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8 of 13 Section teams are busy tonight... Here we go...

New Prague (14-7-0) at Delano (18-4-0)
Owatonna (8-11-1) at Northfield (12-7-0)
Winona (4-18-0) at Fairbo (15-4-1)
Austin (3-17-1) at Century (11-7-2)
West (13-6-2) at Albert Lea (8-12-0)
LaCrescent (15-6-0) at Avalanche, wis (16-5-0)

All Homers accept the last one.

Well, some clarity yestereday.

West beats Faribault to all but win the Big 9, New Prague rallied to beat Lourdes, which could've thrown a big wrench into things. Northfield and Faribault have a huge game next week for seedings. Winner is probably the 3, loser probably the 4.

...and LaCrescent beats LeSueur on the road, which should vault them in front of them... But one never knows

And so what ranking should lesuer have after losing to lacrescent? I have a hunch they will not be better than eighth. I remember someone putting them in top four, no chance

The only thing I do know is that there will be a lot of "upsets" by various seeds.

curtiscurve- we need another write up updating your seed placements, I'm sure there would be some major moves up and down from the last one.

My thoughts as of today..

1. New Prague
2. Mankato West
3. Northfield
4. Faribault
5. Rochester Lourdes
6. LaCrescent
7. St. Peter
8. Mankato East
9. Red Wing
10. Albert Lea
11. Waseca
12. Winona
13. Austin.

Two big games tommorrow....
LeSeuer at Faribault and Lourdes at Albert Lea

10 of 13 section teams in play tomorrow (2/10/15)

St. Cloud Cathedral at Mankato West
New Prague at Mound-Westonka
LaCrescent at Waseca
Century at Mankato East
Lourdes at Albert Lea
LSH/SP at Fairbo
Northfield at JM

Some very tough picks here... Not even gonna guess

GopherPuck15 wrote:My thoughts as of today..

1. New Prague
2. Mankato West
3. Northfield
4. Faribault
5. Rochester Lourdes
6. LaCrescent
7. St. Peter
8. Mankato East
9. Red Wing
10. Albert Lea
11. Waseca
12. Winona
13. Austin.

This looks about right, but I think Lourdes is starting to feel it!

Lourdes will be a tough out in the section playoffs. They still have games versus albert lea and red wing. They need to take care of business versus these teams in order to be around four or five. I suspect they may be a spot or two lower than that. Games against section opponents have all been one goal games. Looking forward to section time.

LeSeuer beat Faribault 4-1, meaning LeSeuer beat both West and Faribault, the top 2 teams in the Big Nine.

Lourdes lost to Albert Lea 4-3, AL is 10th in the Big Nine and can finish no better than 9th.

LaCrescent beat Waseca 3-1.

New Prague is the clear #1, I think West is #2 as the top Big Nine team and, even though they lost to LeSeuer being a conference champ carries weight. After that I think it's LeSeuer and maybe LaCrescent at #3 and #4 in some order, then Faribault and Northfield. It's a mess after that until Winona and Austin at the bottom.

LaCrescent is tough to seed, Lourdes losing tonight pretty much drops them from the top 7 at the very least.

Definitely a strange year in 1A. New Prague, unbeaten in the section, is the definite No. 1, but 2-8 are real tough to pigeonhole. I'm guessing West at No. 2 and Northfield/Faribault/LeSueur somewhere in 3-5 then LaCrescent/Albert Lea/East/Lourdes in 6-9 in some combination after that. To me, No way you can put Lourdes any higher than eighth. Yes, they've lost a lot of tight games to good teams, but they've only won five games. A loss to Red Wing Thursday should keep them off of home ice for the first round of the playoffs, and could bump the Wingers up a few notches.

Is anyone else a bit surprised Mankato West upset St. Cloud Cathedral?

That probably solidifies them as the two seed, but then is it St. Peter 3 now? Northfield? Faribault with a win over Northfield Saturday? This is going to be a fun section.

Just playing the devil's advocate here.
LaCrescent just beat LeSueur on the road at LeSueur, Hub score sheet shows they shut down Wenner and only allowed PP goals...how can they not be ahead of LSP in the seedings while both have identical records, and a clear head-2-head victory.

Like everyone is stating, it could be a crazy wild section. You can't count any team out from top to bottom. Looks like Waseca got Ulfers back in the line-up.

I still think that it is New Prague's or Mankato West's section for the taking.

My thoughts for seedings

1. New Prague..No questions
2. West..11-4-2 in section, Split with Faribault, won the last meeting and beat and tie Northfield, beat st cloud Cath last night
3. Northfield..8-3-1 in secton, beat Faribault 3-0, play them on saturday, whoever wins saturday gets 3 seed
4. Faribault..9-6-1 in section, lost to Northfield and west, to bad they didn't get to play New Prague
Now it gets messy
5. St Peter.. 7-2 in the section, Beat Faribault on the road last night, beat west earlier, Bad loses to Marshall and La Crescent at home hurt, Highest scoring team in the section
6. East..9-6 in section, Beat Albert Lea twice, beat Faribault early in year and lost to them by a goal
7. La Crescent..5-1 in the section, have won 8 in a row and have beat St Peter and Waseca both on the road
8. Albert Lea..5-9-0 in section, Beat Lourdes last night, lost 7 games in a row by 1 goal, some of the teams were Northfield, Faribault, West
9. Rochester Lourdes..0-5-1 in section, play a tough schedule, I have a hard time ranking this team any higher without winning a section game. To me you need to take care of business in your own backyard, which they haven't done. Need to win thur vs red wing to keep the 9 spot
10. Red Wing..6-8-1 in section, they are 5-2 over the last 7 games, beating west, albert lea and east, seem to have found their game at the right time, could move up a spot with a win over Rochester Lourdes on thur
11. Waseca.. 3-4-1 in section, beat Austin twice, lost to st. peter by 1 goal
12. Winona..3-7 in section, I put them here because they beat Austin twice, but lost to waseca
13. Austin..0-15-1 in section, this team has lost to west, faribault and northfield by 1 goal..that is 3 of the top 4 teams in the section! This team is not going to be a cake walk beat!

After looking at all the teams, I have to say New Prague is the favorite. West might have the best goalie?

In all honesty I could see anyone of the top 10 seeds make it out of this section. No super high end teams in the section but some solid depth.

I would love to hear some of your opinions.

Good Luck to all teams!!!

Maybe one of your top 5.

elliott70 wrote:Maybe one of your top 5.

I can't see anyone outside of the top 4 winning the section, but crazier things have happened. If West gets the two seed, I just can't see anyone, theoretically of course, beating both West and New Prague in route to a title. I could see one team falling, but not both. The best part is, there's a reason the games are played and crazier things have happened.

Gopherpuck, you hit the nail on the head. None of the top eight teams are upset-proof. I could see a 9-seed (Lourdes?) beating New Prague. But in order to win the section, you have to win three (or four) straight games. I don't think any of the lower seeded teams have shown they can put together that consistent of an effort. I'm guessing it will be New Prague vs. the 2 or 3 seed in the finals, but nothing in this section would surprise me this year.

GopherPuck15 wrote:Is anyone else a bit surprised Mankato West upset St. Cloud Cathedral?

That probably solidifies them as the two seed, but then is it St. Peter 3 now? Northfield? Faribault with a win over Northfield Saturday? This is going to be a fun section.

Not suprised at all, look who SCC has beaten. Nobody outside their section besides a Warroad team, that apparently had some major injuries at that time. That tells me that section 6 is fairly overrated.

pats12 wrote:

GopherPuck15 wrote:Is anyone else a bit surprised Mankato West upset St. Cloud Cathedral?

That probably solidifies them as the two seed, but then is it St. Peter 3 now? Northfield? Faribault with a win over Northfield Saturday? This is going to be a fun section.

Not suprised at all, look who SCC has beaten. Nobody outside their section besides a Warroad team, that apparently had some major injuries at that time. That tells me that section 6 is fairly overrated.

I would say their win over Duluth Denfield definitely counts...

hockey9011 wrote:

pats12 wrote:

GopherPuck15 wrote:Is anyone else a bit surprised Mankato West upset St. Cloud Cathedral?

That probably solidifies them as the two seed, but then is it St. Peter 3 now? Northfield? Faribault with a win over Northfield Saturday? This is going to be a fun section.

Not suprised at all, look who SCC has beaten. Nobody outside their section besides a Warroad team, that apparently had some major injuries at that time. That tells me that section 6 is fairly overrated.

I would say their win over Duluth Denfield definitely counts...

My bad, 2-9 vs relevant teams outside there section.

A healthy slate of games tonight. The Big 9 could have its champion by night's end as well, depending on the Faribault/Mayo and West/JM outcomes.

Thursday 2/12
Winona at Northfield
Red Wing at Rochester Lourdes
Mankato West at Rochester JM
Albert Lea at Austin
Faribault at Rochester Mayo
Dodge County at La Crescent
Waseca at New Ulm

Hey fellas, I'm new on this board obviously. But coming down to crunch time here with playoffs coming up. Was anyone at the New Prague-Mankato west game? If so, your thoughts?