3rd with fewer than 1 point this weekend CC 22 2 5th-11th Can clinch T-9th with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-8th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 8th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 5th with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 6th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-6th with fewer than 1 point this weekend UMD 21 1 8th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Bemidji State 16 2 8th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Can no longer finish 8th with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-8th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-9th with fewer than 1 point this weekend MTech 16 2 8th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs Can no longer finish 8th with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-8th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-9th with fewer than 1 point this weekend AA 10 1 12th-12th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs

Update : Online sports streaming site owner avoids jail time in new deal with Feds

Yeah, you're really right. We were finding it tough not to allow discussion of a very local topic that's very big national news, but it's clear that such a discussion can't take place without including not only politics but apparently also religion. So, it doesn't belong here.

A fine question. My guess is that it has a poor sense of "this weekend" and is just referring to the next conference series. Let me double check that. Edit -- yep, my guess was right. Back in the day, teams played full schedules this time of year so everyone had conference games every weekend. So, it really means that's what they can do in their next 2 games. I'll see if I can make that a little smarter. Thanks.

No discussion of the personal lives of non-public figures, please. Thanks.

Every time I look at that program it's quite a trip down memory lane. It was the year after the What if calculator, which had created a frenzy of people trying to figure out the possible outcomes. The problem with really doing so is that calculating all the possible outcomes across even just 14 series is still 268,435,456 possible outcomes (22,876,792,454,961 if you count ties, which we need to). So, you can't do it exhaustively that way, you instead need to come up with fancy tricks to eliminate combinations that don't matter. I remember optimizing that program for weeks trying to get it to run in a reasonable amount of time (e.g. an hour) back in 2003. The punch line -- on today's computers it runs in about 2 seconds.

I dusted off an old tool that cranked through the remaining WCHA possible outcomes. I always find it somewhat interesting this time of year, so enjoy... TeamCurrentPoints ConferenceSeries Remaining PossibleFinal Rankings SCSU 31 3 1st-8th Can clinch T-7th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 7th with 2 points this weekend Can clinch T-6th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 5th with 4 points this weekend Nebraska-Omaha 30 2 1st-8th Mankato 29 2 1st-8th UND 28 3 1st-T8th Can clinch 8th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch T-7th with 4 points this weekend UMN 28 3 1st-T8th Can clinch 8th with 1 point this weekend Can clinch 7th with 4 points this weekend UW 27 2 1st-9th Denver 25 3 1st-9th Can clinch T-8th with 3 points this weekend Can clinch 8th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish 1st with fewer than 1 point this weekend CC 20 3 T1st-11th Can clinch T-9th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-1st with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-2nd with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-4th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish 5th with fewer than 1 point this weekend UMD 20 2 T5th-11th Can clinch T-9th with 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-5th with fewer than 4 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-6th with fewer than 3 points this weekend Can no longer finish 7th with fewer than 2 points this weekend Can no longer finish T-7th with fewer than 1 point this weekend Bemidji State 16 2 8th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs MTech 16 2 8th-11th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs AA 10 1 12th-12th Can no longer earn home ice in WCHA playoffs

UND closes in on NCAA tournament berth The biggest story of the week that Quinnipiac's position has only become stronger.