The last three days have kept sportswriters and experts of college hockey and the famous PairWise rankings very busy. There have been a plethora of scenarios putting several teams in and out of the NCAA tournament. As disgusting as it may be, the Mavericks will likely be out of the picture, and sub-.500 Wisconsin will be in. While it may not make sense to many, that looks to be the way it's going to finish. The Badgers moved ahead of the Mavericks tonight when Princeton won its conference tournament. Couple that with the fact the Northern Michigan beat Notre Dame, bringing NMU into the PairWise picture thus throwing everyone for a spin. Even though the Mavericks were 2-1-1 against the Badgers this season, it appears that UW, who was swept in two games by St. Cloud State in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, will be playing more games this season. The process is very complicated, but it appears there are two spots for Notre Dame, Wisconsin and MSU. Wisconsin moved ahead of the Mavericks with Princeton winning, and the Irish's loss put them in a tie with MSU, with Notre Dame edging Minnesota State by fractions of PairWise points.
The next question is, where did MSU go wrong? Losing to Nebraska-Omaha twice is what ultimately kept MSU out of the tournament, as Northern Michigan and Notre Dame combined for a 3-0 record against the other Mavericks.
Of course, the final field of 16 will be officially announced tomorrow morning at 10:30 on ESPN 2, but as far as the numbers are concerned, the Mavs will need a miracle to continue their season.
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