Anecdotes to explain how big HS hockey is in Minnesota?

sinbin · Post by **sinbin** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:43 pm

Texas football and Indiana basketball cannot even begin to comprehend Minnesota hockey. Yes, I know that statement is a nice fat, lobbed-in softball, but maybe someone can wordsmith it and make it even pithier. There is a bluer version of this analogy, that's really more of a metaphor, but probably not completely appropriate for this board.

hockeydad · Post by **hockeydad** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:04 pm

Here's a new anecdote that tells you how big high school hockey is in Minnesota:

Trying to read messages on the highschoolhockeyforums.com board and constantly getting a "Critical Error: Could not connect to database" message because everyone else is trying to read the forum also!

Fayal Flyer · Post by **Fayal Flyer** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:38 pm

When sid hartman doesn't believe that Minnesota is a hockey state and constantly can't believe how fanatic hockey people are for their sport.

Goldfishdude · Post by **Goldfishdude** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:01 pm

hockeydad wrote:Here's a new anecdote that tells you how big high school hockey is in Minnesota:

Trying to read messages on the highschoolhockeyforums.com board and constantly getting a "Critical Error: Could not connect to database" message because everyone else is trying to read the forum also!

The Thirsty Whale · Post by **The Thirsty Whale** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:18 pm

http://www.aolnews.com/2009/03/11/minne ... tradition/

http://www.sportsfeelgoodstories.com/20 ... look-back/

gitter · Post by **gitter** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:55 pm

The largest crowd for a state tournament game (according the the MSHSL website) was the 2008 AA semifinal with paid attendance of 19,547. According to the MN Wild website, the most attended game at the Xcel Center is not for the Wild, but the 2002 NCAA championship at 19,324.

A state tournament hockey game eclipsed both of them.

Post by **east hockey** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:40 pm

hockeydad wrote:Here's a new anecdote that tells you how big high school hockey is in Minnesota:

Trying to read messages on the highschoolhockeyforums.com board and constantly getting a "Critical Error: Could not connect to database" message because everyone else is trying to read the forum also!

Putting a positive spin on that never occurred to me!

Lee

DmanDad1980 · Post by **DmanDad1980** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:21 pm

Fayal Flyer wrote:When sid hartman doesn't believe that Minnesota is a hockey state and constantly can't believe how fanatic hockey people are for their sport.

Who's Sid Hartman...

nickmon3 · Post by **nickmon3** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:46 pm

The fact that we have a "Hockey Day Minnesota" every year should explain enough

HShockeywatcher · Post by **HShockeywatcher** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:21 pm

iLLuminati_666 wrote:I was down in texas for a while for military stuff and i caught a few playoff games there. They sold out about 10000 people arenas so not quite as big as minnesotas hockey playoffs.

This is really apples and oranges. In Texas, many regular season games hit 10-15,000 people in sold out stadiums. This year's 5A, DI state championship game had 43,321 in attendance. The difference with football in texas and hockey in MN is that football is a lifestyle for the majority of the state, like hockey is for towns like Roseau. Hockey isn't that way in MN; it is for those who play hockey, but not for those who don't.

The hard part to tell with comparing an attendance for football that is almost double that of hockey is the arena size. The Xcel gets sold out; the capacity is less than half of what attended the football final. Would we be able to sell out a game played in the dome, TCF or some large venue like that? The big school game in Texas was played in Cowboys stadium and was less than half full.

My two cents (and I'm sure that's all it's worth to some) is that no one outside of MN can comprehend how big the AA State Tournament is if they are not from MN. You could build an arena 2 or 3 times the size of the X and it would probably sell out as well year in and year out for state games. People come regardless of who's playing, to see one of the best state tournaments anywhere.
High school hockey in general, though, is not what it is made out to be, relatively speaking.

got some · Post by **got some** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:44 am

karl(east) wrote:Kids from MN will pass up spring break vacations in the Caribbean to go watch the hockey tournament.

The saga of a successful head coach's dismissal and struggle to be reinstated was front-page news for a year.

"Hill-Murray" was a trending topic on Twitter last year during their 4-OT classic against Minnetonka.

A picture of the lines at the ticket windows at the X would probably do, if one picture could actually do it justice. It might take a series of pictures.

If I had to describe the essence of Minnesota, or what it is to be a Minnesotan, in one phrase, I would say the hockey tournament. As someone who now spends most of his time out of the state, these few days just capture everything about it for me.

I'll probably think of more...

Both Hill-Murray and WBL were trending (Minneapolis) on twitter the night of the section final!

EHSHack · Post by **EHSHack** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:06 am

elliott70 wrote:
Goldfishdude wrote:
wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

It has more action, more energy, more heart-racing moments than a Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson documentary...

The hockey tournament is not as deep.

Doesn't quite suck as much either. Plus Phil Housely's commentary blows...

sinbin · Post by **sinbin** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:41 am

Man, do I have to bite my tongue on this one . . .

mnorth5 · Post by **mnorth5** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:24 am

Wikipedia

History
2009 Boys AA Championship game at the Xcel Energy CenterHigh school hockey players throughout Minnesota participate in a maximum of 25 contests, excluding the section tournaments and the Minnesota State Boys' High School Hockey Tournament. Teams currently play three 17-minute periods to comprise a game. A lengthened period time was recently adopted by the Minnesota State High School League.

Boys hockey concludes their season with a four day tournament in March that features sixteen teams competing for championships in both classes. From 1945 through 1991 the tournament consisted of a single class, eight team tournament instead of the present day two class (AA and A) tournament. Private schools were not allowed to play in the Tournament until the 1974-75 season. In 1992-93, the tournament was composed of Tier I and II teams. This two-year experiment sent the top teams from each of the eight sections to the Tier I portion of the tournament and the remaining teams conducted a playoff to determine who would be included in the Tier II tournament. In 1994, the dual class system was adopted and teams were placed into a class structure based on school enrollments. Attendance has been strong throughout the years with 22 tournaments eclipsing the 100,000+ barrier and in 2004 a record setting total of 120,114 (both classes). In the 2006 State Tournament, the average attendance per game in the championship brackets was 18,000 people. The Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament is currently the largest state sports tournament in the United States in terms of viewing and attendance, beating both the Texas and Florida's State High School Football Tournament and the Indiana State High School Basketball Tournament.

Neal Broten, Herb Brooks, Phil Housley, Reed Larson, Tom Preissing, Doug Zmolek, John Mayasich, Craig Norwich, Mike Antonovich, Henry Boucha, Steve Janaszak, Brian Lee, John Pohl, Dave Spehar, Ben Ulland, Jeff Vivant, Mark Parrish, TJ Oshie, Paul Martin, Mike Crowley, and Blake Wheeler are among the many notable players that participated in Minnesota high school hockey.

Since 1994, the MSHSL's process to determine section assignments for boys' hockey is based on school enrollments and activity classifications. The basic premise is to place the largest 64 schools into Class AA and the remaining high schools in Class A. Both Classes are then divided into 8 Sections each. Teams are placed into their section assignments with geographic location as a primary consideration. High schools initially placed in Class A have the option to play at the Class AA level.

Beginning with the 2007 state tournament, the top four teams in each class will be seeded. Coaches of the participating schools will vote to determine the seeded teams the Sunday before the state tournament. The four teams are then bracketed so that if the seeded teams advance, the top seed will play the fourth seed while the second and third seeds will play each other. The quarterfinal opponents of the seeded teams will be determined by a blind draw.

[edit] Historical timeline1905 -- St. Paul Academy fields their first hockey team-believed to be the oldest in the state of Minnesota
1930s -- High school hockey played at approximately 25 schools in Minnesota.
1945 -- First MSHSL Boys State High School Hockey Tournament (the first of its kind in the United States) held at St. Paul Auditorium.
1969 -- The tournament moves to Met Center in Bloomington, home of the Minnesota North Stars NHL team.
1976 -- The tournament moves to the St. Paul Civic Center.
1992 -- Tier I and Tier II structure adopted.
1994 -- Class AA and A structure adopted.
1999 -- The tournament moved to the Target Center in Minneapolis.
2001 -- The tournament moved to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, home of the Minnesota Wild NHL team.
2003 -- Period length changed from 15 to 17 minutes.
2007 -- Coaches seed top four teams in each class.[1]
2008 -- March 7, 19,559 fans attended the 2008 State Boys’ Hockey Tournament Class AA semifinals at Xcel Energy Center, setting a new record for the largest crowd to ever attend a hockey game in the state of Minnesota. [2]

WZTA JGB · Post by **WZTA JGB** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:43 pm

This should prove how strong minnesota hockey is: a friend of mine played Junior Gold B last year and moved to arizona in the summer. He made the first line on his varsity team and they won the state championship. He says the varsity games there are like a junior gold game here, this just proves how superior the varsity players in MN are and how much we love hockey.

bronco2828 · Post by **bronco2828** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:15 pm

Yes agreed that Texas Football is huge. Just like Florida Football and a few other states. Indiana Basketball also. I grew up watching Illinois High School basketball tourney every year until I made it to Minnesota. March Madness in Illinois is a close 2nd to Indiana. Difference is I'm sure every state in the nation has a footbal and basketball state tourney.
Minnesota is the only state that has this caliber of a tournament at this level. You gotta admit it's up there with Pamela and Tommy Lee.

Goldfishdude · Post by **Goldfishdude** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:26 am

bronco2828 wrote:Yes agreed that Texas Football is huge. Just like Florida Football and a few other states. Indiana Basketball also. I grew up watching Illinois High School basketball tourney every year until I made it to Minnesota. March Madness in Illinois is a close 2nd to Indiana. Difference is I'm sure every state in the nation has a footbal and basketball state tourney.
Minnesota is the only state that has this caliber of a tournament at this level. You gotta admit it's up there with Pamela and Tommy Lee.

Thanks for all those that have agreed with me.. And people probably thought I was kidding when I posted that!!

Pioneerprideguy · Post by **Pioneerprideguy** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:31 am

Hill-Murray finished the season with a record of 23-3-1. They won their conference. They won an elite Holiday tournament. They spent the majority of the season as the #1 ranked team in the State. Yet, the fact that they didn't play in the State Tournament, their season is considered a disappoinment (by them and many others). It's the Show or nothing!

Rossbury21 · Post by **Rossbury21** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:40 pm

I am currently in Miami for spring break, and have been watching the games through the internet and an HDMI cable hooked up to the TV. A guy from around here came in and commented because he thought I was watching the Panther game, and when I mentioned it was the Minnesota State High School Tournament he was in shock, and then commented that the Panthers get a fourth as many fans as the tourney. Other comments I have gotten from people were that of "Why is the whole pro team wearing face masks" or "Minnesota is obsessed with hockey" and my favorite "Why does that one guy have more pads on then the others." I think the best testament for how big the tournament actually is would be that people watch the tourney no matter what age, and if your alma mater is in it or not. It is more than a tournament, but a week long hockey celebration.

sachishi4 · Post by **sachishi4** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:51 am

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_d ... ng-content

great article in the Puck Daddy blog on yahoo.

The Thirsty Whale · Post by **The Thirsty Whale** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:55 am

That is a great article, I must say.

PuckU126 · Post by **PuckU126** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:58 am

sachishi4 wrote:http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_d ... ng-content

great article in the Puck Daddy blog on yahoo.

Great read!

It's about time Puck Daddy wrote something good...

Govie · Post by **Govie** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 10:23 pm

The biggest correlation is comparing it to basketball in Indiana and Football in Texas - maybe baseball in Florida or Cali'.

Or you could just say it's pretty much the only high school hockey tournament (outside of sections, of course) really worth checking out. Basically, MN is like a mini Canada when it comes to hockey because we are the coldest state in the lower 48.

HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Anecdotes to explain how big HS hockey is in Minnesota?

Re: Sports Illustrated