Maine Black Bears
Record: 2-11-2
Series Record: 7-6-2 Cornell
Saturday, December 29


Last Meeting:
December 30, 2010; 3-2 OT Maine
In the last meeting between the two host schools of the Florida College Classic, Cornell and Maine met in the consolation game.  In case no one else recalls the 2010-11 season, it was one where Cornell had four wins total in the first half of the season.  This game was the last loss for the first half before Cornell went on a tear, won a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, making it to the championship final.  Both teams failed to make the NCAA Tournament that year, but it marked a turnaround for a struggling Cornell team.  Notable scorers included now-seniors Nick D'Agostino with a goal and Greg Miller with the assist.

This Season:
To say that Maine has been struggling would be a huge understatement.  Last year, Maine was the Hockey East runner-up, making it to the NCAA Tournament before losing to Minnesota-Duluth. This year could not have started more differently. Maine has two wins in the first half, against Army and UMass-Lowell.  Two total wins on the first half.  Eleven losses and two ties complete the record for the Black Bears that own a winning percentage at approximately 0.200 for the season so far. They will be looking to turn around their record this weekend at Estero.

Keys to the Game:
Maine is an abysmal 7.0% on the power play.  The only team behind them in the country is Harvard.  In addition to this, Maine is one of the most penalized teams in the country, coming in at fourth in overall penalty minutes per game.  Their penalty kill on the other hand is middling at 83.3%.  Cornell is going to need to capitalize on the penalty opportunities it will be afforded and not take for granted the even-strength opportunities it gets.

Historical Dimensions:
Maine is a co-sponsor of the Florida College Hockey Classic along with Cornell.  The name of the Cup associated with winning the championship is the Ned Harkness Cup after Cornell's legendary coach.  The MVP of the tournament is named in honor of Shawn Walsh, the Maine coach who led the Black Bears to two national championships.  Maine and Cornell have won four and three Harkness Cups respectively over the eleven times the tournament has been held.  Other winners include St. Cloud State, Boston College, Northern Michigan, and UMass-Lowell.  The last year that Cornell won was 2008, with goaltender Ben Scrivens receiving the MVP Award.  Maine won the inaugural tournament (then called the Everblades College Classic), having also won last year's match, beating UMass for the Cup.

This tournament is the only winter tournament that will be host to four teams who competed in the NCAA Tournament the previous year. Not only is that true, but both first-round matchups were rematches of games in the Tournament last year. Maine lost to Minnesota-Duluth in the first round while Cornell lost to Ferris State in the Midwest Regional Final.  Maine often wins the year after Cornell does and vice versa.  Never once has a team won back-to-back Harkness Cups, so should Maine defeat Cornell, it will be the first time in the history of the Florida College Hockey Classic.

Ferris State Bulldogs
Record: 7-7-3
Series Record: 1-3-0 Ferris State leads
Friday, December 28

Last Meeting:
March 24, 2012
The last meeting of the Bulldogs of Ferris State and the Big Red is a memorable one, especially for Ferris State.  In Ferris State's last season, the school had a Cinderella-story run through the tournament.  In only their second NCAA tournament appearance, Ferris State opened up the Midwest Regional Semifinal to beat a hurting Denver team.  Cornell had just upset Michigan the same night and the bracket led both teams to play for a coveted spot in the Frozen Four.  Ferris had the better of Cornell after an incredibly hard-fought game which did not see scoring until the third period.  Ferris State put a goal on the scoreboard first, just 11 seconds into the period on a power play, but Cornell quickly followed with a goal by Dustin Mowrey from Gotovets, just over a minute after the first goal was scored.  Ferris would get the eventual game winner almost seven minutes into the period when a broken stick caused Cornell to be short-handed on the Ferris goal.

Ferris State played another ECAC team in the national semifinal matchup, Union College.  Ferris beat Union to advance to the national championship game against a heavily favored Boston College team.  The Cinderella Story would end just one win away from completing the run, when Ferris lost to the Eagles 4-1.


This Season:
This season sees Ferris State as a national runner-up who was not given the credit to get back there.  Ferris State began the season at Troy, NY where they suffered a disappointing series, losing and tying RPI.  The season has been up and down from there.  A far cry from the overall record of last season (26-12-5), their 7-7-3 record is not quite as dismal as it could be, having played conference powerhouses already this season.  However, if Ferris State wishes to pull out another at-large bid, they are going to have to turn back on the winning nature of last season.  Currently, Ferris is on a 4-game winless streak, tying the second game against Michigan and losing to Western Michigan and Michigan State.  The Bulldogs will need more than one win this weekend at the Florida College Hockey Classic if they wish to remain at or above .500.  The Bulldogs's biggest problem seems to be splitting rather than sweeping weekends.  The only team that Ferris State has swept this season has been Bowling Green.  On the other hand, Ferris is a very hard team to sweep.  They have only been swept one weekend this year, by Western Michigan.  Ferris looks to break its winless streak against Cornell in the first game at Estero.

Keys to the Game:
Ferris State is not typically an offensive power house.  They are defensively sound and play a game more similar to Cornell than not.  This was seen last year in the regional final.  Cornell this year is offensively potent and when it scores more than one goal, it often wins.  The same can be said for Ferris.  It typically wins by small margins (excepting the 5-0 rout at Michigan), and losses have not been by more than two goals (excepting the one 4-1 loss to St. Cloud).  The game will be tight and Cornell will need to be ready to play a close game.  

While the goaltender Cornell faced (Nelson) has since graduated, Ferris State's starter is a sophomore with a 0.927 save percentage.  He has played a vast majority of minutes and has recorded all wins and losses this season.  Their PK/PP units are to be watched as well.  Ferris has the 27th best penalty kill in the nation while their power play unit is an impressive 7.  Cornell will need to be extremely vigilant on the penalty kill against this Ferris State team.

Historical Dimensions:
Ferris State and Cornell have not faced often, but there is something familiar about Ferris State.  RPI head coach Seth Appert is a Ferris State alumnus, having graduated in '97.  Appert's wins this year may not be plentiful, but he knew how to take down a Ferris team early in the season, just coming off a national championship appearance.

More interesting is the fact that the Florida College Classic is the only winter college hockey tournament where all four teams involved were invited to the NCAA Tournament.  Ferris State, Cornell, Minnesota-Duluth, and Maine.  Even more interesting, both first-round games are rematches of tournament games from last year.  Minnesota-Duluth played Maine in the first round of the NCAA tournament, beating them 5-2 in Worcester while Cornell and Ferris played one another in the regional finals leading to a 2-1 Ferris State victory.  It will be interesting to see what has changed in the past year and what has stayed the same.

And now back to our regularly scheduled PPP.  Here is what other teams have done since Cornell has been on its December break.  December 5th was the last PPP that was up and a LOT has happened since then.

Ferris State
Date of Game Against Cornell: December 28
Analysis:  Ferris State was on an upswing last we checked on them.  Since then they dropped a series to a tough Western Michigan team and lost 3-1 to Michigan State.  They will be looking for a win this Friday in Estero.
Key PWR Points: Tie with RPI, win and tie with Mercyhurst, splits with Alaska, Miami, and Lake Superior State, a sweep over Bowling Green, a win and tie with Michigan.

Maine
Date of Possible Game Against Cornell: December 29
Analysis: Maine has not had much luck with the pucks this season.  They still have a total of two wins and two ties this season after playing an incredibly tight game against a BU team which has toppled two number one teams.  Maine goes into Estero wanting a sweep badly if they want to finish the season with a .500 record.
Key PWR Points: Win over Army, split with UMass-Lowell, a tie with UMass, and a tie (and loss) with Vermont.

Minnesota-Duluth
Date of Possible Game Against Cornell: December 29
Analysis: Duluth split with Bemidji, and then played Alaska Anchorage to a convincing win on Friday and a closer game on Saturday to complete the sweep.  They will want to keep the winning streak going in Estero.
Key PWR Points: Split with Ohio State, split with Notre Dame, tie with Wisconsin, a tie (and loss) with North Dakota, split with St. Cloud, split with Bemidji, a win and tie with Michigan Tech, a sweep of Alaska Anchorage.

Denver
Date of Games Against Cornell: January 4 and January 5
Analysis: Denver was on a slide last we looked at them, only pulling a single point out of a weekend against Wisconsin, a team which had very few wins on the year.  The slide continued the next weekend when they tied and lost to North Dakota.  To further that, they tied and lost to Bemidji the following weekend.
Key PWR Points: Wins over Minnesota State, Michigan Tech, Air Force, UMass Lowell, Colorado College, a split with St. Cloud State, and a tie (and loss) against Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Bemidji.

Colorado College
Date of Games Against Cornell: October 26 and October 27
Result: 2-0 Cornell, 3-2 Cornell
Analysis:  Last we looked at them, the Tigers pulled a split out of North Dakota. Since then, they hosted Minnesota, losing and tying the Gophers.  The following weekend they went out to St. Cloud and were swept.  Colorado College looks to rebound against UNO after the first of the year.
Key PWR Points: Air Force, Bemidji, Clarkson, Wisconsin, tie (and loss) against Minnesota.

Michigan
Date of Game Against Cornell: November 24
Result: 5-1 Cornell
Analysis:  The Wolverines are in desperate need of turning their losing record around to become the Michigan everyone speaks about with fear.  The series against Ferris State was upsetting for Michigan fans, and in their last games before the GLI, Michigan took on the Broncos of Western Michigan, a team which has been doing well this year after their CCHA championship last year.  The first game saw a Michigan loss, with a 4-1 final score.  The second game saw something different.  Instead of putting Rutledge or Racine in net, both of whom have been struggling in their freshmen year to find consistency, Berensen started third-string goalie, Janecyk.  The result?  Janecyk's first career shutout and a win for Michigan, 2-0.  Is this the beginning of the turnaround for the Wolverines?  The next time they will be in action is the GLI against Michigan Tech and then Michigan State or Western Michigan.  We will have to wait to see.
Key PWR Points:  A split with Michigan State, tie over Northern Michigan, split with Miami, win over Bentley, split with RIT,  win over Bowling Green, a tie (and loss) with Ferris State, and a split with Western Michigan.

Bardreau Named to the Preliminary World Juniors Roster
Sophomore forward and Fairport native Cole Bardreau was named to the preliminary roster for the US National Junior Team.  The final roster will be narrowed down to 7 defensemen and 13 forwards (currently there are 9 and 15 listed respectively).  Bardreau attended the summer camp which was narrowed down from forty-some players.  The camp is mid-December, beginning in the training camp for the New York Rangers, moving to Helsinki before the tournament begins in Russia on December 26th.  A few more articles have been written on Bardreau as well: D&C Article; D&C Blog post; NCAA Article.
There are a few other ECAC names on the list as well as players from across the NCAA and the CHL.  Here's a look at the whole roster.

Big Red Faceoff
There was an excellent season-ending episode of Big Red Faceoff last night, and they even posted a clip of Cornell's own Jess Brown interviewing the team at Skate with the Big Red online. Check it out here if you missed it.

Harvard Sucks...Again?
On the heels of the departure of goaltender Michalek and the rumored departure of Max Everson, it appears that two more players have left the team as well, Mark Luzar and Patrick McNally.  We are not sure exactly why all of them left, though Girard spoke to why without naming names.  Either way, it will be a bit of a a struggle for the Crimson with four fewer players.

Which Player Has Been on the Ice for A Goal in the Past 8 Games?
Probably not the player you expect.  Cornell SID Brandon Thomas posed the question on twitter, with guesses of Espo, D'Agostino, and Miller coming in.  The unexpected answer? Freshman defenseman Reece Willcox.  He has been on the ice for ten goals over the last eight games, tied with Joakim Ryan for the team high.  Incredibly impressive effort from Willcox and the Big Red.

To top off the Big Red's fall semester of games, Cornell ventured to the North Country to take on ECAC foes Clarkson and St. Lawrence.  They faced mixed results on the weekend but battled adversity to end the first half at 8-2 in the league and 10-3 overall.  In the last edition of Lady Rouge Roundup before 2013, let's look at what went on this past weekend, where the league and nation stand, and what the Big Red have to look forward to in January.

Last Weekend:
Cornell headed to the North Country looking to rebound after a tight loss to Harvard.  Cornell, ranked number 3 in the country, faced off first against number 2 Clarkson.  The first period was a scoreless one where Cornell was uncharacteristically outshot by a 2-1 margin.  In the second period, Clarkson opened up scoring just over five minutes into the second frame.  Cornell answered it with an even-strength goal of their own, from Lauriane Rougeau assisted by Erin Barley-Maloney and Alyssa Gagliardi.  The scoring was silenced until just over halfway through the third period when Clarkson took the lead and never looked back, with a power-play goal off of a ninth penalty on the Lady Rouge.  The game was close and hard-fought with Cornell and Clarkson both putting 30 shots on net.  Special teams seemed to make the difference in the game.  Lauren Slebonick had a stellar game putting up an impressive save percentage of 0.933, making crucial saves for the Big Red when needed, especially on the penalty kill.

St. Lawrence was a tough opponent the next night as the Big Red looked to snap their first back-to-back losing streak of the season when they entered Appleton on Saturday afternoon.  The Big Red showed a lot of character fighting hard in the first period. Brianne Jenner was the first to score, almost nine minutes into the first period, assisted by Kelly Murray and Jill Saulnier.  With just over two minutes remaining in the period, Anna Zorn forced a turnover in the SLU defensive zone in order to put the Big Red up 2-0.  Just before the period reached its conclusion, St. Lawrence found the back of the net on a power-play opportunity to put them within striking distance as the period ended, 2-1 in Cornell's favor.  The second period saw its only scoring by Jessica Campbell, fresh out of the sin bin, using her speed to her advantage to put the puck in, extending Cornell's lead to 3-1.  SLU tried to come back in the third, but Cornell would have none of it, with Barley-Maloney scoring the empty netter 74 seconds before the end of regulation, assisted by Jenner and Campbell.  It was a character win, with Cornell proving what a great team it was all around: impressive offense, defensive skill in the form of blocked shots all around, and reliable goaltending as always.  It was a great way to end the first half of the season, with a win on the road and with fans eagerly awaiting the Boston games as well as January 15th, when the women host Syracuse in their first game at Lynah in two months.

Where the League Stands Now:
The ECAC is a little bit misleading to look at purely in terms of points.  Each team in the league has played different numbers of games, with the Big Red, the Bobcats, the Tigers, and the Raiders playing 10, Clarkson and SLU at 8, Harvard and Dartmouth at 7, and Union, RPI, Brown, and Yale at 6.  It is difficult to compare exactly who is first because Cornell has the most points, but has more losses than its closest opponents.  So, let us look at where the teams left league play.

The only team still undefeated in conference play is Harvard (7-0).  Clarkson, who was undefeated in the league going into the weekend, dropped a game unexpectedly to Colgate.  Cornell looked to be best poised to beat Clarkson going into the weekend, but a Colgate team (which Cornell beat by a cumulative score of 18-2) managed to drop a 2-1 decision to Colgate.  The top of the league looks to be Harvard, Clarkson, and Cornell with Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence clawing their way up there as well.  Could this be the first year in recent memory that Lynah doesn't host the ECAC finals?  It is far too early to begin counting out the Lady Rouge.  They have an excellent team with experience and enthusiasm.  The Big Red will be come back building off this positive momentum when the season resumes in January.

Current National Standings:
Currently Cornell sits at number three in the polls and is in a three-way tie for third with Clarkson and BU in the Pairwise.  The top ten in the polls presently are:
Minnesota
Clarkson
Cornell
Mercyhurst
Harvard
BC
BU
North Dakota
Wisconsin
Northeastern

Three ECAC teams are in the top half of the top ten.  When looking at which teams would make it in the tournament today via pairwise, we would have Minnesota, Harvard, Cornell, Clarkson, BU, Mercyhurst, BC, and North Dakota.  Cornell sits amongst the top teams nationally in both polls and pairwise.

What's Coming Up:
This is the longest stretch of the season without games for the Lady Rouge.  By the time games start up again, it will have been six weeks between games.  The season starts up again with several non-conference games, two in Boston against Hockey East foes Northeastern and Boston College.  Both should be tough, competitive games.  The Big Red then host Syracuse mid-week before league play begins.  The Big Red get another chance at Clarkson, this time in our own barn.  League play continues through February with a late January tilt with CHA team Mercyhurst.  Spring semester looks bright for the Big Red.

Points (as of December 2nd)
19 - Jenner
18 - Saulnier
12 - Rougeau
10 - Woods
9 - Cudmore
8 - Fortino, Gagliardi
7 - Fulton, Murray
6 - Brown, Campbell
5 - Zorn
4 - Barley-Maloney, Leck, Poudrier
1 - Pittens, Richardson, Slebodnick

After this week, PPP will take a hiatus until just before the Florida College Hockey Classic in Estero, FL.  Without further ado, here is this week's Pedantic Pairwise Prognostication.

Ferris State
Date of Game Against Cornell: December 28
Analysis:  The last time we looked at Ferris State, they swept Bowling Green on the road.  In the interim, Ferris has only played one series: Michigan.  Ferris seems on the up and up after their 5-0 victory over the Wolverines and their 3-3 comeback tie (loss in the shootout that only counts for CCHA points).  They host Western Michigan and Michigan State before heading to Estero to take on the Big Red.
Key PWR Points: Tie with RPI, win and tie with Mercyhurst, splits with Alaska, Miami, and Lake Superior State, a sweep over Bowling Green, and a win and tie with Michigan.

Maine
Date of Possible Game Against Cornell: December 29
Analysis: When we last left the Black Bears, main had two wins and a tie to their record.  Since then, Maine hosted Vermont for a weekend series.  Maine pulled one point out of the weekend, salvaging a tie with Vermont on the second night.  The only game Maine plays before heading down to Estero, a match-up with BU which would be an impressive win should they pull it off and would provide nice momentum into the holiday tournament.
Key PWR Points: Win over Army, split with UMass-Lowell, a tie with UMass, and a tie (and loss) with Vermont.

Minnesota-Duluth
Date of Possible Game Against Cornell: December 29
Analysis: UMD has played two series since the last time we looked at them, a tough St. Cloud team and a fighting Michigan Tech team.  They split with St. Cloud State and pulled a win and tie out of Michigan Tech, scoring a season-high seven points.  Minnesota-Duluth takes on Bemidji State and Alaska Anchorage before heading down to Estero.
Key PWR Points: Split with Ohio State, split with Notre Dame, tie with Wisconsin, a tie (and loss) with North Dakota, split with St. Cloud, and a win and tie with Michigan Tech.

Denver
Date of Games Against Cornell: January 4 and January 5
Analysis: When last we looked at Denver, they were ranked number two in the country and were tearing through hockey teams.  That was before their last two weekends, against UNH, Yale, and Wisconsin.  Denver has had two disappointing weekends, dropping games to UNH and Yale in one weekend and tying Wisconsin the first night and losing the second night.  While the UNH win isn't surprising given their great record, the Yale win was.  Yale is still largely untested nationally, but their win over Denver is impressive for Yale and almost embarrassing for Denver.  The offensively potent team was only able to score a single goal on Yale.  When Wisconsin visited, a team who had only one win prior to the match with their WCHA-foe, they held Denver to a single goal on the first night, skating to a 1-1 tie.  The second night, Wisconsin pulled it out, with a final score of 3-1 against the Pioneers.  Denver looks to right their mis-steps when they host North Dakota this weekend.  Games they have coming up before Cornell visits Magnus Arena also include Bemidji State and Boston University.
Key PWR Points: Wins over Minnesota State, Michigan Tech, Air Force, UMass Lowell, Colorado College, a split with St. Cloud State, and a tie (and loss) against Wisconsin.

Colorado College
Date of Games Against Cornell: October 26 and October 27
Result: 2-0 Cornell, 3-2 Cornell
Analysis: When last we looked at CC, they dropped an emotional series to Denver.  The next weekend they played UNH and Yale and managed a better outcome than their fellow Colorado team.  They tied UNH but dropped their game to Yale.  Last weekend CC hosted a tough North Dakota team and pulled a split out of them.  CC looks to be back on their feet, but they have tough games coming up.  They host Minnesota this weekend and St. Cloud State before the new year.
Key PWR Points: Air Force, Bemidji, Clarkson, Wisconsin

Michigan
Date of Game Against Cornell: November 24
Result: 5-1 Cornell
Analysis: The last time we looked at Michigan was when they were swept by Notre Dame.  Since then, things haven't looked up as much as the Wolverines would like.  They won their next outing when they hosted Bowling Green but dropped an embarrassing outing to Cornell at MSG 5-1.  Last weekend they went out to Big Rapids to play Ferris State and only pulled a point out (plus the meaningless CCHA shootout point).  Michigan needs to get its act together.  Before the GLI, they host Western Michigan at Yost, hoping to go into the GLI (against Michigan Tech and then either Michigan State or Western Michigan) with a bit of momentum.
Key PWR Points:  A split with Michigan State, tie over Northern Michigan, split with Miami, win over Bentley, split with RIT,  win over Bowling Green, and a tie (and loss) with Ferris State.

While it is still early on in the season, what better time than while the Big Red are on a long break to look at the pairwise rankings and an interesting, if inevitably meaningless, exercise to see where college hockey is right now.  If nothing else, this will be something to look back at to see the differences between where the pairwise was halfway through the season and where it ends up in late March.

So, if we were at the end of the season, here are the teams who would make it in (assuming that the highest-ranked team within each conference wins the conference title):

To break that down further...
One seeds would be the first four listed: BC, UNH, Dartmouth, and Yale.
Two seeds would be the second four: BU, Notre Dame, Miami, and Quinnipiac.
Three seeds would be the third four: WMU, Denver, Cornell, and Union.
Four seeds would be the final four: North Dakota, Harvard, Minnesota, and Niagara.

Before we get further into the brackets, let's look at how each conference stacks up.  Atlantic Hockey has a single representative in Niagara (4); the CCHA has three representatives in Notre Dame (2), Miami (2), and Western Michigan (3); the ECAC has an surprising six representatives in Dartmouth (1), Yale (1), Quinnipiac (2), Cornell (3), Union (3), and Harvard (4); Hockey East has the same number as the CCHA, three, in BC (1), UNH (1), and BU (2); and finally the WCHA has three as well with Denver (3), North Dakota (4), and Minnesota (4).

That itself is astonishing.  When looking at the last ten years, the time at which the tournament took its current 16-team format, the averages for each conference compared to the number of bids they would receive in the 2013 Tournament, there is quite a difference in most leagues.  Atlantic Hockey averages 1 bid (1.2 when counting teams which joined AHA from other conferences which have since collapsed), which is the same number of bids it receives.  Hockey East receives 3 bids, compared to its norm of 3.6.  It gets more stark from there.  The next closest conference to its norm is the CCHA.  The CCHA receives 3 bids compared to its 3.9 average.  The WCHA receives 3 bids as well, over a bid from its average of 4.4 (4.8 when counting teams which joined the WCHA from other conferences which have since collapsed).  The biggest difference comes with the ECAC.  Normally, the ECAC receives just over 2 bids, at 2.2, but as of this pairwise calculation, the ECAC would receive six bids.  The last time the ECAC received more than two bids was in 2011, when RPI, Union, and Yale represented the league.  The last time the ECAC received more bids than one of the "Big Three" conferences was 2005, when the ECAC had three teams (Colgate, Cornell, and Harvard) and the CCHA had only two bids. (Not that it would matter to either conference as that was the year of the four-WCHA Frozen Four.)  Will this be the year that the ECAC, the only conference not changing when the big conference realignment happens next year, outstrips their dismal average?  We shall see when the time comes.

Another stark difference from what would be considered the "norm" of the tournament is where teams are seeded.  The ECAC has ones, a two, threes, and a four.  The "perennial powers" of the WCHA have no higher than a three seed, while the CCHA has no one seeds amongst their participants.  The one seeds are split evenly between Hockey East and the ECAC.  What this says about Eastern Hockey vs. Western Hockey will remain to be seen later this season, but as of yet, the East does not seem to be inferior, especially when looking at Cornell's record against "Western" teams this season: 3-0. Combine that with Yale's two wins against Denver and Colorado College and the almighty West doesn't seem all that dominant this year.  That being said, the likelihood of the ECAC getting six bids is low and seems to be a practical joke at this point in time.

So let's look instead at the proposed brackets for the sixteen teams in the tournament were it to happen today.  The first complication to consider is host organizations.  If a host organization makes the tournament, it must appear in that regional. The only school (and perhaps the most inconvenient school) that this is an issue for is the University of New Hampshire.  UNH is a number one seed and would have to remain in the Northeast Regional.  That would place number one overall seed Boston College in the East Regional in Providence, as it is closest to its home.  When looking at the remaining two teams with number one seeds, one realizes that they are both East-based teams, however they get shipped "out West" as far as Ohio for Dartmouth and Michigan for Yale.  Other considerations such as not playing intra-conference games in the first round as well as others, were taken under advisement when putting together the following hypothetical bracket for the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

The brackets (at the top of the page) look as follows:
East Regional:
1. Boston College vs. 4. Niagara
2. Quinnipiac vs. 3. Western Michigan

Northeast Regional:
1. New Hampshire vs. 4. Harvard
2. Miami vs. 3. Cornell

West Regional: 
1. Yale vs. 4. Minnesota
2. Notre Dame vs. 3. Denver

Midwest Regional:
1. Dartmouth vs. 4. North Dakota
2. Boston University vs. 3. Union

While a number one seed is supposed to get you the easiest route to the Frozen Four, it appears that some number one seeds have their work cut out for them.  Dartmouth, the number three overall seed, has to face North Dakota in their first game.  Yale, the final number one seed, takes on an always intimidating Minnesota in their first game.  These brackets would be incredibly interesting to see play out.  Ponder the brackets as we take a closer look at the path that our team would have to take to make it to the Frozen Four.

Cornell by no means has the easiest bracket to get out of, nor should it with its number three seed.  Cornell's cumulative all-time record against the teams in its bracket, UNH, Miami, and Harvard, is 84-76-8.  While that seems like a point in our favor, we need to take a closer look to see what the individual records are.  Cornell has played Miami a total of three times. Its record against Miami? 1-2-0.  While three games may not be a great sample size, we can look to UNH, a team that used to be in the ECAC before the Divorce.  Cornell's record against UNH, however, is not much better, at 12-13-0.  How do we get to such a sizable winning percentage within the bracket? Our margin of ten wins over Harvard (71-61-8).  This is not incredibly promising from a purely statistical point of view.  One can look at the incredible cumulative records of the teams within our bracket.  Not including Cornell, the teams have a record of 24-6-5, a winning percentage of 75.7%.  This incredible record within a bracket shows how much parity is within the bracket.  However, statistics only say so much.  This team has the talent to make it out of the bracket should it work hard and prepare for three incredibly tough teams, a New Hampshire team which soared to the ranks of number one in the poll, a Miami team which beat both conference and non-conference teams, and a Harvard team which beat Cornell once already this season.

Should Cornell get out of the bracket, it would face the winner of the Midwest bracket (Dartmouth, North Dakota, BU, or Union).  The possibility of an all-ECAC Frozen Four in this exists, unlikely though it may be.  But it would be nice to show ECAC relevance to outstrip the number of bids of one or two "Big Three" conferences in the last year that the "Big Three" exist as such.

To start off GEHF for this week, after a break last week we look back to the Frozen Apple.  During one of the stoppages in play, the MSG announcers recognized Olympic gold medalist and Yale alumna Sarah Hughes for attending the game with her Cornell gear prominently.  Hughes posted this picture not long after.  In case any of you were wondering what a Yalie was doing supporting Cornell, take a closer look at the man with Touchdown.  He is none other than John Hughes, captain of Cornell's 1970 team.  You know, that undefeated national championship winning team coached by Ned Harkness?  Yes, that John Hughes.  Hughes is her father.  Her mother is also a Cornellian and her siblings have gone to a smattering of schools, amongst them Cornell and Harvard.  It was great to see a legend at the game.  Especially given that he gave a pre-game speech to the team.  Impressive.

Jersey Auction, Ahoy!
Speaking of MSG, does anyone remember the camouflage jerseys that the Big Red wore during the second period of the game?  Those very jerseys are being auctioned off with funds going toward the Wounded Warrior Project.  Collectively, the jerseys are going for over $15,000.  This is a great cause, and the more money raised for the project, the better.  Bidding through the website goes through December 6th with final voting via email on the seventh.

Teddy Bears
During the last home game against St. Lawrence, Cornell held their annual teddy-bear toss which, according to the Cornell Hockey Association page, was a success.  Money raised from purchases of the bears went to the Franziska Racker Centers and the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes, while the bears themselves were donated to the Cops, Kids, and Toys foundation.

Markers for Madison
Back in October, Brianne Jenner made known her mission to raise money through a goal drive for Madison Primeau, a young girl undergoing cancer treatment who Jenner knows.  Each sponsor will donate one dollar for every goal Jenner posts throughout the season.  Last season she posted 20 goals, and as of now she is up to nine.  All the money donated goes directly to her medical expenses.  As far as we know, she is still collecting sponsors (see the website for information on how to contact Jenner).  But on a related but happy note, here is Madison, modeling a signed jersey from the Cornell Women's team.

Harvard Leaking Players?
Though he is still on the roster on the official Crimson site, Over the Boards tweeted that Steve Michalek, one of Harvard's goaltenders who saw a decent amount of playing time last year but none yet this year, has in fact reported to Cedar Rapids (USHL).  On top of that, there are now rumors that another Harvard player, sophomore defenseman Max Everson (younger brother of senior Marshall Everson) will be doing the same.

Moran, part of OHL central scouting, reports this recently.  While this is entirely speculation, the same exact sort of speculation turned out to be true with regards to Michalek.  One has to wonder what exactly is going on with these players.