NCAA Fantasy Hockey Week 6: Post Weekend Standings

Clarkson’s elite skaters are good.

Standings

Weekly standings are below and here, live standings are on the master spreadsheet.

There still seems to be nothing anyone can do to stop House of Seven Gabels, who further increased their lead at the top of the table. Further down, although we’re seeing some spreading out of the points, this weekend also saw some massive moves: And Don’t Call Me Shirley went up thirteen places, from 21st to 8th, and Birch Twigs went up ten places, from 23rd to 13th. On the flip side, Rink Rodents and Peaky Grinders went down nine places, as did Shirley You Can’t Be Serious. We’re about a third of the way through the season, so there’s still plenty of time.

What happened this weekend

  • Brownian motion: Brown were down 1-0 and 3-1 to Colgate on Friday and came back with three unanswered goals to take the game 4-3 despite being outshot 3-1. Title IX Hockey notes that Brown did a great job of protecting their goalie — sounds very like how Bemidji used to play in the Brittni Mowat era, tight defense and occasional lethal transitions. I’m often skeptical of how much difference coaching changes can make to a program in trouble, but Brown turned over its whole coaching staff over the summer and it seems to have done wonders for them.
  • Golden Brown: And THEN... Brown went 4-2 up on Cornell (minus their national team players) halfway through the second, gave up one goal at the end of the second, and held down the lead all the way through the third to beat Cornell too. In case you’re wondering just how big a deal this is:/
  • Rhapsody in Brown: Brown’s leading scorer was Sena Hanson ($15.80, 7.9 SP, 4.6 WP, 0 picks) — a junior, so it’s not just that Brown have a good recruiting class this year — and for the second week out of three, Brown have three players in the fantasy team of the week. It’s not clear how long this fairytale can continue, but Brown is certainly one of the best stories of the start of the season.
  • Four Nations fiasco part 1: Boston College, missing Megan Keller, Caitrin Lonergan, Cayla Barnes and Kali Flanagan, lost 4-2 to Providence on Saturday. Lonergan is a big contributor, but BC missed Keller, Barnes, and Flanagan last season and still beat Providence 7-4, 5-0 and 3-2. BC’s offense continues to be puzzlingly weak this season compared to expectations.
  • Top gear for Clarkson: With Loren Gabel away all weekend, T.T. Cianfarano was moved up to the top line with Elizabeth Giguère and Michaela Pejzlová, and, for all of you who were wondering why her scoring seemed a little suppressed this season, it turns out the answer was “because she wasn’t on the top line with Elizabeth Giguère and Michaela Pejzlová.” Cianfarano got 7 fantasy points, comfortably beating her previous week high of 4.1, and Giguère was close behind with 6.2 as Clarkson beat Union 5-1 and RPI 3-0.
  • Parity in the North Country: Good though Clarkson were, their travel partners St. Lawrence beat RPI 5-0 and Union 3-0, scoring the same amount of goals for as Clarkson but also getting a weekend shutout. The best scoring player for St. Lawrence was Maggie McLaughlin (SLU, $6.50, 4.3 SP, 3.1 WP, 0 picks). Eighteen (!) players from St. Lawrence scored more than 0 fantasy points this weekend, suggesting that they would have done fine if they’d lost four players to Four Nations, not that I’m bitter.
  • CHA-os: I had said that Penn State had a chance to prove themselves the second best team in the CHA against a struggling Syracuse. I may have spoken too soon: Syracuse swept the series 1-0 and 5-2. Top scorer for Syracuse was the goalie, Maddi Welch ($6.20, 5.65 SP, 2.6 WP, 0 picks), and top scoring skater was Allie Munroe ($21.60, 9.1 SP, 2.3 WP, 1 pick). Meanwhile, Lindenwood beat Mercyhurst 4-1 on Saturday and Mercyhurst beat Lindenwood 5-0 on Sunday, which is not so much a series split as a series chasm. Highest scorer for Mercyhurst was Maggie Knott ($23.10, 7.2 SP, 3.8 WP, 0 picks) and highest scorer for Lindenwood was Ally Larson ($10.40, 4.2 SP, 2.5 WP, 1 pick). In the farthest-east CHA matchup of the weekend, Robert Morris put RIT away fairly tidily, 3-1 and 3-0. Maggie Lague (Robert Morris, $33.60, 9.7 SP, 4.8 WP, 1 pick) was the third-highest fantasy point scorer in the nation this weekend.
  • Around the ECAC: Princeton beat Dartmouth 4-1, Dartmouth beat Quinnipiac 3-2 (OT), Quinnipiac beat Harvard 1-0, and Harvard tied with Princeton 2-2. A solid win against Harvard would probably have put Princeton on everyone’s radar, but as it is they stay just outside the top ten in the Ice Garden poll. The highest scorer of any of those four teams was Sharon Frankel (Princeton, $12.90, 5.3 SP, 2.7 WP, 0 picks). Cornell and Colgate both beat Yale, 4-3 and 5-2, with Olivia Zafuto (Colgate, $43.10, 11 SP, 4.3 WP, 2 picks) and Grace Graham (Cornell, $15.60, 7.3 SP, 4 WP, 0 picks) the best scorers for those schools.
  • Around the WCHA: Ohio State had two 3-2 wins over St. Cloud, though St. Cloud made the first one interesting by jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Emma Maltais (OSU, $47.40, 20.5 SP, 4.3 WP, 9 picks) led OSU by a clear margin. Bemidji also made their first game interesting by jumping out to a 2-0 lead of their own against Minnesota, but lost that first game 6-3 and the second 2-1. Despite the lots of goals, no individual player from Minnesota was dominant, with Grace Zumwinkle ($38.30, 12 SP, 3 WP, 8 picks) leading the week for the Gophers. And Wisconsin took down Minnesota State 2-1 and 2-0. Mekenzie Steffen (Wisconsin, $30, 11.3 SP, 3.3 WP, 3 picks) was involved in three of the four Wisconsin goals.
  • Stratification in Hockey East: New Hampshire’s tie with St. Lawrence at the start of the season is becoming a distant memory: they lost 1-0 and tied 2-2 with Vermont, and Vermont’s freshman goalie Blanka SŠkodová ($15.40, 4.25 SP, 2 WP, 0 picks) got voted Hockey East’s defensive player of the week. Merrimack beat Maine 5-1 and appeared in the Ice Garden poll for the first time. Northeastern and Maine both squished Holy Cross, 6-1 and 8-0, even though Maine were without Tereza Vanišsová for undisclosed reasons; scoring was widely spread for both teams.
  • Colgate squeezed: I already mentioned that Colgate lost to Brown, but I liked the pun./

Weekly awards

Individual awards

  • Most points: T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 7 points this week (WP), 15.9 points this season (SP)), from Elizabeth Giguère (6.2 WP) and Maggie Lague (4.8 WP)
  • Most overlooked (highest scoring player that no-one picked): Sena Hanson (Brown, 4.6 WP, 7.9 SP)
  • Biggest boost (highest scoring player that only one manager picked): Maggie Lague (Robert Morris, 4.8 WP, 9.7 SP)
  • Biggest contribution (highest value of points this week * number of teams they’re on): T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 7 points * 15 picks = 105 total contribution)
  • Best Freshman: Shay Maloney (Brown, 3.4 WP, 8.4 SP)
  • Best Sophomore: Elizabeth Giguère (Clarkson, 6.2 WP, 21 SP)
  • Best Junior: Sena Hanson (Brown, 4.6 WP, 7.9 SP)
  • Best Senior: T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 7 WP, 15.9 SP)
  • Best D: Maggie Lague (Robert Morris, 4.8 WP, 9.7 SP)
  • Best F: T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 7 WP, 15.9 SP)
  • Best Goalie: Calla Isaac (Brown, 3.7 WP, 9.65 SP)/

Team of the week

  • Roster: T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, F, 7), Elizabeth Giguère (Clarkson, F, 6.2), Maggie Lague (Robert Morris, D, 4.8), Sena Hanson (Brown, F, 4.6), Olivia Zafuto (Colgate, D, 4.3), Emma Maltais (OSU, F, 4.3), Michaela Pejzlová (Clarkson, F, 4.1), Grace Graham (Cornell, F, 4), Lexi Templeman (Robert Morris, F, 4), Maggie Knott (Mercyhurst, F, 3.8), Abby Niewchas (Brown, D, 3.7), Calla Isaac (Brown, G, 3.7), Terra Lanteigne (RIT, G, 3.45), Janine Alder (St Cloud, G, 3.3), Lauren Bailey (Robert Morris, G, 3.05)
  • Score: 64.3 — back to earth after last week.
  • Cost: 482.90/

Housekeeping

  • New players this week:
    — Nicole Collier (Mercyhurst, $10.20, 0.1 SP, 0.1 WP, 0 picks), who was the youngest-ever player (14 years old) to suit up for the Canadian National Inline Senior Women’s Hockey Team and missed all of last season due to injury, is back on the ice for her senior year.
    — Jaimie Rainville (SLU, $10.40, 0.5 SP, 0.5 WP, 0 picks), St. Lawrence’s freshman third goalie, played the second half of SLU’s 5-0 defeat of RPI and turned away all ten shots she faced.
  • Northeastern have fired Alina Müller (Northeastern, $31, 12.4 SP, 2 WP, 11 picks) and hired the apparently equally talented Alina Mueller (Northeastern, $31, 12.4 SP, 2 WP, 11 picks). I wish they’d make up their minds.
  • Four Nations fiasco part 2: Last week I listed the players who were going to Four Nations, for which the pre-tournament activities started this weekend, so that managers could trade those players if they wanted to. However, it turns out that different players headed off to Saskatoon (or Chicago in the case of the Americans) at different times, and some of you may have traded players who ended up playing one or two games after all. Players who I said at one time or another would miss this weekend but didn’t, or didn’t entirely, include:
    — Kristin O’Neill (Canada / Cornell, $43.60, 8.6 SP, 3.1 WP, 1 pick) played in the first game (the one which, you remember, Cornell didn’t lose) but not the second and was still Cornell’s second-highest scorer this weekend.
    — Celine Tedenby (Sweden / Maine, $15.30, 4.2 SP, 1 WP, 0 picks) was around for Maine’s 5-1 loss to Merrimack but not their 8-0 smashing of Holy Cross.
    — Emma Söderberg (Sweden / Minnesota-Duluth, $11.60, 0.9 SP, 0 WP, 0 picks) played forty minutes for Minnesota-Duluth against the Whitecaps and let in four goals on 18 shots, which seems to be happening to the Whitecaps’ opponents a lot. It was an exhibition so it doesn’t count for fantasy, but if it had she would have scored 0.6 points.
    — Sara Hjalmarsson (Sweden / Providence, $21.60, 9.8 SP, 1.6 WP, 1 pick) played in the BC game and picked up two assists, which was the margin of victory, which is INFURIATING.
    — Jessica Adolfsson (Sweden / Penn State, $13.20, 3.2 SP, 0 WP, 0 picks) played both games for Penn State against Syracuse.
    — Lovisa Selander (Sweden / RPI, $43.60, 14.25 SP, 2.45 WP, 1 pick) played both games for RPI this weekend, getting pulled after two periods and five goals against St. Lawrence and playing the whole game against Clarkson. Better luck against Canada and the USA, Lovisa!
    — Janine Alder (Switzerland / St Cloud, $25.80, 12.55 SP, 3.3 WP, 1 pick) did in fact play for St. Cloud this weekend and didn’t go to Four Nations because it turns out Switzerland is not a Four Nation (it’s actually a marsupial).
  • Four Nations fiasco part 3: I also managed to completely miss that Mikaela Gardner (Wisconsin, $28.50, 6.1 SP, 0 WP, 0 picks) is at Four Nations. Good thing no-one had picked her. Sorry everyone./

Trades to tigFantasyHockey@gmail.com by 11:59 p.m Eastern Time on Thursday November 8th. Have a good week!