Brainerd vs Sartell thurs 2/17

[keeponcoachin"]

Quite a barnburner in Sartell last night for both teams' last regular season game. Sartell came out flat footed and lazy and paid the price with 4 quick goals by Brainerd. Sartell had not been tested much the past few games and this must have woken them up as they responded with 4 of their own to end the first period 4-4. Then Sartell goes down 7-4 midway thru the second and came back with 2 to end the second down 6-7. A wild third period full of banging and chances at both ends as the game ended 7-6 Brainerd. Interesting to watch the Brainerd bench and how coach Archibald managed the boys. IMO he had almost no control of the kids and as has happened in quite a few games in the past under his tutelage the ugly side came out. The final minute or two with Sartell's goalie pulled brought out the worst in the Warriors. Young Archibald taking his sweet time to the faceoff in Brainerds end had the ref stare at him, warn him to get to the facoff and then when he didn't he simply dropped the puck and Sartell got off a great shot. Coach Archibald starts going balistic, one more faceoof and then after the buzzer goes off a Warrior takes a run at a Sartell player with his back turned away along the bds. A scrum starts up and off the bench flies a Warrior player. The ref throws him out ( hopefully for the next game as well) and finally tempers get under control. I have seen this so many times with this group that something needs to be done! It's embarassing and obviously approved by the coaching staff. Good luck to both teams in the playoffs. Both are good, skilled teams that if they play the game and not thug it up will do very well.

[bloody bar down]

Did you miss the part of the game where Sartell was running Brainerd players? That would be portions of the 1st and second. Officiating was less than stellar. One in particular was a head contact penalty on Brainerd. Legit penalty, no issues. No less than 2 minutes later Sartell player does the exact same thing. No call. This happened a few times.

Now, to say the Brainerd player "ran" the sartell kid at the end is a huge stretch. I was there and hear could not hear the horn go off from where I was, which happened to be in front of the play. He came from 3 feet away and hit the sartell player. Now, I totally agree with the player off the bench getting tossed. I beleive he is out the next game as well, as he should be.

I will say it was an entertaining game with just about everything you could want, except for defense and goaltending. There were some soft goals and some pretty ones. Good luck to both team in the post season.

[keeponcoachin"]

yeah, I agree there were missed calls on both sides. Usually are in a game as heated as that one got. Maybe the refs felt sorry for Sartell!? they gave up a bunch of size and speed to Brainerd and had to play a phyical game to slow it down. It was a very fun game to end the season on with the conference title up for grabs.

[standtall44]

I personally was at the game and I thought that the goaltending for both sides was really not as bad as it seemed. Both goaltenders were left out to dry far too many times by their defenses. I was appalled to watch in the first period sartell's defenders simply watch brainerd warriors blow right past them on breakaway after breakaway with no hassle at all. I felt bad for sartell's goalie, he must have seen at least 6 different breakaways when their should have never even been one. And Brainerds goaltender had the issue of his team simply quitting in front of him numerous times. They assumed they had the game wrapped up and quit playing defense and sartell made them pay. I was disheartened to see this poor defense...and yes I am a goalie so I do feel slightly more sympathetic for them.

And archibalds faceoff blunder at the end was hilarious...
Good game otherwise though, very fun and exciting. Just...poor defense is all.

[upnorthockey]

Did you miss the part of the game where Sartell was running Brainerd players? That would be portions of the 1st and second. Officiating was less than stellar. One in particular was a head contact penalty on Brainerd. Legit penalty, no issues. No less than 2 minutes later Sartell player does the exact same thing. No call. This happened a few times.

Now, to say the Brainerd player "ran" the sartell kid at the end is a huge stretch. I was there and hear could not hear the horn go off from where I was, which happened to be in front of the play. He came from 3 feet away and hit the sartell player. Now, I totally agree with the player off the bench getting tossed. I beleive he is out the next game as well, as he should be.

I will say it was an entertaining game with just about everything you could want, except for defense and goaltending. There were some soft goals and some pretty ones. Good luck to both team in the post season.

I agree with you. There was alot of emotion and contact on BOTH sides. During the scrum at the end, Coach Arch was yelling at the players to get off the ice. What else could he do? A coach can't control a player's reaction. The kid will sit out the next game and hopefully, something will be learned from that. The defense on both teams best step it up if they want to play into March. I did find Archibald's passive aggressive move at end entertaining, but it could have cost them a goal. Good luck to both teams in sections!

[BobSaget]

Let me get this off my chest...I'm not the biggest Sartell fan. I'm not at all a fan of their coaching staff or how they play the game. But last night I wanted to see Archibald play so I made my way over to Bernick's arena.

That hit at the end of the game by the Brainerd player was completely ridiculous. It was well after the horn sounded and was one of those extremely dangerous hits from behind. The kid should be booted from the next game, IMO. Coach Archibald seemed to agree, as it seemed that he was very upset about that players choice. As obnoxious as he gets during the game, I do believe he scolded his player very harshly after that hit...so ripping him seems to be a tad out of line.