2013 State Tournament - Pick the Winners Challenge!

[MNHockeyFan]

First game in Class A is in the books:

Class A – Upper Bracket
Alexandria 2
#2 Red Wing 6

19 of 21 picked the No. 2 seeded Wingers to win for 3 points each. In addition, Sparlimb, Racki2016 and mnhockey3535 predicted the 6-2 score and they add another two points to take the early lead.

[MNHockeyFan]

Final score in today's second Class A quarterfinal:

Class A – Upper Bracket
Mound Westonka 2
Blake 5

All but one had the Bears winning, but there were no correct scores, thanks to Blake scoring a late shorthanded goal (three had Blake winning 4-2).

Sparlimb, Racki2016 and mnhockey3535 are at 8 points each and they maintain a two point lead on 16 others!

[MNHockeyFan]

The score in this evening's first Class A quarterfinal game was:

Class A – Lower Bracket
New Ulm 0
Warroad 9

All but one had Warroad winning, and there were three who guessed the score: MNHockeyFan , D6 Girls Fan and ayhfan. All three join those above in what is now a six-way tie for 1st with 11 points each. We should see a little more separation after the final game of the day, as our panel is more evenly split (14 SSP vs. 7 Hibbing/Chisholm). I'll post the full Leaderboard when that result is in.

[MNHockeyFan]

Final score in the last Class A quarterfinal:

Class A – Lower Bracket
Hibbing/Chisholm 0
South St. Paul 3

14 of 21 add 3 points each but nobody got the score.

That leaves us with a five-way tie for 1st Place after Day 1:

1. MNHockeyFan - 14
Sparlimb - 14
Racki2016 - 14
D6 Girls Fan - 14
ayhfan - 14

6. Maverick2000 - 12
Bleedinred - 12
FlyingWarrior - 12
sinbin - 12
D16Dad - 12
Silent But Deadly - 12
36Guy - 12

13. mnhockey3535 - 11

14. fishfreak11 - 9
AV dad - 9
ShakestheClown - 9
capitalpride - 9
hockeyfan87 - 9
rwb1351 - 9

20. Two with 6

[MNHockeyFan]

Ist AA Quarterfinal:

Upper Bracket
Forest Lake 0
#2 Eden Prairie 6

All 21 contestants predicted an Eagles win, but nobody got the score right. So just add three points to everyone's totals posted last night.

Next up: Eagan vs. #3 Hill-Murray

[MNHockeyFan]

Second AA quarterfinal game result:

Upper Bracket
Eagan 2
#3 Hill-Murray 6

20 of 21 favored the Pioneers to win and add 3 points apiece. A late empty net goal spoiled the perfect score for three of our prognosticators who predicted it would end 5-2.

So, all in all, it was a pretty uneventful afternoon in terms of our contest. 20 of 21 added 6 points to their point totals from last night.

Tomorrow night’s upper bracket semifinal between #2 Eden Prairie and #3 Hill-Murray should be very competitive, fun game to see. Our panel is favoring the Eagles by a 16-5 margin.

First game this evening pits the Irondale Knights against heavily favored Minnetonka. Might luckyEPDad get lucky?

[luckyEPDad]

First game this evening pits the Irondale Knights against heavily favored Minnetonka. Might luckyEPDad get lucky?

I'm hoping for a butterfly effect. My choices are less predictions than attempts to affect the outcomes by some new age quantum, multiple parallel universe manipulation thingy. So far it hasn't worked all that well.

[MNHockeyFan]

I'm hoping for a butterfly effect. My choices are less predictions than attempts to affect the outcomes by some new age quantum, multiple parallel universe manipulation thingy. So far it hasn't worked all that well.

Butterfly effect and other thingies didn't work so well! Final score in this evening's first game was:

Class AA - Lower Bracket
Irondale 0
#1 Minnetonka 4

Tonka's defense continues to impress, but give lots of credit to Irondale who I thought played hard and made the Skippers earn their win.

As I mentioned 20 of 21 predicted a Tonka victory, and in addition we finally had some correct scores: Silent But Deadly, hockeyfan87 and ayhfan all got it right and add the two extra.

I'll update all the point totals following the #5 North Wright County vs. #4 Lakeville North game. It will be interesting to see who's right, the guys that seeded LN ahead of NWC or our panel who by a 12-9 margin has NWC coming out on top.

[MNHockeyFan]

Best game of either tournament so far! In overtime, it was:

Class AA - Lower Bracket
#5 North Wright County 4
#4 Lakeville North 5

As mentioned above 12 of 21 had predicted a slight upset, but the Panthers come through in OT after having surrendered a two goal lead in the 3rd period. Nobody got the score right in this one.

Heading into the semi's in both classes tomorrow, here is our updated Leaderboard:

1. MNHockeyFan - 26
Racki2016 - 26

3. ayhfan - 25

4. Maverick2000 - 24
sinbin - 24
36Guy - 24

7. Sparlimb - 23
D6 Girls Fan - 23
Silent But Deadly - 23
mnhockey3535 - 23

11. Bleedinred - 21
FlyingWarrior - 21
ShakestheClown - 21
D16Dad - 21
rwb1351 - 21

16. hockeyfan87 - 20

17. fishfreak11 - 18
AV dad - 18
capitalpride - 18

20. One with 15

21. One with 12

[MNHockeyFan]

In what was a very exciting game, Blake outscored Red Wing and advances to the Class A Championship game:

Class A Upper Bracket Semifinal
#2 Red Wing 3
#3 Blake 6

Our group was evenly split as to which team would win this one. 10 had Blake vs. 10 had Red Wing (with one having Alexandria advancing to and winning this semifinal). So 10 of 21 pick up 5 points each.

Here are the updated point totals:

1. MNHockeyFan - 31

2. ayhfan - 30

3. Maverick2000 - 29

4. Sparlimb - 28

5. Bleedinred - 26
Racki2016 - 26
D16Dad - 26

8. hockeyfan87 - 25

9. sinbin - 24
36Guy - 24

11. fishfreak11 - 23
D6 Girls Fan - 23
Silent But Deadly - 23
capitalpride - 23
mnhockey3535 - 23

16. FlyingWarrior - 21
ShakestheClown - 21
rwb1351 - 21

19. One with 18

20. One with 17

21. One with 15

[MNHockeyFan]

Class A Lower Bracket Semifinal
#4 South St. Paul - 1
#1 Warroad - 4

The Packers kept it close for most the game, and in fact were down by just a goal midway through the 3rd period. But in the end the Warriors had too many weapons and advance to tomorrow's Class A final against Blake.

With Warroad winning the Leaderboard above does not change, other than everybody (except one) gets to add 5 to their point total. I'll update it again after tonight's second AA semi after I return from a different arena!
(Go Gophers!)

[MNHockeyFan]

Our first big upset of the Tournament, at least according to our group:

Class AA Upper Bracket Semifinal
#2 Eden Prairie 1
#3 Hill-Murray 2

Only 5 of 21 thought Hill-Murray would win and those five earn 5 points apiece. One of the five was Sparlimb who with the prediction takes over first place!

And in the longest game EVER in the history of the girls’ high school hockey tournament, it was:

Class AA Lower Bracket Semifinal
#1 Minnetonka 4
#4 Lakeville North 3 (6 OT’s)

What a marathon!

Here are the updated point totals headed into tomorrow’s championship games in both classes:

1. Sparlimb – 43

2. MNHockeyFan – 41

3. ayhfan – 40

4. Maverick2000 – 39

5. fishfreak11 – 38
capitalpride – 38

7. Bleedinred – 36
Racki2016 – 36
ShakestheClown – 36
D16Dad – 36
rwb1351 – 36

12. hockeyfan87 – 35

13. sinbin – 34
36Guy – 34

15. D6 Girls Fan – 33
Silent But Deadly – 33
mnhockey3535 – 33

18. FlyingWarrior – 31

19. AV dad – 28

20. One with 25

21. One with 17

[MNHockeyFan]

Sorry for the late update but I just returned home from the Gopher game (tied 2-2)! Now old news but for the record:

Class A State Championship
#1 Warroad 2
#3 Blake School 7

Congratulations to the entire Blake team and their coaching staff! They certainly made believers out of the 18 of us here who thought the No. 1 ranked Warroad Warriors would win it all this year. Only one of twenty-one picked Blake to be crowned State Champ, and that was LuckyEPDad - nice call!

Class AA State Championship
#1 Minnetonka 3
#3 Hill-Murray 1

And a big congratulations to the Minnetonka Skippers for their third straight Class AA State Championship. Although a solid majority (17 of 21) of our contestants thought you would win, there had to some doubters among this group after the "marathon" last night. To come back and beat a very solid Hill-Murray squad after going through nine periods of extra-tense hockey the night before is a pretty amazing accomplishment.

Here is our final Leaderboard to end the 2012-13 season. Congratulations to Sparlimb on a super job of prognosticating!

1. Sparlimb – 53

2. MNHockeyFan – 51 (I'm happy with coming in 2nd against this kind of competition!

3. ayhfan – 50

4. Maverick2000 – 49

5. fishfreak11 – 48

6. Bleedinred – 46
Racki2016 – 46
ShakestheClown – 46
D16Dad – 46

10. hockeyfan87 – 45

11. sinbin – 44
36Guy – 44

13. D6 Girls Fan – 43
Silent But Deadly – 43
mnhockey3535 – 43

16. FlyingWarrior – 41

17. capitalpride – 38

18. rwb1351 – 36

19. preferhockey - 35

20. One with 28

21. One with 27

Thanks to everyone for participating, and congrats once again to Sparlimb!

[sinbin]

I would also give major kudos to Lakeville North for winning the 3rd place game after suffering a crushing defeat in the semifinal marathon vs. Tonka. Very impressive to come back and win a game "only for 3rd place" less than15 hours after that kind of defeat.

[MNHockeyFan]

I would also give major kudos to Lakeville North for winning the 3rd place game after suffering a crushing defeat in the semifinal marathon vs. Tonka. Very impressive to come back and win a game "only for 3rd place" less than15 hours after that kind of defeat.

Totally agree, and in fact after I saw that score I thought seriously about editing my post above. And their fine showing is even more impressive when you consider they were without one of their top players, Dani Sadek, who missed the entire tournament due to injury.

Also would like to add that of the 21 who participated here in our contest there was only one - mnhockey3535 - who picked the winners of both the 3rd Place game and the Consolation final. Unfortunately for him (or her) neither of these tiebreaker games came into play as far as the point totals were concerned!