News and Notes 2/20/13: Bracketology

Bracketology

Utica  is ranked #1. in NCAA East Rankings

Now that the second installment of the NCAA Regional Rankings are out, D3Hockey.com has released their second installment of "Bracketlogy,"  an attempt to prognosticate who will make the 11 team NCAA D-III men's hockey tournament and where the teams will be seeded. As always, this is a prediction of what the field would look like if the season ended now and can and probably will change as conference playoffs unfold.

11 teams make the tournament; 8 automatic qualifiers and 3 at large bids. For the sake of prediction, D3Hockey assumes the current leaders of their respective conferences win, so Bowdoin makes it as an automatic qualifier. NESCAC fans might notice the inclusion of Wentworth, the ECAC Northeast leader that lost to three of the four NESCAC teams they played this season: Tufts, Wesleyan and Williams.  The Leopards beat Middlebury in the Middlebury Classic. 

No NESCAC school gets an at large bid, as Utica and Hobart, the first and third schools in the East Regional Rankings, respectively, play in the ECAC East, a six team conference that doesn't receive an automatic qualifying bid. Joining the Pioneers and Statesman as a Pool C bid is Babson, ranked 6th in the East Regional Rankings. The Beavers tied Williams, who is ranked just behind them at seven in the NCAA rankings. If Williams reaches but then loses the  finals of the NESCAC playoffs, there is a chance they receive an at large bid.

As far as seeding, Bowdoin receives the fourth seed in the East and would host Wentworth in the first round. The winner of that game would play at Norwich, the second seed in the East, in the quarterfinals. We will have more on why Bowdoin would receive such an unfavorable draw despite being ranked fourth in the nation (USCHO Poll) in the Polar Bears regular season recap later this week.

Uni-Watch
The excellent Uni-Watch blog was nice enough to include a link to our jersey poll results  on their site today. The Weekend Editor, Phil Hecken, is actually a NESCAC alum; Hamilton class of 1988 or as he puts it, "one year ahead of Guy Hebert." When Hecken was informed of Hamilton being voted "worst jerseys in the NESCAC" he quipped "At least we won something."

For those that don't know Hebert, he is the most famous NESCAC hockey alum. Hebert was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in 1987, between his sophomore and junior years at Hamilton. After winning 46 games as a Continenntal, Hebert went on to spend 10 years in the NHL as a member of the St. Louis Blues, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and New York Rangers. Hebert was the first pick by the Mighty Ducks in the 1993 Expansion Draft and represented the United States in the 11994 World Championships and 1996 World Cup. Check out his full bio and stats(including for his time at Hamilton) here.