Subway, think fresh, eat fresh...any predictions?

[old goalie85]

Cngrats to the 00 orange and all our Mn kids that went up and played!!!

[Pylon]

Elite Division Champions
1997 Vancouver Selects
1998 Jr Steelers
1999 Vancouver Selects Blue
2000 Minnesota Machine
2001 Team Brick Sask
2002 Manitoba 2K2 Warriors
2003 Manitoba Team Extreme
2004 Manitoba Purple Lightning

[HockeyDad41]

What a great tournament. That Iceplex is a very nice venue.

[Shortsidegoal]

Cngrats to the 00 orange and all our Mn kids that went up and played!!!

Congrats 2000 Machine in Winnipeg this past weekend, and to all other minnesota kids.

May the Freight Train continue to ROLL!!!

[Pylon]

many hit the road tomorrow for the Subway, lets hear the predicitions!

My Guess


97 Vancouver Selects ( Mn Blades. Machine should make top 4)
98 Calgary Hitmen vs ( Mn Blades, Vancouver Selects, jr Steelers should be in the top 4)
99 Vancouver Selects Blue vs Machine
00 Machine or BC bears or Mountain Selects or Brick Alumni
01 Vancouver Selects vs Team Brick
02 Vancouver Selects
03 Lightning??

I hit a winner, hit an exacta, might have hit an exact box and flat out missed a couple divisions.

97 Level

1. Vancouver Selects
2. Mn Blades
3. Mn Machine

98 Level

1. jr Steelers
2. Vancouver Vipers
3. sask jr Blades

99 Level

1. Vancouver Selects Blue
2. Mn Machine
3. West Canada Selects

00 Level

1. Mn Machine
2. Manitoba Lightning
3. Team Brick

01 Level

1. Team Brick
2. Mn Machine


02 Level

1. 2K2 Warriors
2. BC Bears
3. NAA Sting

03 Level

1. Manitoba Team Extreme
2. BC Bears
3. NAS Capitals

Well done, I hit 5 of the 8 right!

[JSR]

WOW, what a fantastic tournament. The IcePlex is an amazing venue. The teams up there were fantastic. 2000 birth year very deep IMO as I thought the Wheatkings, Jr. Steelers and our own AAA Crush team were all really, really good teams and they all played in the AAA invite division (along with Machine Black and some other Canadian teams). The other thing I thought was amazing was how well the teams did with the checking. Seemed like all the teams we played were well versed in checking, used it to gain possession of the puck, very few kids even attempted the "big hit" and most who did missed and took themselves out of the play. The game the AAA Crush played agianst the Wheatkings on Friday was the best game I've ever had a child be part of, it was fast, it was "cleanly" physical, both teams and both goalies played about as well as you can play for their respective sides and the score ended 4-3. Very fun to watch it. Would have been nice to see if having a full roster would have helped push the kids over the top so to speak but even with a short bench thought they did great. Very happy with this tourney and the team the kids played on. Lots of fun!

[old goalie85]

sounds like 00 can learn how to check. USA hock should take note.

[Eric1984]

The Iceplex is an absolute godsend, sparing you from having to play in some pretty awful arenas in town. Hopefully, they build another at the other end of town so they can TNT many of the city-owned rinks.

2000 Elite side was very deep with not much to choose from the top 8. Have to hand it to the Machine though for always playing a very disciplined, tight checking game. Very difficult to beat.

[JSR]

sounds like 00 can learn how to check. USA hock should take note.

OG, that is exactly what I was thinking while watching it. I was actually astonished how well they executed it considering for most of the American kids it was their first real go at it. And the Canadian teams we played were good at it without being dirty so it was actually quite fun to watch.

Something else I noticed during the tourney, for the most part I couldn't believe how good the refs were. One game not so much but the other four games teh refs were great. They communicated well with the players and coaches, tellign them exactly why they made the cal they did and helping the players to try and educate them not to make the saem mistakes. They wer egreat at calling illegal checks and insuring nothing got out of hand. They also did something interesting, which some people I am sure will think is bad but I personally loved it and that was they kind of "coached" the kids during live action, sort of leading them to make the right decision especially in the corners and when they were going to hit someone but also in some other small areas of the game. My take was that it was almost as if they felt that they weren't there just to call penalties, offsides and goals but were there instead as partners to help all the kids on the ice get better. I'd never seen anything quite like it and I thought it made the experience even that much better.

[HockeyDad41]

I noticed even at the youngest levels the canadian kids were very physical. Not cheap at all, but very good at separating the player from the puck. Pinching on the boards etc.... Wish we taught our kids that.

[Trout]

I noticed the reffing up there in years past as well. Very good at working with the kids.

This is the exact opposite of Chicago where they call everything and they are there to get noticed not help the game along.

Minnesota is usually somewhere inbetween, in the TC closer to Chicago style in the north closer to Canadian style.

As far as checking goes, I would hope the 00's have been practicing it all spring to be prepared for this tourney (and others they may have played in Canada) as well as next year in Pee Wee's...Unfortunately they will not have that incentive in future years.

[JSR]

I noticed the reffing up there in years past as well. Very good at working with the kids.

This is the exact opposite of Chicago where they call everything and they are there to get noticed not help the game along.

Minnesota is usually somewhere inbetween, in the TC closer to Chicago style in the north closer to Canadian style.

As far as checking goes, I would hope the 00's have been practicing it all spring to be prepared for this tourney (and others they may have played in Canada) as well as next year in Pee Wee's...Unfortunately they will not have that incentive in future years.

Agree on the reffing comments.

Checking wise, I know our kids practiced it quite a bit before going up there. One other cool thing this tourney offered was an hour of on ice instruction from a realy good coach in checking. So while our kids had practiced quite a bit this additional on ice hour of instruction from a coach who looked like a real good coach was excellent. I will say that when playing the Canadian teams the kids used their bodies well and did things very nicely and used that body contact frequently to separate the skater from the puck , interestingly when we played the Machine Black team the physicality was considerably less. I don't know if it was because it was the fifth game of five 20 minute period games and checks take their toll, or if it was coincidence or if it was because in this age group the two "south of the boarder" teams were just not as likely to use it as the Canadian teams. I also liked and noticed the different styles of play, that was actually pretty cool, don't usually notice that in this age group down in these parts but definitely saw it up there.

[old goalie85]

I heard the same about the 98's. We [mn teams ] were not big or physical enough to hang w/ them.

[Pylon]

This was a great tournament with excellent competition. I too thought the refing was very good. I did see a ref grab a guy out of the time box and escort him off the ice. I asked a dad what was going on and I guess a parent from the NAA Sting in the 2002 division was "helping" in the time box and got out of hand and called the refs names over the microphone. This was at the 2002 level!! I only saw a bit of the game but it was VERY physical! LOL, and there is no contact at that age!

[Pylon]

Our teams by division
2003
Mn Made Gold 2-2-1
Mn Made Blue 0-5-0

2002
Mn Machine 2-2-1
Mn Blades 0-5-0

2001
Mn Machine 3-3-0

2000
Mn Machine 5-0-0
Mn Blades 3-2-0

1999
Mn Machine 5-1-0
Mn Blades 2-3-0

1998
Mn Machine 1-4-0
Mn Blades 3-3-0
Mn Icemen 0-5-0

1997
Mn Machine 3-2-0
Mn Blades 3-2-0

Combined overall totals:
Mn Machine 21-19-2 (including 03 split teams)
Mn Blades 11-15-0

I think the above numbers shows just how tough the competition up there was! Good job to all who brought some hardware back home!

[HockeyDad41]

For the record I did not see one bag taco the whole time I was there.

[MrBoDangles]

Our teams by division
2003
Mn Made Gold 2-2-1
Mn Made Blue 0-5-0

2002
Mn Machine 2-2-1
Mn Blades 0-5-0

2001
Mn Machine 3-3-0

2000
Mn Machine 5-0-0
Mn Blades 3-2-0

1999
Mn Machine 5-1-0
Mn Blades 2-3-0

1998
Mn Machine 1-4-0
Mn Blades 3-3-0
Mn Icemen 0-5-0

1997
Mn Machine 3-2-0
Mn Blades 3-2-0

Combined overall totals:
Mn Machine 21-19-2 (including 03 split teams)
Mn Blades 11-15-0

I think the above numbers shows just how tough the competition up there was! Good job to all who brought some hardware back home!

Minnesota's 2000 age group is a special one.

[trippedovertheblueline]

For the record I did not see one bag taco the whole time I was there.

she usually works the north side of town

[old goalie85]

[ThePuckStopsHere]

Our teams by division
2003
Mn Made Gold 2-2-1
Mn Made Blue 0-5-0

2002
Mn Machine 2-2-1
Mn Blades 0-5-0

2001
Mn Machine 3-3-0

2000
Mn Machine 5-0-0
Mn Blades 3-2-0

1999
Mn Machine 5-1-0
Mn Blades 2-3-0

1998
Mn Machine 1-4-0
Mn Blades 3-3-0
Mn Icemen 0-5-0

1997
Mn Machine 3-2-0
Mn Blades 3-2-0

Combined overall totals:
Mn Machine 21-19-2 (including 03 split teams)
Mn Blades 11-15-0

I think the above numbers shows just how tough the competition up there was! Good job to all who brought some hardware back home!

Minnesota's 2000 age group is a special one.

Really how special can a bunch of 10 year olds be Do you have your sons college all picked out?

Don't lose sight this is summer hockey, means NOTHING other than to the guy's cashing your checks

[dogeatdog1]

For the record I did not see one bag taco the whole time I was there.

Sorry HD I didn't make it up to the tourney. Last year when I was up there all of the rinks that we played at had the Giant oversized TIAB's for $3.50 it was better than going out to eat. Did the Winnipeg Marathon take place the same weekend this year and make it impossible to get to the rinks on Sunday? I almost missed my son's game last year.

[Eric1984]

Marathon was on the Sunday but if you were playing at the icelplex, you wouldn't have noticed. The Red River Ex was more of a parking/driving hazard.

I would agree regarding checking and the difference between US and Cdn refs.....we found MN refs tended to call far too many legit checks as 'boarding' or 'charging' or whatever which got us into penalty trouble. For the most part, Cdn refs can sort out good checks from bad ones. There were a few checks from behind but nothing I thought was out of line.

[HockeyDad41]

For the record I did not see one bag taco the whole time I was there.

Sorry HD I didn't make it up to the tourney. Last year when I was up there all of the rinks that we played at had the Giant oversized TIAB's for $3.50 it was better than going out to eat. Did the Winnipeg Marathon take place the same weekend this year and make it impossible to get to the rinks on Sunday? I almost missed my son's game last year.

Had the nachos instead Good stuff. The canucks don't scrimp on the cheese!

[JSR]

Marathon was on the Sunday but if you were playing at the icelplex, you wouldn't have noticed. The Red River Ex was more of a parking/driving hazard.

I would agree regarding checking and the difference between US and Cdn refs.....we found MN refs tended to call far too many legit checks as 'boarding' or 'charging' or whatever which got us into penalty trouble. For the most part, Cdn refs can sort out good checks from bad ones. There were a few checks from behind but nothing I thought was out of line.

Depends on the age group I suppose but for the 2000 I thought the Canadian refs were outstandign at calling anyting that even remotely looked like it even could be a check from behind, oarding, contact to the head, or check with arm extension. I feel like if refs called it that way at the pee wee level here in the states we wouldn't need this new rule change.

[old goalie85]

We don't need this rule change..