Schedule of HS teams playing the women's national team

[The Bone]

Anyone know who the US Women's Team will be playing? Sounds interesting, but have not seen any info on these events.

[hockeyman84]

They play Hopkins Varsity on Dec 5th at the Hopkins Pavillion. As of now this is the only high school team they are scheduled to play.

[Papa Bergundy]

Sounds like a waste of one of their 25 games to me. Wayzata's team last year beat the women's team 6 or 7 to 0 in a preseason scrimmage.

[MNHockeyFan]

Sounds like a waste of one of their 25 games to me. Wayzata's team last year beat the women's team 6 or 7 to 0 in a preseason scrimmage.

This being an Olympic year the womens' team will be stronger. I would guess a 2 or 3 goal difference.

[Papa Bergundy]

Sounds like a waste of one of their 25 games to me. Wayzata's team last year beat the women's team 6 or 7 to 0 in a preseason scrimmage.

This being an Olympic year the womens' team will be stronger. I would guess a 2 or 3 goal difference.

Regardless, the high school schedule is short enough at 25, so teams should be using ALL of those games to help prepare for the playoffs. I guess I just don't see the benefit in playing them in a real game.

[BodyShots]

Is checking allowed?

[The Bone]

Interesting point, however, I like to look at it as an attempt to best prepare the women's team for the Olympics, not a comparison between the men's sport & the women's.

[brandy38]

Is checking allowed?

It won't be.

USA Hockey states that if a nonchecking team plays a checking team, checking is not allowed, no exceptions.

[Thehockeyplaya]

I'm not a 100% sure but around four years back they did this same thing with Warroad and Roseau playing the women's Olympic team I believe this was an exemption from the teams 25 game schedule. Like I said I'm not a 100% sure on this but I believe it should be...I mean these teams should play with class and be honored in helping their country prepare for the Olympic games.

[GopherPuck15]

Is checking allowed?

It won't be.

USA Hockey states that if a nonchecking team plays a checking team, checking is not allowed, no exceptions.

This is MSHSL hockey though as Hopkins is the host team, not USA hockey.

[Nodak Sioux]

Rochester Century is also playing the US Women's Team.

[The Bone]

Women’s National Hockey Team to play Hopkins Boys December 5
11/18/09

By Minnesota Hockey Inc.

-- The 2009-10 U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team will play the Hopkins High School Boys Team on Saturday, December 5, 2009


Women’s National Hockey Team to play Hopkins Boys December 5
Hopkins, Minnesota November 1, 2009 -- The 2009-10 U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team will play the Hopkins High School Boys Team on Saturday, December 5, 2009. This will be a rare opportunity to see the Women’s team play locally before the 2010 Olympics. The game will be held in Hopkins at the Pavilion. Game time is 7:00pm.
A limited supply of tickets go on sale Tuesday, November 3 and will be sold at four locations in the Hopkins area and one in Edina: The Hopkins locations are Lone Spur Grill, Tuttle’s Bowling Bar & Grill, Decoy’s Grill and Bar, and Hopkins High School (Spirit Shop and Athletic Office.) General Sports in Edina will also sell tickets. Prices for Adults are $10 advance/ $12 at the door; Students are $5 advance/$7 at the door.
Tickets will include two other hockey games and a Poster & Autograph Session the same day. Team USA members Rachael Drazan, Angie Keseley, Gigi Marvin and Jenny Potter will appear at the 5:30pm autograph session before their game. All four women are Minnesotans. Potter, an Edina native, is a 1998, 2002 and 2006 Olympian. Drazan is from Orono; Keseley from St. Louis Park; and Marvin is from Warroad.
The complete schedule of events is: 2:00pm Hopkins Girls JV vs. St. Cloud Tech JV; 4:00pm Hopkins Girls Varsity vs. St. Cloud Tech Varsity; 5:30pm Posters and Autograph Session; and 7:00pm Hopkins Boys vs. U.S. Women’s National Team. Warm-ups will be 30 minutes before each scheduled game.

Hopkins High School, 2400 Lindbergh Drive, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Tel. 952.988.4500
Lone Spur Grill and Bar, 11032 Cedar Lake Road, Minnetonka, MN 55305 tel. 952.540.0181
Tuttle’s Bowling Bar & Grill, 107 Shady Oak Road, Hopkins, MN 55343-3202 tel. 952.938.4090
Decoy’s Grill & Bar, 1022 Main Street, Hopkins, MN 55343 tel. 952.935.7718
General Sports, 5025 France Avenue S., Edina, MN 55410 tel. 612.925.4010

[hockeyman84]

At the Hopkins Pavillion the poster says it will be played by MSHSL rules so that would include checking.

[MNHockeyFan]

At the Hopkins Pavillion the poster says it will be played by MSHSL rules so that would include checking.

I'm a little surprised at this but I think the women at this level can handle it. They know how to keep their heads up and shouldn't be intimidated. I like these kinds of games that feature opponents that wouldn't normally play one another.

The boys will certainly have the size/strength advantage, but the U.S. women are much more experienced and have played many more games together as a team. I wouldn't bet a lot of my own money that they'll lose.

[2darink10]

Just spoke to a friend who goes to Shattuck, and they said that their Midget AAA team is scheduled to play the Olympic Team next Wednesday 12/9. The school is proud to have this opportunity, and so should other teams. It is an opportunity to play against the best and most hardworking women's hockey players in the nation. In a way, these scrimmages/games are a chance to help our country. Let's get over the fact that their women... And let's play hockey!

[The Bone]

Women vs. Boys: Battle for bragging rights
12/03/09

By Loren Nelson


Hopkins senior Archie Skalbeck, left, and U.S. Women's Olympic team star Natalie Darwitz are the headliners in the matchup between the teams. Skalbeck photo by John Kallas; Darwitz photo by USA Hockey/Jeff Vinnick
Hopkins one of three boys high school teams to play U.S. women in showdown of the sexes
Hopkins senior Archie Skalbeck has been the subject of an unusual amount of verbal jabs and jousting lately around school.

Hockey season has started, and sure enough the topic of choice centers on one of the Royals’ upcoming games.

“I’m friends with a couple of girls on our hockey team, and we’ve been kind of battling back and forth about this,” Skalbeck, a senior forward, said.

“This” would be the most unusual game ever placed on a Hopkins boys hockey schedule.

On Saturday, Dec. 4, the Royals will be the first of three state high school boys teams to play the U.S. Women’s Olympic team. As part of their run-up to the Winter Olympics starting in mid-February in Vancouver, the U.S. team also is playing Eagan on Dec. 8 and Rochester Century on Jan. 22.

“It’s awesome,” star U.S. forward Natalie Darwitz, a two-time Olympian and a team captain since 2007. “For us, those high school teams are great competition. It’s like playing a game against Canada.

“I’m not a rocket scientist here, but boys are naturally stronger and faster,” Darwitz said. “It is just genetic. They are stronger and can shoot the puck harder. It makes us react a lot faster. I think we get a lot better playing those teams.”

TEAM USA WOMEN VS. MINNESOTA HIGH SCHOOL BOYS
BOYS TEAM
DATE
TIME
LOCATION

Hopkins Saturday, Dec. 5 7 p.m. Hopkins Pavillion
Eagan Tuesday, Dec. 8 7:30 p.m. Eagan Civic Arena
Rochester Century Friday, Jan. 22 7:30 p.m. Rochester Recreation Center


Skalbeck, meanwhile, says he has no idea what to expect. He says he’s never seen the U.S. women’s team or even a college women’s team play, and in the lead up to Saturday’s game he still was fuzzy about the rules (pretty much the same as any state high school boys game, except there is no checking).

This much, however, he did know: “Well, I’m hoping not to lose,” Skalbeck said. “That would not be good.”

Don’t get Skalbeck, the Royals' leading scorer, wrong. He has full respect for a team expected to battle Canada, as always, for the Olympic gold medal. It’s just that life would be a little more … difficult … around school for Skalbeck if the Royals were to lose.

Huge crowds are expected to attend all three games, partially because of the curiosity factor. The U.S. women’s team has only occasionally played boys high school teams. The competition, typically, has been remarkably even.

“I think there is a very good opportunity for them to beat us,” Hopkins coach Chad Nyberg said about the game that will count in the Royals’ overall season record. “They might have a speed advantage with their high end kids.

Hopkins, which enters Saturday's game with a 1-1 record, originally had been scheduled to play Eagan, but a request by Eagan coach Mike Taylor to drop the game was agreed to by Nyberg. Darwitz was a high school phenom at Eagan, and for her to play against her alma mater there first needed to be an opening in an already full 25-game Wildcats’ schedule.

“It will be packed, it will be nuts,” Taylor said about the anticipated atmosphere at the Eagan Ice Arena. “They are doing advance sales right now, and they have sold quite a few tickets. Our arena only holds 1,000 people.”

Taylor, like Nyberg, is expecting a hotly contested game.

“It is going to be an eye opener for our kids to see how skilled they are,” he said. “Right now, we are just hoping to mold our players into a team. They are going to be miles ahead of us in that category.”

The U.S. women’s team has spent the past several months playing a schedule that includes games against college teams, college conference all-star teams and national teams. The U.S. women also recently played a boys junior team based in Alexandria. They also have a showdown at the Xcel Energy Center scheduled for Dec. 30 against Canada.

Darwitz said she gets especially pumped up for games against the boys.

“It’s fun to play them, it challenges us,” she said.

As for the no-bodychecking rule, Darwitz says it typically takes a period for all of that to get sorted out.

“It happens the same way every time,” she said. “They think there is no bodychecking, and the first time we go into the corner we’ll rub them out like we normally would. They will be like, ‘Hey !”

“We’re like, ‘Just because there is no body checking, it’s not like I’m not going to touch you. In the first period its them adjusting to that and it’s us getting their legs and reacting to their speed. First period is a feeling out period and in the second and third, it’s great hockey.”

Loren Nelson, MN Hockey Hub managing editor, can be reached at 612-379-1030 ext. 126 or loren.nelson@tstmedia.com.

[HShockeywatcher]

This is great, and it's cool that more teams are willing to use one of their games to play them. But that's the case; many teams don't want to use 4% of their schedule to play a game not played the same way their games are.

Why not schedule scrimmages, where both teams would get the same out of it, with many more teams OR allow teams who play them 26 games, as they do with new programs?

Hopefully this is a good game. It would be great to see more of this. Just like star U.S. forward Natalie Darwitz said, “I’m not a rocket scientist here, but boys are naturally stronger and faster, it is just genetic. They are stronger and can shoot the puck harder. It makes us react a lot faster. I think we get a lot better playing those teams.”

Good luck to both teams.

[MNHockeyFan]

USA Womens Olympic Team 3, Hopkins 2

[blueblood]

So is Hopkins that good or is women's hockey not all that great....

[MNHockeyFan]

So is Hopkins that good or is women's hockey not all that great....

I think the answer is that Hopkins is not all that great. I believe the top ranked MN high school boys teams would beat the womens' team, and Hopkins probably would have as well if Boyd had stayed and been playing. Hopkins was of course much bigger and stronger physically, as would you expect, and overall they were much faster and could shoot the puck harder. But they weren't always quicker to the puck, and didn't have the skill to bury it when they had their chances, of which they had many.

The big advantage that the U.S. women team had was experience and teamwork, due to the many games they've played together as a unit. They also had great goaltending from former Wisconsin player Vetter, who stopped several breakaways and close-in chances. She was definitely the difference maker in this game.

[council member retired]

This is such a cool opportunity for these high school players. Just think come February they will be watching Team USA and thinking how, I had the opportunity to play against best women's team in the world. These high school players will never forget this game. And believe it or not each team they played assisted on the that gold medal. Awesome of usa hockey and mn high school league to do this.