Holiday Tournaments Afterthoughts

[SEhockeyDAD]

The Schwan Cup was a wonderful experience, for the teams and parents alike. (It was the first for Rochester Mayo/Lourdes.) One of the best parts is being able to watch SO MUCH hockey. The price of admission was well worth it.<br><br>The Red Division was competitive; like I thought before the tournament, the bottom bracket of Grand Rapids/Greenway, New Prague, Warroad and Rochester Mayo/Lourdes was a good balance of teams. Holly Roberts of Warroad is definitely one of the top forwards in the state and was the difference. <br>I watches Blake once, (and will see them again against Mayo later this season,) and they are a very impressive team. Well deserving of the championship.<br><br>Other thoughts;<br>Congrats to Elk River. They must have put together 3 great games in a row.<br>Best wishes to Edina and coach Mark Stephan. Real good team looking for the right identity, I think. <br>Anyone see CDH beat BSM? Mickey Jobman must have been unreal in goal; 36 save SO.<br>Coon Rapids beat Eagan 3-2 in the White division championship. I wonder if they both would have fit well in the Red division?<br>Great individuals I saw; <br>the obvious; Chelsey Jones, Holly Roberts, Anna McDonald, Berit Johnson,Michelle Maunu.<br>also great players; Kaylee Kees, Tai Stephan, Callie Dahl, Sally Komarek, Margaret Chute, Jenna Kilpatrick, Jac Daggit, Emily Erickson, Gretchen Leyendecker, Allie Harwood, Kristin Meyers, Jenny Gorny...<br>Way too many other I didn't get a chance to see. <br><br>How about the Kaposia, anyone? <p></p><i></i>

[brookyone]

I'd have to go with Meaghan Pezon as the Kaposia Classic MVP...With Allie Thunstrom joining her on the "All Tourney" first team. Who Else?? <p></p><i></i>

[mnhock]

Roseville's Franny Dorr. <p></p><i></i>

[blankpaper1234]

At the Burnsville Holiday Tournament, Burnsville took their own championship for the first time in 3 years. <br><br>They beat the Blades 7-2<br>Simley 5-0<br>and Sibley 5-1<br><br>they played good hockey and theres no doubt about it They're back. <p></p><i></i>

[SEhockeyDAD]

Sibley was looking pretty tough, too. <p></p><i></i>

[falkster09]

Albert Lea had another solid showing at "The Shootout in Dodge". They are a young team and they just keep improving. <p></p><i></i>

[SEhockeyDAD]

Their toughest test will come on January 21st at Rochester Mayo/Lourdes. But don't overlook a hard-working physical Winona, or the rematch with Austin. <p></p><i></i>

[hubbaa]

i can only see one good team this year in ep, after them we have a bunch of teams that are decent but nothing i would classify as a good team. all in all in my opinion a real down year for team quality. <p></p><i></i>

[hockeywild711]

I think it is just the opposite hubba, the teams are getting much more balanced with the depth of girls hockey getting better each year. Don't confuse depth with weakness. There are alot of very good teams out there. Not sure how you can say the others besides EP are just decent. Compare EP to SSP last year. Whats the difference in what SSP did? I think EP is a great team but dont hand them the AA title just yet. They would be the first to tell you that sections will be very tough. <p></p><i></i>

[hubbaa]

hockey,<br><br>i'm not handing the title to ep, i don't think they will win it. i do think they are way ahead of most teams this year, but just can't see them doing anything that they haven't done in the past. <br><br>sure the teams are more balanced this year, but i don't buy your reasoning. the depth is improving, but the rate at which it is is slowing down a lot. this year we do see some emerging programs getting more wins, but remember wins doesn't mean they have improved as a team. it can but not always. i think this year we have the "better" teams are not as good and the lower teams are a little better, so on this point i could agree there is some balancing of teams and overall the quality might be a little improved but that was not my point.<br><br>my point is the top ten teams from the last couple years would beat the top ten from this year rather handily i think. that is my point, one might disagree but i notice quite a difference in play with the so called top teams. <br><br>now you're probably scratching your head wondering how one of the so called "inferior top ten" could upend ep. i guess it has to do with ep playing an opponent that plays its best game and gets some luck taken together with ep playing a average or below game. i don't know if this has happened yet this year, but as teams play them a second time the odds of it happening greatly increase. <p></p><i></i>

[hockeywild711]

well i guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this on. I have seen these same top teams play the last few years and there is no difference. Most of last years top ten teams are the same anyway. I still say whats the difference between EP this year and SSP last year? And if they are so far ahead playing another team twice should not make a difference. And as far as luck and how a team plays everynight, that is why the games are played. It should never be an excuse for losing. <p></p><i></i>

[hubbaa]

hockey,<br><br>yes, we do disagree. i think there is a difference and you don't. you mention the teams essentially are the same and yes they are, except for the personnel. just because the teams are the same it doesn't equate to equality to past or future teams.<br><br>why does it make a difference playing the same team twice? 1. preparation<br>2. motivation<br>3. expectation<br>4. maturity<br>etc.....<br><br>excuses for losing? i'm not making them up, just stating some facts that play into account in games at all levels on occasion....<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[SEhockeyDAD]

I won't pretend to know a lot about it, but let me toss this out. How about the quality of defense and goaltending? Is it possible that team defense is better coached nowadays? It might make teams look less impressive than they had in the past. <p></p><i></i>

[hubbaa]

SE,<br><br>that is a good point. so many times i have seen a great defensive team make another great team look bad. i have also seen a great offensive team make a great defensive team look bad. i think over the course of time it is apparent the strengths and weaknesses of teams and good coaches will try to take advantage of them. <br><br>i do see your point but on the top end i just think it is a little down year. <p></p><i></i>

[SEhockeyDAD]

I knew that Winona would be a challenge for Albert Lea. They're aggressive and and will play as physical as the refs allow. Albert Lea also has to watch out for that upcoming game against Austin, who just beat Rochester JM/Century 8-0. <p></p><i></i>

[stphockey]

Burnsville did play outstanding in their tournament however it should not go without notice how well the St. Paul Blades played. They did lose the opener to burnsville 7 - 2 but the game was much closer than that. The shots were even as well as the play. Bursville got some really soft goals early on traditionally solid goaltending. The Blades did go on to beat a very solid Sibley team as well as Simley to place 2nd. They may be one of the Suprise teams in 2AA. <p></p><i></i>

[northgirlshockey]

Not much mention of the team that won the Dodge Shootout, Proctor/Hermantown/Marshall... <p></p><i></i>

[SEhockeyDAD]

You're right, and PHM should be mentioned. They've played to an impressive 14-2 record, I believe. They've beaten every team they've played except for two top teams, Hibbing and SSP. Word from a reliable source is that PHM needs to play a sort of upper-middle ranked team so that the rankings can get a better idea of where they're at. PHM's game with Grand Rapids/Greenway on the 17th could be the one. How well they play GRG should give us a better idea of PHM's game. Recently, they've had close-scoring wins over Albert Lea (4-3) and Duluth East (4-3). They also had an early close score, a 2-1 win over Silver Bay, who they play again tomorrow. <p></p><i></i>

[hockey parent001]

How does SSP lose 4 games in a row and only move down one spot (from 1 to 2) in the rankings (and still get 3 first place votes)? Also Blake wins the Class A level Schwan's Cup defeating Warroad fairly decisively and yet not jump over Warroad in the rankings? <p></p><i></i>

[411HOCKEY]

IMO Blake is one of the most under rated teams in the state. They are my pick to take the A State title this year. <p></p><i></i>

[mnhockeygal]

There are 2 reasons for your questions on "A". Admittedly I didnt have much experience in A prior to this year. But I have come to the conclusion A is just not good - a huge disparity, more than in other sports. Hibbing is a top A team - well coached and hardworking - and they are at best an avg team. Top A teams should not be 3-4 goals less than good AA teams, and Hibbing is. Farmington is the most overrated team I have seen in a long time - they run up huge numbers against terrible teams and are routinely beaten easily by top teams. Simley is not even an average team - they are terrible - yet were ranked much of the year??? I think its partially due to I dont have a lot of respect for who does the A rankings and secondly the A is just flat out not good. As for SSP, the silly thing being, that yes any team who goes 0-4-1 should drop from top 10 all together let alone yes, should be far more than going down just 1 spot. However, the sad thing is they clearly are one of the 2 or 3 best A teams - and probably deserve their ranking - as wrong as that fact is. <p></p><i></i>