UND Celebrates the win O.T. over the SCSU Huskies (Courtesy: Russell Hons for UNDsports.com)
I like to poke fun at our friends from Saint Cloud State. When I saw the tweet below I have to chuckle, maybe we should let them hang another banner from the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center rafters. National titles and Banners aren’t given out for wins during the month of October. However, you can play yourself out of a playoffs spot with a couple of bad Pairwise clunkers. Last season, UND lost to a very bad Michigan State team and it could’ve cost them in the Pairwise. Thankfully, their non-conference wins against Union and Boston College actually helped them solidify a spot in the NCAA tourney.
In all seriousness, the Huskies are a good hockey team and they dispatched the Boston College Eagles with relative ease. It’s also a big win in the Pairwise Rankings if the Eagles can string together some wins. During the month of October, the Huskies have gone 5-0-0. With that said, there’s a lot of hockey left and the Huskies haven’t won anything yet.
Funny tweets aside, we can have some fun with our friends from St. Cloud. We have to give them credit, they do have a better record than our heated rivals from Minnesota-Duluth.
Our @SCSUHuskies_MH is No. 1 in Pairwise ranking and tops in all 59 team-on-team Pairwise comparisons. Who doesn't like computers, eh? https://t.co/7hNrcrTnvz
— St. Cloud State (@stcloudstate) October 23, 2017
I am actually surprised that they tweeted that out. Being number one in the Pairwise in October is meaningless when six teams from the Ivy League (ECAC) have yet to play a hockey game. There are not enough comparisons to make a difference. Also, University of Hockey says it best. There’s not a big enough sample to conclude anything, other than the Huskies won all five of their hockey games. Good on them.
I think that's exactly what @goon48 point was. PWR formula doesn't have a large enough sample to be useful. Swings are huge this time of yr.
— University of Hockey (@UofHockeyBlog) October 24, 2017
Exhibit A – six teams in the Pairwise rankings have yet to play a meaningful hockey game. Finally, bracketology posts before late February are useless, too.
Steve Drees says it best.
It only has usefulness on selection day.
— Steve Drees (@stevedrees) October 24, 2017
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