Weekend and Beanpot Roundup

Roundup of games covered in the weekend preview, along with the Beanpot championship and consolation game:

Atlantic Hockey
RIT easily swept Canisius with a 3-0 win on Friday and a 6-0 win on Sunday. So long as they don't play very poorly down the stretch, they look to be a lock as a TUC in the Pairwise rankings. Also, they clinched the Atlantic Hockey Regular Season Championship this weekend.

Robert Morris beat Mercyhurst 3-2 on Friday and tied them 4-4 on Saturday. Their RPI remains just above .5000 at .5032. They could easily fall out of the Pairwise should they lose another game or two.

CCHA
Northern Michigan swept Michigan State on the weekend, dropping Michigan State below .5000 and bringing themselves to the cusp of TUC status with a .4996 RPI.

Michigan swept Ohio State, breaking a 3 game losing streak and boosting their standing in the Pairwise. Meanwhile, Ohio State's RPI fell just below .5000. Michigan is definitely hoping that Ohio State closes off strong enough to bring that above .5000 again, as they are 3-1-0 against OSU, whereas fellow CCHA teams Notre Dame and Miami, who are closely competing with Michigan for Pairwise position, are 1-1-0 and 0-2-0 against OSU, respectively.

Miami went 1-0-1 against Western Michigan on the weekend. This brought Miami up to number 11 in the Pairwise, and knocked WMU to the position of being the first team out in the tournament. Miami's position in the tournament is far from secure and WMU is knocking on the door of the tournament, so both teams will need to close out the season very strong. WMU will close out the regular season a series on the road against Michigan and a home-and-home against Notre Dame. They'll be in very strong position if they can go 3-1-0 over this stretch.

ECAC
Dartmouth beat Quinnipiac and Princeton on consecutive nights, boosting them into a tie for 11th in the Pairwise with New Hampshire and Miami. They are, however, in a very precarious situation, as they are only .500 on the year against TUCs and will only play one more TUC in the regular season. Meanwhile, they currently have very narrow leads in several comparisons against CCHA and WCHA teams, including Miami, Western Michigan, and Colorado College that will close out with tougher schedules. Dartmouth will need these teams to falter down the stretch to ensure a spot in the NCAAs, or they'll need a strong showing in the ECAC tournament to boost their standing.

Hockey East
In the most important series on the weekend, Merrimack swept New Hampshire in a home-and-home series. This moved Merrimack all the way up to a tie for 4th in the Pairwise and knocked New Hampshire down to a tie for 11th. Merrimack now has a very good chance to wind up the #2 overall seed, while New Hampshire cannot afford to go on a slide if they want to make the tournament.

WCHA
North Dakota swept Alaska-Anchorage, knocking Alaska-Anchorage's RPI to .5032. North Dakota continues to look like a probable #1 seed, whereas Alaska-Anchorage is on the cusp of falling out of the Pairwise rankings entirely, which would be detrimental to numerous WCHA teams, including North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth, Denver, and Wisconsin. Colorado College, on the other hand, would actually benefit, having gone 2-3-0 on the year against Alaska Anchorage.

Nebraska-Omaha swept Wisconsin in a critical series that served to nearly solidify Nebraska-Omaha's NCAA bid (although they can't afford to completely fall apart to end the year) and push Wisconsin to being the last team in the tournament. Wisconsin needs to rebound immediately, as every remaining game will be against a TUC. Nebraska-Omaha, incidentally, will play an even more difficult schedule to close out the year, and if they do well they look to be a #2 seed and could even push for a #1 seed.

Beanpot
Boston College won the Beanpot with a thrilling 7-6 overtime victory over Northeastern that wasn't terribly important in the grand scheme of things.

Harvard defeated Boston University in the consolation game, which was a big loss for BU, as they now are on the low end of the bubble. BU will close out against three weak teams and will have to rely on teams above them to lose or a strong showing in the Hockey East tournament if they are going to make it into the NCAA tournament.