Good, competitive game. Luverne should be proud of their effort after a tough draw. They have an excellent chance of winning their consolation round game if they play this well.
Meyer, Nelson, and Smeserud gave a fabulous showing. Meyer specifically kept them in the game.
Final 6-3 (EN). Closer game than expected. Luverne is a decent team but poor in the defensive zone. Really liked the Luverne goalie and the 8th grader can play. Hermantown was not very impressive IMO. Well down from last year but it was the early game according to Bruce. Pionk a very nice player like his older brother that bailed on his senior year for the USHL.
Luverne was a much superior team when it came to stick handling, but they were noticeably shaky on their skates at times and Hermantown was overall better. H-Town did not look impressive though.
he's not the #1 prospect, he's the #1 top performer...
ahh shoot! i used the wrong word! thanks for the correction! haha XD
Has Nelson hit his peak or does he continue to get better??? Time will tell! This kid is 4 yr. from being draft eligible. He was certainly known to scouts before the tournament but I think he only improved his value after this game. I see him in a SSM uniform next year!
EHSHack wrote:Luverne was a much superior team when it came to stick handling, but they were noticeably shaky on their skates at times and Hermantown was overall better. H-Town did not look impressive though.
don't know if I agree with that.
Hermantown had some very good stickhandling going on.
And they did look impressive.
The difference is that Luverne looked impressive.
Agree with N & B that Luverne coach needs to emphasize protection in their defensive zone, probably didn't see that kind of pressure anywhere earlier in the year.
Anyway, Luverne had an amazing run, represented their Section well, and with a few different rolls of the puck might have repeated Hermantowns undefeated championship run from 7? years ago.
Hermantown will have to do better to defeat EGF, who I promise will protect against any open spaces in their D zone.
WestMetro wrote:Agree with N & B that Luverne coach needs to emphasize protection in their defensive zone, probably didn't see that kind of pressure anywhere earlier in the year.
Anyway, Luverne had an amazing run, represented their Section well, and with a few different rolls of the puck might have repeated Hermantowns undefeated championship run from 7? years ago.
Hermantown will have to do better to defeat EGF, who I promise will protect against any open spaces in their D zone.
You could see that, in the first few minutes, they were just blindly throwing the puck to areas, not making clean passes...that probably works against most of the teams they play, but not Hermantown. To their credit, they cleaned that up as the game went along.
bardown27 wrote:
he's not the #1 prospect, he's the #1 top performer...
ahh shoot! i used the wrong word! thanks for the correction! haha XD
Has Nelson hit his peak or does he continue to get better??? Time will tell! This kid is 4 yr. from being draft eligible. He was certainly known to scouts before the tournament but I think he only improved his value after this game. I see him in a SSM uniform next year!
What hockey player peaks as an 8th grader? That may be the dumbest question ever brought up on this board!
bardown27 wrote:
he's not the #1 prospect, he's the #1 top performer...
ahh shoot! i used the wrong word! thanks for the correction! haha XD
Has Nelson hit his peak or does he continue to get better??? Time will tell! This kid is 4 yr. from being draft eligible. He was certainly known to scouts before the tournament but I think he only improved his value after this game. I see him in a SSM uniform next year!
He also hasn't started 9th grade yet, so he has the option of going anywhere under any circumstances and be eligible right away. Hmmm, wonder if anyone in Hermantown has offered to Billet him yet.
All kidding aside, all this talk about how long will he stick around Luverne is a little crazy. The kid is an 8th Grader from a small town. He may have no intention of going anywhere for awhile.
Froggy Richards wrote:He also hasn't started 9th grade yet, so he has the option of going anywhere under any circumstances and be eligible right away. Hmmm, wonder if anyone in Hermantown has offered to Billet him yet.
All kidding aside, all this talk about how long will he stick around Luverne is a little crazy. The kid is an 8th Grader from a small town. He may have no intention of going anywhere for awhile.
5 of their top 7 scorers are not graduating and I think, off hand, maybe 1 or 2 are juniors. Goalie's not a senior. As well as they played, it'll be very interesting to see how they do next year...and the rest of this year for that matter. I wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up two more wins. They got a rough draw.
ScoutReports wrote:
ahh shoot! i used the wrong word! thanks for the correction! haha XD
Has Nelson hit his peak or does he continue to get better??? Time will tell! This kid is 4 yr. from being draft eligible. He was certainly known to scouts before the tournament but I think he only improved his value after this game. I see him in a SSM uniform next year!
What hockey player peaks as an 8th grader? That may be the dumbest question ever brought up on this board!
not really bud. hockey players peak at any age. some never come out of it, some bounce back, some don't peak till later some never do peak.
Hats off to a very gritty Luverne team. The future looks bright for these kids. They battled hard to the final horn. Ultimately Hermantown's depth was too much. Very impressive squad. There's still hardware to be won. Go get it!
flash4000 wrote:Luverne looked better than these teams starting the second game. Too bad they didn't get seeded. Looks like they should have!
You won't get seeded when you only play against teams that 90 % of the rest of the league would smoke as well. Good enough to be serious in St. Paul in March? YES. But did nothing to deserve a seed. They did get a tough draw right away, I wonder what if this tourney was still on the section rotation for first round match ups, what could Luverne do in a semi final after getting a game under their belts?
ScoutReports wrote:
ahh shoot! i used the wrong word! thanks for the correction! haha XD
Has Nelson hit his peak or does he continue to get better??? Time will tell! This kid is 4 yr. from being draft eligible. He was certainly known to scouts before the tournament but I think he only improved his value after this game. I see him in a SSM uniform next year!
What hockey player peaks as an 8th grader? That may be the dumbest question ever brought up on this board!
Seen a bunch of them over time. That speedy little forward who ducks and dogdes his way through traffic who hits puberty and comes un done because he can't catch up to his body size and get "ungangly". That kid who is big as an 8th grader and uses his body and post puberty skill set to wow and amaze until the rest of the kids get through puberty and then he is middle of the pack. That goalie who is a slip sliding butterflying machine when he is playing Bantams against kids who are not snipers yet but who does not get much taller and who becomes the victim of snipers and lack of skills/body size. Who does not play the game style that his body size and skill set dictates that he should.
I am not saying that this is going to happen to this kid but it could. Not the end of the world but the end of the road for a kid who rests on his Bantam reputation and quits working hard because he has "it made" and gets caught up to and over taken by those kids who are working constantly to get better.