Re: 2014 Kendall Classic: UAA, UAF, Wisconsin, Maine.
UAA scored 7 goals and had 3 against, while UA_ scored 6 and were scored on twice. That give them both the same differential of 4, correct? It seems like the second tie breaker would be goals scored, not goals allowed. Strange format. In my mind the difference is the empty net goal the Nanooks were able to get.
I
think the rationale is this: Goal differential as the first tie breaker - I doubt very many people think that's too weird. Seems to make sense to me.
Second vs third tie breaker is the question and there are two choices: goals for or goals against. My guess is that if you talk to coaches as well as players, and say choose one over the other, they see more pride
as a team in limiting goals than scoring goals. That's really what wins games in the end, no? So my guess is that if you had coaches and even players vote, they'd choose goals against. There would be differences of opinion sure, but that's my take on it.
In this particular case, the fact that the Alaska team shut out the Wisconsin team ultimately paid off for the tournament rankings. And really, isn't a shutout a really good thing - if you had to "score" a win, wouldn't you score a 1-0 shutout a little "better" than a 2-1 win? Note - I said if you had to choose, and "a little better".
Even if that's not true, using "goals for" would give more incentive to run up a score. It's already somewhat of an incentive in the goal differential tie breaker so it would double the incentive. But limiting goals is also a big incentive for the first tie breaker. Sure, teams should play hard until the end and sometimes running up the score happens. But I don't think many coaches would be in favor of increasing incentive to run up a score. Working as hard as possible to limit goals is a natural, normal, never disputed part of the game and sportsmanship. Scoring more goals just to score more goals is not.
And I don't disagree that the empty net goal was the factor that made it go to second tie breaker. It's kind of not a real goal, but when a team is in that position, it is very important to score that empty net goal if it can possibly be done. It is not something that you'd ever, ever coach a team not to do out of sympathy for the opponent or any other reason. It's a valid goal, a very important goal. Maybe not in this particular case, but in general.... plus it was not Alaska's decision to pull the goalie, they were in no way trying to run up the score in that scenario. They probably would have been happy if Maine had not pulled the goalie, as far as normal winning game strategy goes.. hope that makes sense.
Kind of convoluted, I know, and really not the best way to decide a champion. But given the tournament type, I think it makes sense.
When I played and coached (the little I did), we really emphasized that it was team D that won games and it was the first and most important thing to coach a team to do. Not the only thing, mind you, but when choices are made, put team D first.
I think this is an interesting discussion and I'd be interested in how other similar type of tournaments are run?