CCHA Pick 'Em 2022-23 - The Last Augie-Free Edition

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The winner of week 6 was our very own Hockey John who rode the bonus wave to a high score of 24 this week. As for the bonus, well...yeah...no. There were 184 penalty minutes this weekend (thanks primarily to the first annual Festival of Game Misconducts that took place at the Slater Family Ice Arena) with Hockey John picking up 9 bonus points. The rest of the field was shut out on the bonus. More on that in a moment, but first a shout out to Maverick2009, mikeeddy19, and potternmu who picked up 21 out of 22 possible points with only Ferris' shootout win over Bemidji on Friday night standing in the way of pure picking perfection.

There was no change in the top three places on the leaderboard though Hockey John and mikeeddy19 now find themselves in a tie for fourth.

With Mankato's 7-2 win over St. Thomas, we now have some visibility into how the end-of-year bonus might look. I've updated the Team/Bonus Goal column to include the current bonus points that would be applied to each score if the season ended today.

I think what the field needs is a shot at redemption so we'll run the same bonus for week 7. There are only 6 games this week so it should be super easy, right?

Week 7 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

In keeping with the theme of BG hockey sweeps, the week 7 winner was our very own Critical Thinker who posted a field crushing 26 points and has taken a 13 point lead in the race for both the MacNaughton and Beagan trophies. Honorable mentions go out to iwearpurple, John J. MacInnes, SectionP, and SweeneyHawksHockey who each went 5-for-6 missing only the Lakers upset over Tech on Friday night.

The bonus paid off for four contestants. There were 85 penalty minutes this weekend. As expected, Critical Thinker picked up 10 points followed closely by Beaverhockeyfan with 9.

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Contestant        Bonus
Critical Thinker   10
Beaverhockeyfan     9
GoNanooks           1
Puckdude40          1

As mentioned above, Critical Thinker has the lead in the Battle for the Beagan, however, a whopping 10 contestants are posting pick percentages over .600

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Contestant           Pick %
Critical Thinker      .657
BGSURICK              .644
mikeeddy19            .631
ClassyC               .631
<3_Blizzard           .626
potternmu             .625
MTUHuskyGold          .622
SweeneyHawksHockey    .621
CoHockeyMom           .611
Igrh                  .606

Another bonus is on tap for week 8. It's hard to believe we are officially 1/3 of the way through the season.

Week 8 picks
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[Hockey John]

Of course, I picked the Tech - Lake State and Bemidji - Northern splits both incorrectly.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

All hail ClassyC who, by missing only Northern's upset of the Mavs Friday night along with 7 bonus points, is this week's winner with 23 points and rockets up the leaderboard to trail CriticalThinker by only 3 points. Helmets off to John J. MacInnes who also went 5-of-6 on the picks missing only the Northern upset. This is ClassyC's second weekly win along with 3 second place finishes and a third place finish. Wow. Making a strong case for ROY.

Lots of bonus play this week. According to CCHA.com, there were 57 assists this week. However, according to CHN.com and USCHO.com there were 59. Yeah. So we'll go with the national guys and say there were 59 total assists. Congrats to our very own Hockey John who picked up 9 bonus points. 15 contestants (slightly more than half the field) were in the bonus money this week.

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Contestant        Bonus
Hockey John         9
beaverhockeyfan     8
Manurespreader      8
ClassyC             7
Icd80               7
Soulbeaver          7
mikeeddy19          5
GoNanooks           4
puckdude40          4
<3_Blizzard         3
giwan               3
John J. MacInnes    3
SectionP            2
Igrh                1
TalonsUpPuckDown    1

While we're on the bonus topic, there's a slightly dented Jeff Sauer trophy awaiting the contestant with the most bonus points this year. Here's how the race stacks up through week 8:

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Contestant        Bonus
beaverhockeyfan     21
Critical Thinker    18
Hockey John         18
ClassyC             17
Manurespreader      15
puckdude40          15
<3_Blizzard         11
GoNanooks           11

We'll keep the bonus train on the tracks for another week.

Week 9 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Our week 9 winner with 21 out of a possible 27 points is Manurespreader who rockets his way up the leaderboard and now trails our leaders by 7 points -- way to go, 'spreader! Critical Thinker stubbed their toe a bit and now finds themselves in a tie for the lead with ClassyC. Special shout out to Footballguy51 and SectionP who each correctly called the Bemidji/Nodak tie on Friday night. Honorable mentions go out to Icd80 and MTUHuskyGold for winning the "Inverse Perfection" award by picking 100% incorrectly on Friday and 100% perfectly on Saturday. This goes to show there's more than one way to get your screen name in bold.

It was a light weekend for penalties in the CCHA with only 46 called for all 6 games. Leading the bonus picking this week by collecting all 10 points was none other than Manurespreader followed closely by CoHockeyMom and MTUHuskyGold. Here's how this week's bonus played out:

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Contestant        Bonus
Manurespreader      10
CoHockeyMom          8
MTUHuskyGold         8
Atanarjuat           7
Potternmu            7
Igrh                 5
mikeeddy19           5
BGSURICK             4
Beaverhockeyfan      3
Icd80                3
SweeneyHawksHockey   3
Soulbeaver           2
John J. MacInnes     1

And with this bonus win, Manurespreader assumes the lead in the race for the Sauer by a single point over Beaverhockeyfan:

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Contestant         Bonus
Manurespreader       25
Beaverhockeyfan      24
Hockey John          18
Critical Thinker     18
CoHockeyMom          17
ClassyC              17

The Battle for the Beagan sees our very own BGSURICK enjoying a 2 game/4 point lead over ClassyC with Critical Thinker lurking closely behind:

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Contestant        Points %
BGSURICK            .690
ClassyC             .674
Critical Thinker    .670
Potternmu           .660
Bronco Hockey Fan   .643

The bonus needs a break. This week you'll need to rely on your pure picking prowess to pocket points. However, to sweeten the pot a bit, picking Ferris State to win either game in Mankato will be worth double points. That's 6 points for a Ferris win, 4 points for an OT/SO win, or 2 points for an OT/SO loss.

Week 10 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Who would ever think to go all in on the Save Ferris bonus this week? Well, our week 11 winner did. That's right, Footballguy51 put it all on Ferris to sweep the Mavs, goes pick-6 on the bonus, and wins the week with 24 points. That performance has to be in the running for pick-of-the-year. Congrats! Honorable mentions go out to CoHockeyMom and SectionP who each picked up an additional 3 points by betting on the 'Dawgs.

Bowling Green's 7-goal performance against the Lakers on Friday night adds their name to the yearly team bonus goal along with the Mavs. The updates are in, it looks like SectionP is the only contestant to benefit.

As for the leaderboards, not much changed. Critical Thinker and ClassyC are still tied in the race for the MacNaughton, BGSURICK still leads in the Battle for the Beagan, while manurespreader is in the lead for the Sauer.

The bonus is back with special teams being the topic of the week.

Week 11 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

To prove week10 was not a fluke, Footballguy51 did a scoop-and-score to bring home the win with 17 points on the week. That's now two straight. Will this week make it a threepeat? And no more whining about how this "isn't your sport" and that you "know nothing about anything related to hockey."

Lots of bonus play this week. There were 14 special teams goals scored across the 6 league games. giwan, Icd80, mbenecke, and SectionP were perfect on the week each picking up 5 bonus points. 19 contestants picked up at least 1 bonus point:

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Contestant       Bonus
giwan              5
Icd80              5
mbenecke           5
SectionP           5
Bronco Hockey Fan  4
CoHockeyMom        4
Footballguy51      4
Igrh               4
mikeeddy19         4
Soulbeaver         4
<3_Blizzard        3
potternmu          3
puckdude40         3
Hockey John        2
MTUHuskyGold       2
BGSURICK           1
Critical Thinker   1
Manurespreader     1
TalonsUpPuckDown   1

The bonus is back for another week.

Looking at the leaderboard, we see Critical Thinker holding a one point lead over ClassyC in the race for the MacNaughton with Manurespreader lurking just 6 points back. BGSURICK holds a 1 game/3 point lead over potternum in the Battle for the Beagan, and Manurespreader's lead over CoHockeyMom is now up to 2 in the race for the Sauer.

We are nearing the season's halfway point so I want to remind everyone that position in the standings is crucial come playoff time. Being the higher seed in a head-to-head matchup determines a lot of outcomes (I'll look back through the playoff histories and calculate an average) so be sure to get those picks in on time!

NOTICE #1: There is a Thursday night game this week so get those picks in early!
NOTICE #2: For this year's rookies, post any questions about the bonus and I'll answer straightaway. Hopefully it's self explanatory.

Week 12 picks
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[footballguy51]

Honestly, I have a rough idea who to pick but it rarely works. When reading the game recaps, I just try to understand who scored. When watching a game, I honestly have no idea what is and isn’t a penalty (sounds like I should be a CCHA ref based on the comments in the game discussions).

I’m just excited to finally be off the bottom of the standings!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Week 12 is now in the books and congratulations go out to Icd80 who won the week in dominating fashion with 19 points. Shout out to SectionP who was the only contestant to correctly pick Lake Superior to upset Tech on Friday night. Speaking of Friday (and Thursday) night, with 28 contestants entered this week there were 140 opportunities picked for these 5 games...but only 33 correct picks. That's a pick percentage of .236 for the entire field. Saturday's performance was much improved with 6 contestants correctly picking all 3 games. EDIT:  I almost forgot that the Tommies add their name to the yearly bonus goal by hanging 7 on the Bulldogs Friday night.  As no one picked St. Thomas for their yearly bonus goal there are no changes in the bonus points awarded. Rico still sucks. And at the rate we're going it won't be long before he laps us. Grrrrrrr...

On Friday night, Ohio State's Stephen Halliday lit the lamp at the 10:12 mark of the 3rd period (50:12 total elapsed game time) while on Saturday, Ohio State's goal by Patrick Guzzo at the 1:54 mark of the second period (21:54 total elapsed game time) put an exclamation point to the Buckeye's drubbing of the Falcons. Add 'em up, divide by 2, round up to the next minute and the average GWG time turned out to be 37 minutes. Three contestants picked up 4 points: Critical Thinker, GoNanooks, and potternmu. Here's how the rest of the bonus scoring played out.

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Contestant        Bonus
Critical Thinker    4
GoNanooks           4
potternmu           4
Icd80               3
Atanarjuat          2
SectionP            1

Looking at the leaderboards, Critical Thinker's bonus play this week provided some breathing room over ClassyC with Icd80's strong performance this week catapulting them into 3rd place just 9 points back. manurespreader and mikeeddy19 currently find themselves in a tie for that last #1 playoff seed (more on the playoffs after the break).

BGSURICK stays in control of the Battle for the Beagan with a 2 game/5 point lead over Critical Thinker.

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BILL BEAGAN TROPHY
Contestant        Pick %
BGSURICK           .653
Critical Thinker   .636
ClassyC            .629
Bronco Hockey Fan  .629
potternmu          .628

Despite being shut out of the bonus scoring this week, manurespreader stays atop the leaderboard in the race for the Sauer. Both Critical Thinker and potternmu have put themselves within striking distance with their solid bonus play this week.

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JEFF SAUER TROPHY
Contestant      Bonus
Manurespreader    26
CoHockeyMom       24
beaverhockeyfan   24
Critical Thinker  23
potternmu         21
Hockey John       20

It's holiday break time in the NCAA schedule with CCHA teams finding their way into two tournaments. When filling out your picks you'll notice extra games are listed to account for the various combinations of wins/losses from the first day of tournament action. Fill out all games, I'll use only the games being played. Hope this makes sense. Also, it's tough to find out how each tournament determines winners/losers in the case of a tie after the NCAA regulation OT period so we'll make things consistent by going with the standard OOC tie approach. Therefore, shootouts will not be considered for either tournament.

The staff at the CCHA Pick 'Em wish you and yours a safe and happy holiday season!

Week 13 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Christmas day bump. The GLI starts on Tuesday. Get those picks in.

Here's a graph showing how often each team has been picked so far this season.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Welcome back from what the staff at the CCHA Pick 'Em hope was a happy and healthy holiday season for everyone. Santa left a little something extra in the stockings of the week 13 winners. Congrats to ClassyC, Critical Thinker, and mbenecke who each picked up 20 out of a possible 23 points. In round numbers, the roundest number of contestants there is (zero) correctly picked the Ferris upset over Sparty so our weekly winners were perfect the rest of the way.

Not much has changed at the top of the leaderboard with Critical Thinker, ClassyC, Icd80 and Manurespreader holding on to the top 4 places with Hockey John and beaverhockeyfan close behind.

Big news in the Battle for the Beagan as BGSURICK did the anti-homer picking thing and got tripped up when his Falcons unexpectedly swept the Engineers. That'll leave a mark as Critical Thinker and ClassyC now occupy the top two places.

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Contestant         Pick %
Critical Thinker    .654
ClassyC             .647
BGSURICK            .646
Bronco Hockey Fan   .644

We are now officially into the second half of the season. Playoff info will be posted as a mid-week bump. As of this week it looks like we have 28-29 regular players which means the top 3-4 seeds are looking at a first round bye, however, that may change as the season progresses. Stay tuned.

Once again we have a CCHA team in a tournament, so once again I've listed the potential game 2 matchups and will use only the actual game played.

Week 14 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

CCHA Pick 'Em Playoffs

Now that we’re into the second half of the season it’s time to start thinking about bringin' home the hardware. As mentioned at the beginning of the season there are 4 awards:
o MacNaughton Cup - Goes to the regular season champion as determined by total points
o Bill Beagan Trophy - Goes to the contestant with the highest points percentage (based solely on picks, no bonus) during the regular season (must participate in 75% of the games to be eligible)
o Jeff Sauer Trophy - Goes to the contestant with the most bonus points
o Mason Cup - Goes to the playoff champion

Playoff Eligibility
This year all contestants will make the playoffs. Additionally, a contestant has to have been fairly active in making weekly picks throughout most of the season. I'm trying to keep this fair for contestants who've been involved all year while keeping it open for late arrivals who are showing a commitment without writing down a ton of rules. Final decisions are at the discretion of the commissioner.  

Playoff Seeding
Matches are head-to-head, single elimination with snake seeding for bracket pairings (1 vs. 32, 2 vs. 31, etc.). Seeding and tie breakers are determined in the following manner based on regular season results:
1) Total Points (including bonus)
2) Points (excluding bonus)
3) Total Points earned during the final 2 (or 3, or 4, or…) weeks of the CCHA regular season including bonuses until the tie is broken. Basically the “hotter” player down the stretch is favored
4) Based on the total number of playoff contestants, the top seeds may earn a bye in the first round (as of today the top 3-4 seeds may qualify for a first round bye)

Playoff Rounds
o The first round will be based on the Friday, March 3 CCHA Quarterfinal playoff games with bonuses (4 games total, field reduced to 16).
o The second round will be based on the Saturday, March 4 CCHA Quarterfinal playoff games with bonuses (4 games total, field reduced from 16 to 8)
o Quarterfinals will be based on the first CCHA Semifinal playoff game with bonuses listed on CCHA.com held on Saturday, March 11 (1 game, field reduced from 8 to 4).
o Semifinals will be based on the second CCHA Semifinal playoff game with bonuses listed on CCHA.com held on Saturday, March 11 (1 game, field reduced from 4 to 2).
o The championship matchup will be based on the CCHA Championship game on March 21 plus bonuses.

Scoring
o 3 pts for a win, 0 pts for a loss.
o 2-3 bonus questions for each round worth 1-5 points.
o In all cases, ties go to the higher seed.

Good luck!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

We had 4 winners for the 14th week of the Pick 'Em season each of whom posted scores of 21 points. Stick taps to <3_Blizzard, Icd80, manurespreader, and Tommiealum93 whose bids for perfection were spoiled only by the Bemidji/Duluth tie on Friday night. Speaking of which, a hearty congratulations goes out to ClassyC and giwan who were the only two contestants to correctly pick a tie for that game.

While Critical Thinker maintains a lead in the race for the MacNaughton, both Icd80 and manurespreader now find themselves in the top four of the standings thanks to their week 14 wins. In the Battle for the Beagan, Critical Thinker stays in the lead though Icd80 and ClassyC lurk only one game/2 points behind.

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Contestant        Points %
Critical Thinker    .661
Icd80               .655
ClassyC             .655
BGSURICK            .644

In the race for the Sauer, I figure it probably makes sense to include the end-of-year bonus in the standings. While this is not included in the regular season yet, here is how things stand were the season to end today. manurespreader and beaverhockeyfan are tied with Critical Thinker only one bonus point back. The bonus is back for this week.

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Contestant       Bonus   Season   Total
Manurespreader    26       1        27
beaverhockeyfan   24       3        27
Critical Thinker  23       3        26
Hockey John       20       4        24
CoHockeyMom       24       0        24
Icd80             18       4        22
potternmu         21       0        21
SectionP          15       5        20

Playoff information has been posted, ask any questions here and I'll answer straightaway.

Week 15 picks
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[footballguy51]

I'm not very good with the bonus questions, but if I get points on this one then it's out of complete luck.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I'm not very good with the bonus questions, but if I get points on this one then it's out of complete luck.

I looked up a number of games with these two teams, the range of shots was so large that I can say your number has as good a chance as any.