Grand Rapids at Duluth East 12/10

gitter · Post by **gitter** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:41 am

TheHockeyDJ wrote:
Scout716 wrote:I was surprised to see that Grand Rapids Plays so many Single A teams. I am guessing thats due to their up North location/conference, but got me thinking how does that play into the rankings? those teams that DJ Mentioned there's nothing to compare them to with most the Section 7AA teams. I haven't looked but I would be curious if Andover, Elk River, or Forest Lake all put togather play 4 - 5 A opponents? I don;t know but just a thought.
It's who you play in single A and obviously Rapids would love to play a full AA schedule vs. twin cities competition but that's not realistic being 180 miles from the TC. It's not difficult to research, there's mnhockeyhub.com and followthepuck.com and you can compare results. The St. Francis loss for GR doesn't look as bad now since East lost to Denfeld which lost to St. Francis. Similar shot results. Just goes to show a team that is vastly superior in talent can run into a hot goalie.

Moorhead is 200+ miles from the Cities and has no problem traveling there. You're either willing to travel for good competition or not. Duluth East goes down all the time too.

Bigcat99 · Post by **Bigcat99** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:59 am

gitter wrote:
TheHockeyDJ wrote:
Scout716 wrote:I was surprised to see that Grand Rapids Plays so many Single A teams. I am guessing thats due to their up North location/conference, but got me thinking how does that play into the rankings? those teams that DJ Mentioned there's nothing to compare them to with most the Section 7AA teams. I haven't looked but I would be curious if Andover, Elk River, or Forest Lake all put togather play 4 - 5 A opponents? I don;t know but just a thought.
It's who you play in single A and obviously Rapids would love to play a full AA schedule vs. twin cities competition but that's not realistic being 180 miles from the TC. It's not difficult to research, there's mnhockeyhub.com and followthepuck.com and you can compare results. The St. Francis loss for GR doesn't look as bad now since East lost to Denfeld which lost to St. Francis. Similar shot results. Just goes to show a team that is vastly superior in talent can run into a hot goalie.
Moorhead is 200+ miles from the Cities and has no problem traveling there. You're either willing to travel for good competition or not. Duluth East goes down all the time too.[/quote

Its not about being willing...I would think the word to consider here is budget.

Post by **karl(east)** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:11 pm

north_bear wrote:Also, first time at the Heritage Center. I thought it was a nice, modern arena with lots of good viewing places. However, I was a little puzzled by the lack of the National Anthem? East's band was present, would have liked to have heard them play it.

It was a single-admission doubleheader with the girls' game beforehand, so presumably they played the anthem before that. It's common not to play it twice when that's the situation.

As for 7AA seeding, if the season ended today, I'd say:

1. East
2. Elk River
3. Rapids
4. Cloquet
5. Andover
6. Forest Lake
7. St. Francis
8/9. Cambridge/STMA

I wouldn't have any complaints with anyone who put Cloquet 3rd, though. Their meeting next week will, hopefully, settle that.

Rapids may have two section losses, but they also have a pretty big section win over Elk River, and tied Cloquet. Due to their struggles against those lower teams, I don't think we can justify putting them in the top two, but their otherwise pretty good season means those losses shouldn't cost them a spot in the top four, unless a lot of things happen down the stretch.

There are still a bunch of section games to be played, though. A lot if it runs through Cloquet, as they have 2nd meetings with Rapids and East, plus a game with Andover. The Jacks could conceivably still wind up as high as #2, or as low as #5.

Forest Lake and Andover could probably be switched if the Huskies don't have a strong end to their season, but Flake would probably have to beat East to go higher than #5.

TheHockeyDJ · Post by **TheHockeyDJ** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:52 pm

Karl you have it right in line with what I was thinking. Totally agree on CEC and them being up to 2 or down to 5 depending on what they do in those 3 section games.

gitter · Post by **gitter** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:42 pm

Bigcat99 wrote:
gitter wrote:
TheHockeyDJ wrote: It's who you play in single A and obviously Rapids would love to play a full AA schedule vs. twin cities competition but that's not realistic being 180 miles from the TC. It's not difficult to research, there's mnhockeyhub.com and followthepuck.com and you can compare results. The St. Francis loss for GR doesn't look as bad now since East lost to Denfeld which lost to St. Francis. Similar shot results. Just goes to show a team that is vastly superior in talent can run into a hot goalie.
Moorhead is 200+ miles from the Cities and has no problem traveling there. You're either willing to travel for good competition or not. Duluth East goes down all the time too.
Its not about being willing...I would think the word to consider here is budget.

You're right the key word is budget. Moorhead probably spends double any other team in the state on travel for hockey (aside from East) and I wouldn't say they are a huge budget district. They do it to play talented teams.