Dave Berger

BC up 1-0 over Air Force late in the first period. And my goodness, those are not nice-looking alternate home jerseys for the Eagles. Dave

SiouxHockeyPrint.com, iirc Dave

I find it odd that ESPNU calls it "Sudden Victory", not "Sudden Death"... Dave

And of course it's overtime for Johns Hopkins and Virginia lax on ESPNU. I'm getting Lacrosse flashbacks... Dave

NCAA West Regional Preview: UND vs. Western Michigan Discuss. Dave

It's objective, yes, but for the reasons I've summarized above, the numbers don't always add up. For example, if Team A has a 4-0 record against Team B and meets Team B in a best-of-3 playoff format, Team A may not want to sweep Team B if Team B's record is perliously close to the Teams Under Consideration "cliff". If Team A wins Game 1 , Team A may benefit from losing Game 2 and then winning Game 3. Any system which rewards a team for losing a game has serious flaws. Furthermore, Head-to-Head and Record vs. Common Opponents are often restricted to a game or two throughout the whole season. I would argue for using KRACH to rank the teams (or RPI, if you're held to that, but KRACH is better mathematically and does a better job, imho, of handling strength-of-schedule issues) and saving the other critera (Head-to-head and Common Opponents) if the KRACH is very close (say, within 5 points...) I want to say for the record that I like the fact that the Pairwise is objective, and that's a good thing, but there are more mathematically sound ways to be objective. Dave

Yes. The following was posted by "Rich" in one of the USCHO forums regarding the ranking systems, and gives a point-by-point argument for embracing KRACH... 1. If a team wins a game, they always increase their rating in KRACH. PWR can drop a team for winning, and it can happen in RPI too. 2. A team's rating always increases more for beating a higher-ranked team than beating a lower-ranked team. That's not always true for PWR. 3. A team's KRACH rating always drops if they lose, and by more if they lose to a lower-rated team. Losing to the No. 1 team cannot increase a team's KRACH rating. If KRACH rewarded SoS somehow, then this wouldn't be true. KRACH does not reward losses to good teams. Period. 4. Tying a better team increases a team's KRACH rating, and tying a worse team decreases it. This makes perfect sense, but is not always true with PWR. 5. A .500 team's KRACH rating is exactly equal to their strength of schedule. 6. If two teams have the same record, the team who has played the toughest schedule is always ranked higher. If two teams have played the same schedule, the team with the better record is ranked higher. 7. If a hypothetical team goes .500 against teams in a given place in the rankings (say, 1-5), they will be ranked within that group (assuming those are the only games that team has played). Neither RPI nor PWR guarantee this. And most importantly: 8. Given every team's KRACH ratings and the schedule they have played, you can calculate the team's record exactly! If the strength of schedule component was exaggerated in any way, this wouldn't work. This is the most convincing evidence that SoS is properly weighted in KRACH. You sure can't say that about PWR or RPI! If you look at all of those reasons, you can see that they are exactly what one would hope a rating system would do. I find it amazing that you can take all of the given KRACH ratings and the schedule any given team has played and work out what their winning percentage is. Well, amazing until I understood how it's calculated. I hope this helps. Dave

East Regional: Miami over Michigan State Midwest Regional: Michigan over Ferris State West Regional: North Dakota over Boston University Northeast Regional: Boston College over Minnesota-Duluth Championship game: Miami over Boston College Dave

East Regional: Miami over Michigan State Midwest Regional: Michigan over Ferris State West Regional: North Dakota over Boston University Northeast Regional: Boston College over Minnesota-Duluth Championship game: Miami over Boston College Dave

More than that, I'm saying it should be Miami's bracket... Dave

This. According to KRACH (the best system for ranking teams, imho), Western Michigan was the #7 team in the country. Strict brackets based on KRACH: #1 Boston College vs. #16 Air Force (#37 in KRACH, autobid) #8 Maine vs. #9 Boston University #2 Michigan vs #15 Union #7 Western Michigan vs. #10 Minnesota #3 North Dakota vs. #14 Northern Michigan #6 Minnesota-Duluth vs. #11 Denver #4 Miami vs. #13 Michigan State #5 Ferris State vs. #12 Mass-Lowell Yes, I know, the teams could not be seeded this way, but it's interesting to compare these to what the Pairwise spits out. Cornell is the beneficiary of the Pairwise system (Northern Michigan belongs instead, according to KRACH). And here's what we actually have (KRACH ratings instead of Pairwise): #1 Boston College vs. #37 Air Force #6 Minnesota-Duluth vs. #8 Maine #2 Michigan vs. #22 Cornell #5 Ferris State vs. #11 Denver #15 Union vs. #13 Michigan State #4 Miami vs. #12 Mass-Lowell #3 North Dakota vs. #7 Western Michigan #10 Minnesota vs. #9 Boston University Dave

Not sure it's my favorite place to watch a game overall, but my favorite memory of watching the regionals on TV was at Buffalo Wild Wings in Grand Forks. UND vs. Wisconsin were playing in the 2008 Midwest Regional Final in Madison. The boys in green and white were down 2-0 in the third (and probably should have been down a lot more) but scored two goals in under a minute in the final frame before Andrew Kozek netted the game-winner in overtime. By the time that third goal was scored, everybody in the place was going bonkers - sort of like the scene at the X on Friday night, but with a berth in the Frozen Four on the line. Dave

Tickets are sold, thank you for all the interest! Dave

Forgot to add that I have the tickets in Grand Forks and can meet sometime this week or send to wherever you need them. Dave

We have four extra packages for the West Regional this weekend. Looking to get face value for the tickets. Section 102 Row 17. Perfect lower level seats right at the top of the face-off circles. $400 takes all four plus a parking pass for each day. PM me or email daveberger18@gmail.com if you're interested. Go Sioux! Dave

WCHA Final Five Preview: UND vs. St. Cloud State Discuss. :-) Dave

If Denver wins, we have #1 Minnesota (1st in WCHA regular season) #2 Minnesota-Duluth (2nd) #3 Denver (3rd) #4 North Dakota (4th) #5 St. Cloud State (6th) #6 Michigan Tech (8th) UND would play SCSU with the winner facing Minnesota in the semifinals. Denver would play MTU with the winner playing Duluth on Friday. If Wisconsin wins, we have: #1 Minnesota (1st) #2 Minnesota-Duluth (2nd) #3 North Dakota (4th) #4 St. Cloud State (6th) #5 Michigan Tech (8th) #6 Wisconsin (10th) In this case, UND would play Wisconsin with the winner facing Duluth in the semis. SCSU would draw Michigan Tech in a Husky Battle for the right to take on the Gophers. Dave

WCHA Playoff Preview: UND vs. Bemidji State Discuss. Dave

Weekend Preview: North Dakota vs. MSU-Mankato Discuss. Dave

Weekend Preview: UND at Denver Discuss. Dave

Oh, I see. Did you work at Silverman's, too? I really enjoyed my time there and learned a lot about people. Dave

Weekend Preview: North Dakota vs. Michigan Tech Discuss. Dave

I'm confused by this.. what do you mean? Dave

Todd was already on his way to Minneapolis (Neimann Marcus) when I got there in the fall of 92. I'm assuming you mean Steve Silverman? Yes, he was there throughout my time there. I don't remember a Frank... Chris, Randy, Brad, Jim, Robin, Mike, Brett, Marc, Reggie, Scott, Doug, and countless others were there during my time (1992-98). Dave

Wow, this is so sad. He and I worked together at Silverman's in downtown Grand Forks. As some others have said, we often disagreed, but I always knew where he stood. Dave