7A Final - #1 Hibbing vs. #3 CEC

[grindiangrad-80]

Awesome hockey. Had Cloquet won I would have made them the 1 seed.

[rainier2]

Shea Walters needs to be Class A coach of the year. Absolutely incredible what he did with that team. Cloquet has some excellent youth classes about to arrive soon, and they've got the coach to maximize that talent. Outstanding.

[grindiangrad-80]

Shea Walters needs to be Class A coach of the year. Absolutely incredible what he did with that team. Cloquet has some excellent youth classes about to arrive soon, and they've got the coach to maximize that talent. Outstanding.

100%

The way they went toe to toe with the 2 best teams in 2 totally different ways was great. I’m happy for Hibbing. Fun team who have a really good chance to win it all.

Cloquet would have been my favorite to win it all had they got there.

[headsupsticksdown]

Would be something to watch if Proctor continues to up their game and we get to see Proctor, CEC, Hibbing and Hermantown slug it out over the next 2 years.

[grindiangrad-80]

Would be something to watch if Proctor continues to up their game and we get to see Proctor, CEC, Hibbing and Hermantown slug it out over the next 2 years.

Agree. As good as the Hawks are, and they are good, they still have plenty of competition in 7A.

Not long ago that seemed almost impossible.

[karl(east)]

What a fantastic hockey game. My younger Greyhound self would cringe to hear me say this, but I loved this Cloquet team for their discipline and steadiness. They are so well coached; sure, they have some very good defensemen, but even the less skilled ones were fantastic at closing down gaps and never panicking. Sewell was electric just about every time he touched the puck and has a very bright future. I think they could have won 7 of the 8 Class A sections this year, but alas, they are in the wrong one.

Congrats to Hibbing on the trip back to State! We'll see if they can atone for last season's unraveling in the semis. The talent is there; for a while I was sure Rewertz was going to end it again, he's so good at ranging forward and causing problems. The Swansons need to stay out of the box, but they are a joy to watch, too. I'm excited to see this crew on the big stage again.

[grindiangrad-80]

What a fantastic hockey game. My younger Greyhound self would cringe to hear me say this, but I loved this Cloquet team for their discipline and steadiness. They are so well coached; sure, they have some very good defensemen, but even the less skilled ones were fantastic at closing down gaps and never panicking. Sewell was electric just about every time he touched the puck and has a very bright future. I think they could have won 7 of the 8 Class A sections this year, but alas, they are in the wrong one.

Congrats to Hibbing on the trip back to State! We'll see if they can atone for last season's unraveling in the semis. The talent is there; for a while I was sure Rewertz was going to end it again, he's so good at ranging forward and causing problems. The Swansons need to stay out of the box, but they are a joy to watch, too. I'm excited to see this crew on the big stage again.

Very much agree on Rewertz. The kid is always in the right spot at the right time. He looks like he just glides around and is always where he needs to be. He can also turn it on and create offense on the spur of the moment. The guy just looks like a really good next level player. Only a sophomore.OMG. Definitely fun to watch.

[headsupsticksdown]

Do we want to bring up the elephant in the room. Was that goaltender interference or not?

[north_bear]

Do we want to bring up the elephant in the room. Was that goaltender interference or not?

That's gotta be GI 7 out of 10 times. From what I saw the defender pushed or guided the Hibbing player toward the crease, goalie contact was made, but there was no effort from the Hibbing player to evacuate the crease or avoid contact. It looks like he intentionally lingered in the crease to disrupt the play.

[headsupsticksdown]

Do we want to bring up the elephant in the room. Was that goaltender interference or not?

That's gotta be GI 7 out of 10 times. From what I saw the defender pushed or guided the Hibbing player toward the crease, goalie contact was made, but there was no effort from the Hibbing player to evacuate the crease or avoid contact. It looks like he intentionally lingered in the crease to disrupt the play.

The view from on top of the net definitely shows contact with the goalie a few times. There's even a few folks who said the puck didn't cross the line.

[grindiangrad-80]

Do we want to bring up the elephant in the room. Was that goaltender interference or not?

That's gotta be GI 7 out of 10 times. From what I saw the defender pushed or guided the Hibbing player toward the crease, goalie contact was made, but there was no effort from the Hibbing player to evacuate the crease or avoid contact. It looks like he intentionally lingered in the crease to disrupt the play.

Pretty much exactly how I saw it. I was surprised when they allowed the goal.

I did wonder if the contact by the CEC player initially gives some leeway to the guy contacting the goalie? I don’t know how that rule is written. I probably wouldn’t fully understand it if I knew how it was written. It definitely did impede the goalie from making that save.

[rainier2]

Do we want to bring up the elephant in the room. Was that goaltender interference or not?

To me, Swanson never got a chance to avoid contact with the goalie because of being pushed by the Cloquet player. Swanson got mixed up with the goalie because of something Cloquet did, not because of what Swanson did, so it's not GI.

Now could have Swanson tried harder to get away from the goalie once he was pushed into him? Possibly, but the push initiated the contact, so not sure how refs can disentangle the two.