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CCHA Pick 'Em 2022-23 - The Last Augie-Free Edition

Next up is the Marquette bracket. But first, the link:

Playoff Picks – First and Second Rounds

(3) Critical Thinker vs. BYE – Critical Thinker held the pole position in the race for the MacNaughton Cup for 15 of 21 weeks but was not in the lead the only week it mattered. Finishing 3rd with a first round bye has to be a small consolation for a contestant who also contended most of the year for the Beagan with a .626 pick percentage (at one point it was a white hot .672!) and 44 bonus points including a week 7 10-point sweep.

(14) giwan vs. (19) puckdude40 – Our 2021-22 MacNaughton Cup champion, giwan, started out on pace to challenge for a repeat but seemed to lose stride during the middle of the season. A respectable .611 pick percentage is slightly above average but the 29 bonus points is only good enough for the third quartile. On the other side of the ledger is puckdude40 who killed it with 44 bonus points but left something on the table with a .535 pick percentage which kept him bouncing around the bottom half of the field for most of the season. Can giwan recapture last years’ mojo? Will puckdude40 maintain his pace with the bonus? This is another very close matchup that will come down to the wire.

(11) manurespreader vs. (22) <3_Blizzard – manurespreader started the season in the doldrums, caught fire (rising as high as third in the standings), then seemed to fade down the stretch. While a .609 pick percentage and 37 bonus points may be smack dab in the middle of the pack, two first-place finishes and 6 top-5 finishes show the potential for a hot streak when it matters most. The other side of the faceoff circle finds <3_Blizzard who brings a killer .620 pick percentage to the table along with a respectable 32 bonus points. So what happened? Despite the solid performance, missing 25 games has an impact on seeding so this matchup is a heck of a lot closer that it first appears. And based on the line from Draft Kings, it would not be surprising to see <3_Blizzard storming to an upset!

(6) potternmu vs. (27) iwearpurple – One point. That’s it. Only one point separated potternmu from being the 5th seed and a first round bye. Folks, this is currently the hottest player in the field going from 15th position in week 19 to tied for 5th in week 21. Finishing second in the Battle for the Beagan with 47 bonus points is impressive; however, what’s more impressive is that 21 of those bonus points came during the final three weeks of the season! Throw a top-5 pick percentage of .628 into the mix and you got yourself a player looking to make a deep run in the playoffs. Standing in the way is iwearpurple who never seemed to catch fire with the bonus finishing with a disappointing 16 points. On the picking side of the ledger, .577 is third quartile. BUT…iwearpurple missed 8 games which presents a huge upside in this match. While Draft Kings leans towards the higher seed, we could be looking at massive upset here.
 
Last up is the BG bracket. But first, the link:

Playoff Picks – First and Second Rounds

(4) LGRH vs. BYE – For 21 weeks our final number 1 seed was never outside of the top 10 in the standings – a remarkable feat. LGRH finished the year with a .618 pick percentage and 39 bonus points which may not be as spectacular as other contestants. However, LGRH possesses one of the most balanced attacks of any contestant – there are no holes to exploit. While there were no weekly wins, the consistency of 16 top-10 finishes sums up a strong campaign.

(5) mbenecke vs. BYE – The last bye goes to mbenecke, our 2022-23 Bill Began champion who posted a blistering .641 pick percentage along with nine top-5 finishes and 2 weekly wins. The path to the last bye was a bit of a roller coaster with mbenecke wallowing near the bottom of the field through the first 12 weeks before finally catching fire. The only weakness is his bonus play. Twenty bonus points (bottom quartile) may leave the door open for an upset in later rounds.

(12) mikeeddy19 vs. (21) Soulbeaver – mikeeddy19 spent the first half of the season chasing down the MacNaughton Cup (including having a share of the lead in week 4) then slipped out of contention the second half. While he finished the season with a .582 pick percentage and a weekly win, during his hot streak he was picking at a .633 pace and when you add in 37 bonus points you see the opportunity for him to reignite his performance is out there. Standing in his way is Soulbeaver who struggled with consistency, bouncing around the leaderboard week-to-week. 28 bonus points and a .533 pick percentage may indicate an off year, but Soulbeaver also had a weekly win and 3 top-5 finishes so once again, the potential is there. This match is a tough call.

(13) John J. MacInnis vs. (22) Atanarjuat – In our last matchup, John J. MacInnes brings a .605 pick percentage and 21 bonus points to the table along with 5 top-5 weekly finishes. Aside from a stellar week 9 which saw him move into the top-10 in the standings, “the coach” has stayed in the mid-teens through the balance of the season. His opponent, last year’s Mason Cup runner up, is no stranger to playing the playoff underdog. Last year as the 25 seed, Atanarjuat beat the number 8, 9, 16, and 5 seeds in a Cinderella run that ended just short of a Pick ‘Em storybook ending. Is there a repeat on tap for this year? A .557 pick percentage with 35 bonus points and a weekly win matches strength against weakness in this head-to-head contest. But these numbers don’t account for that intangible which can be the difference between winning and losing…heart. Does the 2022-23 Atanarjuat spoiler run start here? Does John J. MacInnes put an end to the story before it’s written? Stick around and find out!
 
The first round of the playoffs is in the books. Let's look at each bracket and see how everybody did.

There were no upsets in the Mankato bracket. Hockey John bested BGSURICK 12-10 and will square off against Icd80 who is warming up from a first round bye. Bronco Hockey Fan took care of CoHockeyMom 15-10, and MTUHuskyGold held off Tommiealum93 10-8.

In the Houghton bracket, giwan took out GoNanooks 12-7 and will now face ClassyC who beat the BYE 12-0. UPSET ALERT! Congratulations to SectionP who held off SweeneyHawksHockey 9-7 in what turned out to be the lowest scoring first round match. SectionP will now have the chance to continue the upset run when they face TUPD who barely outlasted Footballguy51 11-9.

UPSET ALERT in the Marquette bracket! puckdude40 held on to upset beaverhockeyfan 10-8 and will now face off against Critical Thinker who destroyed BYE with 16 points and would have posted the highest point total had it counted. EDIT: Critical Thinker was nearly perfect on the evening missing only the shutout bonus...WOW!Looks like Critical Thinker may be back on track after losing his grasp on the MacNaughton Cup down the stretch. manurespreader quieted <3_Blizzard 15-10 and will face off against potternmu who held off iwearpurple 13-11.

UPSET ALERT in the BG bracket where it looks like Atanarjuat is back to playoff form taking out John J. MacInnes by a score of 14-12 which happens to be the first round's highest scoring match. There were 13 other playoff contestants that scored fewer points than John J. MacInnes. Ouch. Can Atanarjuat keep the run going? They'll face off against LGRH who posted 10 points coming off the bye. mikeeddy19 took out Soulbeaver by the largest margin in the first round, 14-7 and will square off against mbenecke who is coming off the last bye.

Round 2 is now on the clock. Check back tomorrow for updated results.

 
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The second round of the 2022-23 CCHA Pick 'Em is now in the books. Let's see who makes up the Elite 8.

In the Mankato bracket, our MacNaughton Cup champion Icd80 outlasted Hockey John 11-8 while 9th seed Bronco Hockey Fan pulled away from 8th seed MTUHuskyGold 9-6. Over in the Houghton bracket, top seed ClassyC tied their way to a win over our Jeff Sauer winner beaverhockeyfan 9-9 and TUPD came out ahead of SectionP 11-5.

Moving on to the Marquette bracket we find top seed Critical Thinker tying their way to the next round by a score of 9-9 over giwan. In the other matchup, potternmu sent manurespreader home by a score of 11-5. Interesting that the Houghton and Marquette brackets had the exact same scores for both matches.

In the Bowling Green bracket, top seed LGHR put an end to Atanarjuat's hope for another Cinderella run 9-7. UPSET ALERT! Our highest remaining seed, #12 mikeeddy19 keeps his hopes alive squeeking out a 10-9 win over the Bill Beagan winner mbenecke.

The quarterfinal round will be based on the Ferris-Mankato matchup and the semifinal round will be based on the Northern-Tech matchup. The four winners of the quarterfinal round will automatically fight it out for the right to play in the championship game. Once again, picks will be released at the end of the week (I have confirmed the permissions are set properly...).

Quarterfinal and Semifinal Rounds

 
TUPD, I think you grabbed last year's bracket in your last post as I was done after the first round this year.

Thanks for running this again this year, I will put this year's Sauer trophy right next to last year's!
 
beaverhockeyfan said:
TUPD, I think you grabbed last year's bracket in your last post as I was done after the first round this year.

Thanks for running this again this year, I will put this year's Sauer trophy right next to last year's!
Click to expand...

You're right, but it was the first round results I misposted, the latest sheet for the second round is correct. The good news is the final 8 are still correct: Icd80 vs. BHF, ClassyC vs. TUPD, Critical Thinker vs. potternmu, and LGRH vs. mikeeddy19. Sorry for the confusion, we're still good here.
 
The quarterfinal matchup saw a ton of action, let's get to it. Right out of the blocks we have an UPSET ALERT! as the 9th seed Bronco Hockey Fan upset our MacNaughtion Cup winner and top seed Icd80 by a score of 6-5. ClassyC continued their streak by tying their way to victory over last year's Mason Cup winner TUPD 5-5 which sets up a clash of the titans in the semifinal round as Critical Thinker also tied their way over potternmu 6-6. In our last bracket, 12th seed mikeeddy19's Cinderella run for glory came crashing to a halt at the hands of 4th seed LGRH by a score of 6-1.

In the semifinals we have three of the top 4 seeds in the tournament (#2 ClassyC, #3 Critical Thinker, and #4 LGRH along with #9 Bronco Hockey Fan) in what will likely be the toughest semifinal round ever. As for the results, well, to start with, LGRH outlasted Bronco Hockey Fan and made it to the championship match via a 1-1 tie. So much for pumping up the greatness of the semifinal field. In the other matchup, ClassyC bested Critical Thinker 5-1 and was the only contestant to correctly pick Northern Michigan's upset of Michigan Tech.

So, after 4,858 picks (you had to know I'd add them up) it comes down to this: #2 ClassyC vs. #4 LGRH for the Mason Cup and pick 'em immortality. Picks will be posted as soon as both contestants entries are in. GOOD LUCK!

Pick ‘Em Championship

 
gochiefs said:
Went with the upset in the final since picking the favorite will end up going to the bonus.
Click to expand...

The way Northern is playing right now it's not a bad pick.

Here's how the contestants line up for the championship:
Code: 
Contestant   Winner             Away Goals   Home Goals   Time of GWG
LGRH         Northern Michigan      4             3            71
ClassyC      Minnesota State        3             5            44
 
TalonsUpPuckDown said:
The way Northern is playing right now it's not a bad pick.

Here's how the contestants line up for the championship:
Code: 
Contestant Winner Away Goals Home Goals Time of GWG
LGRH Northern Michigan 4 3 71
ClassyC Minnesota State 3 5 44
Click to expand...

Also want to thank you for running another year of CCHA Pick'Em
 
Tip my cap to you, Talons! Thanks for another fun year running this competition! Hopefully next season I can finally shake that sophomore slump! Everybody have a great summer!
 
Congratulations to ClassyC, our 2022-23 Mason Cup winner!

ClassyC capped off a strong season by outlasting LGRG 4-2. Based on the picks, with 58 seconds left in regulation LGRH was looking to clear some space on their trophy case for the Mason Cup but what happened one second later had to sting as the game went into OT. The game winning goal was subsequently scored at the 61 minute mark. One more observation - had LGRH gone with Mankato instead of Northern they would have won 5-4 as they correctly picked Mankato to score 3 goals.

It's been a great season, thanks to everyone who played. See you next year.

 
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