CCHA Pick ‘Em 2023-24: Augie's In!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

CCHA Pick ‘Em 2023-24

Welcome Pick ‘Em fans to the 2023-24 season of the CCHA Pick ‘Em contest; we’re now up to 9 CCHA league teams…yay! Here are the rules:

Click the link, fill out the form (don’t forget your screen name), submit your picks. If you want to change any of your picks, fill out a new form; I will take the last submission as your final answer.
If you are filling out picks for someone else, be sure to use the proper screen name – once the form is submitted no changes will be allowed.

Scoring:
3 points for a win (regulation or NCAA OT)
2 points for a shootout win (CCHA conference games only)
1 point for a shootout loss (CCHA conference games only)
0 points for a loss (regulation or NCAA OT)

For OOC regular season and specific tournament games there will be the option to pick a tie. If the game ends in a tie at the end of the NCAA OT period, 3 points will be awarded. If either team wins, zero points will be awarded.

Periodically there will be a bonus question (or two...) worth 5-10 points. There are also three bonus questions available only in week 1 that will cover the entire CCHA regular season.

Only NCAA-sanctioned games will be counted (no exhibition games).

Playoffs will be single elimination. Playoff participation and seeding will be determined based on the number of participants and overall standings. More on the playoffs later.

Four awards are up for grabs:
o MacNaughton Cup – Regular season champion as determined by total points - Last Year’s Winner: Icd80
o Mason Cup – Playoff champion - Last Year’s Winner: ClassyC
o Bill Beagan Trophy – Highest regular season points percentage (based solely on picks, no bonus) - Last Year’s Winner: mbenecke
o Jeff Sauer Trophy – Most bonus points - Last Year’s Winner: beaverhockeyfan (that’s two in a row, now going for the 3-peat!)

Good luck!

Week 1 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Bump. Missing some folks who regularly play. C'mon, shake off the pre-season doldrums we're all feeling and get in this thing.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

First off, apologies to the group. I use the CHN composite to load the CCHA games into my tracker and they didn't have the Augustana games for this weekend (in fact, they still don't). Subsequently, Augie's first two games didn't make it into the pick 'em.

Secondly, week 2 will see both a Thursday and a Sunday game. Here's a link to the week 2 form for you early birds, week 1 results will be posted on Monday.

Week 2 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

With 36 contestants lined up at the start of week 1, the contestant first off the line and claiming the week 1 win was BGHockeyFan94 with 21 points who, notably, went 4-for-4 on Sunday and was the only player to do so. Other notable performances include Lost_Husky who was the only contestant to correctly pick the Tech/Duluth tie on Saturday, Redridge who went 4-for-4 on Saturday including the Tommies win over St. Cloud, Lakerchum who successfully pulled off the anti-BGHockeyFan94 on Sunday, and the entire field for correctly picking the Lakers to fall to the Spartans on Saturday.

There are a whopping 16 games for week 2 with a Thursday puck drop so get those picks in early. The First Augie Win bonus comes into play with BG visiting Sioux Falls.

Week 2 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Bump. Thursday game now in progress. Don't get shut out on Fri/Sat/Sun!

[footballguy51]

After 1 week, I’m in the top half? How!?!?

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Week 2 standings will be posted tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the forms for week 3.

Week 3 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Congratulations to puckdude40 who is our week 2 winner with a whopping 29 points and has taken over first place by 5 points over mikeeddy19 and BGSURICK. Special shout out to Lakerchum and SectionP who were the only 2 contestants to correctly pick the Alaska/Tech tie on Saturday. Seven contestants picked Augustana to rock the Falcons (2 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday) this weekend. No one picked the Vikings to sweep.

In the “That didn’t take long” category, the Augie first win bonus paid out to 11 contestants and is included in everyone’s scores for the week. Also, there is now an 11-way tie for first place in the race for the Sauer (highest number of bonus points for the year):

Code: Select all

Contestant       Bonus
beaverhockeyfan    2
BGHockeyFan94      2
BGSURICK           2
Critical Thinker   2
Footballguy51      2
GoNanooks          2
Hockey John        2
Lakerchum          2
mbenecke           2
puckdude40         2
Tommiealum93       2

So yeah, 6 of the 11 bonus winners are from AZZ. Go Falcons!

We’re back to a regular Friday/Saturday schedule for week 3.

Week 3 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Bump. Missing a couple of regulars. With 12 games on tap this isn't a week to sit on the bench.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

What a weekend for the CCHA! We'll get to that in a moment, but first let's congratulate the week 3 tri-winners: aparch, Bronco Hockey Fan, and GoNanooks who each posted 26 points. A special shout out to first time player ejsteele6 who was the only contestant to correctly pick Friday's Lindenwood/Tommies tie. See, it isn't all that hard, is it! With that said, everyone continues to look up at puckdude40 who stays in the lead though mikeeddy19 picked up a point this week.

Now on to the dismal performance of the CCHA over the past two weeks. Yeah, it's bad. Had you picked every game against a CCHA team over the past two weeks you would have a total of 47 points. While a number of contestants posted 45 or 46 points over this period, only one posted 47 points: SectionP. While there are a few league games on tap for the next couple of weeks, league play doesn't kick in until week six. So between now and then, pick wisely.

We'll formally kick off the Battle for the Beagan with our first weekly bonus.

Week 4 picks
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Edit: The first version of the leaderboard was incorrect (I pulled the wrong image from the web server). The overall totals were correct, now the weekly totals are correct. Thank you Footballguy.

[footballguy51]

Can you check the math? I had 35 points last week. I earned 20 this week according to this chart, so I should have 55, not 49.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Can you check the math? I had 35 points last week. I earned 20 this week according to this chart, so I should have 55, not 49.

The first version of the leaderboard was incorrect (I pulled the wrong image from the web server). The overall totals were correct, now the weekly totals are correct. Thank you for catching that.

I've had some challenges with the calculator this season, not sure why. Here are your picks from last week:

Northern Michigan 0
Western Michigan 3
Minnesota State 0
Michigan Tech 0
Lindenwood 0
Minnesota Duluth 3
Northern Michigan 0
Minnesota Duluth 2
Minnesota State 0
Wisconsin 3
St. Thomas 3
Bowling Green 0

Total is 14, the same as me. Brutal week.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Our week 4 winner, with a whopping 29 points, is Lakerchum who vaults themselves into a tie for second with SectionP. Both are 9 points back of our leader, puckdude40 who has extended his lead by an additional 5 points this week. Stick taps to giwan who was the only contestant to correctly call Friday's Tech/Saints tie and to Footballguy51 and manurespreader who both correctly called the Mav/NODAK tie on Saturday.

Once again, Augustana was not included in this week's games due to USCHO considering them an independent and not a CCHA member. Oops, our director of operations here at Pick 'Em central will be on top of that going forward. WIthout Augustana in the mix, there were only 49 goals scored across all 10 games this weekend. For those keeping track at home, 9 of those goals came from the Lakers and 8 came from NODAK. Lakerchum came closest to the mark with 9 bonus points and is now the leader in the Race for the Sauer. Here are the bonus payouts:

Code: Select all

Contestant        Bonus
Lakerchum           9
Icd80               8
Manurespreader      8
potternmu           8
BGHockeyFan94       7
MTUHuskyGold        7
puckdude40          6
AgentClass          5
mbenecke            5
Redridge            4
beaverhockeyfan     3
Footballguy51       3
SweeneyHawksHockey  3
UAFIceAngel         3
Critical Thinker    2
giwan               2
John J. MacInnes    2
GoNanooks           1
iwearpurple         1

Standings in the Race for the Sauer look thusly:

Code: Select all

Contestant     Total Bonus
Lakerchum          11
BGHockeyFan94       9
puckdude40          8
potternmu           8
Manurespreader      8
Icd80               8

Lastly, Augustana and Northern Michigan have each scored 4 goals in a CCHA league game which, as of now, is the max. The scoreboard column "Team/Goal Bonus : Pts" shows the bonus points for each contestant, however, these points are currently for display purposes only and are not reflected in any totals.

Week 5 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The week 5 co-winners with 20 points each are SectionP and Tommiealum93 so congratulations! You may notice a major shuffling of the leaderboard with SectionP's win catapulting them to the top of the heap while LakerChum's 18-point performance now has them in second. Our previous leader (since week 2), puckdude40, hit the proverbial wall and struggled to keep the mojo going by posting only 1 correct pick for the week and is now in 3rd place. Stick taps to Redridge who was the only contestant to correctly pick the Lakers to sweep the Beavers. Eight contestants correctly picked the Tommies to sweep the Wildcats.

The bonus is back for week 6.

Week 6 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Week 6 is now in the books and it was MTUHuskyGold who rode strong picking and solid bonus guessing to a win this week with 30 points. Stick taps to GIWAN, GoNanooks, and TUPD who each were only one pick away from pick 'em perfection this week (sans bonus, of course). Speaking of the bonus, there were 143 penalty minutes across the 10 games this weekend. Leave it to puckdude40 to lead all comers picking up 9 bonus points and reclaiming the lead in the race for the MacNaughton by one point over Lakerchum and 3 points over last weeks leader SectionP. Only 6 contestants picked up bonus point this week, here's how it went:

Code: Select all

Contestant        Bonus
puckdude40          9
Footballguy51       7
Lakerchum           7
MTUHuskyGold        7
giwan               5
Critical Thinker    2

A reminder that there's lots of hardware to bring home and the races for both the Bill Beagan and Jeff Sauer trophies are starting to heat up. SectionP leads in the Battle for the Beagan over GoNanooks while LakerChum is the current Sauer leader.

Bill Beagan Trophy (Best Pick Percentage, No Bonus)

Code: Select all

Contestant     Points %
SectionP        .649
GoNanooks       .611
Redridge        .584
Puck Master     .584

Jeff Sauer Trophy (Most Bonus Points)

Code: Select all

Contestant     Bonus
Lakerchum        18
puckdude40       17
MTUHuskyGold     14
Footballguy51    12

Lastly, Tech, St. Thomas, Minnesota State , Bemidji, and Northern are each tied for the maximum number of goals scored in a league game at 6. The column Team/Goal Bonus : Pts show the bonus points that will be added for each contestant at the end of the season.

The bonus this week is penalties called, not minutes. Good luck!

Week 7 picks
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