Harvard Hockey Playoff Scenarios

I do apologize for a) the lack of hockey content in general on this blog and b) the lack of content in the following post but unfortunately real life work is intervening with my blog writing schedule. In years past, I've looked at all the playoff scenarios for the ECAC but this year I'll have to leave that to others to handle. (Though the standings to the right are updated and factor in the tiebreakers correctly.) Here's a quick look though at the playoff scenarios for Harvard.

With tonight's 4-1 win over St. Lawrence, the Crimson have clinched home ice for the playoffs and are currently in 3rd place in the conference. They can only go as high as 3rd place and they can slip as low as 6th place. Here are the scenarios. I've underlined the ones that lead to byes.

If Harvard wins...
The Crimson finish in 3rd place regardless of the result of the Colgate-Union game.

If Harvard ties...
And Colgate wins, the Crimson finish in 4th place regardless of any other results.
And Colgate loses or ties, the Crimson finish in 3rd place regardless of any other results.

If Harvard loses...
And Colgate picks up at least a point, the Crimson finish in 6th place unless the Yale-Quinnipiac game ends in a tie.
And Colgate picks up at least a point, the Crimson finish in 5th place if Yale-Quinnipiac tie. 
And Colgate loses, the Crimson finish in 5th place if Quinnipiac wins.
And Colgate loses, the Crimson finish in 4th place if Quinnipiac does not win.



To summarize: If Harvard wins or ties, they get a bye. If they lose, they need help to get a bye. Otherwise they risk falling as far as 6th place. The games to scoreboard watch are Union at Colgate and Yale at Quinnipiac. Harvard fans should cheer for Union and Yale. Any point for Harvard makes the chase for a bye academic. A win by Harvard makes standings watching moot, as Harvard would be in 3rd. 


PS - Without a doubt, I could not do this easily without the handy ECAC Playoff Possibilities Script created by The Big Red What? It even calculates tiebreaker scenarios, making my life very easy.