jonnyselanne8 wrote:Puckranger makes a great point about strength of schedule. Little Falls is a great team, but more than 3/4s of its schedule was against very weak teams. Virginia's losses were to the following: Cloquet-E-C (a Class 2A state entrant last season) in the opening game of the season, an overtime loss in which the Blue Devils hit several posts and outshot the Lumberjacks handily; Little Falls in their second game of the season, the only game in which Hanowski did not register a point; at International Falls in their fifth game; Hermantown (the Section 5A runner-up to Cathedral); and at Hibbing in an ugly penalty-filled game. Virginia avenged the losses to International Falls (5-2) and Hibbing (7-1).
Virginia's only loss since Dec. 23 was at Hibbing, and it bounced back to beat them twice - the running-time game in the regular season finale and in the section finals. In other words, the Blue Devils are 18-1 since a 5-4 start. Three players who played during that slow start are no longer on the squad and have been replaced by three up-and-coming sophomores who have only gotten much better as the year has gone on.
As Puckranger also noted in an earlier post, the No. 2, 3 and 4 lines for Virginia have not allowed a goal since a fluke with 10 seconds left in running time against Eveleth-Gilbert on Jan. 30. It has been more than two months since they have been scored on other than that. At even strength, the Blue Devils just do not give up many scoring opportunities, and when they come, it is usually against the attacking No. 1 line.
An interesting side note: It could have been a Virginia player whose scoring title Hanowski was chasing/breaking this season. Had Nico Sacchetti not played in the USHL last year, the current Gopher would likely have broken the state mark himself. As it is, not having Sacchetti last season is likely a blessing in disguise for this Virginia team. The Blue Devils would have heavily relied on the Sacchetti line last year and a lot of the younger players who are stepping up this season would not have gained valuable ice time.
I've written about and done the radio broadcasts for this Virginia team all season. (I'm a Ranger, but not a Virginia alum. I have covered Iron Range hockey for many years, including the 1998 state champion Eveleth-Gilbert and the 2005 Virginia team.) That said, they are a far better team than they were early in the season. The lines have solidified and coach Keith Hendrickson has been rotating them regularly. The No. 2, 3, and 4 teams all have a nice combination of speed, checking ability and scoring potential. They are hungry, they grind and wear you out. That opens up opportunities for the high-scoring first line of Chris Westin, Garrett Hendrickson and Andrew Judnick. The five defensemen are all solid on the defensive end, and junior Jordan Kresbach (17 goals) is a scorer. The Devils will miss junior defenseman Christian Belobaba, who broke his wrist in the final seconds of the section final, but the other four are playing well. And Will Lustig is very calm and solid in net, his only flaw being that he plays the puck a little two much sometimes. In Virginia's current 12-game winning streak, his GAA is 1.33 and save percentage around .950. Oh, and every player on the Virginia active roster has at least three goals except defenseman Nathan Dahl, so every line can put the puck in the net.
Much respect to unbeaten Little Falls, but this is not the team it played early this season. The Blue Devils are deep and playing with a ton of confidence and all their kids watched the team reach state for the first time ever in 2005 and shouldn't have that starry-eyed look of four years ago. The 2005 team, while it featured Matt Niskanen and Sacchetti, had more of a happy-to-be-here attitude, inferior goaltending and a lack of depth. I believe it will be different this time around.
Virginia/MI-B 4,
Little Falls 3
Nice information, thank you. I do believe that Little Falls can, did(this season) and will
grind and wear you out. I do know Little Falls played a schedule with less great teams than some others (namely teams who didn't make the tourney
), I don't, however, believe that the Central Lakes Conference is so much inferior to the mighty Iron Range. Teams down this way can roll just the same as they can up there. Little Falls
should be hungry in their fifth strait tourney without a seed in the championship game in their previous 4. What worries me about Little Falls' chances are that they, contrary to what many are saying, haven't been peaking right now, not the way they had been in previous years. Yes, Alezandria was a great team this year, Little Falls should've won by two or more, not OT, if they were peaking, (in my opinion). Yes Fergus Falls is a rival, I expected like 10 points against my Otters, not a pretty good game. Conversely, Virginia it seems IS peaking, and playing very well. This game should be good, before I expected a Little Falls rout if they were seeded, thus playing an unseeded team. Now I expect a game, not that the Flyers will lose, they only beat Virginia 1-0, but let's not forget, it was their 1st game of the year........[/i]
I was simply saying that virginia has scorers too, so having a big ice sheet isnt going to be solely to little falls benefit. Read everything next time. And find something i said about schedules that arent true...