Men's Hockey: If the ECAC Playoffs Started Today 4

A quick Friday update as the men's season draws to a conclusion. First- there are a ton of people doing excellent ECAC work (including figuring out every tiebreaker imaginable) all around the internet. Here's a great thread on USCHO that will be updated sometime after tonight's game with the most information. And of course, check the usual suspects (many in our blog roll) of ECAC writers and bloggers, including Brian Sullivan on USCHO, Without a Peer, ELynah, etc. etc. besides checking back in with us.

As for playoff calculators, this one from Sioux Sports and this one from The Big Red What? are two to keep in mind.

With all that out of the way, I'm going to keep it simple for today and just look at what the playoff matchups will look like if they end today (as well as the range where teams can finish.) Check back later as their may be a late night post that's more detailed involving tiebreakers and the like. (Feel free to send corrections if my math is wrong...this was a hurried post put together using the playoff calculators above.)

Anyway, moving on...
Byes
1. Union (24-7-3, 16-3-1)
The Dutchmen can clinch first place tonight with a win and a Yale loss. They can finish no worse than second.
2. Yale (22-5, 16-4)
The Bulldogs can finish as high as first place and no lower than second.
3. Dartmouth (15-9-3, 11-7-2)
The Big Green can finish as high as third or as low as sixth. A Dartmouth win coupled with a Princeton win over RPI should clinch a bye for the Big Green (Dartmouth holds the tiebreaker over Princeton but loses the tiebreaker to RPI.)
4. Cornell (13-11-3, 11-7-2)
Cornell can finish as high as third place and as low as sixth place. A Cornell win and a Dartmouth loss looks to clinch a by for the Big Red regardless of the result of the RPI-Princeton game. A Cornell win, Dartmouth loss and RPI loss or tie looks like it clinches third place for the Big Red.

First Round
5. RPI (19-9-4, 11-8-1) vs. 12. Colgate (7-23-2, 4-14-2)
RPI: Can finish as high as third and as low as 6th.
Colgate: Can finish as high as ninth or as low as twelfth.

6. Princeton (15-10-2, 10-8-2) vs. 11. Harvard (7-19-1, 5-14-1)
Princeton: Can finish as high as third and as low as 6th.
Harvard: Can finish as high as ninth or as low as twelfth. A weekend sweep and Brown getting one point or less will put Harvard in 9th.

7. Clarkson (14-6-2, 8-11-1) vs. 10. St. Lawrence (10-17-5, 6-13-1)
Clarkson: Can finish as high as seventh or as low as ninth (due to owning the head to head tiebreaker with St. Lawrence, they cannot drop into tenth.) Would clinch home ice with either a win or a Brown loss tonight.
St. Lawrence: Can finish as high as eighth and as low as twelfth. With a win tonight, guarantee they are not in the basement. Need a sweep, need Quinnipiac to get swept and Brown to finish with less than three points this weekend for home ice.

8. Quinnipiac (13-13-6, 6-9-5) vs. 9. Brown (8-14-5, 6-12-2)
Quinnipiac: Can finish as high as seventh or as low as tenth (St. Lawrence holds the head to head tiebreaker over the Bobcats). Also...would it kill the league to use their own tiebreaking procedures on the standings page of the league website (they currently have Quinnipiac in seventh, despite the QPac/Clarkson tie going in Clarkson's favor due to number of league wins.)
Brown: Can finish as high as seventh or as low as twelfth. Clinches being out of the basement with any form of points tonight.