A Quick Note On Tiebreakers

What Ifs, Could Have Beens, and Yet to Bes


Hockey East is a clusterfuck.

Plain and simple.

The three seed through the nine seed are separated by a grand total of six points.  SIX POINTS!!  Going into the final weekend of play, only three teams are safe from elimination chatter, as BC, UNH and Maine have all booked a trip to the second season.  UNH and BC will definitely be on home ice, although they will fight to decide the one seed this weekend.  Maine could be on home ice, or they could drop down into the seventh seed.

BU Spent Too Much Money on this Rink For it to be Empty Next Weekend

Everyone else....that's right, everyone....will be fighting for their playoff lives this weekend.  So it only makes sense that we show you the tie-breaking scenarios in Hockey East.

HOCKEY EAST TIEBREAKERS

1. Head-to-head results between the tied teams

2. Number of wins in conference play

3. Best record against the first-place team(s), then the second-place team(s), then the third-place team(s), and so on

4. Coin flip

If more than two teams finish in a tie, the same criteria will be applied to reduce the number of teams tied, and then the process will commence again.

We already went through the "Five-Way Tie For Fifth Armageddon Cats and Dogs Living Together" Scenario, which would drop BU all the way down to 8th, but let's hit a few more basic points about BU and NU this weekend.

If BU wants a shot at home ice, they need to at least win one and tie one against NU.  The Huskies lead the regular season series (if only the Beanpot counted!) 1-0, meaning an NU win secures tie-breaker number one with the Terriers.   However, even a sweep doesn't ensure home ice for BU, as they need Lowell to lose a little bit too.

This all gets jumbled if other teams are added to the mix, but let's worry about that tomorrow, shall we?