Hockey Notebook: Size of field in playoffs under debate
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North Hills was 4-12 and Kiski Area 2-14-1 heading into Thursday's games. But Monday night, those two teams will have an extremely meaningful meeting with significant playoff implications.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Depends on whom you ask.
"With 13 teams [in PIHL Class AA], and 10 getting into the playoffs, I don't think any team can really ever count themselves out," North Hills coach Brandon Dudt-Mulzet said. "We've improved throughout the season, and now we can be rewarded by getting into the playoffs."
Quaker Valley coach Kevin Quinn has nothing against any of the teams near the bottom of the standings, but he takes a different view of the PIHL's policy of inviting 76 percent (32 of 42) of the Class AAA, AA and A teams into the Penguins Cup playoffs.
"It's ridiculous," Quinn said. "There's no reason a team with four or five wins should get in."
Rewarding mediocrity -- or worse -- certainly isn't exclusive to the PIHL. There have been a few 2-7 teams qualify for the WPIAL football playoffs and occasions where entire sections qualified for the WPIAL basketball postseason.
But check out some of this season's playoff bubble stories:
• At 3-13, Knoch is on a seven-game losing streak ... but is only a victory away from being in Class A playoff position.
• All Fox Chapel (5-15) might need to do to earn a Class AAA berth is beat Butler (1-17) in its next game.
• Kiski Area has won once since opening night, but wins against the two teams ahead of it for the 10th playoff spot -- North Hills and Montour -- in the next two weeks might get the Cavaliers in.
"I saw the basketball seedings in the paper, too, and there's some teams below .500 in it," said Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Crousey, whose 4-11 team held the final Class A playoff spot this week.
"With us, now that we've got everybody healthy and people committed a little more, it gives us a great opportunity. It gives us another game to play. We haven't made the playoffs in a while, so even from that standpoint, I like it."
First Published February 17, 2012 12:00 am
