The "downplay" statement was probably too harsh. I should have probably said take lightly.pekyman wrote:No intention to downplay Bemidji. Herm plays them there on Jan 17, should be a battle.
Your spot on on the depth and swing comment.
Bemidji and GFRR may well be the barometer to figure out how some of these teams line up, especially in 8A. The two losses for EGF and Warroad come against the same teams, so it is interesting to play with the numbers. Not to make excuses, but to try to weed out some X Factors that will hopefully not be in play when sections roll around.
Like I said, injuries and depth play into the results, and it is interesting if you factor in a couple of things.
EGF decided to start their backup goalie in the GFRR game, and Warroad playing without an injured Kobe Roth. Not sure about EGF, but Warroad only skates 2 lines, so legs become a factor as well.
Taking those variables into account, this is how I see those games:
EGF gave up 3 early goals against GFRR. After the goalie change they settled down, and only allowed 2 goals on 16 shots. Toss out those first few minutes and lets call that a 2-0 loss.
Warroad lost 3-1 to GFRR. Roth did not play, and they gave up the final 2 goals in the last couple of minutes, so 2-1 loss or 1-1 tie... Take your pick.
EGF lost 2-1 to Bemidji which was a fairly straight up game as far as I know. Correct me if there was anything that should be considered.
Warroad lost to Bemidji 5-0. Were never really in this game, but things tilted fully toward Bemidji after Roth went out with his injury. Bemidji scored 3 goals in the final 4 minutes, with the last coming in a 5 on 3 power play. Toss those minutes out, like we did for EGF vs GFRR, and call it a 2-0 loss.
The only result I can come up with is that both teams lost a game 2-1 and another 2-0. I don't think that does anything to separate one from the other, and I am not confident that the result of their game this Friday will yield any final answers either, since Roth will likely not play.
I am fairly confident that Duluth Marshall is better than Warroad, yet they both beat Grand Rapids by a similar score. Their head to head game in January will be interesting, as well as the Hermantown vs Bemidji game.
For now I would say that it is 1)Hermantown 2)Duluth Marshall and that EGF and Warroad fall somewhere in the 5-10 range, with EGF being the stronger of the two right now.
