Tiebreaking fun (Atlantic Hockey again)

In a game that will otherwise mean almost nothing (pending RPI/PWR ripples), I'm perversely rooting for Robert Morris to beat Niagara tonight in the last game of the Atlantic Hockey regular season, just for the tiebreaking headache it will cause.

Atlantic Hockey already has themselves a three-way tie for sixth, among RIT, Mercyhurst, and Bentley. Sadly, the league no longer uses the mini-conference and mini-mini-conference procedure described here. In fact, this three-way tie is resolved disappointingly easily -- RIT takes sixth on head-to-head percentage against the other two, then Mercyhurst takes seventh based on league wins. However, if Robert Morris wins tonight, they will be in a tie for third with Army, and this one will take five steps to resolve:

1. Head-to-head winning percentage -- they split the season series, 0.500 each
2. League wins -- 14 each
3. Head-to-head goal differential -- they played twice and the score of each game was 2-1, so goal differential is 0
4. Goals allowed head-to-head -- 3 each. Dammit!

(Yes, that is redundant and redundant, since the only way the goal differential head-to-head can be the same for both teams is if it's 0, meaning they've both allowed and scored the same number of goals, but never mind, Atlantic Hockey has had that problem before)

5. Here we go, winning percentage against teams in the standings in descending order. Army went 2-0 (1.000) against first-place Canisius, while Robert Morris went 0-1-1 (0.250).

So after all that fun, Robert Morris would finish fourth anyway. Oh well.

being an RIT grad good to see them finally have something go right this year.. 2 best players out with torn ACLs and skating several games with less than 20 players dressed.