Class A Rankings 1-15-17

[HShockeywatcher]

Hermantown beat Delano, Delano beat Breck, Breck beat SPA, SPA beat Mahtomedi and Cathedral, Cathedral and EGF have tied, EGF and Mahtomedi both beat Totino close, Sartell beat Alex by 1, Alex beat both Greenway and Hibbing by 1, Greenway beat Hibbing in the more recent meeting. The top 12 is quite linear and there is it in a nut shell.
There have been many games that could've broken this mold, but things have really fallen into place as the season has gone on.

Enjoy!

1. [1] Hermantown (12-1-1)
It looks like the Hawks are probably a Top 5 team in the state; they crushed Greenway, Cathedral and Denfeld and won a 1 goal home game over Grand Rapids that they were never behind in. They won't play Breck, SPA or EGF until possible matchups at state, but they are dominant in all the opponents they have.
WBL and STMA on the road this week and only Proctor on the road next week.

2. [2] Delano/Rockford (11-2-1)
The Tigers got crushed by Holy Family but turned around and beat Wayzata, a team Hermantown lost to in their opening game of the season. The crushing defeat is odd, but everything else looks good. The only game on their remaining schedule that isn't a Wright County game is against Cathedral.

3. [3] Breck (9-3-2)
Three wins against quality Class A teams and a tie with Moorhead for the Mustangs over the last two weeks. Blake, SPA and Cathedral all on the road in the next two weeks. Games that are important to win for state seeding if they can get by Delano.

4. [4] St. Paul Academy (11-2-0)
The Spartans picked up a 1 goal road loss to Breck and crushed the rest of their opponents. Their next two games are against Minnehaha Academy and St Paul Johnson, two section opponents who each great records and would love to get a high section seed.

5. [10] Mahtomedi (8-6-0)
3-1 in the last 2 weeks with wins over STA, Totino and Blake and the loss to a Hill they previously lost to by 1. In the conference, the STA win mainly is a blow to STA but is huge to give them a quality win. With their schedule and results it's difficult to tell where they should be, but this seems to show the opening game is a pretty good indicator after all. They are 5-1 against Class A teams this season, but SPA and Blake are the only teams of note in those 6.

6. [5] St. Cloud Cathedral (11-2-2)
The difference between Cathedral and East Grand Forks is really a coin flip at this point. The majority of their early games have been the easier games. In their last 10 games, they play Sartell, Delano, Breck, Blake, Thief River Falls, St Cloud, Mahtomedi and Monticello. In the coming weeks they will solidify where they should be ranked.

7. [6] East Grand Forks (6-1-1)
The recent losses to ND are hard to measure and know what they mean. 2 Class A games in their next 6, they have the opporunity solidify top of the section against TRF and maintain ranking with beating Hibbing and some of their other opponents.

8. [-] Totino-Grace (7-8-0)
The Eagles have played 3 games against Class A teams this year and are 1-2 in those games. The two losses, however, are by 1 to EGF and by 2 to Mahtomedi. They are 5-1 in their last 6 games as well. Breck is their only remaining Class A team on their schedule, who they play to close out the season. With their much changed schedule from a couple years ago they are playing 4 Class A teams the entire season, but they are doing well in conference play and should be well prepared for the postseason.

9. [12] Sartell (10-2-3)
The Sabres picked up a win over Alexandria on the road then got crushed by Bemidji. They control their own destiny in section seeding and a win over Cathedral this week would go a long way.

10. [7] Alexandria (7-4-3)
The Cardinals pick up a loss to Sartell, which is huge for section standings. The next couple weeks have games they should win along with Bemidji.

11. [8] Greenway (10-3-1)
The Raiders had 2 games cancelled recently and have this coming week off of games. How will they do in Grand Rapids next week?

12. [9] Hibbing/Chisholm (10-4-0)
The Bluejackets picked up 3 road wins in the last 2 weeks. Can they compete with Grand Rapids on the road? Their next weeks weeks are packed with 6 games, 4 on the road; EGF, Denfeld, Warroad and TRF are in Class A. How many wins can they pick up?

13. [11] Minnehaha Academy (13-2-0)
The Redhawks were shut out by Breck, which tells us they aren't a top 5 team and little more. This week they host SPA and next week host St Paul Johnson. Can they compete in 4A?

14. [13] Northfield (10-3-2)
The Raiders haven't lost a game to a section 1 team in either class this season. Their remaining 10 games are all against 1A or 1AA teams; can they win the last 10?

15. [-] Little Falls (10-5)
The Fliers had won 9 in a row before losing to Cathedral on Thursday and then Sartell Saturday. They should get a good number of wins the rest of the way through their schedule, but it doesn't appear they'll be higher than the 4 seed in their section.

Teams to watch

[15] St Paul Johnson (10-2-2)
The Governors play SPA and Minnehaha Academy over the next two weeks. Their seed should be much easier to tell at that point.

[13] Rochester Lourdes (7-7-0)
The Eagles lost by 2 to SPA on the road. Their schedule isn't super impressive but knowing that 3 of their 4 Class A losses are to Breck, Cathedral and SPA puts it in better perspective.

Orono (8-5-0)
The Spartans have recent close losses to Delano and Breck, but their only quality win is over Blake by 1 and they have some early questionable losses.

Blake (9-5-0)
The Bears' only "quality win" outside of the Bronze Cup is over TRF.

[BP]

Always a fun read, thanks for your efforts. That said, I don't think yiu can have Totino at 8. They lost to weak AA teams in Champlin, Anoka, and Armstrong and barely beat one of the worst AA teams - Coon Rapids 2-1. I think they should be in that 15-16 range. No impressive wins on their resume to date.

[HShockeywatcher]

Always a fun read, thanks for your efforts. That said, I don't think yiu can have Totino at 8. They lost to weak AA teams in Champlin, Anoka, and Armstrong and barely beat one of the worst AA teams - Coon Rapids 2-1. I think they should be in that 15-16 range. No impressive wins on their resume to date.

I think "strong in AA" and "strong in class A" are very different. PageStat, for example, has 1 Class A team in the top 15, 3 in the top 20 and 5 in the top 30. I had taken note of them after the 1 goal loss to EGF and 4-1 beating of TRF, then dismissed them after they lost a bunch of games, but now have noticed how they are doing recently and keeping in mind who they were losing to is important. They are 5-1-1 in their last 7 games, with the game prior to that a 1 goal loss to an 11-3 Maple Grove team, and seem to have improved since the beginning of the season.
Where to put them with so few data points is tough to say; it would be nice if all of their non-conference games were against Class A teams...oh well.

[BP]

Always a fun read, thanks for your efforts. That said, I don't think yiu can have Totino at 8. They lost to weak AA teams in Champlin, Anoka, and Armstrong and barely beat one of the worst AA teams - Coon Rapids 2-1. I think they should be in that 15-16 range. No impressive wins on their resume to date.

I think "strong in AA" and "strong in class A" are very different. PageStat, for example, has 1 Class A team in the top 15, 3 in the top 20 and 5 in the top 30. I had taken note of them after the 1 goal loss to EGF and 4-1 beating of TRF, then dismissed them after they lost a bunch of games, but now have noticed how they are doing recently and keeping in mind who they were losing to is important. They are 5-1-1 in their last 7 games, with the game prior to that a 1 goal loss to an 11-3 Maple Grove team, and seem to have improved since the beginning of the season.
Where to put them with so few data points is tough to say; it would be nice if all of their non-conference games were against Class A teams...oh well.

I see what you are saying, but they have zero good wins. TRF isn't good this year, so that doesn't work. You can take AA and A out of it, but the teams they've lost to aren't very good, even if they were in A. And one goal losses....are still losses. And they aren't even .500. Can't be in Top with a sub .500 record.

[HShockeywatcher]

I see what you are saying, but they have zero good wins. TRF isn't good this year, so that doesn't work. You can take AA and A out of it, but the teams they've lost to aren't very good, even if they were in A. And one goal losses....are still losses. And they aren't even .500. Can't be in Top with a sub .500 record.

I would've agreed with you about TRF before today, but they are stopping Mahtomedi from making this game ugly. They have also played 3 of the 5 top teams in Class A, plus a 14-1 Chippewa Falls WI team. Having TG ranked now makes all of their losses make a lot more sense. It'll be interesting to see how their game with EGF goes this week.

Delano picks up a road win over a Wayzata team that beat Hermantown to open the season...

Cathedral crushing Sartell earlier this week...

[HShockeywatcher]

For reference, this is the Top 75 of the PageStat rankings as of this past Tuesday.

1 - 2 HERMANTOWN
2 - 17 ST PAUL ACADEMY
3 - 19 BRECK
4 - 21 DELANO
5 - 30 MAHTOMEDI
6 - 35 EAST GRAND FORKS
7 - 36 ST CLOUD CATHEDRAL
8 - 40 ST PAUL JOHNSON
9 - 42 HIBBING
10-45 ORONO
11-46 ALEXANDRIA
12-47 SARTELL
13-48 MINNEHAHA ACADEMY
14-58 GREENWAY
15-63 BLAKE
16-64 ROCHESTER LOURDES
17-65 WARROAD
18-68 TOTINO GRACE
19-69 MOUND WESTONKA
20-70 MINNEAPOLIS
21-71 THIEF RIVER FALLS
22-72 MONTICELLO
23-74 NORTHFIELD
24-75 FERGUS FALLS

[HShockeywatcher]

It's hard to think that if I were to come out with another ranking this week it wouldn't be literally the same as last week. I could probably be convinced that I had Totino too high last week, but other than that, there haven't been any upsets or anything to make note for big movers.

Some important scores from yesterday...

3 Mahtomedi
0 TRF

5 Northfield
4 Albert Lea

4 EGF
3 Hibbing

5 Hermantown
1 St Michael

6 Cathedral
4 Blake

5 Greenway
1 Lourdes

3 Johnson
1 Minneapolis

5 Totino
2 Champlin

Anything I'm missing? Any teams I should be making note of?

[Mite-dad]

Little Falls 4
Roch Lourdes 2

[zamboniexhaustinhaler]

I see what you are saying, but they have zero good wins. TRF isn't good this year, so that doesn't work. You can take AA and A out of it, but the teams they've lost to aren't very good, even if they were in A. And one goal losses....are still losses. And they aren't even .500. Can't be in Top with a sub .500 record.

I would've agreed with you about TRF before today, but they are stopping Mahtomedi from making this game ugly. They have also played 3 of the 5 top teams in Class A, plus a 14-1 Chippewa Falls WI team. Having TG ranked now makes all of their losses make a lot more sense. It'll be interesting to see how their game with EGF goes this week.

Delano picks up a road win over a Wayzata team that beat Hermantown to open the season...

Cathedral crushing Sartell earlier this week...

He's right; TRF is an average team at best. Their goalie is their strength though, which isn't a bad thing.

And comparing Wisconsin hs hockey to Mn hs hockey is apples/oranges.

I saw that CF team play; they were not a good team by any means, and wouldn't be 14-1 anywhere in Minnesota.

[karl(east)]

PS2 Class A top 25, just for reference:

1. Hermantown
2. St. Paul Academy
3. Breck
4. Delano
5. East Grand Forks
6. Mahtomedi
7. St. Cloud Cathedral
8. Orono
9. St. Paul Johnson
10. Alexandria
11. Sartell
12. Hibbing
13. Greenway
14. Minnehaha Academy
15. Totino-Grace
16. Blake
17. Warroad
18. Minneapolis
19. Thief River Falls
20. Rochester Lourdes
21. Monticello
22. Fergus Falls
23. Mound Westonka
24. Northfield
25. Luverne

Teams from every section sneaking in there at the very end.