HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Agree with eagles. Sometimes I think girls play better as underclassman like tonka did last year as primarily juniors. I don’t know if the pressure of being seniors got to these girls or what. They looked uninspired and played like it was another game in January. I was at the game and thought gentry would wear down playing 10 players but I was wrong and Minnetonka looked more tired towards the end.
Looking at their scores, tonka surprised me that they were held to 3 or less goals 13 times this year. I think their entire top 3 lines and top 5 d will probably go d1 so that number is pretty staggering to me.
Watching their game and Andover i noticed Andovers d don’t take as many chances. Hemp alone gave up 2 or 3 two on ones in the third period. I don’t know if the tv caught it but on the one she went down and just quit on the play while asking the ref for a call. She left her feet on the first goal which left basically a breakaway on her sister. She also turned over the winner in to. I get it, you want to be a difference maker but she was for the wrong reasons last night.

hwkfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:09 am Agree with eagles. Sometimes I think girls play better as underclassman like tonka did last year as primarily juniors. I don’t know if the pressure of being seniors got to these girls or what. They looked uninspired and played like it was another game in January. I was at the game and thought gentry would wear down playing 10 players but I was wrong and Minnetonka looked more tired towards the end.
Looking at their scores, tonka surprised me that they were held to 3 or less goals 13 times this year. I think their entire top 3 lines and top 5 d will probably go d1 so that number is pretty staggering to me.
Watching their game and Andover i noticed Andovers d don’t take as many chances. Hemp alone gave up 2 or 3 two on ones in the third period. I don’t know if the tv caught it but on the one she went down and just quit on the play while asking the ref for a call. She left her feet on the first goal which left basically a breakaway on her sister. She also turned over the winner in to. I get it, you want to be a difference maker but she was for the wrong reasons last night.

I agree, sometimes there’s more hunger from juniors, rather than seniors who are already looking forward to playing D1 in the fall. Sometimes. I have also seen a group of senior step up and gel/bond because they know this is the last year. I don’t know Tonka that well except for watching them in 3 games this year (the last 2 and the Hill game). All good games. All 1 goal games. But I certainly expected way way way way way more out of a team that has 5 U18 USA players and probably a dozen future D1 players. Can someone who follows them daily give us a breakdown to what happened? Are they simply burnt out? Too much individualism (too many #1’s). Maybe some are over-rated? It’s not that they played poorly, it’s that I expected to see something way more than what was out there.

Pretty obvious they are poorly coached. No adjustments and power play has no creativity and forces plays. When your first unit is all signed with umd/um I expect to see something ultra impressive. A 5-3 with Ava Lindsey standing 70 ft out on the half wall and forcing marginal plays to the net says it all. Their 2nd unit actually got the puck moving. Why with the talent on that first unit are they using predetermined basically set plays?
Plenty of dumb penalties though out the year(s) which was never corrected.
If you swap McKenzie jones with Josie hemp yesterday it’s an Edina/tonka final tonight and a gentry Andover 3rd place game.

hwkfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:25 am Pretty obvious they are poorly coached. No adjustments and power play has no creativity and forces plays. When your first unit is all signed with umd/um I expect to see something ultra impressive. A 5-3 with Ava Lindsey standing 70 ft out on the half wall and forcing marginal plays to the net says it all. Their 2nd unit actually got the puck moving. Why with the talent on that first unit are they using predetermined basically set plays?
Plenty of dumb penalties though out the year(s) which was never corrected.
If you swap McKenzie jones with Josie hemp yesterday it’s an Edina/tonka final tonight and a gentry Andover 3rd place game.

I noticed the same with the 5-on-3. It seems like a combination of coaching and hockey IQ on what you described.
With all these players, is it maybe they’re just not as ultra-great like everyone thinks they are (or expect)? They are the best of 2023, but simply not superstars. None look close to being Zumwinkle, Heise, Hughes, Bizel, or even Payton Hemp (when they were in high school). Maybe the coaches thought they could just go auto-pilot and it would just “happen”.
I have yet to figure out why the Hemp’s left Andover, especially with the family being so involved on the youth side. If it was discussed on the forum, shoot me the link.

I think a lot of credit should go to Billy Hengen. After being outshot pretty significantly in the first Gentry, either through adjustments and/or motivation, came out much stronger in the second period.

SSP 3, Proctor/Hermy 2 OT
Mankato 4, Fergus Falls 3

Hopefully SSP's Norman gets in to the all-team for goaltending.

What happened at the end of the game?

hwkfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:25 am Pretty obvious they are poorly coached.

What impressed me about Tonka in previous games is they seem to communicate very well, as if they are coaching themselves. Their PP is usually very fun to watch (as expected with 5 D1 players on the ice) with great puck movement. The head coach seems to stand around a lot without much instruction and the assistant screams at the refs ALL game.

When the two leading scorers/linemates score a combined 2 goals/4 points in the last 4 games, they're not going to win much. The other lines stepped up big in the HF game but against deeper teams in the state tourney you can't rely on that.

jdh wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 11:41 am What happened at the end of the game?

We're not allowed to talk negatively about players.

Lace'emUp wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:37 am I have yet to figure out why the Hemp’s left Andover, especially with the family being so involved on the youth side. If it was discussed on the forum, shoot me the link.

I've never heard much about this, nor Kaiser. The only thing I heard with the latter is she/they weren't fond of the Andover coach/staff.

I agree with the gripping at refs. I only watched them play yesterday and against maple grove. Last year i noticed them always gripping at refs even when game was in hand without much time left. Why put your team in that position

Eagles93 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:31 pm [quote="Lace'emUp" post_id=766275 time=<a href="tel:1677339429">1677339429</a> user_id=20228]
I have yet to figure out why the Hemp’s left Andover, especially with the family being so involved on the youth side. If it was discussed on the forum, shoot me the link.

I've never heard much about this, nor Kaiser. The only thing I heard with the latter is she/they weren't fond of the Andover coach/staff.
[/quote]
To me it looks like Andover coach wanted their d to play d and they wanted her to be a fourth forward. Why take such risky chances in 1-1 game. Why leave your feet on 2-1 when your sister is squared up to the shooter. You might have the most talented group of forwards in the state in front of you so why play the risk reward game. I don’t understand the roulette mentality they play and never will.

Orono is pretty gritty.

On a lighter note, I still wish this tourney was a Ritter. What an atmosphere that would create.
I hate watching championship games and seeing a bunch of empty seats when the puck goes in the corner.

Glad that's over with. What a dull final.

That’s a pp.
Hasn’t Andover had a successful transfer portal? Winnie keeps pimping Andover girls coming up thru the youth program.

Congrats Gentry. Beautiful defense in their own zone.

Nostalgic Nerd wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:05 pm Glad that's over with. What a dull final.

Yes, every 5-6 years there’s a clunker AA championship game. Last one was 2017 when Edina crushed Blaine. Gentry was playing with a chip on their shoulder, and Andover played their worst game since probably the 2016/17 season. The tourny will be most memorable for how Tonka collapsed and went quietly into the night. Big question: Will we look back 5 years from now and wonder “what happened to that Gentry Academy?” (like, what happened to that Achievers Academy?)

How about the Halvorson girl not being all tourney?
Scores that game tying goal against tonka yesterday and a hat trick today.
Wow!

Lace'emUp wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:40 pm

Nostalgic Nerd wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:05 pm Glad that's over with. What a dull final.

Yes, every 5-6 years there’s a clunker AA championship game. Last one was 2017 when Edina crushed Blaine. Gentry was playing with a chip on their shoulder, and Andover played their worst game since probably the 2016/17 season. The tourny will be most memorable for how Tonka collapsed and went quietly into the night. Big question: Will we look back 5 years from now and wonder “what happened to that Gentry Academy?” (like, what happened to that Achievers Academy?)

I was talking about the Warroad final.

Nostalgic Nerd wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 5:57 am

Lace'emUp wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:40 pm

Nostalgic Nerd wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:05 pm Glad that's over with. What a dull final.

Yes, every 5-6 years there’s a clunker AA championship game. Last one was 2017 when Edina crushed Blaine. Gentry was playing with a chip on their shoulder, and Andover played their worst game since probably the 2016/17 season. The tourny will be most memorable for how Tonka collapsed and went quietly into the night. Big question: Will we look back 5 years from now and wonder “what happened to that Gentry Academy?” (like, what happened to that Achievers Academy?)

I was talking about the Warroad final.

That game seemed better than most recent class-A championship days. The previous 4 of 6 were blowouts.

hwkfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 11:10 pm How about the Halvorson girl not being all tourney?
Scores that game tying goal against tonka yesterday and a hat trick today.
Wow!

Hanrahan not Halverson. What a joke that award is. They must vote on Friday

Lace'emUp wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 7:32 am

Nostalgic Nerd wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 5:57 am

Lace'emUp wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:40 pm

Yes, every 5-6 years there’s a clunker AA championship game. Last one was 2017 when Edina crushed Blaine. Gentry was playing with a chip on their shoulder, and Andover played their worst game since probably the 2016/17 season. The tourny will be most memorable for how Tonka collapsed and went quietly into the night. Big question: Will we look back 5 years from now and wonder “what happened to that Gentry Academy?” (like, what happened to that Achievers Academy?)

I was talking about the Warroad final.

That game seemed better than most recent class-A championship days. The previous 4 of 6 were blowouts.

It was pretty bad but the score didn't reflect it. Orono could barely get in Warroad's zone.

Hanrahan should have been all tourney team who voted on this she even got the game winner on Friday
just glad they took out hill again on the way

Lace'emUp wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:37 am
I noticed the same with the 5-on-3. It seems like a combination of coaching and hockey IQ on what you described.
With all these players, is it maybe they’re just not as ultra-great like everyone thinks they are (or expect)? They are the best of 2023, but simply not superstars. None look close to being Zumwinkle, Heise, Hughes, Bizel, or even Payton Hemp (when they were in high school). Maybe the coaches thought they could just go auto-pilot and it would just “happen”.
I have yet to figure out why the Hemp’s left Andover, especially with the family being so involved on the youth side. If it was discussed on the forum, shoot me the link.

The problem is you could watch a tape of 3 pp's and you know exactly what they are going to do. Ok, its an umbrella. That doesn't mean you ignore making plays down low to Sadura. If Lindsay is going to go to the net on a give and go teams are going to respect that and it will open up other plays.
Hemp shoots the puck ok but a 60 ft wrister at the goalies glove (which stops play and lets opponents get fresh killers) is quite honestly the worst thing you can do. She should be dishing the puck to lindsay who can shoot and make plays or to klepinger on her offhand who has a division 1 one-timer.
Shots from 60 feet out should be at the tail end of a power play or when teams are playing too high. I guess the ins and outs of the pp are debatable but given the skill level of the players, the opponents heads should be spinning.

Andover too, I was expecting quite a show from Boerger and Goettl this year. Last year I felt like every time Goettl touched the puck something impressive happened. This year she was just blah. I guess last year final setup us all up for a let down this year.