MCHA Adjusts Playoff Format

Though the MCHA's reshuffling of divisions has already been covered, what hasn't is the fact the league has also restructured the format of the Harris Cup Playoffs.

Beginning this season, only the top six teams from the regular season will make the league playoffs, and the champions of both the North and South Divisions will receive byes to the Harris Cup Finals. The overall league champion will receive the top overall seed while the champion of the other division will receive the number two overall seed.

The "quarterfinals" will pit the second and third place teams from the same division against each other, with the second place teams playing host.

While seeming a bit counter-intuitive at first as it means teams might play each other six times in a single season, the MCHA felt the elimination of some very long potential road trips late in the season outweighed the familiarity concerns.

The Harris Cup Finals pairings will not be decided until after the two quarterfinal series, as the top overall seed will meet the lowest overall seed to advance from the quarterfinals regardless of which division it comes from.

Though this is simple enough to follow, I'm bored, so let's illustrate how this works by updating last season's standings to fit the MCHA's new divisional setup:

North Division
1. Marian
2. Lawrence
3. Finlandia
4. Northland

South Division
1. Adrian
2. MSOE
3. Lake Forest
4. Concordia


As divisional winners, Marian and Adrian receive byes to the Harris Cup Finals. Meanwhile, as the fourth place teams in each division, Northland and Concordia are on the outside looking in. That leaves the quarterfinal matchups as:

Finlandia @ Lawrence and Lake Forest @ MSOE

In the semifinals, Adrian (top overall seed) draws the lowest seeded quarterfinal winner and Marian gets the other.

Simple enough, and that is all she wrote.

As a reminder, this season's MCHA Harris Cup Finals will once again be hosted by Adrian at Arrington Ice Arena. The Bulldogs earned 2010 hosting rights by virtue of winning last season's MCHA regular season title.