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 cliche' 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.

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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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here's an update on the bonus:

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.

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:

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.

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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[manurespreader]

I figured LSSU and Ferris would split but I had the dates wrong! of course.

[Wi.Huskies Fan]

TalonsUpPuckDown forgot about this weeks picks. Remembered when I was checking scores at tonight's game I wanted to pick Saturdays games to salvage part of the weekend picks but it won't let me submit. I will make them here if you allow. If not.... oh well guess that is my fault and will pick next week.

Here are my prediction for winners on Saturday: Northern, Tech, Bemidji State, and Bowling Green.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

TalonsUpPuckDown forgot about this weeks picks. Remembered when I was checking scores at tonight's game I wanted to pick Saturdays games to salvage part of the weekend picks but it won't let me submit. I will make them here if you allow. If not.... oh well guess that is my fault and will pick next week.

Here are my prediction for winners on Saturday: Northern, Tech, Bemidji State, and Bowling Green.

You’re good for tonight.

[manurespreader]

I had lake st picked for last night but I changed it because I saw all the top pickers had NMU. oops.

[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.

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.

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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[manurespreader]

Did you see how many penalty minutes occurred in the OSU vs Michigan game this last weekend. ?