Games of the Night

[girlshockey4ever]

In some attempt to get people back on here.....

Apple Valley vs Eastview- Battle of who will rival Lakeville North for 3AA state birth. Moran vs pesky and well coached Eastview

Edina vs Hill Murray- Is Hill Murray the real deal or a group of high-flying upstarts? Edina will be disciplined and methodical. Should be a good game

Holy Family vs Eden Prairie- EP has gotten some traction as of late. Holy family coming off two typical losses against ranked teams. They seem to beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and lose to anyone ranked in the top 10. Both teams fighting for the #2 spot in the section.

Blaine vs Eastridge- Should be a great game of even teams.

Holy Angels vs Mound/West Tonka- I know nothing of these teams, but it'll be a good game.

[InThePipes]

Thanks for your effort and nicely done!

[Sparlimb]

HM wins a close one 2-1. Edina outshot them 29-22, so I assume it was very even. I wasn't able to watch. They see each other at least once more, so Edina will have a chance to exact some revenge.

Edit: Guess they don't have a second scheduled game. Hill plays Tonka, Andover and Holy Family twice. Not sure what the XMAS tournaments are...

[girlshockey4ever]

Well the games of the night did not disappoint!

Apple Valley vs Eastview- 2-1. Great game

Edina vs Hill Murray- 2-1 Great game. Will be interesting to see how Hill does against Tonka in a week or so.


Holy Family vs Eden Prairie- Well perhaps EP has more traction that people thought or maybe once again Holy Family can't get things on track. Maybe if their coach stopped yelling at the refs for few minutes and coached his team they could be better.

Blaine vs Eastridge- 2-1 As mentioned pretty similar teams.

Holy Angels vs Mound/West Tonka-5-2 Holy Angels. Not sure how good HA is. Time will tell but they only have BSM and Hill on their schedule so we won't get a good look for a while.

[slacsap]

HM wins a close one 2-1. Edina outshot them 29-22, so I assume it was very even. I wasn't able to watch. They see each other at least once more, so Edina will have a chance to exact some revenge.

Edit: Guess they don't have a second scheduled game. Hill plays Tonka, Andover and Holy Family twice. Not sure what the XMAS tournaments are...

HM is the real deal. They're deep, balanced and very fast. Grace Zhan is as good as any goalie in the state. A potential problem for them is their lack of size. If referees allow a team to play more physically against them they could struggle.

[girlshockey4ever]

Tuesday Match Ups to watch:

Centennial/SLP vs Andover. First, how is that combo allowed to happen. Combined they have 2900 students making them the 4th largest school in the state. Silliness. Anyway, this is pretty interesting as Centennial has recieved some talk from the "experts." A tie with Rosemount doesn't look good but a big win against Rogers is nice. Andover will win 6-1

Prior Lake vs Eden Prairie- While not major power houses, EP has shown they can skate with above average teams. A tie with Holy Family has big section implications especially if Holy Family continues to not be able to beat any teams of note. Prior lake hasn't had a strong showing but look for a close game. EP wins 4-2

BSM vs Edina- Monster match up to determine a possible #1 in the section. Edina wins 3-2

Orono vs Northfield- Nice little battle here. Orono with all the pressure they have received has bounced back from a first game loss with several wins. Northfield has Puppe but it's not enough. Orono wins 5-2

Maple Grove vs Champlin Park/Coon Rapids. Another silly combo. Anyway big game on the North side. Maple Grove wins 4-1 bringing Champlin Park back to reality.

HIll Murray vs Stillwater- Boreen vs St. Martin. How will HM freshman handle the physical play that Stillwater brings. Both teams like to run two lines most of the game. Look for lots of scoring in the latter half of the game. I'm calling upset at the Pony barn. Stillwater wins 3-2

Fun game of the day: What will be Minnetonka's shot total be against Conference opponent Buffalo?

[bodyup88]

Some very good matchups tonight. I’ll predict a CP/CR upset over the Crimson and a Hill win by at least three. Coaching, team play and goaltending favor the Pioneers

[Eagles93]

First, how is that combo allowed to happen.
Another silly combo.

Not to detract from the point of the thread, but co-ops are very prevalent in girls hockey. And, in pretty much every case, for the better. Many co-ops are for different reasons of course, but I think (hope) we're going to start seeing more and more in the years to come. Below is the list of high school enrollments with the combined enrollment of co-ops mixed in:

Champlin Park/Coon Rapids 4185
Metro-South 3707
Centennial/Spring Lake Park 3382
Minnetonka 3348
Wayzata 3321
St. Paul/Two Rivers 3318
North Wright County 3248
Osseo/Park Center 3156
Mounds View/Irondale 3143
Roseville/Mahtomedi 2958
Hopkins/Park 2905
Rochester Century/JM 2786
Chaska/Chanhassen 2702
Prior Lake 2655
Robbinsdale Armstrong/Cooper 2641
Blaine 2535
Edina 2506
North/Tartan 2481
Eden Prairie 2479
Stillwater 2441
Princeton/Big Lake/Becker 2440
Shakopee 2354
Brainerd/Little Falls 2237
Rosemount 2224
White Bear Lake 2181
Maple Grove 2132
Eastview 2049
Farmington 2011
Anoka 1986
Eagan 1973
East Ridge 1901
Roseville 1879
Woodbury 1811
Lakeville South 1725
Lakeville North 1694

I don't see many of these co-ops playing for a trip to the X in February. And in most cases it's not like girls are losing an opportunity to play high school hockey because of the merge, they need both schools to field a team. For competitive reasons, more schools should consider it.

Back to the topic, tonight has some great games on the schedule. I'll go with:
Centennial/Andover 2-2
EP 3-0
Edina 3-1
MG 2-1
Hill 3-1

[Sparlimb]

HM v Stillwater in case any one wants to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixhp-EkH6PI

1-0 HM early in the first.

Stillwater announcers are unaware that it is not Darwitz and Bobrowski behind the bench.

2-0 HM with 10 left in period 1.

Stillwater found their legs late and had some chances, but 1st ends 2-0.

HM too much. 4-0 final. Stillwater played well enough for me to see this being a 3-2 Section final though. They had their chances, just couldn't bury anything.

[girlshockey4ever]

By being in favor of more co-ops would it signal the death of girls hockey in the long run? If youth programs know that they can just co-op later down the road they will not be forced to recruit young girls in the community. Youth boards are heavily invested in boys hockey and recruitment of girls goes by the way side. If you have 2000 kids in your high school you need to develop the youth programs. If we keep allowing co-ops there will be 30 teams left in AA in a few short years. While I agree it's great for the girls because it makes it more competitive, but overall numbers will decrease. I'm not in favor of a co-op at all. And when does it end? Can the Lakeville's co-op? If they do they would win state championships. Can Rosemount and AVHS co-op? Again, that would be a powerhouse. Cottage and Woodbury? Eden Prairie and Prior Lake? Where does it stop?

Anyway, back to the thread at hand.

Nice little Tuesday:
Andover ties Centennial, and yes I wrote it like that. Andover had to come back to tie it. Nice work by Centennial goalie and an even better call was the 2-2 prediction.
Edina loses two in a row! BSM beats them 5-2
Hill beats Stillwater. Saturday vs Tonka will be fun.

[Sparlimb]

By being in favor of more co-ops would it signal the death of girls hockey in the long run? If youth programs know that they can just co-op later down the road they will not be forced to recruit young girls in the community. Youth boards are heavily invested in boys hockey and recruitment of girls goes by the way side. If you have 2000 kids in your high school you need to develop the youth programs. If we keep allowing co-ops there will be 30 teams left in AA in a few short years. While I agree it's great for the girls because it makes it more competitive, but overall numbers will decrease. I'm not in favor of a co-op at all. And when does it end? Can the Lakeville's co-op? If they do they would win state championships. Can Rosemount and AVHS co-op? Again, that would be a powerhouse. Cottage and Woodbury? Eden Prairie and Prior Lake? Where does it stop?

Anyway, back to the thread at hand.

Nice little Tuesday:
Andover ties Centennial, and yes I wrote it like that. Andover had to come back to tie it. Nice work by Centennial goalie and an even better call was the 2-2 prediction.
Edina loses two in a row! BSM beats them 5-2
Hill beats Stillwater. Saturday vs Tonka will be fun.

Certainly not in favor of more co-ops. The scary thing when I see Coon Rapids and Champlin is that these are communities that can field full teams. When we see the growing suburbs still doing co-ops, what's going on with the rest of the state. I'm afraid we've already seen the max teams MN will ever field in girls hockey. I hope I'm wrong.

[Eagles93]

Fun discussion. Sadly, I think the bell signaling the death of community-based girls high school hockey has been ringing for awhile. I favor more co-ops because the logical thing to "fix" girls hockey - strengthening and enforcing transfer rules - will never happen. So rather than wondering who wins for the next several years between Tonka and Andover (or other organized destination "teams" like the BS with Gentry), co-ops could help level the playing field. And more importantly, maybe a more competitive home co-op team helps convince a girl to stay rather than feeling like she needs to go to the powerhouse across town to get "noticed".

Many youth girls associations co-op like Chaska/Chan, Lakeville, Woodbury, OMG, Champlin/C Rapids, Centennial/SLP, AV/Burnsville/Eastview, Roseville/Mahtomedi, Eagan/IGH, Anoka/Rogers. Some of them still co-op at the high school level, why don't they all? For instance, why would Lakeville North/South or East Ridge/Woodbury being a combined team of girls from the same community be a bad thing? If it's an enrollment thing (which to me is pretty much irrelevant in this day and age) those school's combined enrollments are the same size as Minnetonka.

As for Champlin/Coon Rapids, I'm skeptical that they could have separate teams as they've had one 12A and one 12B team the last few years in their co-op youth association. But let's say they could field two teams, including Varsity and JV, they would obviously be a lot worse. Now, as a co-op, they are fairly competitive each year, right around .500 each season. Splitting them up would likely mean more games similar to what Buffalo experienced last night against Tonka.

[Sparlimb]

Fun discussion. Sadly, I think the bell signaling the death of community-based girls high school hockey has been ringing for awhile. I favor more co-ops because the logical thing to "fix" girls hockey - strengthening and enforcing transfer rules - will never happen. So rather than wondering who wins for the next several years between Tonka and Andover (or other organized destination "teams" like the BS with Gentry), co-ops could help level the playing field. And more importantly, maybe a more competitive home co-op team helps convince a girl to stay rather than feeling like she needs to go to the powerhouse across town to get "noticed".

Many youth girls associations co-op like Chaska/Chan, Lakeville, Woodbury, OMG, Champlin/C Rapids, Centennial/SLP, AV/Burnsville/Eastview, Roseville/Mahtomedi, Eagan/IGH, Anoka/Rogers. Some of them still co-op at the high school level, why don't they all? For instance, why would Lakeville North/South or East Ridge/Woodbury being a combined team of girls from the same community be a bad thing? If it's an enrollment thing (which to me is pretty much irrelevant in this day and age) those school's combined enrollments are the same size as Minnetonka.

As for Champlin/Coon Rapids, I'm skeptical that they could have separate teams as they've had one 12A and one 12B team the last few years in their co-op youth association. But let's say they could field two teams, including Varsity and JV, they would obviously be a lot worse. Now, as a co-op, they are fairly competitive each year, right around .500 each season. Splitting them up would likely mean more games similar to what Buffalo experienced last night against Tonka.

So I suppose I see your side of it too. Its a question of what you want. More teams, or more competitive teams. I only argued Champlin and Coon Rapids because they both field boys teams with no co-op. And if you can field boys teams, you could field girls teams. I have no clue what's happening at a youth level. I am afraid of turning the state into 16 AA teams that play a tourney every year to pick the best.

[hockeyfan74]

Demographics have to play a roll as well. Not just as simple as total enrollment. Mpls has how many public schools combined into 1 team. St. Paul/Sibley brings all the public schools in St. Paul together with Sibley. My guess is total enrollment is pretty large (much higher than the number stated above) for both programs but that doesn't tell the whole story.

Champlin Park/Coon Rapids has just enough for a Varsity / JV and one U15B team. I believe the high school is split pretty much 50 / 50 so neither would be able to have their own V & JV. Could maybe field 1 team each.

I am also guessing that the Coon Rapids boys will be a co-op in the near future. I think they have 17 seniors on the team this year and not huge numbers coming up.

Great discussion but we need to look at a lot more than enrollment in my opinion.

[Well Driller]

A few interesting games tonight:

NWC vs. EP
PL vs. Farmington
Shakopee vs. LV North
GR/Greenway vs. Proctor Hermantown
CP/CR vs. Roseville/Mahtomedi
Edina vs. Wayzata

Predications?

[girlshockey4ever]

Good call. I've been busy today so didn't get to the games of the night.

NWC vs. EP- EP 3-1
PL vs. Farmington- Tigers 4-0
Shakopee vs. LV North- North 6-0
GR/Greenway vs. Proctor Hermantown- Hair-man-town 4-2
CP/CR vs. Roseville/Mahtomedi- CP/CR/CPR/ABC/EFG- 4-1
Edina vs. Wayzata- Edina 5-1

[Eagles93]

St. Paul/Sibley brings all the public schools in St. Paul together with Sibley. My guess is total enrollment is pretty large (much higher than the number stated above) for both programs but that doesn't tell the whole story.

You are correct, I forgot to include Highland's enrollment in the math, so this is the largest school/co-op on the list at 4,448! For socioeconomic reasons, I'd have no problem with the largest enrollment playing in class A, further showing that enrollment means very little.

NWC vs. EP - Intriguing, NWC with a nice win over previously unbeaten Dodge County, EP 3-1
PL vs. Farmington - Not very intriguing, Farmington 5-1
Shakopee vs. LV North - Shakopee struggling this year, North rolling, North 8-1
GR/Greenway vs. Proctor Hermantown - co-ops! GR/Greenway 4-3 in OT
CP/CR vs. Roseville/Mahtomedi - Since co-ops would fix everything , of course it'll be a competitive 3-3 tie
Edina vs. Wayzata - Edina gets much needed win to stop the slide, 5-0

[girlshockey4ever]

Saturday Games to watch.

1. Hill Murray at Tonka- The game of the season up to this point. Tonka has already defended their #1 rank against then #2 Andover. Can they do it again? I say yes. 3-1 Tonka

2. Moorhead at Elk River- I know I know, should be a blow out, but the Elks are pesky so I think it's a game to watch. 5-3 Spuds

3. Edina at NWC- Who knows? Can NWC win two in a row in the Lake? No they cannot. 4-1 Edina

[raidergrad72]

Good call. I've been busy today so didn't get to the games of the night.

NWC vs. EP- EP 3-1
PL vs. Farmington- Tigers 4-0
Shakopee vs. LV North- North 6-0
GR/Greenway vs. Proctor Hermantown- Hair-man-town 4-2
CP/CR vs. Roseville/Mahtomedi- CP/CR/CPR/ABC/EFG- 4-1
Edina vs. Wayzata- Edina 5-1

If your last numbers is the predicted final score, my girls at Grand Rapids-Greenway ended up 2-1 winners. Winner scored by Debay on a shorthanded breakaway.

[Well Driller]

These should be very good games:

HM 3-1
Moorhead 3-1
Edina 5-1

[Sparlimb]

HM takes out Tonka 5-3 (at least that's what the hub says at the moment). I saw YHH said it was 4-3 after 2 and HM was leading in shots 22-20. These two do get to play again in the regular season and I'm flying in to see it (and a grandson's 1st bday to boot). Glad to see the Hill girls compete and overcome the team many said they expected to go undefeated.

[girlshockey4ever]

Pretty casual Tuesday. Nothing big to get excited about but I tried.

Moorhead vs Roseau- Rams have some close games. Moorhead coming off a hot weekend. Can the young rams stomp the spuds? No. 5-1 Spuds

Andover vs Rogers- Andover will crush.

Edina vs EP- Edina will win, but I think EP can keep this close. I haven't seen them, but they have been a surprise this year to date.

Tonka vs NWC- How does Tonka respond after losing to HM? I bet angry. 6-0 Tonka

Alex vs Willmar- Cardinals win.

[headsupsticksdown]

Edina Beats EP 3-0. Despite Edina dominating puck possession and shots on net, I thought the Eagles put up a valiant effort against a very fast and talented Edina team…

[girlshockey4ever]

I'm liking EP scores. They might even eek out a #2 in that section over HF. Time will tell. Nice to see another team be competitive in section 2AA

Monster game tonight and the only game in town. Edina vs Maple Grove. Both teams have hopes of a state tournament birth and my guess is both will get there. That's right I said it. Either way Edina wins tonight 3-2 with 2 pp goals.

[Well Driller]

Some interesting games tonight:

Orono vs. NWC
Lakeville N vs. Lakeville S
Andover vs. BSM
Fergus Falls vs. Brainerd/Little Falls

My predictions:

Orono 3-1
LN - 4-1
BSM - 3-1
B/LF - 4-2