Edina v Blake 1

[j4241]

A great game on tap for tomorrow night - 7pm at Blake. Edina looking for a bounceback after Andover, Blake looking for revenge after last year's section final. Future division 1 players littering the ice - 14 division 1 commits when the puck drops, another 10 or so in coming years (months?). Possibility of 1 (or 2? more?) future Olympians on the ice. An early season tune-up to set the tone for more consequential games down the lines. Should be fun!

[MNHockeyFan]

That should be quite the battle - thanks for the heads up, j4241. I think I'll go over and check out the five Gopher recruits who'll be playing.

[jg2112]

I will go "on the record" - Blake takes this first round 3-2. I don't think they'll win all 3 of the teams' predicted battles this year, but I do think they'll win this first one. Blake's forwards will be the difference.

[massalsa]

I believe that Edina will win 4-2 and both Edina and Blake will be 1-1 to start this season. I do not think that Edina will lose its first 2 games of the season.

[MNHockeyFan]

I believe that Edina will win 4-2 and both Edina and Blake will be 1-1 to start this season. I do not think that Edina will lose its first 2 games of the season.

Was thinking the same. They'll be super motivated not to let 0-2 happen.

[bodyup88]

I believe Blake will win tonight for the following reasons:
a) they lost a lot less to graduation than the Hornets
b) they will be motivated not to go 0-2 in their last 2 games vs Edina
c) the Bears outplayed Edina at Parade last February. Edina's power play and a fluke,late second period goal off a face-off killed Blake.

[bodyup88]

Make that Blake will be motivated not go 0-3 in their last 3 games vs Edina. Blake lost in the regular season last year as well as the epic section final.
Bottom line: the motivation factor favors the Bears, not the Hornets.

[O-townClown]

This was a great hockey game. Credit all the girls on both teams for an incredible compete level. These teams could play 10 times and it would probably each team winning 3 or 4 and tying the rest.

When I saw them play in January it didn't seem like the teams played as well as they did today. Both looked great.

[j4241]

It was a great game - fun to watch. I think the Blake girls deserve a ton of credit for not folding in the third after a disheartening series of defensive lapses and bad puck luck let the Hornets almost run away with it. Maddie Wethington looked every bit the early season Ms. Hockey favorite. The game also looked a lot like last year's game at Blake. However, I don't think the score was indicative of the game. I'd guess shots attempted were on the order of 60-30 in Blake's favor. Lots of missed nets by Blake, a fair number of blocked shots by Edina, and the Edina goalie played great - but the Hornets were on their heels for long stretches of the game. Blake has some enormously talented forwards who did not generate a goal - I'm confident they will in future match-ups. Blake looked noticeably faster, and Edina's power play looked much less impressive than last year. Blake fielded a freshman goalie who played very well, and also fielded three 8th graders in a game filled with upper class D1 commits, and all three were involved in scoring chances. Much was made of Edina's young players, but the future is pretty bright at Blake, too.

[massalsa]

Well said O-town and j4241. I agree and will add a couple of things:

It was fun to see girls from several different teams that were not playing last night. It was a busy night for girls hockey and I wish I could have seen the Breck v BSM, Tonka v FLAKE, and the HM v WBL games to say the least.

Madeline Wethington was the best player on the ice last night. Not a surprise to most but she was dominant. I was also impressed by Evelyn Adams (she should consider speed skating...2022 in Beijing...watch out Netherlands!) and Kathryn Davis of Edina. Bowlby is skilled and gritty.

If it was a fight the judges may have scored it like this:

Round #1: Blake 10-9 (almost what the shots were but Blake was a little better than the shots) with 1 goal.
Round #2: Edina 10-6 with 4 goals and other than about 5 minutes it was even but it was an UGLY 5 minutes for Blake and a standard Edina beatdown of a lesser opponent at the same time. Shots were 25-25 after the 2nd and Edina scored 2 gritty rebound goals.
Round #3: Blake 10-7 with only 2 goals but the most dominant complete period by either team. Shots on goal were 13-2 but Edina did a great job of not letting a lot of shots not make it to the goalie who played really well. Edina players probably blocked 10-15 shots and hung on for the win.

Both teams had times where they looked and were dominant. Both will continue to improve and should set up to be a great matchup Friday, January 18. It is possible that both teams could go undefeated until that time but Wayzata, EP, HM, Breck, Andover, and others will certainly have something to say about that as all but Andover are common opponents before then.

Lastly I will say that I think that it is great that Andover will be the new #1 in girls hockey. Great for them and great to see a different #1 than Edina or Blake for the first time in a couple years.