Even with the ugliness of the HE final, it appears that taking the crown has paid off for the Icedogs in more ways than one. They topped the season-ending USCHO poll, jumping ahead of both Wisconsin and Minnesota. I'm pretty surprised at this, but I suppose if you win your conference and the folks in front of you don't even make their conference final, there's room to move.

With the tournament in sight, I am once again running a free Frozen Four pool to all who are interested. Entering is easy:

1. Go here (PDF) and get the bracket. You're free to go elsewhere, of course, but this might be the easiest way to get a bracket.

2. Pick your winners. Note that there will be upset points in effect throughout the tournament, but only based on regional seeding (meaning that 1-4 are one seeds, 5-8 two seeds, 9-12 are three seeds, and 13-16 are fourth seeds). Thus, if Holy Cross upends Wisconsin in the final, and you called it, you would get 11 points (8 for the win, 3 for the difference in the seeding).

Points are awarded on a per round basis of 1-2-4-8. Ties at the end are broken by who has the highest percentage of correct Frozen Four teams, then percentage of correct picks overall. If it's stil tied, it was meant to be.

3. Send your winners to me at whatever address you have handy.

Deadline is Friday noon EST. That'll give me time to compile things before (hopefully) heading out to Worcester.

In other business...

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Herbert

An English hermit and friend of St. Cuthbert, he asked to die on the same day as Cuthbert, which he did. And I don't even talk to my best friends every day.