Wockey Pool 2017 - You Can't Keep a Goodman Down!

Wockey Pool 2017 is all wrapped up!  The drama oozed from every Wockey orifice as our Wockey Champion and Puckhead races both came down to a final thrilling game of the season!  

 

For those who missed it, Denver’s Jared Lukosevicius (pronounced Smith) scored three goals in the second period -- the first hat trick in a single period in the NCAA title game since Denver’s coach, Jim Montgomery, did it for Maine in 1993.  The first two were just 16 seconds apart, which are the fastest two goals scored by one player in a national championship game.  That led to a 3-1 Pioneers lead heading into the third.  In that period Minnesota-Duluth dominated outshooting the Denver 17-3.  However, the Bulldogs could only sneak one goal past netminder Tanner Jaillet giving Denver a 3-2 victory.  It’s the Pioneers’ 8th national championship, which ties them for second all-time in college hockey history with last year’s champion, North Dakota.

 

It was a remarkable finish to an unbelievable tournament.  Four OT games.  A four seed (Notre Dame) making the Frozen Four.  A ten-goal tournament debut by Penn State.  A last minute game-winner to send UMD to the title game over Harvard.  It’s funny -- normally the unpredictability of the tournament is what gives it it’s mojo.  This year saw three top seeds win their regions, and for the first time since the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2003, the top two seeds faced off in the final.  Despite that, this tournament lived up to it’s previously unpredictable predecessors in terms of its level of excitement.

 

For Wockey, Denver’s victory means we get to add a new name to the infamous Wockey Conflicted Family Register!  In 2011, Zach rained shame upon the Walker clan after Alex had previously won the inaugural Wockey Pool.  In 2015, the Mathiasen tribe made history when they sported the first ever simultaneous Champion (Grady) and Puckhead (Finley) from within the same family.  Now this year, redemption has come calling for the Goodman family.  After Chris disgraced the House of Goodman with his Puckhead showing in 2016, father Ron -- as one suspects he’s been doing for years -- shook off the embarrassment of his son’s display and made his household proud again by becoming the 2017 Wockey Champion!

 

                              

                                         Satellite imagery of a young Ron Goodman years before

                                                   he had dreams of winning the Wockey Pool.

 

Ron was one of 107 Wockeyites to correctly guess top overall seed Denver would hoist the trophy.  However, Ron’s was the only one who’s bracket had just one blemish -- his only incorrect prediction being that Massachusetts-Lowell would beat Notre Dame in the Northeast Regional Final -- as he finished with 63 points overall.  With the win, Ron also improves on his sixth place finish from last year proving he is a Wockey predictor with few peers.  For his unrivaled prognosticating prowess, Ron wins not only the Wockey record grand prize of $1,975 dollars, but also this priceless Wockey cribbage board!

 

Finishing behind Ron were Matt Wagner and Thomas Nikula.  4th through 8th places required a tiebreaker -- and it was a doozy.  Eight Wockeyites tied for fourth with 57 points, but Michael Henke broke the tie by correctly predicting 15 goals would be scored between the three Frozen Four games.  After that, three brackets each picked 17 Frozen Four goals, requiring us to go to the last tiebreaker, which is total tournament goals scored.  They finished -- order -- Erich Manwarren, Phil Rooney, and once again Thomas Nikula.  Finally, Dan Kingsley’s pick of 18 Frozen Four goals secured him eighth place -- the last payout slot -- which meant that the other three Wockeyites to earn 57 points -- Tom DeLonge, Jon Libbey, and Eddie Davidson remain achingly close to, but out of the money.  

 

For their ability to predict hockey better than 405 other brackets, here are the (approximate) paid finishes:

 

1st - Ron Goodman - 63 points - $1975

2nd - Matt Wagner - 60 points - $592.50

3rd - Thomas Nikula - 58 - $395

4th - Michael Henke - 57 - $316

5th - Erich Manwarren - 57 - $276.50

6th - Phil Rooney - 57 - $197.50

7th - Thomas Nikula - 57 - $118.50

8th - Dan Kingsley - 57 - $79

 

Congratulations to all our winners!  May flies dance operas to your wisdom!  

 

While Ron was working to restore the Goodman family name at the top of the pool, the bottom saw the calamitous fall of one of Wockey’s greats.  And when you fall this far, the landing isn’t pretty.

 

                                                         

                                                                   

                                                     Jason Kuss on a typical Tuesday afternoon.

 

In 2013, Jason Kuss was the toast of the Wockey World as he had just been crowned Wockey Champion.  Rising from one of the Wockey Original 16 to the top of 200 brackets had Jason thinking he had hit a pinnacle from which he could never come down.

 

But like Tiger Woods, Tonya Harding, and Lindsey Wixson before him, come down he did.  In a bracket ironically titled “Lucky #10” Kuss had the unfortunate foresight to pick just two games correctly, tying him for last place with fellow Original 16 entrant Chris Walker.  In another twist of irony, in 2013 (the same year Jason won the pool) Chris tied for last with one other Wockeyite (Jeff Stark) only to be saved the supreme embarrassment of Puckhead by winning the tiebreaker.  And while Chris continues to tempt fate, he once again narrowly edged out infamy as his pick of 16 Frozen Four goals bested Jason’s pick of 10.  It’s a small victory for Chris -- one as attractive as a Yugoslavian album cover -- but a victory nonetheless.  

 

As for the the trajectory of Jason’s descent from the top of the Wockey mountain, it’s enough to make you sick.  For his futile efforts, Jason will receive the Wockey Puckhead prize -- a rolling pin designed to remind him of the inanity of his existence every time he attempts to prolong it with food.  Let us all take the time this week to hold our loved ones close, give our children an extra kiss at night, and recite our assortment of prayers to the Wockey gods in gratitude that we are not Jason Kuss.  And then let us turn on him, shaming him and his moronic decisions with the type of virulent scorn such an embarrassing episode deserves.  It may sound harsh -- and it is -- but fear not.  If there’s anyone who can survive this type of humility, it’s Jason.

 

Before we put an official wrap on Wockey 2017, I must share with you my Frozen Four experience.  If you are a college hockey rube like I am, or even if you’re just an interested observer, going to the Frozen Four is a MUST.  It was exhilirating walking around the arena, going out to the local bars and restaurants, sightseeing downtown and seeing hockey jerseys EVERYWHERE.  There are 60 teams in NCAA Division One Men’s Ice Hockey -- We must have seen fans from well over 50 schools represented there.  It was awesome chatting with fans from Denver, North Dakota, Harvard, and Wisconsin.  It was such a celebratory mood -- even if you didn’t have a team you were rooting for.  And the NCAA did a spectacular job showing off the sport -- especially with the videos they projected onto the rink.

 

All in all, it was an unreal experience for me as I turn 40.  My wife, the first Woman of Wockey, Sarah, planned an amazing trip capped of by surprises by my best friend from college, my cousin from New York, and my parents all showing up at various points throughout the weekend.  I’m glad that so many of you were able to experience the weekend with me through our Facebook Live posts (and silently judged me as I continued to devolve into inebriation in a few of them) and I wholeheartedly support Wockeyite Ryan Graupmann’s suggestion that I go to on a Wockey-sponsored trip to the Frozen Four every year going forward.  

 

Running the Wockey Pool, while becoming more of a challenge as I get busier with family and work life, is still a great joy, and I don’t think my love for college hockey would be so deep without the experience.  I don’t think I ever would’ve made this trip to Chicago -- this trip of a lifetime -- without Wockey.  And so I thank you for continuing to participate in and promote this silly little pool.  413 people is an incredible accomplishment.  And it was the smoothest run pool yet thanks to Wockey Webmaster Mike Varian.

 

So thank you for continuing to make the Wockey Pool bigger and better each and every year.  I can’t even begin to think of what it will look like in year 15, 20, or even 25, but I know it will be awesome, and I know it’s going to slightly resemble this.

 

Your Filthy, Frothy, Forty-Year-Old Wockey Commish

 

Alex