AA Rankings for 1/31/21

[karl(east)]

It’s a tale of two halves of the rankings: the teams at the top of the list last week all held serve, with the only change there coming not due to an on-ice result; meanwhile, everyone else jumbled themselves around a bit. Your rankings:

1. Maple Grove (5-0)
-The Crimson hung a nine-spot on Centennial and sent a message to the rest of the state as a team can send when it has a closed-loop schedule: they can overpower their nearest competition in their conference. A new contender for next-best team in the Northwest Suburban, Andover, is up this week, followed by a game that was once a big rivalry atop 5AA but probably will not be this year.
This week: Thurs vs. #12 Andover, Sat at Blaine

2. Lakeville South (6-0)
-Rosemount became the first team to give the Cougars a game this season, but the end result is still in line with what they’ve been doing so far. After one more warm-up act, they get the team that, on paper, is their biggest competition for the conference crown, and the team most likely to deny them an undefeated regular season.
This week: Thurs at Farmington, Sat vs. #9 Prior Lake

3. Cretin-Derham Hall (6-0)
-The Raiders’ march through the Suburban East was a little less decisive this past week, as both East Ridge and Forest Lake, who are in the upper tier of the conference, kept things semi-competitive. Does it mean anything? For now, we’ll say no; we’ll see if the Stillwater game this week gives us reason to think otherwise.
This week: Thurs at Stillwater, Sat vs. Roseville

4. Eden Prairie (4-1)
-The Eagles beat teams they should have and they get a Jackson Blake boost to climb a little ways back up after the Edina loss last week. (This is the beauty of doing human rankings: I’m allowed to do things like this.) Speaking of Blake, they’ve got Blake the school up on the schedule this week, plus their first meeting with rival Minnetonka. These are the sorts of games they need to take care of to reassert their status as Maple Grove’s main rival for the crown.
This week: Thurs at #13 Blake, Sat vs. #15 Minnetonka

5. St. Thomas Academy (6-0)
-Entirely predictable easy pickings for the Cadets this past week. Now, however, things start to get interesting, as they face a couple of bluebloods. Time to stop reading into scores against weak opponents and get a sense of where this team really stands.
This week: Fri at Edina, Sat at #8 Hill-Murray

6. Grand Rapids (5-0)
-The Thunderhawks put the clamps down on Duluth East, strengthening their position atop 7AA. On paper they’re favored in both their games this week, but both teams have some offensive firepower that could make things interesting if they’re not careful.
This week: Tues vs. Dultuh Denfeld, Fri at Roseau

7. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (6-0)
-The Red Knights get some brownie points for making short work of St. Louis Park, but with all of these good teams beating opponents that range from decent to bad, it just doesn’t seem like cause for much movement here. Yet, at least. The week ahead will be more of the same.
This week: Tues at Bloomington Jefferson, Sat vs. Chaska

8. Hill-Murray (4-1)
-The Pioneers methodically took down Edina twice, logging a pair of shutouts and showing the discipline that won them a state title a season ago. If this team can generate any consistent level of offense, they’ll be very, very tough to beat, but at this point that’s no an insignificant ‘if.’ The week ahead is an interesting one, as they face a Mahtomedi team that gave them trouble the first time around and get an interesting clash of styles when St. Thomas comes to Aldrich over the weekend.
This week: Tues vs. Mahtomedi, Sat vs. #5 St. Thomas Academy

9. Prior Lake (5-0-1)
-The Lakers went back to their regularly scheduled programming this past week with easy wins over Eagan and Eastview. A battle for the top spot in the South Suburban now looms.
This week: Thurs vs. Shakopee, Sat at #2 Lakeville South

10. Wayzata (3-2)
-The Trojans have stormed to life with two straight wins over Minnetonka and a convincing showing against respectable St. Michael-Albertville. The week ahead features the underbelly of the Lake Conference, though it would be very Wayzata to take a stumble in one of them now that it looks like they have momentum.
This week: Thurs vs. Buffalo, Sat vs. St. Michael-Albertville

11. Rosemount (4-1-1)
-A competitive showing against Lakeville South keeps the Irish right in this range of the rankings. They can continue to cement their status as a contender by going on a roll now against an easier stretch of South Suburban play.
This week: Thurs vs. Eagan, Sat vs. Lakeville North

12. Andover (6-0)
-The Huskies continue to past tests and work their way up the board; a narrow win against Totino makes me think they belong somewhere around here. They’ll have a chance to prove much more this week, though, as they play the other top two teams in the Northwest Suburban.
This week: Thurs at #1 Maple Grove, Sat vs. #14 Centennial

13. Blake (3-1)
-The Bears worked their way past STMA in their only activity in January’s final week. On paper they could go higher—they beat Wayzata, and their only loss is to Benilde—but I’m going to maintain some healthy skepticism here. Next up comes a rematch of last season’s Friday night collision in St. Paul, though the odds for the Bears are a bit longer this time around.
This week: Thurs vs. #4 Eden Prairie, Sat at Holy Family

14. Centennial (4-1-1)
-A tie with Totino and a lopsided loss to Maple Grove lets some air out of the Cougar balloon. They still seem like a decent team, but probably not a top ten one. A date with Andover this week will tell us more.
This week: Sat at #12 Andover

15. Minnetonka (3-2)
-The Skippers have the win over Edina, but with back-to-back losses to Wayzata and even a mild adventure with Buffalo, their hold on a top 15 spot is tenuous. Doing something against Eden Prairie would, of course, change that narrative somewhat.
This week: Thurs vs. St. Michael-Albertville, Sat at #4 Eden Prairie

The Next Ten

Roseau (5-1)
-The Rams’ date with Warroad did not go as planned, as they were down 4-0 before they could blink, but they did bounce back to beat a pretty strong Grand Forks Central, a reasonably good opponent. This week’s lone game against Grand Rapids is going to be their best barometer against statewide competition, especially of the sort they might see should they make it out of 8AA.

Edina (2-3-1)
-After two goalless losses to Hill-Murray, that win over Eden Prairie is doing a lot of work for the Hornets’ standing in the rankings. They can probably skate with anyone and have enough good pieces that they could yet come along here some, but for now, they appear a step behind the better teams in the state. They get a shot to prove something against St. Thomas this week.

Forest Lake (5-1)
-Despite the loss, the Rangers had a pretty competitive showing against Cretin, which really only helps their standing here. With Roseville and Mounds View up this week, they should be able to keep the beat going.

Totino-Grace (0-1-1)
-The Eagles finally hit the ice with a tie against Centennial and a one goal-loss to Andover; while they are winless, that’s hardly a poor showing for a team just getting out of the gate. Stay tuned here. The next few weeks should allow them to rack up the Ws, with Blaine and Coon Rapids up first.

Rogers (5-1)
-I have little to say about a 1-0 win over Armstrong/Cooper, but the Royals continue to win games and that Andover loss continues to not look bad at all. Only Osseo is on the docket this week.

Holy Family (3-2)
-As often is the case, the Fire play a bunch of very good teams and a bunch of mediocre ones; through five games, we can say pretty clearly that this group is somewhat better than the mediocre ones but not in the league of the top-flight squads. We’ll add some nuance to this proposition when they face Blake this week.

Hastings (2-3)
-The Raiders took care of New Prague, which changes little here. Simley and Highland Park are the thrilling competition this week.

St. Louis Park (4-1-1)
-A continued tradition of barely beating Bloomingtons and a not particularly competitive showing against Benilde have the Orioles backsliding, but they’ve still got a good record and they’ve still got the Edina tie, which is just enough to keep them afloat.

St. Michael-Albertville (2-4)
-The Knights are next in line in an 8AA cluster that spills over out of the top 25. With their losses all coming to quality teams and the win over Moorhead, they stay relevant here, but that will hard to be justify for too much longer if the beat continues over their brutal next three weeks, which features Minnetonka and Wayzata this week.

Stillwater (4-1)
-A win over White Bear atones for the Mounds View loss somewhat, and the record is decent. They’ll get a clearer barometer against Cretin.

[East Side Pioneer Guy]

Thats a nice weekend STA has set up for themselves, what with Edina on Friday followed by my Pioneers on Saturday. More top teams should do that sort of thing.

I really like the home & home we have with Edina every season, but I think I would prefer a similar set up, playing Edina one night & EP the other. And mix in STA, which would give it both an east/west & public/private flavor. Make it a double header so we can see both games both nights, rotating between the 4 arenas.

The weekend resulted in the 4th consecutive Pioneer shut out vs. Edina, for 13 consecutive shut out periods, and 14 of the last 15 periods.

[Stang5280]

It’s so weird not seeing East or Moorhead being ranked, while Rogers and St. Louis Park are.

[elliott70]

LETS PLAY HOCKEY
High School Boys Class AA as of Jan. 27
TEAM
RECORD
LAST WEEK
1. Maple Grove 4-0 2 KARL #1
2. Benilde-St. Margaret's 5-0 3 KARL #7
3. St Thomas Academy 5-0 5 KARL #5
4. Eden Prairie 2-1 1 KARL #4
5. Grand Rapids 4-0 7 KARL #6
6. Lakeville South 4-0 8 KARL #2
7. Cretin-Derham Hall 4-0 9 KARL #3
8. Prior Lake 2-1-1 4 KARL #9
9. Hill-Murray 2-1 6 KARL #8
10. Roseau 4-1 10 KARL #16
11. Blake 2-1 11 KARL #13
12. Centennial 4-0 13 KARL #14
13. Minnetonka 2-1 12 KARL # 15
14. Edina 2-1-1 15 KARL #17
15. Wayzata 1-2 19 KARL #10
16. Andover 4-0 20 KARL # 12
17. St Louis Park 3-1-1 16 KARL #23
18. White Bear Lake 3-1 17 KARL # NOT RATED
19. Holy Family Catholic 2-1 18 KARL #21
20. Duluth East 2-0-1 NR KARL # NOT RATED

[elliott70]

QRF

Rankings: February 4, 2021
1 Cretin-Derham Hall (6-0) 79.6
2 Lakeville South (6-0) 76.4
3 Grand Rapids (5-0) 74.3
4 Maple Grove (5-0) 71.5
5 Andover (6-0) 70.9
6 Benilde-St. Margaret's (7-0) 70.0
7 Stillwater Area (4-1) 64.4
8 Prior Lake (5-0-1) 63.4
9 Eden Prairie (4-1) 61.3
10 Owatonna (5-1) 59.9
11 Rosemount (4-1-1) 59.6
12 Hill-Murray (5-1) 59.2
13 St. Thomas Academy (6-0) 58.6
14 Blake (3-1) 57.8
15 Rogers (5-1) 56.5
16 St. Louis Park (5-1-1) 55.8
17 Forest Lake (5-1) 55.3
18 Northfield (5-1-1) 53.2
19 Wayzata (3-2) 51.8
20 White Bear Lake (4-2) 50.9
21 Roseau (5-1) 49.8
22 Shakopee (4-2) 49.3
23 Centennial (4-1-1) 48.2
24 Blaine (3-2) 45.9
25 Osseo (3-1) 44.9
26 Minnetonka (3-2) 44.0
27 St. Cloud (4-1) 43.9
28 Burnsville (3-2) 43.6
29 Duluth East (3-1-1) 41.0
30 Holy Family Catholic (3-2) 40.8

[elliott70]

Perhaps a little closer to accurate than the single A QRF.