Section 6A 2015-16
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Section 6A 2015-16
Who all has an inside scoop on some of the teams this year? Who is most likely predicted to make it out of this section?
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So basically the entire section has a chance to contend? Way to take such a bold stanceMite-dad wrote:Contenders will be the usual suspects: Apollo, Cathedral, Alex. Fergus Falls will be a tough out and Sartell will be decent as well. I wouldn't doubt if River Lakes has a solid squad as well. Little Falls will be improved but probably won't contend. Not sure about the rest.
The U invented swagger.
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Its going through saint cloud, unless some of the big guns get hurt.Goldy Gopher wrote:So basically the entire section has a chance to contend? Way to take such a bold stanceMite-dad wrote:Contenders will be the usual suspects: Apollo, Cathedral, Alex. Fergus Falls will be a tough out and Sartell will be decent as well. I wouldn't doubt if River Lakes has a solid squad as well. Little Falls will be improved but probably won't contend. Not sure about the rest.
Trout, you sure???lovethisgame wrote:Its going through saint cloud, unless some of the big guns get hurt.Goldy Gopher wrote:So basically the entire section has a chance to contend? Way to take such a bold stanceMite-dad wrote:Contenders will be the usual suspects: Apollo, Cathedral, Alex. Fergus Falls will be a tough out and Sartell will be decent as well. I wouldn't doubt if River Lakes has a solid squad as well. Little Falls will be improved but probably won't contend. Not sure about the rest.
No I meant the first four were contenders. Sorry. To be honest I think it is Apollo or SCC going on. Big question in FF will be in net. I think Alex lost a lot of experience at D. I also think Tech will be better than initially thought, especially by the end of the season.Goldy Gopher wrote:So basically the entire section has a chance to contend? Way to take such a bold stanceMite-dad wrote:Contenders will be the usual suspects: Apollo, Cathedral, Alex. Fergus Falls will be a tough out and Sartell will be decent as well. I wouldn't doubt if River Lakes has a solid squad as well. Little Falls will be improved but probably won't contend. Not sure about the rest.
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For Cathedral last year, they had poor leadership and this years group of seniors are more like the seniors from the year they took 4th at the state tournament (2014)lovethisgame wrote:I think the biggest question for SCC will be if they can become a team. Last year it was a lot of me stuff. Compared to an apollo team that blocked half of the shots that their opponents had. Fergus top line should be good i agree that they need to find some solid goaltending to contend
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I wouldn't say they are like hammer or bailey those guys were one of a kind just being in the area you knew they were going to lead the crusaders to state. I think they are just more focused on the goal ahead, ready to do what needs to be done to winmnhockey47 wrote:For Cathedral last year, they had poor leadership and this years group of seniors are more like the seniors from the year they took 4th at the state tournament (2014)lovethisgame wrote:I think the biggest question for SCC will be if they can become a team. Last year it was a lot of me stuff. Compared to an apollo team that blocked half of the shots that their opponents had. Fergus top line should be good i agree that they need to find some solid goaltending to contend
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One of the deepest and most competitive sections from last year should be just as interesting again. After looking through the forums and the rosters and now knowing who's all staying or going I figured I'd go ahead and give my take.
1) St. Cloud Apollo: The defending section champs coming off a fourth place finish at the tourney last year sit at the top of my rankings. The Eagles return all tournament team defenseman Tanner Breidenbach who will lead the D core. The loss of Ewing on the back end will test this teams depth. They also return Lucia and Bissett, two of their top scorers from last season and they got Michael Behl a transfer from Wadena who had solid numbers last season. Also they Return arguably the best goalie in the section in Althaus. I expect this teams stifling defense and timely scoring to lead them back to the X next March.
2) St. Cloud Cathedral: Last seasons runner ups return the majority of their forwards however their back end could end up being their Achilles heel. Connor Beltz transfers from River lakes to help bolster the grip up front. Questions arise in goal after the graduation of Fritz. Will it be Dehler, Levinski, or Karki who takes over between the pipes? Only time will tell. Can this team get back the senior leadership and cohesiveness it missed last year? If Cornelius and Hershfeld can nail down the back end and receive some solid goal tending this team could be making their way back to St. Paul.
3) Fergus Falls: After suffering a heartbreaking 2OT loss to Cathedral in the semifinals last year the Otters will look to bounce back. The story is nearly the same for Fergus as it was for Cathedral, they return strong forwards up front, particularly their entire first line of Tarczon, Johnson, and Nathe. However again their biggest question is in goal as well. After the graduation of MacFarlane they return no goaltenders so we will probably see an inexperienced bantam or else a transfer. This team has the firepower to make it to the X but can their goaltending hold up?
4) Alexandria: The number one seed from last years section playoffs will look to bounce back after the loss of 15 seniors from last years team. The Cardinals lose their top 5 scorers from a year ago and lose their starting goaltender as well. I'm picking the Cards here based off of a gut feeling that their typically good bantam program will infuse this lineup with some talent.
5) St. Cloud Tech: Tech opted down into Class A this year and could be poised to take a big step, but maybe not this year quite yet. The Tigers get almost all of the Bantam AA team players to mix together with veterans Woodman and Mendel. This teams young talent can take them a long ways and could easily shoot them up my rankings if they can gel with the returning players. The biggest question mark for this team is their D core. Will this team be able to outscore it's opponents?
6) Sartell: In my open the last of the contenders in the section, the Sabres gave Apollo their closest and toughest game of the playoffs last year. However, this team loses Spencer Zweiner who was far and away the best player on this team and their leader. They do return some depth scoring from last year that will need to step up this year. And the common theme amongst this section applies to the Sabres as well, can they get goaltending? The only returning goaltender on this team has no varsity experience at all and will need to fill some big shoes.
7) Little Falls: The Flyers return 3 of their top 4 scorers from last year and can certainly put up some goals. However with the graduation of Spandl in net who already had poor numbers, the goaltending problem doesn't appear to be headed anywhere better. This team did beat Catherdral in the regular season last year but got spanked by them in the quarterfinals, perhaps they just got lucky to beat them or maybe they will be able to pull off an upset or two come playoffs.
8) River Lakes: The stars lose their goaltender to graduation and lost their best player in Beltz to Cathedral. If they can overcome those two significant losses they might be able to climb a spot or two in my rankings but they won't be making much of any noise come section playoffs.
9) Prairie Center) Not a whole lot of excitement going around for the Stars. They will more than likely be in a play-in game come playoffs, and if they make it through that they won't be much competition for anyone but crazier things have happened.
10) Wadena Deer-Creek: The Wolverines lost their best player in Behl to Apollo, and don't have a whole lot left over. They'll aim to get in a win on the play-in round.
11) Breckenridge: Not much to be said about Breckenridge, they don't play any top teams in the section and won't be expected to be competitive.
1) St. Cloud Apollo: The defending section champs coming off a fourth place finish at the tourney last year sit at the top of my rankings. The Eagles return all tournament team defenseman Tanner Breidenbach who will lead the D core. The loss of Ewing on the back end will test this teams depth. They also return Lucia and Bissett, two of their top scorers from last season and they got Michael Behl a transfer from Wadena who had solid numbers last season. Also they Return arguably the best goalie in the section in Althaus. I expect this teams stifling defense and timely scoring to lead them back to the X next March.
2) St. Cloud Cathedral: Last seasons runner ups return the majority of their forwards however their back end could end up being their Achilles heel. Connor Beltz transfers from River lakes to help bolster the grip up front. Questions arise in goal after the graduation of Fritz. Will it be Dehler, Levinski, or Karki who takes over between the pipes? Only time will tell. Can this team get back the senior leadership and cohesiveness it missed last year? If Cornelius and Hershfeld can nail down the back end and receive some solid goal tending this team could be making their way back to St. Paul.
3) Fergus Falls: After suffering a heartbreaking 2OT loss to Cathedral in the semifinals last year the Otters will look to bounce back. The story is nearly the same for Fergus as it was for Cathedral, they return strong forwards up front, particularly their entire first line of Tarczon, Johnson, and Nathe. However again their biggest question is in goal as well. After the graduation of MacFarlane they return no goaltenders so we will probably see an inexperienced bantam or else a transfer. This team has the firepower to make it to the X but can their goaltending hold up?
4) Alexandria: The number one seed from last years section playoffs will look to bounce back after the loss of 15 seniors from last years team. The Cardinals lose their top 5 scorers from a year ago and lose their starting goaltender as well. I'm picking the Cards here based off of a gut feeling that their typically good bantam program will infuse this lineup with some talent.
5) St. Cloud Tech: Tech opted down into Class A this year and could be poised to take a big step, but maybe not this year quite yet. The Tigers get almost all of the Bantam AA team players to mix together with veterans Woodman and Mendel. This teams young talent can take them a long ways and could easily shoot them up my rankings if they can gel with the returning players. The biggest question mark for this team is their D core. Will this team be able to outscore it's opponents?
6) Sartell: In my open the last of the contenders in the section, the Sabres gave Apollo their closest and toughest game of the playoffs last year. However, this team loses Spencer Zweiner who was far and away the best player on this team and their leader. They do return some depth scoring from last year that will need to step up this year. And the common theme amongst this section applies to the Sabres as well, can they get goaltending? The only returning goaltender on this team has no varsity experience at all and will need to fill some big shoes.
7) Little Falls: The Flyers return 3 of their top 4 scorers from last year and can certainly put up some goals. However with the graduation of Spandl in net who already had poor numbers, the goaltending problem doesn't appear to be headed anywhere better. This team did beat Catherdral in the regular season last year but got spanked by them in the quarterfinals, perhaps they just got lucky to beat them or maybe they will be able to pull off an upset or two come playoffs.
8) River Lakes: The stars lose their goaltender to graduation and lost their best player in Beltz to Cathedral. If they can overcome those two significant losses they might be able to climb a spot or two in my rankings but they won't be making much of any noise come section playoffs.
9) Prairie Center) Not a whole lot of excitement going around for the Stars. They will more than likely be in a play-in game come playoffs, and if they make it through that they won't be much competition for anyone but crazier things have happened.
10) Wadena Deer-Creek: The Wolverines lost their best player in Behl to Apollo, and don't have a whole lot left over. They'll aim to get in a win on the play-in round.
11) Breckenridge: Not much to be said about Breckenridge, they don't play any top teams in the section and won't be expected to be competitive.
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I'm saying that pretty much any team could have won this section last year and LF brings back quite a bit. Add in a pretty darn good A Bantam team (was there a better public Bantam team in this group..?) and I see a top contender. Goaltending might be a question mark, like was brought up.lovethisgame wrote:So you saying little falls being a contender was being serious???MrBoDangles wrote:As we laugh at your every post...Goldy Gopher wrote:
You never know what Cathedral has until they hit the ice, so they could be a roadblock for all the teams.
Do you see a "walk a way" winner this year?
There isn't any walk away winner this year but I can guarantee you little falls won't get higher than a 6 seed. They're bantam A team was ranked 18th on Let's Play Hockey's final rankings, but that means there's 17 bantam A teams that are better on top of the Bantam AA teams. St. Cloud, Alex, and Sartell all still had higher ranked youth teams. I hate to break it to you but the Flyers are not contenders this year.MrBoDangles wrote:I'm saying that pretty much any team could have won this section last year and LF brings back quite a bit. Add in a pretty darn good A Bantam team (was there a better public Bantam team in this group..?) and I see a top contender. Goaltending might be a question mark, like was brought up.lovethisgame wrote:So you saying little falls being a contender was being serious???MrBoDangles wrote: As we laugh at your every post...
You never know what Cathedral has until they hit the ice, so they could be a roadblock for all the teams.
Do you see a "walk a way" winner this year?
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I said that their bantam team was probably the best out of the public programs in this section.. Check their head to head scores on YHH against the other programs. St Cloud feeds a few HS programs with their Bantams so hard to call who got what..CornerBar wrote:There isn't any walk away winner this year but I can guarantee you little falls won't get higher than a 6 seed. They're bantam A team was ranked 18th on Let's Play Hockey's final rankings, but that means there's 17 bantam A teams that are better on top of the Bantam AA teams. St. Cloud, Alex, and Sartell all still had higher ranked youth teams. I hate to break it to you but the Flyers are not contenders this year.MrBoDangles wrote:I'm saying that pretty much any team could have won this section last year and LF brings back quite a bit. Add in a pretty darn good A Bantam team (was there a better public Bantam team in this group..?) and I see a top contender. Goaltending might be a question mark, like was brought up.lovethisgame wrote: So you saying little falls being a contender was being serious???
You never know what Cathedral has until they hit the ice, so they could be a roadblock for all the teams.
Do you see a "walk a way" winner this year?
Guarantee?
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Even with the three schools in St. Cloud Little Falls still is not better than Sartell, Fergus, or Alex. And the bantams that move up to high school will be playing against kids 2-3 years older than them who have played at the high school level for awhile. I'm not saying the Flyers won't be good. But they just aren't contenders this year.MrBoDangles wrote:I said that their bantam team was probably the best out of the public programs in this section.. Check their head to head scores on YHH against the other programs. St Cloud feeds a few HS programs with their Bantams so hard to call who got what..CornerBar wrote:There isn't any walk away winner this year but I can guarantee you little falls won't get higher than a 6 seed. They're bantam A team was ranked 18th on Let's Play Hockey's final rankings, but that means there's 17 bantam A teams that are better on top of the Bantam AA teams. St. Cloud, Alex, and Sartell all still had higher ranked youth teams. I hate to break it to you but the Flyers are not contenders this year.MrBoDangles wrote: I'm saying that pretty much any team could have won this section last year and LF brings back quite a bit. Add in a pretty darn good A Bantam team (was there a better public Bantam team in this group..?) and I see a top contender. Goaltending might be a question mark, like was brought up.
You never know what Cathedral has until they hit the ice, so they could be a roadblock for all the teams.
Do you see a "walk a way" winner this year?
Guarantee?
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Sounds good.. Just my pick, but see a few+ teams being tight at the end. Should be fun section to follow this year.CornerBar wrote:Even with the three schools in St. Cloud Little Falls still is not better than Sartell, Fergus, or Alex. And the bantams that move up to high school will be playing against kids 2-3 years older than them who have played at the high school level for awhile. I'm not saying the Flyers won't be good. But they just aren't contenders this year.MrBoDangles wrote:I said that their bantam team was probably the best out of the public programs in this section.. Check their head to head scores on YHH against the other programs. St Cloud feeds a few HS programs with their Bantams so hard to call who got what..CornerBar wrote: There isn't any walk away winner this year but I can guarantee you little falls won't get higher than a 6 seed. They're bantam A team was ranked 18th on Let's Play Hockey's final rankings, but that means there's 17 bantam A teams that are better on top of the Bantam AA teams. St. Cloud, Alex, and Sartell all still had higher ranked youth teams. I hate to break it to you but the Flyers are not contenders this year.
Guarantee?
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My program is about 70 miles from LF.. Liked seeing the rekindled old flames with you and mite dad though. How wrong you were about Hanowski's talent level... Memories..Goldy Gopher wrote:Just here to entertain you and everyone else who sees the world through purple glasses.MrBoDangles wrote:As we laugh at your every post...Goldy Gopher wrote:
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I'm glad I could leave a lasting impression.MrBoDangles wrote:My program is about 70 miles from LF.. Liked seeing the rekindled old flames with you and mite dad though. How wrong you were about Hanowski's talent level... Memories..Goldy Gopher wrote:Just here to entertain you and everyone else who sees the world through purple glasses.MrBoDangles wrote: As we laugh at your every post...
The U invented swagger.
Easy now, I thought Goldy Goofer knew all!MrBoDangles wrote:My program is about 70 miles from LF.. Liked seeing the rekindled old flames with you and mite dad though. How wrong you were about Hanowski's talent level... Memories..Goldy Gopher wrote:Just here to entertain you and everyone else who sees the world through purple glasses.MrBoDangles wrote: As we laugh at your every post...