White Bear/Woodbury

[inthetwine]

The Bears struggled with The Royals in both regular season games this year. Can the 3rd game be a charm for Woodbury?

[greenwayraider]

White Bear always seems vulnerable to an upset. I’ve seen two of the biggest ones. One against against Mounds View when Bonin played and the infamous loss to St. Paul Johnson when the led 5-2 in the third period. Not counting the losses to Hill-Murray when the Bears were seeded first. I hope this year they make it to the X and they break the first round jinx.

[Wblhcky2424]

This is the matchup that has scared me the most, for whatever reason the Bears have had trouble figuring out how to beat Royals goaltending, Royals goalie Josh Davis is the key in this game. Hopefully the Bears can put some goals in early and get their confidence up and keep the foot on the pedal the whole game or I can definitely see an upset. Like greenwayraider said, we've seen weird upsets happen to WBL before, will never forget being in the student section watching that Johnson comeback aka the Jay Dickman show, still can't believe it happened. I won't be able to make it to the game due to work but i'll nervously be refreshing Twitter.

[greenwayraider]

I went to lots of Sectional games when I lived in the Cities and no others came close to the wild atmosphere of the Section finals between White Bear Lake/Hill-Murray and the Johnson/Hill-Murray. There might have been better teams in other Section Finals but the atmosphere didn’t compare.

[East Side Pioneer Guy]

Yup, I don't think anyone would be shocked to see WB lose this one. Surprised maybe, but not shocked.

There can be a lot of psychology to sports, especially in high school sports (I think). It's pretty easy to look past an opponent you've already bested twice. I wonder how much high school coaches stress this in certain situations.

I think it was '89 or '90, WB upset Hill in the semis, and there was a similar upset the same night in another section. The next night, Johnson got upset. The Johnson coach (Kendig) told the PiPress reporter afterward that he didn't think he needed to warn his players about getting upset, reasoning that they saw what happened to two good teams the night before. Duh! They're a bunch of 16 year-olds. They all think they're 10' tall and bullet proof.

It's a good thing I was a younger man when for those great HM-WB & HM-Johnson section games. You could cut the tension with a knife, with each half of the arena living and dying with every play. I think I'd needs meds to get through that now.

[SEC Scotty]

Bears by 3.

[inthetwine]

I hate to say it, but Woodbury in ot.