Its the last week of the regular season for our teams. After a grueling 5 months so far, we still have another month and a half, but with seasons on the line now. This week marks the last week of a guaranteed tomorrow for our teams, so lets look at the chances our teams have to see that next day.

BOWLING GREEN FALCONS (9-20-5, 4-18-4-3)

Possible High Seed: 11th
Possible Low Seed: 11th

The Falcons finally cooled off, and were blasted by the red-hot Ferris State Bulldogs last weekend. We knew coming into the weekend that they really couldn't move much, and now have solidified the 11th place seed for the 3rd straight year, with the past 2 resulting in last place finishes. The Falcons have now finished last 3 of the past 4 years, so improvement seems to be slow coming. However, the Falcons will be hoping to play the role of spoiler again this year, against a dizzying variety of possible opponents.

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Yeah, that's right. One month from now is the CCHA Awards Show. The next two nights will feature the CCHA semi's and finals. The rest of the country will follow a similar path, leading to Selection Sunday that afternoon. Until then, there will continue to be madness in the NCAA like we have this year.

Alright, so lets recap the basics:

1. There are 16 teams that make the NCAA tournament, 5 conference winners and 11 at-large bids.
2. There are 4 regions: East (Bridgeport, CT, hosted by Yale and Fairfield), Northeast (Worchester, MA, hosted by Holy Cross), Midwest (Green Bay, WI, hosted by Michigan Tech), and West (St Paul, MN, hosted by Minnesota)
3. Each region has exactly 4 teams.
4. Single-elimination, repeating OTs of sudden death.

The five auto-bids we'll use will be the conference leaders as it stands now. They are: Air Force (AHA), Ferris State (CCHA), Union (ECAC), UMass-Lowell (Hockey East), Minnesota (WCHA).

We go through the entire process below.

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Yep, that's right. We have just a mere 2 weeks left before the CCHA playoffs start. The chaos that is the CCHA is not even close to being sorted through, but I guess that's what the last 2-4 games is supposed to do. We will look at the possibilities for the 3 teams to be seeded in the CCHA tourney this week, as well as a quick look back on their games over the weekend.

BOWLING GREEN FALCONS (9-18-5, 4-16-4-3)

Well, after being swept by Northern Michigan last weekend, the Falcons' fate is pretty much sealed. They mathematically can still get to 10th, thus drawing the 7th seed in the 1st round rather than the 6th, but that really wouldn't matter much. Plus, to get there, Bowling Green has to win out, and hope Alaska drops both games this weekend against Michigan State. Did I mention that BGSU plays the 2 hottest teams in the CCHA, Ferris State and Michigan?

Bowling Green was easy. We look at the complexity of Miami and Western Michigan as we go further.

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Greetings everyone! We are gonna give this another go to see if we gave this some publicity earlier in the week, then maybe we'll get a few of you to join in. We are again live from Lawson Ice Arena because quite frankly, its a 10 minute walk for me versus a 3 hr drive to Bowling Green or 5 hr drive to Oxford, plus hotel expenses. Plus I have the pass for Western games, so this is my only option (for now).

This is the first, and only, time the Ohio State Buckeyes and Western Michigan Broncos will meet this year. Both teams come into this game with struggles: WMU with offensive struggles, OSU with winning problems. Western has had 1st place on the past 2 Fridays, only to give it away the very next day to the bottom 2 teams in the CCHA. Ohio State has yet to win a game in 2012. Ding ding.

The Lawson Lunatics will come with their added venom for this series. Since most students grew up MSU or Michigan fans, hating Ohio (and Notre Dame) comes with the territory.

Again, the live radio feed can be found here. The video is subscription based, and will post the link in the comments.

This is first Ice Duchenne Weekend at WMU, and across the CCHA. It is in support of those with Duchenne's, a form of muscular dystrophy that hits home in the form of Bronco assistant coach Rob Facca's 4-year old son Louie. For more information, and to either bid on some GREAT auction items, or just donate, please click here.

Other MAC game notes and stuff after the jump, join the fun tonight!

UPDATE: We are back for the Saturday game. Just look for the line in the comments to see where to start

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I'm way overdue for this but better late than never. We fight on until Detroit (when we hopefully cover at least 1 team). This installment looks at the three teams as they approach the final 3 weeks of the regular season, with every game huge for our teams.

Before I get to the teams I want to let everyone know pre-jump that I am going to try another open thread on Friday for the WMU-OSU game (sorry for the lack of variety of arenas). Again, we will hit on the other 2 MAC schools and any questions you may have.

BOWLING GREEN FALCONS 9-16-5 (4-14-4-3)

The Falcons are hopelessly hung for this year. The only thing they are fighting for is momentum heading into the CCHA tournament where they will in all likelihood play the the 6-seed in the CCHA, which for this year would be like playing the 3 seed. Nevertheless, Bowling Green played the same role last year (although the 6 seed Northern Michigan wasn't in the top tier of Miami, Michigan, and Notre Dame) and knocked the Wildcats out before falling to Michigan.

Bowling Green has been playing pretty well lately. When we last checked them, they had just taken 4 points from the #1 in CCHA Ohio State team. Since then, they split all 3 of their series: at Alaska, a home-and-home with WMU, and at Notre Dame. Not bad for that schedule to get 9 points.

Looking forward, the Falcons have no fairly easy games remaining. They host a very good Northern Michigan squad before going to Ferris State where the Bulldogs have dropped just 1 game, and only tied in 2 more. They finish the year with Michigan at home. Ouch.

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So we are going to try something out tonight, and I personally hope it sticks. We are going to open this up and let you comment freely about everything and anything about our MAC Hockey programs. If you want to comment about the game, or about the way the season is going, feel free. I'll be in the booth answering any questions you may have.

This is the 3rd meeting between Alaska-Fairbanks (or Alaska to college hockey people) and Western Michigan. Earlier this year, WMU took 5 points from the Nanooks (yeah, that's their name) with a 4-1 win then a 2-2 win, with a shootout victory (2-1 in 4 rounds). In the Saturday game, Alaska came from 2 goals down in the 3rd to tie the game.

For a live radio feed of the game, click here. There is no free video, but if you want to pay, I'll put up the links in the comments if you ask for them.

More notes and stuff after the jump

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Its 2012. The year where the world (supposedly) ends, where we decide who will lead our country for the next 4 years, and the year where everyone gets to work one extra day. To help ring in the new year, we will look at what our hockey programs were doing over winter break.

BOWLING GREEN FALCONS

When we last heard of Bowling Green, they were coming off a crushing loss against WMU to the tune of 6-1. This winter break, they took it easy, and only played 4 games. For them, non-conference games are pretty meaningless now, so the fact they dropped two games at Bemidji State scoring 1 goal each game isn't important.

But boy did they start 2012 with a bang. The next weekend they hosted the CCHA leading Ohio State Buckeyes, and took 4 of 6 points with a pair of ties (2-2, 1-1) and then winning the shoot-outs 2-1 each night. This was their bye week, so they got to rest up before making the trek to Alaska.

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Well, I'm bored. Its the week before Christmas and I am at work and have nothing to do. So I think I'm going to introduce all of you to the main NCAA Hockey Selection Process today. Basically, it is the best estimate anyone has at predicting the NCAA tournament, by using the same selection process and criteria the NCAA uses in March.

First, let's lay out some ground rules that are pretty basic:

1. There are 16 teams that make the NCAA tournament, 5 conference winners and 11 at-large bids.
2. There are 4 regions: East (Bridgeport, CT, hosted by Yale and Fairfield), Northeast (Worchester, MA, hosted by Holy Cross), Midwest (Green Bay, WI, hosted by Michigan Tech), and West (St Paul, MN, hosted by Minnesota)
3. Each region has exactly 4 teams.
4. Single-elimination, repeating OTs of sudden death.

Ok, so I'll explain some more things later, but I'll give you the jump to finish writing your notes.

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