NCAA Notebook: Home-ice advantage huge so far

This is why they call it "home-ice advantage."

Teams play all year to get the seeding that will allow them to play postseason games in their own rinks, with their own fans in attendance, as well as last change and all the rest of the advantages that come with being the higher seed.

But there's home-ice advantage, and then there's whatever has happened in these first few days of the conference tournaments: The higher seeds are 38-6-1 in the 45 playoff games so far this postseason, an .856 winning percentage. Moreover, two of those underdog wins came in best-of-three series for teams ultimately lost in their first round, and the tie went to a shootout that was then won by the higher seed.

There are really only two particularly notable upsets affecting top-20 teams, as well. One was now-No. 17 M