Final day of round-robin to provide plenty of drama
March 21, 2015
One of the best things about the Silver Cup Tournament through the first two days is that the competition has been tremendous with all the games being very competitive. That, and all of the final games on Saturday will mean something because of the tournament’s format.
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Because of the six-team set-up this season, which included a wildcard team, each club played opponents that were both common and not common. Because of this, the following tie-breaker will be used to determine the pools two winners:
If two or more Clubs have an equal number of points at the conclusion of round-robin play, then their final position in the standings shall be determined by using the tiebreaking formulas listed below applied in order using all of the games played during the tournament until one formula breaks the tie and establishes a victorious Club (note: head to head is not a tie-breaker due to non-common opponents).
1) Sum. By subtracting goals scored against from goals scored for, the Club's position shall be in the order of the greatest surplus.
2) Least Goals Against. The Club's position shall be in the order of least goals against.
3) Most periods won. Points will be awarded for each regulation period won (2 points) and for each regulation period tied (1 point). Positions shall be in the order of highest point total.
4) Regular Season Point totals. The Club's position shall be in order of the most points earned during the regular season. If necessary, the regular season tiebreaking procedures listed in NA3HL Rule 11.1 shall be utilized.
With all that said, here is a look by seed of each team’s scenarios entering the final day:
#1 Nashville: Simply put, Nashville has to win to advance. With Granite City and Metro also in their pool at 1-1 and playing one another, someone will end up 2-1. At 1-1, the Jr. Predators will have to beat West Michigan and by game time they will have to know by how much with the result of the score between Metro and Granite City.
#2 North Iowa: Although not mathematically in the finals yet, the Bulls are the only 2-0 team left in the event and may know their fate by game time. A West Michigan loss would put the Bulls in the finals even before they step on the ice. With a +5 goal differential going into the final game, the Bulls are on track to lock up the Pool B spot.
#3 Great Falls: Having lost their first two games, the Americans have been eliminated from advancing to the finals. They can still play the role of spoiler, but cannot catch North Iowa in the standings in order to win the pool, so Saturday will be the last game for the team, who have represented themselves well and battled hard.
#4 Metro: The Jets are in a good position to win Pool A. They, along with Granite City and Nashville all have 1-1 records, but the Jets enter the final contest with the best goal differential of the three at +1. The other two teams are a -1. So if the Jets beat Granite City and Nashvile either losses or wins by a small margin, the Jets will advance.
#5 West Michigan: The Wolves are still alive thanks to a 1-1 record and a 0 goal differential, but they will need help to advance. They are going to have to beat Nashville by a considerable margin and hope that Great Falls can beat North Iowa.
#6 Granite City: With a -1 goal differential and the first game of the day, Granite City just has to put the pedal to the metal and try and not only win against Metro, but do so in convincing fashion. At 1-1, the Lumberjacks big concern is first to beat Metro, then to do so by a wide enough margin to hope that Nashville either losses to West Michigan or wins by a lesser margin that Granite City won since both have a -1 goal differential heading into the game. Either way if they win, they will have to wait until the end of the Nashville game to find out their fate.
