Section 7AA

[wild77]

I read the article that was in Duluth's newspaper. Was Bellamy hurt/sick? As the parent of a girl from the metro, I will admit tonot knowing much about section 7, but I have heard a great deal about Bellamy. Any word on that?

I have heard they put the two goalies in a rotation and it was Paige's turn. She has been a very good goalie in the past.

[mnhcky23]

Thanks wild. I was unaware of this rotation you are referring to because all I have to go on is the mghca website, which lists Bellamy as playing in Duluth's last two regular season games and first playoff game, which I did not recognize as a rotation. But thanks for the info.

[trojangoalie241]

It wasn't exactly a rotation. It was random and unfair. Just my opinion.

[Game Misconduct]

It wasn't exactly a rotation. It was random and unfair. Just my opinion.

I don't know what could've been unfair about it...
Bellamy seemed to struggle at times all season long

Bellamy played well against Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay last time...And Turner has had some great games.

Just Fryknapp's game plan. Question it all you want but they are agreat coaches.

[MNHockeyFan]

From the MGHCA site:

No. Goalie...GRADE GA GAA SV SV% MIN
1 Bellamy, Laura 12 23 1.38 270 0.922 848:54
33 Turner, Paige 10 17 1.59 231 0.931 545:0

Looks like Bellamy got about 60% of the playing time overall, otherwise their stats for the season were both very close and very good. Not knowing this situation first hand, it does seem fair to give your senior more playing time if the two are pretty close in ability.

[DHMN]

I didn't see a ton of Duluth games (maybe 6 of them) and Bellamy has looked shaky in some and great in others.. Turner is a bit more fundamentally strong, and in the end will be a better goaltender, partly due to her experience playing boys Junior Varsity last year for Duluth East.

But, she's only a sophomore... why you don't start the senior goaltender and give her a chance to play her final game rather than watch it, is a question Coach Knapp may be asked for a long time.

[mnhockey123]

I didn't see a ton of Duluth games (maybe 6 of them) and Bellamy has looked shaky in some and great in others.. Turner is a bit more fundamentally strong, and in the end will be a better goaltender, partly due to her experience playing boys Junior Varsity last year for Duluth East.

But, she's only a sophomore... why you don't start the senior goaltender and give her a chance to play her final game rather than watch it, is a question Coach Knapp may be asked for a long time.

Get out of here. Turner is not more fundamentally sound than Bellamy. She hangs back too deep in the net (Sam Downey made her pay for that yesterday in the 2nd period) and relies on having her paddle down on the ice far too often.

As far as making a senior captain watch the sophomore melt down in the third from the bench, there is no reasonable explanation Jim or Amber could give anyone.

[mnhockey123]

It wasn't exactly a rotation. It was random and unfair. Just my opinion.

I don't know what could've been unfair about it...
Bellamy seemed to struggle at times all season long

Bellamy played well against Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay last time...And Turner has had some great games.

Just Fryknapp's game plan. Question it all you want but they are agreat coaches.

Get it together man, they are not "agreat coaches." Don't let that cupcake schedule make you believe they are getting anywhere near the most they could out of their roster.

[JohnnyBuck]

I think the better team won. Although I will say," who would sit the senior goalie (who is up for the goalie of the year award) in the playoffs? Excellent coaches? Hmmmm?

[Game Misconduct]

It wasn't exactly a rotation. It was random and unfair. Just my opinion.

I don't know what could've been unfair about it...
Bellamy seemed to struggle at times all season long

Bellamy played well against Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay last time...And Turner has had some great games.

Just Fryknapp's game plan. Question it all you want but they are agreat coaches.

Get it together man, they are not "agreat coaches." Don't let that cupcake schedule make you believe they are getting anywhere near the most they could out of their roster.

Boy, maybe you're right...they'll just have to start recruiting in Silver Bay.

[mnhockey123]

I don't know what could've been unfair about it...
Bellamy seemed to struggle at times all season long

Bellamy played well against Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay last time...And Turner has had some great games.

Just Fryknapp's game plan. Question it all you want but they are agreat coaches.

Get it together man, they are not "agreat coaches." Don't let that cupcake schedule make you believe they are getting anywhere near the most they could out of their roster.

Boy, maybe you're right...they'll just have to start recruiting in Silver Bay.

Silver Bay didn't win the game for PHM yesterday. And since you're taking jabs at the winning team's 'transfer' player, what about Duluth's stud transfer? Your two agreat coaches had the same advantage on their side, and it dropped a two-goal-lead for the second time this season. Try supporting your opinion with something a little stronger than a weak shot at the other team.

[nmnhockeydad]

Agreed! PHM was the better team in this game. This just shows how tough of section this is. Good luck to PHM and Cloquet. I am sure that whoever represents 7AA at the State Tournament will do quite well. My money is on PHM.

[mnhcky23]

After skill, age and experience, Bellamy seems to be a stand-up young lady. I'm not saying the sophomore isn't, I'm just saying that this adds to my wonder. It seems like an easy call to me, but that is why I believe there is more to this story that we are not aware of. It doesn't add up.

[elphabaduluth]

I hope they move the finals to a local arena, I don't want to travel to Cambridge on Thursday. Cloquet will have a hard time beating PHM because that's the team they got trounced by 2 weeks ago. Now the question is, Who does Cloquet start in goal?

[theNUTcup]

It wasn't exactly a rotation. It was random and unfair. Just my opinion.

I don't know what could've been unfair about it...
Bellamy seemed to struggle at times all season long

Bellamy played well against Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay last time...And Turner has had some great games.

Just Fryknapp's game plan. Question it all you want but they are agreat coaches.

Get it together man, they are not "agreat coaches." Don't let that cupcake schedule make you believe they are getting anywhere near the most they could out of their roster.

Cupcake schedule? Really? If you look at their schedule Duluth has played some of the top teams in the state. I don't see their schedule being any easier than any of the other teams in the section other than Rapids.

As for the roster, did you by chance see how many returning varsity players Duluth had from last year. Not too many, probably 3 or 4 including the goalie (whom wasn't even their best goalie). So from what I've seen this year I am completely thrilled at how well this team has played and how they have been able to compete with some of the top teams in the state. So hats off to the coaching staff for putting together a team that was thought to be around .500 to being one of the better teams in the state.

As for the goalie situation....Bellamy got a lot of hype with multiple awards and being a Ms. Goalie candidate, but if you watched her in games she let shaky goals in all season long and had only 2 or 3 solid games. Turner on the other hand very rarely let softies in and was very fundamentally sound all season. I think that all fellow fans that followed this team can back me up on this.

There was a recruited player on the Duluth team this year? Please tell me who. There was a foreign exchange student from Sweden that played 3rd line and Turner came from East's Boys JV.

Anyways good luck Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay and Cloquet

[Game Misconduct]

Thanks NUT...

I was done arguing with the uninformed. I couldn't have sais it better.

Just to add to your post a little. Some of the teams Duluth played this year:
Warroad
Hopkins
Hill-Murray
GRG twice
PHMSB twice
Irondale
Cloquet twice
The REAL silver Bay

Sounds plenty tough to me.

[mnhockey123]

Cupcake schedule? Really? If you look at their schedule Duluth has played some of the top teams in the state. I don't see their schedule being any easier than any of the other teams in the section other than Rapids.

As for the roster, did you by chance see how many returning varsity players Duluth had from last year. Not too many, probably 3 or 4 including the goalie (whom wasn't even their best goalie). So from what I've seen this year I am completely thrilled at how well this team has played and how they have been able to compete with some of the top teams in the state. So hats off to the coaching staff for putting together a team that was thought to be around .500 to being one of the better teams in the state.

As for the goalie situation....Bellamy got a lot of hype with multiple awards and being a Ms. Goalie candidate, but if you watched her in games she let shaky goals in all season long and had only 2 or 3 solid games. Turner on the other hand very rarely let softies in and was very fundamentally sound all season. I think that all fellow fans that followed this team can back me up on this.

There was a recruited player on the Duluth team this year? Please tell me who. There was a foreign exchange student from Sweden that played 3rd line and Turner came from East's Boys JV.

Anyways good luck Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall-Silver Bay and Cloquet

Yes, cupcake schedule. When you have a team composed of all three Duluth schools, scheduling the likes of Chisago Lakes, Moose Lake and Babbit (to name a few) doesn't exactly do your team any favors. I bet the coaches are glad they put two of those teams into running time, the inflated statistics those games produced really had them prepared for a tight game like yesterday.

In response to what you said about the goaltenders. I don't know how you can say Bellamy looked shaky all season long. She may have not started the way she wanted to, but she definitely picked it up after the first month of the season. I don't think anyone finishes with a 1.38 GAA while stopping pucks at a 92% clip by letting weak goals in all year long, as you have suggested. I also know that Bellamy never once let four goals, strong or weak, slip past her in one game this season, as was the case with Turner yesterday.

Now on to this recruited player you speak of. I'll ask you to read my post again. If you do, and concentrate real hard, you will notice that I never said anything about a recruit playing for Duluth. Game Misconduct took a shot at PHM and Downey, a player who was a new addition to her team this year. For simplicity's sake I compared the similar situations of Downey and Turner by referring to them both as 'tranfers'. By calling each of them a transfer I was pointing out that neither player grew up playing for their high school's youth programs, and were not part of their teams until this season. I always appreciate when someone changes what I said and then argues against it, though.

[mnhockey123]

Thanks NUT...

I was done arguing with the uninformed. I couldn't have sais it better.

Just to add to your post a little. Some of the teams Duluth played this year:
Warroad
Hopkins
Hill-Murray
GRG twice
PHMSB twice
Irondale
Cloquet twice
The REAL silver Bay

Sounds plenty tough to me.

What you say is true. But I never said they run it up on teams every single game. Funny you mention PHM two times. I should hope you knew that I was taking into account the parts of the schedule the coaches have control over, which does not include playoff games. Not that you needed any help, but I noticed you decided to tilt the scale in your favor quite heavily by leaving out some details about Dululuth's slate of games. What about:
Hibbing
Eveleth-Gilbert
Chisago Lakes
Moose Lake
St. Louis Park
Hibbing again
Babbitt

I count seven games against low-level competition. I would normally want to take this real Silver Bay off the list of top teams Duluth has faced, but I'll let it slide this time. So again, seven of the 25 games Duluth played this season came against weaker teams. Seven too many if you ask me. Cupcake schedule.

[mnhcky23]

Game Misconduct,

2 of the teams on your list (Warroad and Silver Bay) are from Class A. Not that they are not top teams, but Duluth is made up of 3 HS teams that should be able to put a better schedule together.

5 of those games (PHM, 2 GRG, 2 CEC) cannot be used to argue that Duluth had a tough schedule when all of these games are virtually required by the section and those are the teams you are trying to compare their schedule to

Hopkins, Hill-Murray and Irondale are the ones I can give them credit for. All came in the Edina tournament. So, props to those coaches for getting them in that tournament, but that's it.

After looking at the mghca website, weak teams I saw on their schedule:

Eveleth-Gilbert
St. Francis-North Branch (but, they are a section team)
Totino Grace
Dodge County
Hibbing (2)
Chisago Lakes
Moose Lake
Coon Rapids
Superior (in conference)
St. Louis Park
East Range Knights

[trojangoalie241]

To say that Turner is more fundamentally sound than Bellamy is crap. Duluth didn't give up more than 3 goals all season until yesterday when Turner was in net. They allowed 3 goals 4 times all season, twice against GRG (Bellamy played one game, Turner the other, which Duluth was ahead 3-1 at one point and Turner let it get out of control), Once against CEC, a 3-2 OT loss with Turner and once against Eastview, a 3-2 loss with Bellamy.

There is a reason Bellamy is going to Harvard to play, she is a damn good player and she is very smart.

The fact that any coach would play a sophomore goalie over a senior goalie and captain and force the senior to watch her last minutes of high school hockey instead of play them is ridiculous. Bellamy should have been in nets and the outcome quite possilby would have been different.

[mnhockey123]

Game Misconduct,

2 of the teams on your list (Warroad and Silver Bay) are from Class A. Not that they are not top teams, but Duluth is made up of 3 HS teams that should be able to put a better schedule together.

5 of those games (PHM, 2 GRG, 2 CEC) cannot be used to argue that Duluth had a tough schedule when all of these games are virtually required by the section and those are the teams you are trying to compare their schedule to

Hopkins, Hill-Murray and Irondale are the ones I can give them credit for. All came in the Edina tournament. So, props to those coaches for getting them in that tournament, but that's it.

After looking at the mghca website, weak teams I saw on their schedule:

Eveleth-Gilbert
St. Francis-North Branch (but, they are a section team)
Totino Grace
Dodge County
Hibbing (2)
Chisago Lakes
Moose Lake
Coon Rapids
Superior (in conference)
St. Louis Park
East Range Knights

Exactly. Half their schedule is bunk.

[Game Misconduct]

most recent krach Strength of Schedule ratings

PHM 27
Duluth 35

Both top third in Minnesota. Sure PHM's is a little stronger, by my elementary math skills maybe 6% tougher.

[mnhcky23]

As a subect totally uninvolved in this situation, but knowing Bellamy is a great goalie and not knowing anything about the other girl, I beg this question: You say here that Bellamy was shaky at times, great at other times. Could this possibly be due to the obvious non-confidence the coaches had in her? I know her to be very consistent and would wonder if there was possibly no help from the coaches in a mental sense throughout the season? Just a thought. I have a goalie myself, and she needs a little TLC sometimes as I know many of them do, due to the toughness it takes to be a goalie.

[theNUTcup]

Ok your schedule bashing is getting silly and maybe a little out of hand.

You're right, Bellamy has a great GAA and save %. Those are great numbers. Turner also has great numbers. They are both great goalies. Can I ask you and whoever else is questioning this situation, how many games have you watched them play this year? That being from the start to the end of the 2008-2009 season.

I have to say that the Downey/Turner transfer theory you put together is creative. It's just one girl moved 60 miles to play a senior year or maybe the parents got a new job in town, I don't know.

[mnhockey123]

Ok your schedule bashing is getting silly and maybe a little out of hand.

You're right, Bellamy has a great GAA and save %. Those are great numbers. Turner also has great numbers. They are both great goalies. Can I ask you and whoever else is questioning this situation, how many games have you watched them play this year? That being from the start to the end of the 2008-2009 season.

I have to say that the Downey/Turner transfer theory you put together is creative. It's just one girl moved 60 miles to play a senior year or maybe the parents got a new job in town, I don't know.

My schedule 'bashing' is not silly. I simply pointed out some of the weak competition on the schedule that stands out. As far as it being out of hand, I don't know how I could display my opinion any more calmly. Feel free to explain to me how clubbing teams like Hibbing, Eveleth-Gilbert, Moose Lake, etc. geared Duluth for the state's elite teams. I stand by what I said, Duluth played a brittle schedule in 2008-09.

I saw more than enough of both of them to make an informed decision. If they're both great goalies, why not give the nod to your senior captain? It should be that simple, shouldn't it?

Back to the transfer bit. One moved sixty miles for a senior year, and one might still be living in another state. Can we call it even?