Cathedral-Lourdes showdown highlights the week ahead: Dec. 8-14
Game of the week
St. Cloud Cathedral at Rochester Lourdes (7 p.m., Sat, Dec. 13)
The early-season Class A rankings should really sort themselves out this week, as there are a handful of great games featuring top-10 ranked teams. We could have gone with the Cathedral-Little Falls game on Tuesday or the Breck-STA game that same night, or even New Prague-Lourdes. Yes there are that many good Class A games Tuesday night. But instead, we chose the No. 2 Lourdes versus No. 1 Cathedral game on Saturday night at Graham Arena in Rochester.
The Crusaders (3-0-0) remained unbeaten after edging Alexandria on Jordan Palusky’s overtime winner Saturday night. Palusky (5-3-8) leads Cathedral in scoring and is abig, skilled forward with great vision. But the Crusaders can really get it done on defense in front of goaltender Nick Maiers (.923 save %, 1.60 GAA). Led by Minnesota-bound Nate Schmidt (2-3-5) and the very underrated Joe Nessler (0-3-3) and Jon Rowe (2-1-3).
Lourdes (1-0-0) has only played once, but pounded out an 8-3 decision on Owatonna last Thursday in which Tyler Voigt scored a hat trick. Lourdes is also a very deep and very balanced team, including the high-scoring Voigt, Taylor Funk and Cole Peterson on arguably the best forward line in the state. The Eagles can score, but will new varsity netminder Nick Heimer (.833 save %, 3.00 GAA) be able to stand up to the Crusaders’ pressure?
Terrific 10 games of the week
2. St. Cloud Cathedral at Little Falls (7 p.m., Tue, Dec. 9)
2. Minnetonka at Duluth East (8 p.m., Thu, Dec. 11)
4. Woodbury at Edina (7 p.m., Tue, Dec. 9)
5. Breck at St. Thomas Academy (7:30 p.m., Tue, Dec. 9)
6. New Prague at Rochester Lourdes (7:30 p.m., Tue, Dec. 9)
7. Hopkins at Hermantown (7:30 p.m., Fri, Dec. 12)
8. Warroad at Hibbing (7:30 p.m., Fri, Dec. 12)
9. Virginia-MIB at Grand Rapids (7:30 p.m. Tue, Dec. 9)
10. Cretin-Derham Hall at Benilde-St. Margaret’s (7 p.m., Tue, Dec. 9)
Player of the week
Matt Cooper (Duluth East)
It’s tough for a goaltender to do much better than pitching two shutouts in two games, and for that, Cooper gets our nod as the first player of the week. He opened the season by facing only four shots against Duluth Central, but stopped all four in an 11-0 Greyhounds victory. Cooper’s task was much tougher in the next game, as he made 27 saves on 27 shots to shut down Wayzata, 2-0.
Cooper has a great defensive team in front of him, but he’s also a top goaltender and our preseason second-team All-State pick for a good reason.
Leaderboards (through Pointstreak)
Scoring leaders -- http://mbhsh.stats.pointstreak.com/scor ... sonid=3534
Goalie leaders –
http://mbhsh.stats.pointstreak.com/goal ... sonid=3534
Where will we be?
Thursday, Dec. 11 – Bemidji at Moorhead
Saturday, Dec. 13 – Grand Rapids at Moorhead
State rankings (12-07-08)
Class AA
1. Hill-Murray
2. Duluth East
3. Edina
4. Centennial
5. Bloomington Jefferson
6. Holy Angels
7. Minnetonka
8. Hopkins
9. Blaine
10. Eden Prairie
11. Woodbury
12. Moorhead
13. Roseau
14. Maple Grove
15. Burnsville
Class A
1. St. Cloud Cathedral
2. Rochester Lourdes
3. Little Falls
4. Mahtomedi
5. Warroad
6. Breck
7. Duluth Marshall
8. St. Thomas Acad
9. Hermantown
10. Virginia/MI-B
11. Thief River Falls
12. New Prague
13. Alexandria
14. Duluth Denfeld
15. Orono
