early rankings anyone?

[grandmeadowhockeyfan]

give me the top five teams to see in the state.
so I can plan a schedule to see them. I get to drive to anywhere in the state five times during the year. help out a fan.

[blueblood]

Duluth East
Tonka
BSM
Grand Rapids
Edina
Elk River

If you go to the Edina Holiday Classic, you will get to see Edina, ER, GR and EP. 6 games over 3 nights in December.

[HockeyMN1]

Number one regular season game to go to for me is always EP Edina in the holiday classic. Amazing atmosphere even though the eagles haven't had great luck in it recently. Always a classic MN high school affair.

[council member retired]

[quote="blueblood"]Duluth East
Tonka
BSM
Grand Rapids
Edina
Elk River

If you go to the Edina Holiday Classic, you will get to see Edina, ER, GR and EP. 6 games over 3 nights in December.[/quote]

eagan?
my top two: duluth east and eagan
tonka bsm grand rapids round it out

[grandmeadowhockeyfan]

Eagan and elk river? that surprises me. what
don't I know about those two
teams

[longdistancespectator8]

Eagan is very senior heavy. Similar to Eden Prairie from last year.

5 or 6 guys in the elite league playing for team southeast. Throughout youth hockey they were consistently at top 5 team as second years

[karl(east)]

I would add Maple Grove to the mix near the top.

Elk River will be a good team--they have a very experienced goalie and their bantams did very well last year--but I suspect even their supporters would say top-5, or even top-10, would be a bit lofty at this point. They didn't have a whole lot of firepower last season, and their top skater (Jaremko) graduated.

[east hockey]

Top Four: East, Eagan, Benilde, Minnetonka. All four return tons of scoring from last year. Curious to see how the goalie situation works out in East and Eagan. At this point, you could probably put all four in a hat.

Rapids, probably fifth. Lost more scoring than the other four schools, similar goalie situation to East and Eagan (in other words, will someone new step up and replace what was lost?)

Can't wait to see how this plays out!

Lee

[BodyShots]

Duluth East
Tonka
BSM
Grand Rapids
Edina
Elk River
If you go to the Edina Holiday Classic, you will get to see Edina, ER, GR and EP. 6 games over 3 nights in December.

You should have stopped at five like the poster asked.

Eagan, Duluth East, Tonka, Maple Grove, BSM.

[Shinbone_News]

Agree with others on ER. I'm rooting for goalie Franke, but I just don't see them competing in their conference or region for top honors. A great goalie can carry a lot of water -- but not for an entire season against the likes of Blaine, Maple Grove, and even Anoka. Could they get lucky and hot and break through in post-season? It's happened before (WBL last year, Blaine last year to name two.)

Maple Grove is too hungry (or they SHOULD be), and Blaine cruises on the fumes of high expectations.

Personally, I do like an underdog though, so I'll be watching ER's scores.

[Shinbone_News]

East
Eagan*
Benilde
Maple Grove
Edina


How about single A?

STA
Hermantown
Breck*
Blake
Lourdes


*darkhorse state champion. I'm going on the record right now!

[keepyourheadup]

Breck a darkhorse? No doubt the clear favorite. STA lost way to much offense to be the favorite.

[CB00]

I would add Maple Grove to the mix near the top.

Elk River will be a good team--they have a very experienced goalie and their bantams did very well last year--but I suspect even their supporters would say top-5, or even top-10, would be a bit lofty at this point. They didn't have a whole lot of firepower last season, and their top skater (Jaremko) graduated.

I also agree maybe a bit lofty expectation, even though I'm the biggest ER homer. I think ER will hang around in the top 20 this year with a chance to always win a big game. Even though ER lost Jaremko, everybody loses in graduation, they will definitely improve upfront in the scoring category. Scoring was the biggest problem last year. ER will bring 3-5 sophomores from a 3rd place State Tourney bantam team and bring back the majority of the scoring from last year. I believe you will see ER most likely 10-20, but hopefully top 10. It's going to be a tough road in 7AA this year. Could be the toughest section this year.

[rainier]

East
Eagan*
Benilde
Maple Grove
Edina


How about single A?

STA
Hermantown
Breck*
Blake
Lourdes


*darkhorse state champion. I'm going on the record right now!

Gotta include Hibbing in the top 5 for A. They return about 80% of their scoring, only lost two skaters, and their new goalie has been selected for some all star camps. They were right there with Hermantown last year and this year should be no different.

[Shinbone_News]

Crap, I forgot Hibbing! They ought to be awesome this year. Love to see them take another run.

[karl(east)]

I would add Maple Grove to the mix near the top.

Elk River will be a good team--they have a very experienced goalie and their bantams did very well last year--but I suspect even their supporters would say top-5, or even top-10, would be a bit lofty at this point. They didn't have a whole lot of firepower last season, and their top skater (Jaremko) graduated.

I also agree maybe a bit lofty expectation, even though I'm the biggest ER homer. I think ER will hang around in the top 20 this year with a chance to always win a big game. Even though ER lost Jaremko, everybody loses in graduation, they will definitely improve upfront in the scoring category. Scoring was the biggest problem last year. ER will bring 3-5 sophomores from a 3rd place State Tourney bantam team and bring back the majority of the scoring from last year. I believe you will see ER most likely 10-20, but hopefully top 10. It's going to be a tough road in 7AA this year. Could be the toughest section this year.

While it's hard to compete with 6AA, it will definitely be one of the toughest. I have ER around 15-16 in my pre-preseason rankings.

Too bad they didn't schedule East during the regular season this year. In fact their schedule right now still has one too many games on it...

[oldtendy35]

Number one regular season game to go to for me is always EP Edina in the holiday classic. Amazing atmosphere even though the eagles haven't had great luck in it recently. Always a classic MN high school affair.

This is a game that I try to make most every year. Unfortunatley I missed the thriller last year but heard all about it. The atmosphere is always great with it being a Saturday night game with a super large attendance. I would also say that, for the first time in many years, it would be an upset if Eden Prairie won the game. Should be a great game regardless

[green4]

Number one regular season game to go to for me is always EP Edina in the holiday classic. Amazing atmosphere even though the eagles haven't had great luck in it recently. Always a classic MN high school affair.

This is a game that I try to make most every year. Unfortunatley I missed the thriller last year but heard all about it. The atmosphere is always great with it being a Saturday night game with a super large attendance. I would also say that, for the first time in many years, it would be an upset if Eden Prairie won the game. Should be a great game regardless

for the first time in many years it would be an upset if ep beat edina? i think these teams are pretty equal... edina beat ep twice last year and lost once if i remember correctly so were those wins upsets?

[oldtendy35]

Number one regular season game to go to for me is always EP Edina in the holiday classic. Amazing atmosphere even though the eagles haven't had great luck in it recently. Always a classic MN high school affair.

This is a game that I try to make most every year. Unfortunatley I missed the thriller last year but heard all about it. The atmosphere is always great with it being a Saturday night game with a super large attendance. I would also say that, for the first time in many years, it would be an upset if Eden Prairie won the game. Should be a great game regardless

for the first time in many years it would be an upset if ep beat edina? i think these teams are pretty equal... edina beat ep twice last year and lost once if i remember correctly so were those wins upsets?

No, I would not consider those wins upsets. Sorry bad wording on my part. For the past about 3 years people went into this game expecting it to be very tight and not knowing who'd win. This year i'd think that Edina are pretty big favorites.

[observer]

Both Edina and EP will take some lumps this year. Hill too. None will be top 5.

[green4]

Both Edina and EP will take some lumps this year. Hill too. None will be top 5.

i think edina COULD be a top 5 team i think they are being over looked a little bit they have a lot of young talent and yeah they lost a lot of seniors but the last time that happened and people thought they were going to have a down year they won state

[longdistancespectator8]

This group of seniors and juniors at Edina have never been a top contender through youth hockey. Unless the kids younger than them are phenomenal or they have significantly improved, I find it hard to believe they will jump up with teams like Eagan, Duluth East, or Benilde.

Their program is large enough and they have enough depth to be top 20, maybe top 15. But that top group of 5 teams are significantly stronger.

I think it might finally be Burnsville's year to win section 2 again.

[green4]

This group of seniors and juniors at Edina have never been a top contender through youth hockey. Unless the kids younger than them are phenomenal or they have significantly improved, I find it hard to believe they will jump up with teams like Eagan, Duluth East, or Benilde.

Their program is large enough and they have enough depth to be top 20, maybe top 15. But that top group of 5 teams are significantly stronger.

I think it might finally be Burnsville's year to win section 2 again.

the juniors won a pee wee state title, and had a decent team as bantams. saying they werent top contenders i think would be false, not the most talented group from edina but not bad

[Nobodyonya]

This group of seniors and juniors at Edina have never been a top contender through youth hockey. Unless the kids younger than them are phenomenal or they have significantly improved, I find it hard to believe they will jump up with teams like Eagan, Duluth East, or Benilde.

Their program is large enough and they have enough depth to be top 20, maybe top 15. But that top group of 5 teams are significantly stronger.

I think it might finally be Burnsville's year to win section 2 again.

the juniors won a pee wee state title, and had a decent team as bantams. saying they werent top contenders i think would be false, not the most talented group from edina but not bad

The Juniors from the A Peewee team that won the title are not all playing at Edina as Juniors. Handful of there top players have transferred out to other High Schools

[northwoods oldtimer]

Top 5
Tonka
Duluth East
Eagan
BSM
Maple Grove

6 - 10
Moorhead
Grand Rapids
Burnsville
Edina
Hill Murray

Teams to watch:Bemidji/Elk River/Eden Prairie

Too early for me to tell on a lot of teams but this is my guess.