NCAA Tourney byes debated

University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh has done his homework in assessing his team’s chances of earning a first-round bye for the NCAA Tournament.

Based on the criteria outlined by St. Lawrence University coach Joe Marsh, the chairman of the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee, New Hampshire and Maine appear to be in good shape to earn those first-round byes at the NCAA’s Eastern Regional at the Worcester Centrum on March 26-27.

However, Marsh said Clarkson University, which won the ECAC regular season title, would get one of the two byes if it also wins the ECAC Tournament this weekend.

Marsh was featured on an NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament conference call Monday.

Walsh begged to differ.

“On page 14 of the NCAA Championship Men’s Ice Hockey Handbook, it says, `A team may earn an automatic first-round bye by winning its conference regular season title and post-season tournament,” read Walsh.

There are five criteria that the committee will use to determine the 12 teams that will qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Western Regional will be held in Madison, Wis.

Maine, according to Walsh, is significantly ahead of Clarkson in two of the five criteria and slightly ahead in a third one. A fourth one, head-to-head, doesn’t apply.

His Bears have a much better ratings-percentage index and are 8-3-2 against teams under consideration for the NCAA tourney compared to Clarkson’s 5-9-1 record.

In the third criteria, Maine is 13-4-1 against common opponents while Clarkson is 9-4.

“What’s deceptive about the common opponents is that they’ve played Dartmouth, Union and Vermont at least twice each and we’ve played each of them once and we’ve played [Hockey East regular season champion] New Hampshire four times compared to Clarkson’s once,” said Walsh. “We’ve also played [HE third-place team] BC three times with the fourth one pending and they’ve played them once.”

Dartmouth, Union and Vermont finished the regular season with a combined 26-59-6 record.

Hockey East had the best RPI among the four major Division I conferences while the ECAC was fourth. But each conference is guaranteed to get at least two teams in the NCAA tourney, according to Marsh.

Clarkson does have a better record over the last 16 games: 15-1 to Maine’s 13-3.

However, Walsh said he and his team would prefer to focus on the task at hand: their Hockey East semifinal against Boston College on Friday night at 8 at the FleetCenter in Boston.

New Hampshire and Providence will play their semifinal at 5 p.m.

“We’re not going to worry about other teams under consideration right now,” said Walsh. “We want to play very well on Friday night.”

As for the Hockey East tourney, Walsh said, “Any one of the four teams could win it.”

Walsh feels his team could possibly earn the top seed for the Eastern Regional if it wins the tournament and UNH loses in the semis.

The top two seeds in each regional earn Friday night byes and will play Friday’s winners – No. 1 vs. 4-5 winner and No. 2 vs. 3-6 winner – on Saturday for the right to go to the Frozen Four (national semifinals) in Anaheim, Calif.