Benilde-St. Margaret's 2, Cretin-Derham Hall 3 Eden Prairie 5, Elk River 2
Your friendly host is now officially out of the running, as I had picked my home team BSM to win it all - couldn't do otherwise! But as painful as this defeat was, we congratulate CDH who took advantage of their opporunities and played great defensive hockey to win, much like they did in toppling 4AA opponents Stillwater and Roseville in getting to the big dance. We wish them the best of luck tomorrow and Saturday night!
We now have a four-way tie in the points standings, but others are very close behind, heading into tonight's 2AA quarterfinal games:
MNHockeyFan wrote:
Gotta love that confidence from hockeyrube7, the trophy winner in the Section Final contest. Hoping he doesn't miss anything.........Geez.
Miss anything... How about picking the Cretins to win it all???!!!
Missing anything
Okay Rube7, I am giving you props again, but this is the last of those old props, the bubble bursts tomorrow against EP!
Thanks for the props! Guess we will see? Nothin will amaze me after tonight and seeing that Farmington beat Eagan, and they could have done it with as little as 2 shots, from what I hear. Is there anyone that was at the game and can tell what happenned?
The tigers played their top 3 lines and were hemmed in thier own zone for most of the game.
In the first period they really looked nervous loosing the puck, and missing passes. After 8th grader Jessical Erchul made 14 saves, and freshman Crystal Bauman had her breakaway goal, the team seemed to settle down and play a more typical Farmington game.
The second period the flow of the game was more normal with good rushes on either end and more time in either end.
In the third period, it was like a 10 minute penalty kill, with the Tigers in a defensive stance. They were happy to slow the puck down along the boards and ice it a dozen times. With Jessica able stop all shots from the slot and the point, leaving few rebounds and the other players all blocking shots to clearing to the sides, it was an easy finish.
Farmington support in the arena was tremendous with most of the youth hockey program there, middle schoolers, high schoolers, parents, grandparents, and teachers. The students had painted faces and were loud. The pep band was awesome, getting our side very energized.
I was mostly surprised that Eagan had nothing going on. Sure they shot the puck a lot, but the shots were pretty easy to stop from 20 feet away and there was nobody there for any second chances for the few rebounds that were given. The Farmington D were able to easily skate with Eagan's best and stick check all rushes that Eagan sent in.
Unfortunately, my 8th grader is a 4th liner so she did not get ice time...but she was pretty excited to be able to warm up on the Xcel ice and to be part of this nail biting game.
Thursday night's action saw most everyone missing Farmington's 1-0 upset over Eagan, but correcting predicting GR/G's win over Centennial. But no one got either score correct, so with most going 1-1 and no 3 pointers awarded, there was very little much movement in the overall point standings. Heading into Friday's semifinal games for both 1A and 2A, the race remains tight:
GoTigers wrote:Unfortunately, my 8th grader is a 4th liner so she did not get ice time...but she was pretty excited to be able to warm up on the Xcel ice and to be part of this nail biting game.
Tell your daughter to hang on tight and work hard because with that goalie she's going to be at the State tourney for many years to come! Unless... the goalie's dad/mom gets a really good job offer somewhere up north...
Congratulations Farmington!
Quick update, through the Class 1A semifinals and heading into tonight's 2A semi's. Most everyone picks up 3 points for Breck's blowout win over Austin, and slightly more than half picked Alex to topple Roseau in what sounded like a great game. Cardfan and boblee are in the lead with 14 points apiece:
The semi’s for both classes are in the books, and congratulations to the winners:
Class 1A
Alexandria 2, Roseau 1
Breck 12, Austin 1
Class 2A
Eden Prairie 1, Cretin-Derham Hall 0, OT
Grand Rapids/Greenway 5, Farmington 0
Although there have been some upsets along the way, many contestants correctly predicted both Alex and Breck would be playing for the 1A Championship, and EP and GRG for the 2A title. With 5 points at stake in each final tomorrow – 10 total – it will definitely come down to the final day – should be interesting!
Somewhat surprising, though, is nobody had both Breck and Eden Prairie winning their respective titles, so there is no one who can leapfrog ahead of the pack with 10 points on the final day, should these two teams pull it off. However, chickendance would come out on top should Alexandria top Breck and if Eden Prairie takes the 2A title. And finance_gal would win if both Breck and Grand Rapids/Greenway are the Champions.
Next to each of the leaders below I am showing their picks for the 1A & 2A Championships respectively:
Congratulations to the 2008 State 1A Champions, Alexandria! I am looking forward to tonight's 2A title game - should be a very interesting matchup. Here are the point totals heading into that game, and for those who still have a shot at taking top honors, which team they've picked to win:
Great final game, and congrats to both teams on such fantastic seasons. It was clear to me that the best two teams made it to the end.
It was a lot of fun hosting this contest, and a big congrats go to chickendance who came from behind at the very end to win the Minnesota Girls High School Hockey Forum "State Tournament Prognosticator Trophy"!
chickendance finishes with 28 points, picking the winning teams in all four semifinal games and both the Class 1A and 2A Champions. Great job!
Cardfan and boblee share the Runnerup Trophy with 25 points apiece - nice job too.
