2013 Section Playoffs - Pick the Winners!

[MNHockeyFan]

I realized I missed the deadline, but hope to play for fun:

I have no problem adding you in, sinbin, because (a) you didn't give yourself an unfair advantage (by picking the two upset winners) and (b) you've been doing this all year. So welcome aboard and good luck!

P.S. We now we have 13 tied with 6 points.

Also, 7AA Quarterfinals will be played this evening.

[Silent But Deadly]

I realized I missed the deadline, but hope to play for fun:

I have no problem adding you in, sinbin, because (a) you didn't give yourself an unfair advantage (by picking the two upset winners) and (b) you've been doing this all year. So welcome aboard and good luck!

P.S. We now we have 13 tied with 6 points.

Also, 7AA Quarterfinals will be played this evening.

I won't file my appeal until AFTER I finish 2nd to sinbin and miss out on the 1st place prize!

[MNHockeyFan]

I had a feeling SBD wouldn't remain silent!

[sinbin]

First, thanks! Second, as a token of my appreciation and respect for my fellow competitors, I will be happy to concede one of my current points (but do I get to decide which one?). Best of luck to all competitors, thanks again, and I hope to be in such a position next week as to warrant controversy and the resultant appeals.

[MNHockeyFan]

Just three quarterfinal games in Section 7AA because #1 Forest Lake got a first round bye.

7AA - Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#4 Grand Rapids/Greenway 2
#5 Duluth 3

Lower Bracket
#3 Elk River/Zimmerman 11
#6 Cambridge-Isanti/Mora Pine City 0

#2 Cloquet/Esko/Carlton 4
#7 St. Francis/North Branch 0

Amazingly, nobody had Duluth advancing even though as the #5 seed they were playing the #4 seed Grand Rapids/Greenway. At least everyone got a point for Forest Lake advancing past BYE!

And everyone picked up two points for the Elk River/Zimmerman and Cloquet/Esko/Carlton wins.

So, with everyone adding 3 points this evening, there was no real change in our standings.

Flying Warrior is still in the lead with 10 points
Twelve are tied with 9
One with 8
Two with 7

Tomorrow will feature the four quarterfinal games in 2AA and two of the quarterfinal games in 4AA.

Then on Saturday we'll get into some semi-final games (1AA, 3AA and 7AA) plus more quarterfinal action in 4AA (the other two), 5AA, 6AA and 8AA - that's 20 games in all! By late Saturday night I expect we'll be seeing a lot more separation in our contest here! And for me I hope to be using this: and not this:

[Nimrod]

8AA

NWC 5, Bemidji 1
Sartell 3, Roseau 1
NWC 3, Sartell 0

[MNHockeyFan]

8AA

NWC 5, Bemidji 1
Sartell 3, Roseau 1
NWC 3, Sartell 0

Thanks for adding your 8AA picks, Nimrod.

We are now missing just 36Guy's picks, for 8AA only. So 36Guy I hope you are reading this! Deadline for posting is 7PM tomorrow (Saturday). Am sending you a private message also.

[MNHockeyFan]

Scores from tonight:

2AA - Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Eden Prairie 7
#8 Bloomington Kennedy 1

#4 Chaska/Chanhassen 2
#5 Shakopee 7

Lower Bracket
#3 Bloomington Jefferson 6
#6 Holy Family/Waconia 2

#2 Edina 8
#7 Prior Lake 0

4AA - Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Hill-Murray 9
#9 St. Paul Blades 0

Lower Bracket
#2 Roseville 3
#7 White Bear Lake 1

In 2AA, a bit of a surprise in the upper bracket as #5 Shakopee throttled #4 Chaska/Chan 7-2. The majority (10 of 17) had Chaska/Chan winning this one, so the other 7 gain a point. Otherwise, no surprises tonight and there were no other misses by anyone.

Our Leaderboard through Friday:

1. Knight7 – 15
36Guy – 15
MNHockeyFan – 15
Silent But Deadly – 15
FlyingWarrior – 15
capitalpride – 15
ayhfan – 15
sinbin – 15

9. Racki2016 – 14
Nimrod – 14
Nordic – 14
hockeyfan87 – 14
Bighead – 14
AV dad – 14

15. One with 13

16. Two with 12

And once again I will be out of town for most of this weekend, starting tomorrow morning and returning Sunday evening. So if I don’t post an update before then it means my budget hotel does not provide internet service!

Good luck to all of your teams tomorrow!

[MNHockeyFan]

Scores from today:

1AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Lakeville North 5
#5 Rochester John Marshall 1

Lower Bracket
#3 Dodge County 7
#2 Lakeville South 5

3AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Eagan 3
#4 Hastings 1

Lower Bracket
#6 Eastview 3
#2 Apple Valley 1

4AA – Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#4 Cretin-Derham Hall 4
#5 North St. Paul 2

Lower Bracket
#6 Tartan 1
#3 Stillwater 6

5AA – Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Mounds View 7
#9 Spring Lake Park 0

#4 Anoka 1
#5 Champlin Park 4

Lower Bracket
#2 Andover 1
#7 Centennial 5

#3 Blaine 0
#6 Irondale 1

6AA - Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Minnetonka 7
# 8 North Metro 1

#4 Buffalo 5
#5 Wayzata 4

Lower Bracket
#3 Hopkins 1
#6 Armstrong/Cooper 3

#2 Benilde-St. Margaret’s 3
#7 Maple Grove 0

7AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Forest Lake 2
#5 Duluth 0

Lower Bracket
#3 Elk River/Zimmerman 6
#2 Cloquet/Esko/Carlton 5

8AA - Quarterfinals

Upper Bracket
#1 North Wright County 8
#8 Brainerd-Little Falls 0

#4 Bemidji 2
#5 St. Cloud Icebreakers 0

Lower Bracket
#2 Roseau 1
#7 Moorhead 2

#3 Sartell-Sauk Rapids 1
#6 River Lakes 2

Some HUGE upsets today, obviously. The surprise to me is that FIVE of the No. 2 seeds were eliminated:
1AA Lakeville South to Dodge County
3AA Apple Valley to #6 Eastview
5AA Andover to #7 Centennial
7AA Cloquet/Esko/Carlton to Elk River/Zimmerman
8AA Roseau to #7 Moorhead.

Also of significance was Champlin Park’s win over Anoka, #6 Irondale beating #3 Blaine, #6 Armstrong/Cooper’s upset of #3 Hopkins and # 6 River Lakes upending #3 Sartell-Sauk Rapids.

As it’s getting late and I'm pretty beat, I will hold off updating the Leaderboard until I return home tomorrow evening. With all of the upsets, it should be interesting!

And congratulations to all of the teams that remain on the road to advancing to a berth in the State Tournament! It was quite a day in Class AA.

[MNHockeyFan]

Sorry I'm a little tardy updating the point totals but I just arrived home from my trip out of town.

As you might expect all the upsets had a big impact on our point totals. By far the largest was in the Lower Brackets of 5AA and 8AA where there were goose eggs all around - nobody got a single point in either of them!

Knight7 edges Silent But Deadly as our interim leader through Saturday by a single point, 36 to 35. Knight7 was the only prognosticator to predict Irondale would beat Blaine - probably not a coincidence I'm guessing. Also helping Knight7 was the prediction that Elk River/Zimmerman would beat Cloquet/Esko/Carlton. Only three others got that one right, so they pick up 3 points on everyone else.

Silent But Deadly was one of those three, and he also had Champlin Park beating Anoka (along with just three others). And along with Nimrod, SBD predicted the score in Eagan's 3-1 win over Hastings.

Next games are Tuesday evening when the semifinal games will be played in 2AA, 4AA, 5AA and 8AA. As predicting the winners are worth 3 points each, with eight games that's a maximum of 24 points, so everyone is still very much in the hunt! And then get lucky with a few correct scores and you never know what might happen!

1. Knight7 - 36

2. Silent But Deadly - 35

3. Nimrod - 31
D16Dad - 31

5. MNHockeyFan - 30
hockey21 - 30

7. 36Guy - 29
hockeyfan87 - 29
AV dad - 29
ayhfan - 29
sinbin - 29

12. Racki2016 - 28
Nordic - 28
FlyingWarrior - 28
Bighead - 28

16. One with 26

17. One with 24

[MNHockeyFan]

A few interesting tidbits as we wait for tonight's results:

* Only one of eight sections has gone true-to-form, whereby the top 4 seeded teams are still in it - 4AA

* In two of the sections, the Nos. 6 and 7 seeded teams are playing for a spot in the section final game - 5AA and 8AA

* This assures that a No. 6 or lower seeded team will be playing for a section championship (and a berth in the State Tourney) in at least three of the eight sections (the other being Eastview in 3AA).

* And potentially there could be four such teams should Armstrong/Cooper upset Benilde-St. Margaret's in tomorrow night's 6AA semifinal.

[MNHockeyFan]

Scores from this evening:

2AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Eden Prairie 5
#5 Shakopee 2

Everybody picks up 3 points as Eden Prairie advances to the final. In addition, 36Guy and Silent But Deadly each add 2 points for getting the score right.

Lower Bracket
#3 Bloomington Jefferson 0
#2 Edina 6

All but two had Edina winning, and they pick up 3 points each. There were no correct scores.


4AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Hill-Murray 3
#4 Cretin-Derham Hall 0

3 points all around for the Pioneers’ win, and capitalpride adds another 2 for the correct score.

Lower Bracket
#3 Stillwater 1
#2 Roseville 2

All but one picked Roseville to win and add 3. And hockey21 got the score right adds the 2 extra bonus points.


5AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Mounds View 4
#5 Champlin Park 2

Big game in our contest for the 10 (of 17) who picked Mounds View to advance. There were quite a few near misses, but no correct scores.

Lower Bracket
#7 Centennial 5
#6 Irondale 6

Only Knight7 had Irondale advancing this far, and in so doing picks up 3 points on the rest of the field!

8AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 North Wright County 3
#4 Bemdji 0

Everyone gets 3, but that’s it.

Lower Bracket
#7 Moorhead 7
#6 River Lakes 2

Since nobody had either team advancing this far, no points are awarded for this game.


And it’s Silent But Deadly jumping out to a pretty good lead in our updated Leaderboard:

1. Silent But Deadly – 58!

2. 36Guy – 52
D16Dad – 52

4. Knight7 – 51
MNHockeyFan – 51

6. hockey21 – 50
sinbin – 50

8. Racki2016 – 49
Nimrod – 49
Bighead – 49

11. AV dad – 47
ayhfan – 47

13. FlyingWarrior – 46
capitalpride - 46

15. One with 45

16. One with 44

17. One with 43

Next up tomorrow night: Our first section final, in 3AA, plus the semi’s in 6AA.

Edited 2/12/13: The point totals are corrected from those originally posted. In checking the spreadsheet I discovered that I did not insert the point totals from Saturday's Upper Bracket semifinal in 7AA.

Also, my comment regarding the Lower Bracket result in 5AA is corrected to show that Knight7 did have Irondale advancing. I had already given Knight7 the 3 points for making this call but got the comment incorrect.

Sorry for any confusion!

[Nimrod]

Congrats on the nice win Knight7. I am a little disappointed you didn't predict Irondale moving on since you have the inside scoop. Still, nice to see the North Suburban Conference win a couple since so many think they are at the bottom of the heap.

[MNHockeyFan]

Congrats on the nice win Knight7. I am a little disappointed you didn't predict Irondale moving on since you have the inside scoop. Still, nice to see the North Suburban Conference win a couple since so many think they are at the bottom of the heap.

Nimrod, actually Knight7 DID predict his Knights would advance, and congratulations on that call! I received a PM from another observant fan, and made the correction in my edited post above.

[Nimrod]

That makes more sense, thought i saw the same thing earlier but was too lazy to go back and look. Always good to see a loyal fan. Nice work Knight7!

[MNHockeyFan]

We have our first section champion! The 3AA representative will be the Eagan Wildcats as they advance to State. Congratulations also to Eastview who as the #6 seed came within a couple of goals of getting there.

3AA - Final
#1 Eagan 6
#6 Eastview 4

6AA - Semifinals

Upper Bracket
#1 Minnetonka 5
#4 Buffalo 1

Lower Bracket
#6 Armstrong/Cooper 1
#2 Benilde-St. Margaret's 7

The 6AA Final on Friday night, pitting the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the State, should be a tremendous hockey game!

In our contest through this evening Silent But Deadly maintains the lead, going a perfect three for three for 11 additional points. 36Guy and D16Dad also got all three winners right and remain 6 points back. There were no correct scores in tonight's games.

1. Silent But Deadly – 69!

2. 36Guy – 63
D16Dad – 63

4. MNHockeyFan – 62

5. Racki2016 – 60
Nimrod – 60
Bighead – 60

8. Knight7 – 59

9. ayhfan - 58

10. FlyingWarrior – 57

11. D6 Girls Fan - 56
sinbin - 56

13. hockey21 – 55
hockeyfan87 - 55

15. One with 54

16. One with 53

17. One with 52

Tomorrow evening we'll see #1 seed Lakeville North and #3 seed Dodge County playing for the Section 1AA Championship, and #1 Forest Lake taking on #3 Elk River/Zimmerman for the 7AA title.

[MNHockeyFan]

3AA - Final
#1 Lakeville North 3
#3 Dodge County 2

Dodge County jumped out to a 2-0 lead but the Panthers roared back to win. Ashley Kloncz scored the game winner on a power play with just 2:39 to play.

In our contest 9 of 17 pick up 5 points each. Everyone else had Lakeville South playing in the final game and winning it.

I'll wait for the Forest Lake/Elk River result before updating the point totals.

[MNHockeyFan]

Still no score on the Hub but according to old goalie85 in the 7AA thread (and in a PM - thanks!) it was:

7AA - Final
#1 Forest Lake 3
#3 Elk River/Zimmerman 2

A slight minority of our prognosticators (8 of 17) picked Forest Lake to win this section, and in so doing add 5 points each. Only three had the Elks even in the final game with Forest Lake and none of those guessed the score.

Our standings tighten considerably as Silent But Deadly finally misses one. His lead is down to just one over second place D16Dad, and what do you know I'm just a point behind him in 3rd.

1. Silent But Deadly – 74

2. D16Dad - 73

3. MNHockeyFan - 72

4. Nimrod - 70

5. 36Guy - 68

6. D6 Girls Fan - 66

7. Racki2016 - 65
hockey21 - 65

9. Nordic - 64

10. ayhfan - 63

11. hockeyfan87 - 60
Bighead - 60

13. Knight7 - 59

14. FlyingWarrior - 57

15. sinbin - 56

16. One with 53

17. One with 52

Huge final night tomorrow when we'll have the section championship games in 2AA, 4AA, 5AA, 6AA and 8AA. That's 25 points plus any correct scores at stake!

[MNHockeyFan]

Here are the scores for the five section championship games this evening:

Section 2AA Championship
#1 Eden Prairie 3
#2 Edina 1

11 of 17 pick up 10 points each, but no correct score bonus points given.

Section 4AA Championship
#1 Hill- Murray 3
#2 Roseville 1

15 of 17 picked the No. 1 seed Pioneers to win and add 10 points each. Racki2016 and Nimrod also got the score right and each add the two bonus points.

Section 5AA Championship
#1 Mounds View 1
#6 Irondale 2

Big upset, which shouldn’t be too surprising as this section was full of upsets from Day 1. We had one contestant who forecast the Knights would go all the way: who else but Knight7! Congratulations to Irondale and best of luck at State!

Section 6AA Championship
#1 Minnetonka 3
#2 Benilde-St. Margaret’s 2

Our group was evenly split on this one: 8 picked the Skippers to win and 8 had the Red Knights (with the other picking Buffalo). And the game was about that close also, as Tonka scored three goals in the last seven minutes of the third period to overcome a 0-2 deficit to win it.

And of the eight prognosticators who had Minnetonka winning, a majority (five) of them also got the 3-2 score right and pick up an extra two points each. Those five were 36Guy, D6 Girls Fan, hockeyfan87, ayhfan and sinbin.

Section 8AA Championship
#1 North Wright County 4
#7 Moorhead 0
This section turned out to be more predictable, as all but one had No. 1 seed North Wright County winning it. But nobody had No. 7 Moorhead getting to the final game, so there was no possibility of a correct score.


AND DRUM ROLL, PLEASE……………….

And the winner of our '2013 Section Playoffs - Pick the Winners!' contest is, who else but Knight7! In a remarkable comeback, Knight7 zoomed from 13th place to Champion on the last day, albeit by a single point, having picked all five of our section winners this evening. Now THAT has to be some kind of record! Knight7 if you are reading this, send me a PM to learn of the HUGE PRIZE you just won!

Here are our final standings:

1. Knight7 – 109

2. D6 Girls Fan – 108 (so close!)

3. ayhfan – 105 (another nice comeback by an old pro)

4. Nordic – 104
Silent But Deadly – 104 (he thought he had it, but...)

6. D16Dad – 103

7. 36Guy - 100

8. sinbin – 98

9. hockey21 – 95

10. Nimrod – 92
MNHockeyFan – 92
hockeyfan87 – 92

13. Bighead – 90

14. Racki2016 – 87

15. AV dad – 83

16. One with 67

17. One with 62

Again, a big congrats to Knight7 for the remarkable comeback victory, and don't forget about your prize!

Also, look for the ‘2013 State Tournament – Pick the Winners Challenge’ to be posted as soon as the seedings are completed!

[Silent But Deadly]

Ya....I thought I had it won alright...but that was when BSM was leading 2-0 late in the 3rd period.......darn you Tonka!!!!!!!!

[D6 Girls Fan]

Anyone who could have pegged Irondale to make the tourney sure deserves to win! All I needed to do was get that EP score right. Congrats Knight7!

[Knight7]

Thank You all. After 2 years I win a week. MNF thank you for all the time you devoted this. It has been fun.

[sinbin]

Congrats to Knight for picking the upset and winning the competition. I wonder, though, if Knight will be so confident at State. Anything can happen, of course . . .