class a tourny

[slyer]

seems to be getting worse every year, those were some barnburner games yesterday, all four games were blowouts. when you can perdict that the games are gonna be blowouts before they start, this is the state tournament, not the first round of section playoffs

[defense]

seems to be getting worse every year, those were some barnburner games yesterday, all four games were blowouts. when you can perdict that the games are gonna be blowouts before they start, this is the state tournament, not the first round of section playoffs

The first round games are more likely to be routes now that the field is seeded. That was kinda the purpose.
That said, I didn't see this happening this year. I figured 1 and maybe 2 of the games would be bigger margins....not all 3. And I actually thought there would be an upset.
More on seeding:
Back when the first round games were based on a rotation, people complained that the semi's sometimes ended up lop sided, so they went to seeding...
Now that we have seeding, people are complaining that the first round games are lop sided a lot of the time.
Interesting.

[rainier]

I'd much rather have blowouts in the quarters than in the semis. The seeding is a good idea.

[Doc Holliday]

It defintely is the trade off: good semis with bad quarterfinals. AA can be different because you have more teams that can compete at a high level. But the first two rounds of sections (actually the section finals this year too) of AA were pretty much laughers. Just seems like the Class A has a round or two more of laughers.

Funny thing is the Class A section finals were much more competitive than the AA this year.

I've said for years that something needs to be done about the Class A quarters because they've been uninteresting for quite a while, but I don't know what you can really do. At least there is a plus to it and that's the semis have been pretty good, or at least one of the semis is always good.

I was actually surprised by New Ulm a little. Perhaps TRF played down to them. Or perhaps it's because they've played Breck & STA the past two years. But it seemed like, while they got outplayed without a doubt, had a few scoring chances here & there and seemed more in place at the tournament than years past. I thought their top line was kind of pesky at times.

[Northsider]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but that was just brutal to watch yesterday and we need to go back to one class. Yea I know it will never happen; doesn't mean it shouldn't though. Four non-competitive games in front of a crowd that couldn't fill up 1/4 of the lower bowl. It was watching it on my dorm tv and it was embarrassing to explain to my roommate from the UP, who has always heard how big the state tourney was here, that this is just the small schools and that the real tournament starts tomorrow. From a hockey fan standpoint, there was just nothing fun about those games.

Instead of watching these first round blowouts, it would be much better if we had STA vs Eagan in the Section 2 championship. Hermantown vs East in Section 7. Moorhead vs TRF in Section 8. Breck thrown into Section 6, etc.

[Sats81]

As long as STA and Breck come to play tomorrow that should be a slugfest and quite possibly the game of the class A tourney. Whoever wins that game should play another entertaining game in the championship with Hermantown (as long as they don't lay an egg against TRF-doubtful).

[blueliner5]

I remember the 1 class tourney nothing compares to that. The Tourney started on Thursday and the excitement didn't end til LATE Saturday night. For some reason I can't get myself to turn on the t.v. on Wednesday to watch Class A, with the exception when Ben Hanowski was playing for Lil Falls that's the only reason I turned it on. I agree that it will not happen to where we go back to 1 class State tourney, but I wish they would

[TheSiouxSuck]

It defintely is the trade off: good semis with bad quarterfinals. AA can be different because you have more teams that can compete at a high level. But the first two rounds of sections (actually the section finals this year too) of AA were pretty much laughers. Just seems like the Class A has a round or two more of laughers.

Funny thing is the Class A section finals were much more competitive than the AA this year.

I've said for years that something needs to be done about the Class A quarters because they've been uninteresting for quite a while, but I don't know what you can really do. At least there is a plus to it and that's the semis have been pretty good, or at least one of the semis is always good.

I was actually surprised by New Ulm a little. Perhaps TRF played down to them. Or perhaps it's because they've played Breck & STA the past two years. But it seemed like, while they got outplayed without a doubt, had a few scoring chances here & there and seemed more in place at the tournament than years past. I thought their top line was kind of pesky at times.

I couldnt agree more. While TRF was clearly the better team I think shots were something like 37-29. New Ulm definitely had some opportunities to knock a few more in.

Aside from that, what I dislike is that the 5-1 win was the closest and most competitive game we had during the first day. I may be in the minority with this, but seeding has killed the first day of the tournament. Sure there were blowouts in the Semi's, but there still are. It totally kills any momentum for a Cinderella run. Think Simley in 03, if they hadnt gotten a matchup against St. Louis Park in the first round would they have made it out of the Quarters? Probably not but they carried that momentum all the way to the Championship and put in a hell of a performance against Warroad. Centennial in 04 is another great example. Their quarters game against Holy Angels was awesome and they rode that momentum (and that missed call on Taylors goal which would have tied it) en route to 3 consecutive shutouts.

In a tournament with seeding, none of that is possible.

[dherman8]

Why is everyone so upset about this? I'm pretty sure nobody is making anyone watch these games and this whole argument is getting old. If you don't like it then don't watch it! I actually have done some research on the Class A and Class AA quarterfinal games the last five years from 2007-2011 and here is what i found:

Class A

Games decided by one goal=3
decided by two goals=4
games decided by three goals=4
decided by four goals=4
by five or more goals=5

Class AA

games decided by one goal=4
by two goals=4
by three goals=4
by four goals=2
by five or more goals=6

I also found that the average margin of victory for a Class A quarterfinal game is just over 4 goals per game (about 6-2 per game) and for Class AA the margin of victory is just over 3 goals per game (about 5-2 per game) I'm not considering 2012 yet because we will see what today brings but does that seem like a marginal difference between the classes? The only big difference with all of this is that over the past two years in 2010 and 2011 Class A has had a game decided by 9, 10, and 11 goals because of strongest teams playing the weakest.

I could be wrong but I believe that mixing everyone into one class would hurt every small town hockey enrollment in the state unless they're a Warroad or Roseau or etc. There are already problems like this some schools are having and a one class system would take away the dreams of a lot of small town kids dreaming of making it to the state tournament and being on tv and having their towns basically shut down so that everybody can come support them.

And so what if Class AA brings in a bigger crowd? Of course they will. Look at the SIZES of some of these schools compared to others. It's not about the money folks! Doesn't matter if the crowds for A are half the size. If you have a problem with it then DON'T WATCH IT! Not every school has the same coaching and player resources!

This all comes down to big school fans and alumni that have had the privilege of seeing a higher quality of hockey than the little guys. If you don't like it just say it once and shut the hell up and let the people that care about it watch it because it means something to them. Not every school has the same coaching and player resources. And for those of you that want to mix into one class then why don't we just mix all the other sports too so we can kill the dreams of those kids too? In football why not just pit a 9 man school against Eden Prairie?

[hermhockey2]

Why is everyone so upset about this? I'm pretty sure nobody is making anyone watch these games and this whole argument is getting old. If you don't like it then don't watch it! I actually have done some research on the Class A and Class AA quarterfinal games the last five years from 2007-2011 and here is what i found:

Class A

Games decided by one goal=3
decided by two goals=4
games decided by three goals=4
decided by four goals=4
by five or more goals=5

Class AA

games decided by one goal=4
by two goals=4
by three goals=4
by four goals=2
by five or more goals=6

I also found that the average margin of victory for a Class A quarterfinal game is just over 4 goals per game (about 6-2 per game) and for Class AA the margin of victory is just over 3 goals per game (about 5-2 per game) I'm not considering 2012 yet because we will see what today brings but does that seem like a marginal difference between the classes? The only big difference with all of this is that over the past two years in 2010 and 2011 Class A has had a game decided by 9, 10, and 11 goals because of strongest teams playing the weakest.

I could be wrong but I believe that mixing everyone into one class would hurt every small town hockey enrollment in the state unless they're a Warroad or Roseau or etc. There are already problems like this some schools are having and a one class system would take away the dreams of a lot of small town kids dreaming of making it to the state tournament and being on tv and having their towns basically shut down so that everybody can come support them.

And so what if Class AA brings in a bigger crowd? Of course they will. Look at the SIZES of some of these schools compared to others. It's not about the money folks! Doesn't matter if the crowds for A are half the size. If you have a problem with it then DON'T WATCH IT! Not every school has the same coaching and player resources!

This all comes down to big school fans and alumni that have had the privilege of seeing a higher quality of hockey than the little guys. If you don't like it just say it once and shut the hell up and let the people that care about it watch it because it means something to them. Not every school has the same coaching and player resources. And for those of you that want to mix into one class then why don't we just mix all the other sports too so we can kill the dreams of those kids too? In football why not just pit a 9 man school against Eden Prairie?

As a graduate and former hockey player in the AA's and now a parent of kids in small school I agree with the above. My community, Hermantown, basically shuts down to watch our team in state. Ironically, I could now care very little about the AA tournament. I am having more fun in the small school environment. The camaraderie of knowing 3/4's of the people in the crowd is way more fun!

[Evcat99]

Why is everyone so upset about this? I'm pretty sure nobody is making anyone watch these games and this whole argument is getting old. If you don't like it then don't watch it! I actually have done some research on the Class A and Class AA quarterfinal games the last five years from 2007-2011 and here is what i found:

Class A

Games decided by one goal=3
decided by two goals=4
games decided by three goals=4
decided by four goals=4
by five or more goals=5

Class AA

games decided by one goal=4
by two goals=4
by three goals=4
by four goals=2
by five or more goals=6

I also found that the average margin of victory for a Class A quarterfinal game is just over 4 goals per game (about 6-2 per game) and for Class AA the margin of victory is just over 3 goals per game (about 5-2 per game) I'm not considering 2012 yet because we will see what today brings but does that seem like a marginal difference between the classes? The only big difference with all of this is that over the past two years in 2010 and 2011 Class A has had a game decided by 9, 10, and 11 goals because of strongest teams playing the weakest.

I could be wrong but I believe that mixing everyone into one class would hurt every small town hockey enrollment in the state unless they're a Warroad or Roseau or etc. There are already problems like this some schools are having and a one class system would take away the dreams of a lot of small town kids dreaming of making it to the state tournament and being on tv and having their towns basically shut down so that everybody can come support them.

And so what if Class AA brings in a bigger crowd? Of course they will. Look at the SIZES of some of these schools compared to others. It's not about the money folks! Doesn't matter if the crowds for A are half the size. If you have a problem with it then DON'T WATCH IT! Not every school has the same coaching and player resources!

This all comes down to big school fans and alumni that have had the privilege of seeing a higher quality of hockey than the little guys. If you don't like it just say it once and shut the hell up and let the people that care about it watch it because it means something to them. Not every school has the same coaching and player resources. And for those of you that want to mix into one class then why don't we just mix all the other sports too so we can kill the dreams of those kids too? In football why not just pit a 9 man school against Eden Prairie?

[northern_guy]

If you don't like class A don't watch it. To say we should have one class is asinine. Baseball has 3 classes, football and basketball have 5 or more classes. Why can't hockey have 2 classes? What we need is better section assignments in class A and basically all southern schools get put in with twin cities schools. Move the tourney or class A to the Amsoil arena in Duluth also so they can fill an arena for a change.