Should be a competitive weekend of hockey.
Davenport / Liberty / Toledo / Penn St.
Yes, for sure
Davenport, 10-1-1, #2 in Central and has only tied & lost a close one to FGCU
Liberty, undefeated at 12-0, #2 behind FGCU in SE
Pen State, undefeated at 6-0, #3 behind Liberty in SE
Toledo, 10-2, #4 behind Pen State in SE
Someones winning streak will end.
This weekend should really divide the men from the boys and therefore have an affect on the rankings next week, especially in the SE
It will be interesting to keep an eye on.
Is there any consensus feeling around the MACH and Southeast on Liberty’s use of former 4 year D1 players on the D2 team? To pull from Sheriff’s post on another thread “One of the ACHA goals for the past two seasons has been to increase the parity in each division by encouraging teams to move to the division that best suits there talent levels - no hockey player I have ever known enjoys a double digit win or loss.” To me this seems to be an unfair advantage, having players with D1 talent and experience playing down in D2.
I asked basically the same question a few weeks ago on another thread. The Sheriff responded that the players in question were already enrolled at the school and committed to playing for the D2 team before the Naples meeting and the implementation of the 5th year drop down rule. Therefore, those players have been grandfathered in.
From what I’m hearing that new rule will take effect next year, not this year.
You could use the same argument for teams that do not have a D1 program, therefore there D2 team would have players good enough for D1, but could only play D2. For example If FGCU had a D1 program, most of their players would be on the D1 team leaving the D2 team to be average. Not knocking FGCU, they have a great program, this will probably sort itself out and it might be the stepping stone they need to possibly go D1 someday.
Probably no matter what you do, there will always be blowouts between the top teams and the bottom teams. If the top teams only played each other then it would give the appearance of more parity. Of course year to year, everything can change quite quickly with players graduating.
It is what it is, enjoy the games.
I got to put in my 2 cents on Liberty. They are a classless team, especially considering its a christian based school. They were beating Rider 7-0, who was short good players with illnesses, and still continued to put there 1st line out in a 5 on 3 power play. The 3rd line didn’t touch the ice until mid 2nd period when they were winning 6-0, and the shift was for 25 seconds. The 4th line played maybe 3 shifts.Then with a minute and a half left and the score 10-0 they jokingly only played the puck behind the net in there end and visually celebrating . If you haven’t guessed it already, yes I am a Rider parent, but you have to admit this is classless. So much for Christian compassion.
D2’s top guys have never played D1
I would like to touch a bit on some of your highly intellectual accusations. Since you don’t seem to know a lot about hockey or the ranking system in general I can explain them to you. In order to get the maximum amount of points allotted in the ranking system, a team must beat their opponent by at least 7 goals. This is why liberty continued to feed rider throughout the game. You were wrong (no surprise) about Liberty only playing their first two lines until the midway point of the second period. Top three lines were roled evenly throughout the entirety of the game. The fourth line was going out almost every other shift in the third period, and at times, the forward line was comprised of all defensemen! How funny is that? I don’t think someone from Jersey should be giving lessons on class. What example of classlessness should I give first in regards to Rider? Should I mention one of the countless hits to the back of the head and/or legs behind the play? Or should I mention the spear to the back of the knee of one of Liberty’s players as the bench door was open and they were changing? The list goes on and on but being a biased hockey mom from Jersey I doubt you can self evaluate the type of behavior Rider produces every time they lace up the skates.
-To sum it all up, teams cannot take their foot off the gas due to the ranking system.
-Rider was full of players who act exactly how one would think people from Jersey would behave (including parents swearing at Liberty’s players).
- Get the facts right next time before you go posting on the internet your post game frustrations because you’re kid barely saw the ice.
Totally agree. Only thing that needs to be said is it’s a computer based ranking and goal differential is a part of it. Liberty is in a fight with Toledo for an auto spot to nationals and Toledo is fresh off a weekend with huge wins over #8 Louisville. Liberty has no choice but to try and run up score on a lower ranked Rider to hold on to their two spot. Rider, fighting for a regional spot themselves should know this.
Agree with both Notfromjersey & Hockey… It’s not a win for LU until the score differential is 7 goals. LU consistently rolls three lines, and yes even the fourth line is very talented at the D2 level.
Held my tongue long enough. What Liberty does, abusing the loopholes in the system is atrocious…year in and year out the same cycle but hey, it’s so fun for these kids to come from Canada and sweden and run the league without much of a challenge. I’ve personally seen 3 games Liberty has played, one at home and two away. In each game, there was a total of THREE different players suffered a back/knee/shoulder injury because of dirty malicious plays from players much older and more physical. Wait, just WAIT until one of these kids ends up going too far again. It’s sickening. Meaniwhile libertys D1 team never seems to be as elite…maybe they should pull up the D2 leading scorers to help out??? Lol yeah right, would mess with drop down eligibility…kinda like how the D1 goalie dropped down 2nd semester last year…goals against went significantly down and the team goes to a national championship. So happy FGCU took the title because liberty doesn’t and never should deserve it.
Closing this topic before it gets any further out of hand. Please remain professional when posting opinions and observations if you plan on keeping your access to this board open.
The BoardBoss