CCHA Pick 'EM - Even though it's the Inaugural Season, We're Back Baby!!!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Who wins the CCHA popularity contest and who gets left home? The chart below shows the number of times a CCHA team has been picked to win through the first six weeks. Reminder there is a Thursday night game this week.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The coaching cliché for week 7 is "strong compete" which was driven by good picking and solid bonus play. This week's co-winners are Critical Thinker and SweeneyHawksHockey who each posted 28 points which now bumps them into the number 2 and 3 spots behind giwan whose lead is looking a little less secure right now.

In Saturday's Beavers/Lakers contest, Bemidji's Jakub Lewandowski lit the lamp for the Beavers second goal at the 12:28 mark of the first period (rounded down to 12 minutes). No other goals were scored until Bemidji's Jere Vaisanen found the back of the net at the 3:29 mark of the third period (rounded down to 3 minutes). With a time between goals of 31 minutes, John J. MacInnes and SweeneyHawksHockey were at the top of the bonus picking this week. 21 contestants picked up at least 1 bonus point.

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Contestant         Points
John J. MacInnes     10
SweeneyHawksHockey   10
Footballguy51         9
gochiefs              9
Icd80                 9
<3_Blizzard           8
Manurespreader        8
Wi.HuskiesFan         8
beaverhockeyfan       7
Bronco Hockey Fan     7
Critical Thinker      7
MTUHuskyGold          7
jpfalcon09            6
mbenecke              6
BGSURICK              5
Deejpuck              5
Hockey John           5
Soulbeaver            5
puckdude40            4
Redridge              3
Scrum Bucket          1

With Minnesota State's dismantling of BG on Friday, the Mavs take over the top spot in the yearlong Team/Goal bonus from week 1.  Three points awarded to players who picked the Mavs, 2 points for picking 9 goals (1 point for picking 8 or 10 goals).  On the leaderboard I've highlighted those who are currently in line for 5 points at season's end should the results stay as is.

Week 8 has a twist to the schedule. The week will run from this Thursday through the following Wednesday. I'll post the week 9 form on Sunday as usual (reminder that it's Thanksgiving week) but will wait until Wednesday evening (or Thursday morning) to post the week 8 results.

Lastly, while there is no bonus in play for week 8, picking St. Thomas to win either game against Minnesota State will be worth double points should the Tommies pull off an upset either night (6 pts for a win, 4 pts for an OT/SO win, 2 pts for an OT/SO loss).

Week 8 picks
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[BillyLP]

WOW I was bad this week.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here's an update on the bonus.

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Contestant          Bonus
Wi.HuskiesFan         18
Icd80                 18
SweeneyHawksHockey    17
<3_Blizzard           16
beaverhockeyfan       16
Critical Thinker      15
gochiefs              15
Soulbeaver            14
puckdude40            13
John J. MacInnes      13
MTUHuskyGold          13
GIWAN                 12
mikeeddy19            11
Deejpuck              10
potternmu             10
jpfalcon09            10
Bronco Hockey Fan      9
Footballguy51          9
mbenecke               8
Manurespreader         8
GoNanooks              7
BGSURICK               7
Hockey John            7
Redridge               5
SectionP               5
iwearpurple            2
BillyLP                2
njmav1                 2
Stauber1               2
TalonsUpPuckDown       1
Scrum Bucket           1
Atanarjuat             0
FadeToBlack&Gold       0
Laker Dude             0
dgulbrand              0
GopherFan              0
Douglas Deprest        0

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

While week 8 is not yet officially in the books, time keeps on slippin' into the future so let's start week 9!

Week 9 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Week 8 results are in -- Atanarjuat, giwan, and TUPD are the tri-winners each claiming 30 out of a possible 33 points. giwan now leads by 10 points over SweeneyHawksHockey and by 15 over CriticalThinker. BroncoHockeyFan still leads in the Battle for the Beagan but the field creeps closer with 5 contestants now posting pick percentages over .700.

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Contestant         Pick %
Bronco Hockey Fan   .754
GIWAN               .740
puckdude40          .739
TalonsUpPuckDown    .714
Redridge            .701

Happy Thanksgiving!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

All the picks are in for the week, here's how the bonus picking shakes out.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The sole week 9 winner with 21 out of 25 points was Atanarjuat who picked 6 of 7 games correctly (including the Lakers Friday night upset of the Mavs), pocketed 4 out of 5 bonus points, and moved up 5 places in the standings. The next closest contestant only posted 16 points so this was a runaway victory.

Five special teams goals were scored in league play this weekend so once again only a few bonus points were awarded this week. Here's the breakdown:

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Atanarjuat - 4
dgulbrand - 2
mikeeddy19 - 1

giwan's 10-point lead from last week is down to 7. puckdude40 is now tied with Bronco Hockey Fan in the race to bring home the Beagan with giwan only a game behind.

Eight games plus a 10-point bonus are in play for week 10.

Week 10 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

With the conclusion of week 10 we are officially halfway through the pick 'em season. Stick taps to BillyLP and dgulbrand who each picked perfectly this week going 8-for-8 including correctly picking NMU to sweep Duluth. With that said, the bonus came into play to determine the week 10 winner so further stick taps to dgulbrand who, with 27 points edged out BGSURICK (25 pts), mikeeddy19 (24 pts), and BillyLP (24 pts) for the weekly honors. giwan had a big 23-point week and now sits comfortably atop the leaderboard.

There were 72 total penalty minutes across the 6 league games. BGSURICK was the only contestant to claim all 10 bonus points this week. Here's the bonus breakdown.

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Contestant        Bonus
BGSURICK            10
mikeeddy19           9
giwan                8
Manurespreader       8
SectionP             6
beaverhockeyfan      5
Hockey John          5
Footballguy51        4
dgulbrand            3
njmav1               2

Bonus is back this week, note that we're picking penalties called, not penalty minutes.

Also, I'm on vacation so week 11 results and week 12 pick 'em forms will not be available until Monday the 13th. Apologies for any issues this may cause.

Week 11 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Thursday game this week, entry form below. Week 11 results will be posted tomorrow.

Week 12 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The lone week 11 winner was <3_Blizzard who posted 21 points. Not much in the way of scoring this week. Out of 24 possible points for picks, the field average was slightly more than 14. While there were quite a few contestants who picked Northern/Lake Superior to split, only <3_Blizzard picked the Lakers to sweep.

Bonus picking wasn't much better. The field can't seem to figure out from one week to the next what the league penalty situation will be. Last week there were a grand total of 72 penalty minutes recorded across six league games. This week, there were a total of 71 penalties called across eight league games. Only four contestants picked up at least one bonus point; congratulations to Critical Thinker and Soulbeaver who each lead the way with seven points.

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Contestant         Bonus Points
Critical Thinker        7
Soulbeaver              7
GoNanooks               5
Deejpuck                1

Just past the halfway point with the holiday tournament season now upon us, the "Battle for the Beagan" remains tight. The top 5 contestants are separate by only a couple of games.

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Contestant           Pts %
giwan	             .707
Bronco Hockey Fan    .699
Redridge             .688
puckdude40           .688
TalonsUpPuckDown     .683

I'll post periodic updates to the standings but there won't be a new weekly form to fill out until the new year. And with the new year comes the promise of playoff glory. We'll follow the single-elimination format used for previous iterations of this contest; seeding will be based on standings (plus tiebreakers) so the best way to maintain or improve your seeding is to get your picks in.

Have a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season. Go CCHA!

Week 12 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Quick standings update after this past weekend.

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  Rank  Contestant (W/L/SOW/SOL)     This Wk  Points  Bonus   Total  Points % Games
   1    giwan (71-30-1-0)               3      215      20     235    0.703    102
   2    SweeneyHawksHockey (66-35-1-0   3      200      17     217    0.654    102
   2    mikeeddy19 (65-35-0-1)          3      196      21     217    0.647    101
   4    TalonsUpPuckDown (70-31-0-1)    6      211      1      212     0.69    102
   4    Critical Thinker (63-38-0-1)    3      190      22     212    0.621    102
   6    Soulbeaver (63-38-0-1)          3      190      21     211    0.621    102
   7    gochiefs (64-37-1-0)            0      194      15     209    0.634    102
   8    Bronco Hockey Fan (66-27-0-1)   6      199      9      208    0.706     94
   9    John J. MacInnes (64-37-1-0)    3      194      13     207    0.634    102
   10   puckdude40 (64-29-0-1)          3      193      13     206    0.684     94
   11   <3_Blizzard (62-31-1-0)         3      188      16     204    0.667     94
   12   mbenecke (64-37-1-0)            3      194      8      202    0.634    102
   12   Deejpuck (63-38-1-0)            6      191      11     202    0.624    102
   14   Atanarjuat (65-36-1-0)          3      197      4      201    0.644    102
   15   MTUHuskyGold (62-31-0-1)        6      187      13     200    0.663     94
   15   Footballguy51 (61-40-0-1)       3      184      13     200    0.601    102
   17   Icd80 (60-33-0-1)               3      181      18     199    0.642     94
   17   BillyLP (65-36-1-0)             3      197      2      199    0.644    102
   17   beaverhockeyfan (59-42-0-1)     3      178      21     199    0.582    102
   20   Redridge (64-29-0-1)            3      193      5      198    0.684     94
   20   Manurespreader (60-41-1-0)      3      182      16     198    0.595    102
   22   iwearpurple (64-37-0-1)         3      193      2      195    0.631    102
   23   Wi.HuskiesFan (58-31-0-1)       3      175      18     193    0.648     90
   24   potternmu (60-41-1-0)           3      182      10     192    0.595    102
   24   njmav1 (62-39-1-0)              3      188      4      192    0.614    102
   26   GoNanooks (59-38-1-0)           6      179      12     191    0.609     98
   27   SectionP (57-44-0-1)            3      172      11     183    0.562    102
   28   BGSURICK (53-32-0-1)            6      160      17     177     0.62     86
   29   Hockey John (54-46-0-1)         0      163      12     175    0.538    101
   30   jpfalcon09 (47-34-1-0)          3      143      10     153    0.581     82
   31   dgulbrand (34-15-1-0)           0      104      5      109    0.693     50
   32   Stauber1 (33-25-0-0)            0       99      2      101    0.569     58
   33   FadeToBlack&Gold (30-20-0-0)    0       90      0       90     0.6      50
   34   Scrum Bucket (17-7-0-1)         6       52      1       53    0.693     25

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Welcome back! Holiday season is over, hopefully everyone enjoyed the break. Week 12 saw co-winners Bronco Hockey Fan and yours truly pick up 24 out of a possible 30 points. It appears from an outsiders perspective that <3_Blizzard may have started off the holidays a tad early. Better luck this week. Despite spotting the field nearly 80 games, Scrum Bucket continues to march up the leaderboard. Keep 'er goin.

Giwan remains atop the leaderboard with a healthy 18 point lead (and has held or tied for the lead every single week!). With only eight (8) weeks remaining in the season, it looks like a Greg Norman Masters-like collapse will be the only way to wrest away his control over the MacNaughton Cup.

The Battle for the Beagan remains tight with one game separating the top 3 places. Bronco Hockey Fan currently holds first place honors.

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Contestant         Pick %
Bronco Hockey Fan   .709
giwan               .697
TalonsUpPuckDown    .694
puckdude40          .670
Redridge            .660
MTUHuskyGold        .660

Speaking of this week, we'll have a complete do-over of week 6 since the field fared so poorly at the bonus. Additionally, the "Save Ferris" 2-for-1 special is back in play as they travel to Mankato. Picking Ferris State to win on either night is worth double points this week! That's 6 points for a regulation or OT win, 4 points for S/O win, 2 points for a S/O loss.

Week 13 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Playoff information is coming next week.  The tl;dr version is the top 32 contestants are eligible.  Matches will be head-to-head single elimination.  Win 5 matches in a row and you take home the Mason Cup.  Bring your "A" game, though.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The week 13 tri-winners with 28 out of a possible 29 points were BillyLP, Deejpuck, and iwearpurple. Not to be outdone, a total of 13 contestants went pick perfect by correctly choosing all 8 game winners this week.

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Contestant
<3_Blizzard
BillyLP
Bronco Hockey Fan
Deejpuck
giwan
gochiefs
Icd80
iwearpurple
Manurespreader
mbenecke
puckdude40
SweeneyHawksHockey
TalonsUpPuckDown

What separated the wheat from the chaff this week was the bonus which, unlike week 6, paid off handsomely for 6 contestants. On Friday, Northern's Joe Nardi scored the game winner against Colgate at the 7:17 mark of the second period. On Saturday, Northern's Trevor Cosgrove (a Colgate graduate transfer) scored the game winner at the 10:53 mark of the second period. Averaging this all out and rounding up gives us a bonus game winning goal time of 30 minutes. Here's how the bonus paid out:

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Player        Bonus
BillyLP         4
Deejpuck        4
iwearpurple     4
gochiefs        3
MTUHuskyGold    3
Soulbeaver      3

Since all the leaders picked the same teams this week and missed on the bonus, there is zero movement on the leaderboards. Both exciting and dull at the same time.

No bonus for week 14.

Week 14 picks
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