Big 9

[EaglehockeyI]

West will win the Big 9. Just finished watching them demolish Owatonna. They have the best line in the conference hands down. Have yet to see AL play but I think that not only will West win the Big 9 they will also contend for the 1A trip to state with Lourdes and Red Wing.

saying they will win the big 9 is a little strong. they have mayo, albert lea twice and century @ century. that said they are in a good position to do it. they have mayo @ home and both albert lea and century aren't quite the teams they've had the last few years. if they beat century or mayo (both 4pt games) and split with albert lea i think that would be enough to get them the title, provided they win the other games of course.
not much is being said about their goalie. his gaa is .60 and sv % .975 after 5 games is pretty impressive. looks like he's answered any doubts there were about their goaltending. i still say that the section goes through lourdes and red wing. we'll see how it looks after 1/31/08.

[Chalktalk]

Davey, I agree with you about New Prague. Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to see them Saturday and Tuesday. They destroyed Austin and Waseca. I am a puzzled by the score against West, but it was early, and I think they might have been a little blindsided.

They have two really, really good lines. And 3 and four aren't bad either. D is pretty good and I think the goalie is ok too. I think a rematch is in order. But this is the Big 9 thread and New Prague's not in the Big 9.

By the way, I've seen AL, and I saw Game 2 against West last year. If there is a team in the Big 9 that knows how to beat West it is AL. But I don't think they've got quite enough horsepower this year. That first game against AL should be a barnburner. If it's in AL, leave the fans at home. They didn't make any friends in AL last year.

West is definately the top team in the conference. Top line can score on anyone. Mayo may be able to match for a while, but D make to many mistakes. AL has the D, but depth is not there. Not sure "Baby Blues" can stay fresh against West's speed. Owatonna, we'll see. Beat a depleted AL team due to grades. Owatonna/Mayo game was interesting and who knows about Century. Thursday will be an interesting night in Big 9. Al vs Lourdes. We will see more about AL after that one.

[GinosAreGood]

now that the season's gone on for a while, who do you think will win the big9 now? I have to think AL or West at this point or Mayo also

[EaglehockeyI]

now that the season's gone on for a while, who do you think will win the big9 now? I have to think AL or West at this point or Mayo also

the win by albert lea puts them in the drivers seat. they've got mayo and west left and lead west by 10 pts. west has a tougher road with mayo,albert lea and century(who has steadily improved). the 3 rochester games are 4pters, so they could close on albert lea in a hurry, but i see them stumbling in at least one of those. albert lea is the favorite right now.

[davey]

now that the season's gone on for a while, who do you think will win the big9 now? I have to think AL or West at this point or Mayo also

the win by albert lea puts them in the drivers seat. they've got mayo and west left and lead west by 10 pts. west has a tougher road with mayo,albert lea and century(who has steadily improved). the 3 rochester games are 4pters, so they could close on albert lea in a hurry, but i see them stumbling in at least one of those. albert lea is the favorite right now.

We'll see what West is made of this weekend when they play Mayo without Leivermann. Mayo with some big strong forwards and a goalie that is playing well. They have played pretty good in the two games against Shakopee and Minnehaha in the games he has missed. Played the games a little closer to the vest. MO has been jump out to a lead and then tighten up defensively

[SEMinnHockeyNut]

The Tigers did themselves some good last night.

The West/Mayo game is a 4 point game - must win for both teams???

AL still has some tough games, as does Owatonna.

Has anyone figured out who can secure the highest point total? You can't just look at the loss column because of all the 4 point games.

[slapnasty]

The conference is all jumbled up with some teams already playing 12 conference games and others 6. Youve gotta look at the losses and how many points have been lost. Basically AL and West are the front runners since they both have 1 loss and it was a 2 point loss. Owatonna is in some problems because they have a 2 point loss and a 4 point loss to west so they are down six points. Mayo and century are also down six with three 2 point losses. This prolly sounds confusing so...


1. Albert Lea 11-1 2 points lost
2. Mankato West 5-1 2 points lost
3. Owatonna 9-2 6 points lost
4. Rochester Mayo 4-3 6 points lost
5. Rochester Century 3-3 6 points lost
6. Faribault 6-4
7. Winona 3-6
8. Rochester JM 2-6
9. Mankato East 1-7
10. Austin 0-11

Thats what its like if everyone has played the same amount of games. Whoever wins between AL and West will win the big 9. If u dont understand i can try to explain it better.

[EaglehockeyI]

The Tigers did themselves some good last night.

The West/Mayo game is a 4 point game - must win for both teams???

AL still has some tough games, as does Owatonna.

Has anyone figured out who can secure the highest point total? You can't just look at the loss column because of all the 4 point games.

Best pt totals possible:
Al Lea: 34pts
West: 34pts
Mayo: 32pts
Owat: 30pts.

AL/west, west/mayo, AL/mayo are key games left. west and AL have their destiny in their own hands. mayo needs some help. owatonna needs a lot of help.

[slapnasty]

Best pt totals possible:
Al Lea: 34pts
West: 34pts
Mayo: 32pts
Owat: 30pts.

Change Mayo to 30 points they have 3 conference losses on the year to Owatonna, AL, and Century.

[LZ94]

Whoever wins between AL and West will win the big 9. If u dont understand i can try to explain it better.

Nice job slapnasty. That was a good way to expain something that is muddy with all the 4 pt/2pt games.

One exception, both West and A.L. have Mayo, with Wests game worth 4. I wouldn't say that makes it a 3 horse race, but I'd say that Mayo may have as much to say about the Big 9 as AL and West do.

[SEMinnHockeyNut]

Century only has 3 losses, so they must be able to get at least 30 points as well.

[goldy313]

If you look at this way Albert Lea is in the drivers seat; I'll say for this example all these teams beat any conference foe not mentioned as these are the only teams with a shot at the title. (Theoretically Faribault could get 28 pts and win but that's a complete long shot)

AL 12-1 22 pts, reamining games: (H) Faribault, Winona, JM, East, (A) Mayo and West. Of those only 2 should be tight and both are 2 pt games. So at worst AL should end up 16-3 (30 pts), best case 18-1 (34 pts)

West 5-1 12 pts, remaining games (H) East, Mayo (4), Winona, AL, JM (4), (A) Austin, Faribault, Century (4). Of those 3 should be tight and 2 are 4 pt games. So at worst West should end up 10-4 (24 pts) best case 13-1 (34 pts)

Mayo 4-3 12 pts, remaining games (H) JM, Austin, Faribault (4), AL (A) Century, West (4), Owatonna. Worst case 7-7 (20 pts) best case 11-3 (30 pts).

Owatonna 9-2 20 pts, reamining games (H) JM, Mayo, Century, (A) Austin, Winona (4). Worst case 12-4 (28 pts) best case 14-2 (32 pts)

Century 3-3 8 pts, remaining games (H) JM, Winona (4), West (4), Mayo, (A) East (4), Faribault (4), Owatonna. Worst case 7-6 (22 pts) best case 10-3 (30 pts)

The range then looks like this:
Albert Lea 30-34 pts
Owatonna 28-32 pts
Century 22-30 pts
West 24-34 pts
Mayo 20-30 pts

Mayo is the only team to play the other 4, Owatonna has the easiest remaining schedule with no tough road games, Mayo the hardest with only 1 tough home game. Mayo could be eliminated as early as Saturday, after that there are no other big games until the 5th of February.
AL and West control their own destiny, Mayo and Century probably at best can only tie for the title. Odds are this is the first year a non Rochester school wins the Big Nine outright.

[SEMinnHockeyNut]

AL 12-1 22 pts, reamining games: (H) Faribault, Winona, JM, East, (A) Mayo and West. Of those only 2 should be tight and both are 2 pt games. So at worst AL should end up 16-3 (30 pts), best case 18-1 (34 pts)

Goldy - Thanks for the breakdown, as well as the others...minor error on AL - they are 11-1 right now (still 22 pts)....16-3 is 19 conference games, which means they would have to play someone 3 times.

Never say never for the Rochester schools....remember when all Austin had to do was beat OR tie a weak Faribault team to win the Big Nine a few years ago? They played a Monday make-up game after section seeding and the Falcons beat the Packers 3-2.
With that being said, Mayo must win Saturday to have any chance. I would say the Scarlets also have to win or they fall back quite a bit as well.

[cheese]

i like the break downs but for some reason i dont see faribault up here. even though they may be young this year and a little down, they are currently 3rd with two 4 point games to be played. i knonw they most likely wont end 1st but they could be a spoiler and end 3rd, especially with a little extra motivation now.

[boblee]

Winona is having a wonderful year in the Big 9. Is this their best year in this decade? Or ever?

[slapnasty]

Ya usually Winona is always the last place team in the conference and gets 1 conference win tops every year when a team takes them lightly. Teams like Austin East and JM are down this year but its impressive Winona is capitalizing on these opportunities. Certainly not a threat for the conference or the section but they took a great stride this year. Good luck to them the rest of the year!

[SEMinnHockeyNut]

It has been quite sometime for the Winhawks. Part of the problem was losing players to other schools like Holland to Century, Reska to Lourdes and even Funk to Lourdes now. However, most of the kids are staying now and things are on the upswing.

Joey Nadeau is very underrated and does not get noticed because he plays in Winona. He certainly could play beyond high school if given the chance.

From what I found on a couple of websites:

1997 - 6-15
1998 - 6-15-1
1999 - #3 seed, but lost to #6 JM (who made the finals and nearly beat Mayo) They had the older Holland kid on this team!
2000 - #6 seed lost to Lakeville 2-1 (Panthers lost to Mayo in the finals)
2001 - #8 seed beat Dodge County
2002 - 2-15 in Big Nine #8 seed beat Dodge County in the piggyback game again
2003 0-17 in Big Nine; 2-23 overall
2004 - 1-12 in Big Nine; 2-20
2005 - 1-12; 3-20
2006 - 0-14; 1-22-1 - lone win was as the #9 seed beat Worthington 7-3 in sections
2007 - 2-12; 3-21; lost to Dodge County as the #9

This year is golden compared with the last 6-7 years!

[EaglehockeyI]

Winona is having a wonderful year in the Big 9. Is this their best year in this decade? Or ever?

looks like their best year since the 99 and 00 clubs. their best ever was almost certainly 1952 when they beat out so.st.paul and white bear lake in section 2 for a trip to state. some interesting names in the archives. like 45 and 46 when granite falls actually went to state in back to back seasons. i'm sure they no longer even have hockey there.

[just a guy]

I have seen all the big 9 teams play. In my opinion Albert Lea and West are the best. I had the privelage to watch the meeting of these two teams earlier this year. I have also seen Albert Lea on several other occasions. West is good team with a great first line, if they keep there heads. There second and third line also have some talent. They also seem to have a pretty good set of defense. On the Albert Lea side they do not have that one or two great guys, but they are team with good chemistry. Their first line fits together well, there second is just a hard working group of kids, a third line that does well to work hard. On the D side their first set of D is a good pair, that gets the job the done. Overall though I see Albert Lea on top. As long as they keep the pace, they should be the big 9 champions.

[SEMinnHockeyNut]

Mayo 5 JM 0

Shots were something like 55-20.

Mayo did not score until the 2nd period, led 1-0 after 2, but scored 4 goals in the 3rd. G. Powers had 2, Alexander, Schultz, and Flott - so most of the goals came from the 2nd and 3rd lines.
JM had about 3-4 real chances to score when Mayo turned the puck over, but the Rockets basically shot at Steinmetz's belly on their chances.

This game honestly could have been 10-0 had Mayo got their shots off quicker, did not fan on golden chances, hit the crossbar, etc.

[beefer18]

Albert Lea will take the Big 9 Conference, they beat west 3-2 the first time and brought it to them as hard as they could play, they play them again february 7 and if AL takes that then we should take the section for sure

[rochcentury908]

Winona is having a wonderful year in the Big 9. Is this their best year in this decade? Or ever?

Just thinking that...when was the last time Winona beat a Rochester team?

[just a guy]

If I'm not mistaken Winona beat JM 5 to 4.

[sabreshockey]

Winona is having a wonderful year in the Big 9. Is this their best year in this decade? Or ever?

Just thinking that...when was the last time Winona beat a Rochester team?

Well besides this year it was in 98-99
hats off to them for the great year they are having. They are a definite threat if teams overlook them.

[GinosAreGood]

west 6 mayo 1... the west/AL game in 2 weeks will basically be for the big 9. should be a great game