LISN / SCHSHL Power Rankings – Week 7

1 = Sachem

Through seven games this season, Sachem has been outscored by their opponent in just one period of play. Sachem also leads the league in first period Goals For, while also allowing the second fewest Goals Against in the third period. The only knock on Sachem is that they lead the league in penalty minutes as well as wins. 

2 – East Islip

The model tends to favor high scoring teams and East Islip is no exception. Through seven games, EI has scored fifty-five goals with twenty-three of them coming in the third period. However, EI spends significantly more time trailing their opponents than Sachem or KPC.

3 – Kings Park Commack

The Kings Park Commack Knights have allowed the fewest goals in the Varsity division this season. They have scored the fourth most goals in the Varsity division. However they scored eleven goals against Longwood and an additional four against the T-Birds. The Knights also scored six goals against EI. The model has KPC ranked third in the SCHSHL, but an uptick in scoring against top flight completion could see them rise up the list.

4 – Smithtown Hauppauge

The Model favors fifth place Smithtown Hauppauge over fourth place Northport Huntington for several reasons. The Bulls have scored forty one goals this season with no player registering more than thirteen points on the campaign. The Bulls also lead the league in Power Play Goals For with ten. The Bulls strong underlying numbers are promising enough to put them in fourth.

5 – St Anthony’s

The defending champions are the last team on this list with a positive goal differential. Furthermore, the Friars have only lost one game by more than two goals this season. All of their losses have come against teams with an above .500 record. Couple that with data from the start of last season and the model predicts a strong second half for the Friars.

6 – Northport Huntington 

Despite their 4-3 record on the season, a negative goal differential caused our analytics program to rank the Tigers sixth in this week’s power rankings. The model ranked them sixth due to their slim margin of victory. However with three overtime wins on the season, the model likes their odds going forward.

7 – West Islip

This young team is just under .500 with a better goal differential than several teams ahead of them. West Islip has also gotten strong results on the power play. However the Lions are near the top of the league in penalty minutes this season, which keeps them in seventh place.

8 – Connetquot Sayville BBP

The T-Birds get a lot of credit from our model for keeping games close early on against top flight competition. The T-Birds tendency to take penalties prevented the model from moving them up the list.

9 – Ward Melville

The Patriots have only lost two games by two goals or more, and have kept the game close through the first two frames of play more often than not. Unfortunately, the Patriots have given up the most third period goals in the Varsity Division this season.

10 – Longwood

Longwood is still searching for their first win this season. However the underlying numbers compare somewhat favorably to other first year entrants to the Varsity Division