2013 CIS Playoffs

[AUS Fan]

Sask IS playing Thursday night for certain. I assume they have some leeway being the host regarding schedule. A lot of things have to happen over the next 4-6 days before the final seeds are decided. A UNB loss will put them in with the CW winner; a UNB win will put them with the CW runner-up. Obviously, same scenario for SMU, SASK and UofA.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

At this point the #1 seed will almost certainly be Alberta if they win CW, or the AUS champion if Alberta falls.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

It all depends on the final ranking/seeding, which is heavily influenced/determined by the conference championships. Whoever wins CanadaWest and whoever wins the AUS will be ranked 1-2 or 2-1, as it is unlikely now that the OUA team will suddenly launch into one of the top 2 rankings.

The University Cup seeding rules state that the three conference champs (AUS, OUA, CanWest) must be seeded 1, 2 and 3 based on the last ranking. The three runner-ups are then 4,5,6. #1 is in one pool and #2 and #3 are in the other, and the other three seeds are juggled to make sure that the two reps from each conference are in different pools.

So if Alberta wins CanWest and UNB wins AUS, they can't be in same pool, and therefore Sask is with UNB. If SMU wins AUS and Sask wins CanWest they'll probably move up in the final rankings to 1-2, and therefore they'd be in different pools, and Sask gets UNB again in their pool. If the rankings follow their current trend, UNB and Sask have to win their conferences to avoid each other in pool play.

 

[SP Saskatuned]

"If the rankings follow their current trend, UNB and Sask have to win their conferences to avoid each other in pool play."


Foyle, if Alberta wins CW and St. Mary's wins AUS, wouldn't Sask. be placed in same pool as St. Mary's?

 

[SP Saskatuned]

There are still all kind of possibilities seeding-wise. We only know that Alberta and Sask. will be placed in separate pools. Ditto for UNB and St. Mary's. And the same goes for the two OUA finalists TBD.

AUS fan was dead-on in his assessment:
"A lot of things have to happen over the next 4-6 days before the final seeds are decided. A UNB loss will put them in with the CW winner; a UNB win will put them with the CW runner-up. Obviously, same scenario for SMU, SASK and UofA."

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Rankings

If UNB wins in a sweep in the AUS final and Alberta win in 3, then UNB should go number 1.
They dropped to number 2 in the rankings, due to losing a single game in a best of 5 to UPEI. Three wins by lopsided scores. ???

 

[AUS Fan]

Not necessarily. UNB lost to a non-ranked team. If UofA were to win in 3 they will have lost a game to #5 ranked. Regardless of what happens in the AUS and CW both winners will be 1-2 or 2-1 at the Nationals. OUA will be #3.

A few scenarios: Seeding
UofA and UNB win 1-2
UofA and SMU win 1-2
UNB and UofS win 1-2
SMU and UofS win 1-2

The only scenario that may be in doubt is #4, where UofS might get top seed for knocking of #1.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Not necessarily. UNB lost to a non-ranked team. If UofA were to win in 3 they will have lost a game to #5 ranked. Regardless of what happens in the AUS and CW both winners will be 1-2 or 2-1 at the Nationals. OUA will be #3.

A few scenarios: Seeding
UofA and UNB win 1-2
UofA and SMU win 1-2
UNB and UofS win 1-2
SMU and UofS win 1-2

The only scenario that may be in doubt is #4, where UofS might get top seed for knocking of #1.

And I believe this series here in the AUS is going the distance.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

"If the rankings follow their current trend, UNB and Sask have to win their conferences to avoid each other in pool play."


Foyle, if Alberta wins CW and St. Mary's wins AUS, wouldn't Sask. be placed in same pool as St. Mary's?

Good catch. You're probably right. That was the one combo I forgot to work through. Oops.

Bottom line is still the same as others are discussing -- we won't really know until AUS and CanWest are decided, and the currently lower ranked OUA teams won't have much impact on the seeding as it is improbable that they can secure a #1 or #2 seed.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

If UNB wins in a sweep in the AUS final and Alberta win in 3, then UNB should go number 1.
They dropped to number 2 in the rankings, due to losing a single game in a best of 5 to UPEI. Three wins by lopsided scores. ???

Since Alberta is sitting in #1 I do believe that a)Alberta would have to lose by big margins and b)UNB win by large margins (since they are both playing top-ranked opponents) for UNB to get enough votes to retake the #1 spot in the rankings. If Alberta loses in three close ones and UNB wins in three tight ones I'm not sure the pendulum could swing enough.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

Not necessarily. UNB lost to a non-ranked team. If UofA were to win in 3 they will have lost a game to #5 ranked. Regardless of what happens in the AUS and CW both winners will be 1-2 or 2-1 at the Nationals. OUA will be #3.

A few scenarios: Seeding
UofA and UNB win 1-2
UofA and SMU win 1-2
UNB and UofS win 1-2
SMU and UofS win 1-2

The only scenario that may be in doubt is #4, where UofS might get top seed for knocking of #1.

I agree. I think in Scenario #4 that UofS would get #1 as opponent Alberta is higher ranked than UNB and UofS has spent more quality time in the Top 10 than SMU this season.

 

[bert]

UNB will either be with Alberta in the afternoon pool or the hometown Huskies in the night pool. Either way, it's going to be tough. What will be interesting is if UNB wins the AUS and Alberta wins CW. I assume Sask is opening Thursday night and usually the top seeds play opening day....will Sask risk playing UNB the first day? Or will they play the OUA team, probably win, and then get UNB on Saturday night playing their 2nd game in as many days? Certainly some gamesmanship will be at play here.

Just like last year right...

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Just like last year right...

Trust me...I would love to see Sask. demolished in two straight games in their own building.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Just a heads up/reminder...both games tonight will be web-cast....Carleton/UQTRon SSN and Sask./Alberta on Canada West TV (I believe). Looking forward to having a chance to watch some other teams with UNB not playing until tomorrow night.

 

[11111]

They are coming east based on the rough draft schedule I saw.

That makes sense with Nipissing (an obvious geographic rival for Laurentian) also in the east. But since the east division is the one already with 10 teams, someone must be moving to the west to even things out.

Do you know what the realignment for next year is going to look like (and what the schedule format will be)?

 

[Rob]

Alberta 5 Sask 0 - Looks like the Bears will rap this up Saturday night. Shots on goal were 45-12. Very one sided for a conference final.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Alberta is looking very, very good. When is the last time they have given up a goal?

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Just looked...they gave up two to UBC in the last game of the season, but now have shutouts in 6 of their last 7 games.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Saskatchewan

If Adolf's team is going to play with that kind inconsistency, than they won't be given much of a chance of winning 3 straight in Saskatoon. I haven't seen anyone in CanadaWeast give Alberta a real go since the first half.
I remember Stauffer concern just last year that the CanadaWest had slipped in it's overall competitiveness vs the AUS and the the upstart OUA in the last few years.
In my opinion, Alberta is back to we're they were, when they played in the Lakehead in 2010. Saskatchewan lost captain Kyle Ross, it looks like they are not as strong as last year.
Calgary has taken a step back from the team that competed in Fredericton. Manitoba seems about the same.

In regards to Alberta, they are used to having their way, certainly in this second half, but how will they react when they have less puck possession? More physical play inflicted on them?

 

[SP Saskatuned]

Alberta played a near-perfect game Friday night. The Bears are on a roll, no doubt about it.
The Humbled Huskies, plagued by inconsistency all season, are prone to crapping the bed every once in a while. This wasn't the first time.
How they respond to this challenge will say a lot about what sort of character they have in the dressing room.
I can assure you that the Huskies played a lot differently at home against the Bears when I saw the two teams play in the first half.
They've bounced back before... Will they do it tonight? It will be interesting to see.

 

[cisno1fan]

This series was extremely physical!
PEI is underrated . They are skilled, speedy and they exerted a great deal of energy by taking a physical approach to a bigger UNB team. UNB responded in a big way,with their own physical play, shutting down a speedy Island top end.
The scores 7-2,2-4,7-2 and 5-1 indicate that this UNB team is firing on all cylinders. They have size,speed, a skilled top end and back end, solid goaltending and lots of experience at Nationals.
This is a competitive conference and SMU is also a dam'n good hockey team, very well coached,which should shape up to be a tough battle to decide the AUS title.
The AUS teams will be battle hardend for Nationals, that's for sure.

Do you expect UNB to "take it to" SMU (physically) the same way they did to PEI?

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

I don't really pay much attention to UQTR so maybe Dutch or one of the other OUA followers can help out...last year they gave up 98 goals and didn't really look that great defensively against UNB at the University Cup, they seemed like a very offense-first type of team....this year they were one of the best teams in the CIS only allowing 72 goals...so what changed? The new players (specifically goalies/defensemen)? The new coach? A change in philosophy?

 

[Big Bad Jon]

I think the loss at home to UPEI woke UNB up a lot..they were badly outplayed physically and it has forced them to up their game.I expect they will be hitting hard tonight.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

AUS Finals

If SMU plays as physical as PEI tried to play, than yes. SMU has some Big players (Wallingford 6-6 or 6-7) and they will try punish the UNB forwards down low. Bloodofff also a physical power up front.
UNB has probably a bigger D overall and will do likewise to the husky forwards. SMU is very good with their man on man coverage in the defensive zone and can nullify the effectiveness of teams top end talent. UNB is also hard to stop, when they get their speedy forecheck going. I would like to see UNB roll the lines more often, as I think SMU relies more on a couple of lines.
Regardless, it's the AUS playoff, which never seem to lack intensity!

 

[radapex]

If SMU plays as physical as PEI tried to play, than yes. SMU has some Big players (Wallingford 6-6 or 6-7) and they will try punish the UNB forwards down low. Bloodofff also a physical power up front.
UNB has probably a bigger D overall and will do likewise to the husky forwards. SMU is very good with their man on man coverage in the defensive zone and can nullify the effectiveness of teams top end talent. UNB is also hard to stop, when they get their speedy forecheck going. I would like to see UNB roll the lines more often, as I think SMU relies more on a couple of lines.
Regardless, it's the AUS playoff, which never seem to lack intensity!

With both teams heading to the University Cup, I'm not expecting to see much in the way of physical play. I think both teams would prefer heading west with a full, healthy roster.