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

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Congratulations to giwan, winner of the inaugural CCHA Pick ‘Em MacNaughton Cup who had us looking at his taillights from week 1 to week 20. He led wire-to-wire this year…what an amazing accomplishment!

Congratulations to TalonsUpPuckDown who went with his gut instead of his heart this weekend. By picking the Lakers to sweep he vaulted past two contestants to claim the inaugural Bill Began trophy by .002 over Bronco Hockey Fan.

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Contestant         Pick %
TalonsUpPuckDown    .717
Bronco Hockey Fan   .715
giwan               .712

Congratulations to Critical Thinker who is our week 20 winner with 29 points and went 7-for-8 on picks this week along with 8 bonus points. With this performance, he has grabbed onto one of the coveted #1 playoff seeds. Well done, sir!

Congratulations to MTUHuskyGold who led the way with 9 bonus points this week. Here’s the bonus breakdown:

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Contestant       Points
MTUHuskyGold        9
Critical Thinker    8
Mbenecke            6
Iwearpurple         5
Potternmu           5
Atanarjuat          4
puckdude40          4
Soulbeaver          4
Bronco Hockey Fan   2
Footballguy51       2
Wi.HuskiesFan       2
Gochiefs            1
TalonsUpPuckDown    1

After a board meeting with the CCHA Pick ‘Em president, the decision has been made to pull the old WCHA Jeff Sauer trophy out of the storage locker and award it to the contestant with the highest number of bonus points. Congratulations to beaverhockeyfan who collected 43 bonus points this year! Sorry about the dent in the cup, apparently it was tossed haphazardly in the storage locker after last season. Here’s the top 5 bonus point getters (grammar check needed):

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Contestant      Bonus Points
Beaverhockeyfan     43
Critical Thinker    40
Soulbeaver          36
MTUHuskyGold        31
puckdude40          28

The final standings are shown below; the yearly bonus has been applied to the “This Week” column.

Thanks folks for a great year and congratulations to everyone who brought home some hardware. Now on to the playoffs!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The regional locations are now known and the brackets are set. It's Pick 'Em Playoff Time! By now you know what to do. For the playoffs, fill out both the first and second round games/bonus on the form. I'll update the brackets between rounds so everyone knows who advances. As we are now head-to-head, access to the response summaries and response details will be delayed until all entries have been submitted. Reminder that in all cases a tie goes to the higher seed. giwan, by virtue of winning a contest with 31 participants, receives an automatic bye to the second round.

The battle for the Mason Cup is on. Good luck!

First and second round picks

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Bump. Playoff time. Missing a couple of regulars. No need to give your opponent a free pass to the second round.

First and second round picks

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

All entries are in, here are links to the details and summary. 

View response summaries
View response details

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

What an exciting first round! First off, stick taps to Scrum Bucket and puckdude40 who each posted 14 points, the highest point total of the first round. We'll start with the most boring bracket, the Houghton bracket, where all the favorites advanced. TUPD and MTUHuskyGold each tied their way into the second round while potternmu and John J. MacInnes each dispensed with their first round opponents by actually winning their matches outright.

The only upset in the Mankato bracket saw Atanarjuat outlasting beaverhockeyfan 10-9. Higher seeds gochiefs and manurespreader each tied there way to the second round.

UPSET ALERT! In the Bemidji bracket, Scrum Bucket upset #1 seed Critical Thinker and Hockey John upset our Miami Stater SweeneyHawksHockey to advance to the second round. Favorites Deejpuck and Icd80 each advanced by identical 9-6 scores.

UPSET ALERT! The Soo bracket didn't disappoint as another #1 seed, iwearpurple, was upset by jpfalcon09 who will face off against fellow Falcon fan BillyLP who upset mbenecke. puckdude40 advances with a win over GoNanooks while Bronco Hockey Fan tied his way into the second round.

This was one of the more exciting first rounds I've seen in all the years I've been doing this. Let's keep it going. Second round is set for Saturday night. Here are the brackets after the first round.

[mbenecke]

Congrats on the win tonight, Bill! Fair play.

Hoping someone from our board here wins the whole thing. Good luck, guys!

[jpfalcon09]

Boo yah!

[Critical Thinker]

Why do I always pick the wrong team to win each night when I correctly predict splits?

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The second round is in the books, let's look at how the matches played out. First off, stick taps to gochiefs who did the impossible and collected the maximum 17 points available this round and posted the high score. Probably got 1600 on the SATs too. Impressive, very well done!

The boring Houghton bracket lived down to everyone's expectations as the higher seeds both advanced. In another lackluster performance, TUPD tied his way to the quarterfinals over potternmu while MTUHuskyGold sent fellow Husky John J. MacInnes to the showers with, you guessed, another tie victory. The quarterfinal match from this bracket will likely be broadcast on The Ocho.

Moving to the Maknato bracket, gochiefs' 100% score was enough to send the overall #1 seed giwan home for the season. Atanarjuat completed the upsets in this bracket by besting Manurespreader by a 6 point margin. If you thought a 16-25 matchup would be the battle of the Cinderella stories, well, you'd be wrong because the Bemidji bracket has been turned upside down. The 31 seed Scrum Bucket dispatched Deejpuck 12-10 while the 27 seed Hockey John outlasted Icd80 by a score of 12-11.

Finally, in the Soo bracket, BillyLP tied his way to the quarterfinals over fellow Falcon jpfalcon09 while Bronco Hockey Fan also got the tie win over puckdude40.

The AZZ crew is doing well so far. We have representation in 3 of the 4 brackets heading into the quarterfinal matches.

Forms for the quarterfinals and semifinals will be made available at the conclusion of the Sunday games.

[footballguy51]

Why do I always pick the wrong team to win each night when I correctly predict splits?

Same. That cost me in the first round.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds are now up. Due to the CCHA scheduling the next round as a 1-and-done rather than best-of-3 we will use the Bemidji/Tech game for our quarterfinals and the Northern/Mankato game for our semifinals. I know it's not ideal, but it'll have to do. Fill in both games and bonuses; we'll know who our two finalists are by the end of the evening.

Same as last week, access to the response summaries and response details will be delayed until all entries have been submitted. Reminder that in all cases a tie goes to the higher seed. Good luck!

Quarterfinal and semifinal picks

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I have a couple of AZZ'ers who are officially out of the running submitting a form this week "just for kicks" which got me thinking that maybe we can have our own separate contest. So, even if you're out of the running, feel free to fill out a form. I'll figure out some sort of contest that'll maintain the bare minimum level of interest in the rest of the CCHA playoffs.

BGSURICK, Critical Thinker, mbenecke (and anyone else I may have mistakenly missed)...saddle up, this thing ain't necessarily over.

[jpfalcon09]

I have a couple of AZZ'ers who are officially out of the running submitting a form this week "just for kicks" which got me thinking that maybe we can have our own separate contest. So, even if you're out of the running, feel free to fill out a form. I'll figure out some sort of contest that'll maintain the bare minimum level of interest in the rest of the CCHA playoffs.

BGSURICK, Critical Thinker, mbenecke (and anyone else I may have mistakenly missed)...saddle up, this thing ain't necessarily over.

I submitted one just for giggles.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I have a couple of AZZ'ers who are officially out of the running submitting a form this week "just for kicks" which got me thinking that maybe we can have our own separate contest. So, even if you're out of the running, feel free to fill out a form. I'll figure out some sort of contest that'll maintain the bare minimum level of interest in the rest of the CCHA playoffs.

BGSURICK, Critical Thinker, mbenecke (and anyone else I may have mistakenly missed)...saddle up, this thing ain't necessarily over.

I submitted one just for giggles.

Yep, saw that...you and Footballguy51 are officially in the alternate AZZ contest with me, Hockey John, and BillyLP. Hoping for a few more...

[Hockey John]

I have a couple of AZZ'ers who are officially out of the running submitting a form this week "just for kicks" which got me thinking that maybe we can have our own separate contest. So, even if you're out of the running, feel free to fill out a form. I'll figure out some sort of contest that'll maintain the bare minimum level of interest in the rest of the CCHA playoffs.

BGSURICK, Critical Thinker, mbenecke (and anyone else I may have mistakenly missed)...saddle up, this thing ain't necessarily over.

I submitted one just for giggles.

Yep, saw that...you and Footballguy51 are officially in the alternate AZZ contest with me, Hockey John, and BillyLP. Hoping for a few more...

I think I am still in the main one.