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who is going to be there top couple of d-men

Mayo's top four D, in no specific order are Rick Weber, Ethan Hoppenworth, Kevin Oetliker, and James Powers

weber is decent, don't know about powers, but the other 2 are pretty bad. hoppenworth can barely skate forwards, let alone backwards

with the bruggeman kid now playing Jr hockey, who is going to play in goal for mankato west

Kaufman and/or Trautman

mankato west is going to be awful this year and everyone on the team will freely admit it.. all they have left is bruggeman the player and cambell on d.. they lost just about everyone else.

bruggeman:27g 17a 44p
campbell:7g 19a 26p
zimmerman:11g 11a 22p
jose:9g 7a 16p
weber:7g 8a 15p

West won't be "awful" this year, but i wouldnt look for a year like last by any means. those are west's top 5 returning scorers, and thats not anything super special, but most of those kids were playing in the shadows of leiverman, litchfield, and anderson and the rest of the seniors. I think their season is gonna come down to goaltending (possibly an issue without bruggeman) and whether or not those kids step it up and play this year.

Like most people you have to think one of the Rochester schools will win the Big Nine. I kinda like Owatonna though. They have a nice mix of seniors and juniors. I think the have some nice sophmore forwards also. I don't see any superstars, but Fish might finally have enough talent to play three regular lines. JMO

Winona Winhawks!

Hey...they went from 0-9 to 6-2 and top seed in football this year, anything is possible.

But don't hold your breath.

Frozen Water wrote:Like most people you have to think one of the Rochester schools will win the Big Nine. I kinda like Owatonna though. They have a nice mix of seniors and juniors. I think the have some nice sophmore forwards also. I don't see any superstars, but Fish might finally have enough talent to play three regular lines. JMO

They might have 3 lines but they still have Fish.

davey wrote:

Frozen Water wrote:Like most people you have to think one of the Rochester schools will win the Big Nine. I kinda like Owatonna though. They have a nice mix of seniors and juniors. I think the have some nice sophmore forwards also. I don't see any superstars, but Fish might finally have enough talent to play three regular lines. JMO

They might have 3 lines but they still have Fish.

Whatssa matter Davey? The only people that don't like Fish the non-intelligent folks or those whose kids aren't intelligent. Fish is a very bright guy and expects his players to 'think the game' and not just play the game. When he was in Rochester the only people that didn't like him were the ones that were slow thinkers. I would guess that he hasn't changed since moving to Owatonna.

Rocket78 wrote:

davey wrote:

Frozen Water wrote:Like most people you have to think one of the Rochester schools will win the Big Nine. I kinda like Owatonna though. They have a nice mix of seniors and juniors. I think the have some nice sophmore forwards also. I don't see any superstars, but Fish might finally have enough talent to play three regular lines. JMO

They might have 3 lines but they still have Fish.

Whatssa matter Davey? The only people that don't like Fish the non-intelligent folks or those whose kids aren't intelligent. Fish is a very bright guy and expects his players to 'think the game' and not just play the game. When he was in Rochester the only people that didn't like him were the ones that were slow thinkers. I would guess that he hasn't changed since moving to Owatonna.

Never said I did not like the guy, just don't "think" much of him as a coach. Always seems to have talent, but never gets them out of the middle of the pack in the Big 9.

Coach Fish knows the game, but something is missing. Even the years he had one of the most talented teams in the conference/section, his teams have failed to make the top tier of the Big Nine and/or do anything in the playoffs. He has had numerous guys go on to play hockey at the 'next level' and do fairly well, but the wins/losses and playoff success has not been there...there is no disputing the track record - which is a totally different statement about whether he is intelligent, knows the game, thinks the game, etc.

It pychological.....They get beat by Rochester in youth hockey and can't get over that hump!

Marty McSorely wrote:It pychological.....They get beat by Rochester in youth hockey and can't get over that hump!

pychological

You'll have to look that one up for me.

Coach Fish is a solid coach. The problem is he's never had depth. Seems like every year he plays two lines most of the time and they wear down in the third period. I think this year Owatonna has enough forwards to play three lines even if they have to drop a couple back to D. They do have a couple of solid defenseman, but no where as much depth as they do at forward. Just my opinion.

Ok...now that we have that settled.
Who will win the conference?
Will there be the haves and have-nots or will there be 3-4 tiers of teams?

My pick:
1) Albert Lea
2) Mayo
3) Century
4) Mankato West
5) Owatonna


6) Faribault
7) JM
Winona
9) Mankato East
10) Austin

I see a big drop after Owatonna, but the Falcons could surprise. JM will be better than last year, but will be challenged to move into the top five.
AL is always in the hunt. On paper, Mayo will be tough even without Thauwald. Century will be in the hunt if they get decent goaltending. West lost a ton, but still has some nice offensive weapons.

Does Mankato West have any guys coming up from their bantam program?

GopherPuck15 wrote:Does Mankato West have any guys coming up from their bantam program?

I dont think so.

Dog_Log17 wrote:

GopherPuck15 wrote:Does Mankato West have any guys coming up from their bantam program?

I dont think so.

I was just checking. I thought I had heard they had a fairly decent goalie that will compete for the starting job? I believe someone said his name on here earlier a kauffman? And I thought I watched their Bantam A team play last year in a tournament in Alexandria and they had a few fairly decent kids, but I have no idea if they're going to east or west. Anyone else have any info?

SEMinnHockeyNut wrote:Ok...now that we have that settled.
Who will win the conference?
Will there be the haves and have-nots or will there be 3-4 tiers of teams?

My pick:
1) Albert Lea
2) Mayo
3) Century
4) Mankato West
5) Owatonna


6) Faribault
7) JM
Winona
9) Mankato East
10) Austin

I see a big drop after Owatonna, but the Falcons could surprise. JM will be better than last year, but will be challenged to move into the top five.
AL is always in the hunt. On paper, Mayo will be tough even without Thauwald. Century will be in the hunt if they get decent goaltending. West lost a ton, but still has some nice offensive weapons.

I'm not doubting west but who are west's offensive weapons? All we heard last year was litchfield and lievermann so who's this years scorers delight?

West still has some talent up front along with Bruggemann there is Zimmermann, Jose, Weber. Also on the point they have 3 returning defenseman who can all hold there own in this conference. One of these Matt Campbell who is among the top in the Conference. Obviously they are going to need to find some young talent to step up. No doubt the biggest question is how do you replace the goalie Bruggemann.

my son played with the trautman kid a few years back on the district 4 advanced 15 team, watched him quite a bid that spring, he is small but very quick, moved well, maybe not the most technically sound goalie but seemed to have good instincts for the puck, competed hard, from what I saw that spring I would think West would be good with their goaltending

I know that Dodge County is not in the Big 9, but they are in 1AA. Look for them to be around .500 this year, playing a tougher schedule (Lourdes, JM, Holy Family, Delano, Farmington) than past years. They could make some noise in the playoffs the next couple of years - young tem that will mature. In the younger levels they have beat many Twin City and Roch teams.

Here's a question - although Rochester almost had to open a third high school, how much has Century taken from Mayo and JM? Also, how much better would all three Roch schools be without losing kids to Lourdes. Lucia and SE Hockey Nut - would like to see what you think, along with others.