Two Nations Female Hockey League 2008

[joehockey]

The League opened last weekend in Canada. US games start this weekend at Plymouth. Canadians are in town to play May 8-10 at Plymouth.

Canada Game Results:

Elite I Division
Lightning 4 BEARCATS 3
Lightning 3 Reece's Piece's 5
BEARCATS 5 Reece's Piece's 4
Lightning 3 BEARCATS 2
BEARCATS 6 Reece's Piece's 3
Lightning 3 Reece's Piece's 3

Elite II Division
Pembina Valley 1 MB Saints 1
Pembina Valley 5 Starzz 4
MB Saints 1 Starzz 3
Pembina Valley 4 MB Saints 1
MB Saints 4 Starzz 2
Pembina Valley 6 Starzz 3

US Teams:
Elite I - EXTREME, OS Elite, Walser I, Saint Croix Saints
Elite II - The Blades, Flames, Walser

US Games May 3-4 at Plymouth:
May 2 Friday Night
7 PM Flames@Blades Rink 2
May 3 Saturday Morning
9AM Blades @Walser II Rink 1
11AM EXTREME@OS Elite Rink 1
11AM St. Croix Saints@Walser I Rink 2
Saturday Afternoon
5PM OS Elite@St. Croix Saints Rink 1
5PM Walser I@EXTREME Rink 2
7PM Walser II@Flames Rink 3
May 4 Sunday Morning
8AM Flames@Walser II Rink 1
10AM Walser I@OS Elite Rink 1
10AM St. Croix Saints@EXTREME Rink 2
Sunday Afternoon
1:15PM Walser II@Blades Rink 3
1:30PM EXTREME@St. Croix Saints Rink 2
3:30PM OS Elite@Walser I Rink 2
4:45PM Blades@Flames Rink 3

US Rosters Elite I Division:
Minnesota EXTREME
# Player
1 Leah Jondahl
32 Jessica Newstrom
35 Marah Sobczak
2 Korrine O' Connor
3 Alyssa Jackson
6 Janessa Haller
7 Kirstin Mayclin
8 Tamara Meuwissen
11 Sam Krause
12 Sara Ness
14 Ali Nelson
15 Ashley Stenerson
17 Lauren Williams
19 Kelly Fladebo
20 Samantha Meuwissen
21 Megan Forcier
23 Kaylen Berle
24 Cassandra Salmen
25 Ashley Maskel
26 Madison Marcotte
28 Sally Komarek
29 Katelyn Dold
99 Nicole Neumann

OS Elite
# Player
1 Lauren Herzog
30 Sam Ubl
2 Jess Pederson
3 Stephanie Hatcher
4 Greer Vogl
5 Delaney Middlebrook
6 Taylor Kuehl
7 Brianna Herzog
8 Nicole Miller
9 Kristina Larson
10 Carley Johnson
11 Justine Herlofsky
12 Kayala Jochum
13 Jocey Kleiber
15 Allix Bell
16 Elizabeth Sitek
17 Kara Barton
19 Emily Skinner
21 Rachel Gromek
28 Brianna Lucker-Frei

Walser USA Elite I
# Player
30 Kaitlyn Rolando
33 Mikaela Mahoney
2 Kristin Skoog
3 Brittany DeBoer
5 Lyndsey Hawkins
6 Jestina Koenigsmark
7 Allison Muccio
9 Sarah Hubacher
10 Lizz Walston
11 Keri Graske
12 Michelle Lunneborg
14 Angie Graske
15 Jenessa Philipczyk
16 Allison Lorbiecki
17 Melissa Mankey
19 MacKenzie Saad
20 Natalie Wedell
22 Nicole Stumpf
25 Mia Kramka
27 Claire Smith
29 Rachel Stevenson

Saint Croix Saints
# Player
31 Kayla Lange
31 Chloe Billadeau
35 Rebecca MacRostie
2 Michelle Fischer
3 Judy Daleiden
4 Rosie Alleva
5 Julie Baumgartner
6 Allie Duellman
7 Lauren Charpentier
8 Corinne Buie
9 Meagan Cox
10 Alexa Jacobsen
11 Danielle Williams
12 Corinne Henning
14 Kristi King
15 Mary O'Brien
16 Kari Lundberg
17 Meg Steinmetz
18 Katie Burns
19 Stephanie Anderson
21 Lisa Tuuri
22 Gina McDonald
49 Alison Umland
49 Sadie Lundquist
77 Maggie Pendleton

US Rosters Elite II Division:
The Blades
# Player
1 Alison McKeever
30 Shyler Sletta
2 Samantha Hanson
3 Megan Default
4 Kayla Mork
5 Allie Lacombe
6 Dani Cameranesi
7 Alyssa Veil
8 Clare Shaw
9 Hillary Crowe
10 Samantha Reber
11 Marissa Brandt
12 Hannah Brandt
13 Molly Byrne
14 Natalie Stoltz
15 Leah Johnson
16 Chrisi Brauer
17 Mallory Ryan
19 Caitlin Hewes
21 Alison Rollendi
23 Katy Kvasnicka

Flames
# Player
30 Colleen Dunnigan
35 Crystal Amunrud
3 Tara Jackson
5 Kellie Kurz
6 Katie Batters
7 Megan Seibel
8 Taylor Hara
9 Morgan Olson
13 Jackie Zappa
15 Laural Miller
16 Toni Meyers
18 Nicole Schaub
19 Caroline Ponessa
21 Ashley Adams
22 Danielle Lobejko
23 Nikki Erickson
29 Lauren Holmes

Walser USA Elite II
# Player
33 Stefanie Colyer
35 Julie Friend
2 Caitlin Chartrand
3 Lauren Bazzachini
5 Amy Johnson
6 Kaylee DeBoer
7 Sarah Beckstrom
8 Shelby Kirshbaum
10 Alyssa Ruhland
11 Emily Pocrnich
12 Sara Dilts
15 Calle Chartrand
16 Alex DeBoer
18 Baily Strom
19 Michele Williams
20 Brianna Drude
21 Caroline Griffith
25 Megan Nickelson
27 Erin Welch
96 Amanda Johnson

[MNHockeyFan]

Just looking at the scores so far it looks like the Canadian teams are pretty well balanced. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. teams match up with them when they start playing the Inter-Divisional games.

[joehockey]

Just looking at the scores so far it looks like the Canadian teams are pretty well balanced. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. teams match up with them when they start playing the Inter-Divisional games.

They have achieved this by balancing their rosters from last year when they had a really strong team, 2 good teams and one weak team - not exactly a draft but the coaches met and divided the pool of players.....similar to the planned Elite 1 HS league this fall (NHL or the NFL) they wanted their teams to all be at parity/competitive.

[OntheEdge]

Just looking at the scores so far it looks like the Canadian teams are pretty well balanced. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. teams match up with them when they start playing the Inter-Divisional games.

They have achieved this by balancing their rosters from last year when they had a really strong team, 2 good teams and one weak team - not exactly a draft but the coaches met and divided the pool of players.....similar to the planned Elite 1 HS league this fall (NHL or the NFL) they wanted their teams to all be at parity/competitive.

I was told that the Canadians think that the American side should do the same thing if the teams in this weekend's games turn out to be uneven. Is this true?

[joehockey]

Just looking at the scores so far it looks like the Canadian teams are pretty well balanced. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. teams match up with them when they start playing the Inter-Divisional games.

They have achieved this by balancing their rosters from last year when they had a really strong team, 2 good teams and one weak team - not exactly a draft but the coaches met and divided the pool of players.....similar to the planned Elite 1 HS league this fall (NHL or the NFL) they wanted their teams to all be at parity/competitive.

I was told that the Canadians think that the American side should do the same thing if the teams in this weekend's games turn out to be uneven. Is this true?

Not this season for sure!

I guess the US teams can look at what Canadians have done but I don't know if teams would adopt or not....time will tell and the Canadians and Elite I would be a couple of great data points.

I think some teams can't get enough players to commit to this spring league - so a few teams have multiple teams represented on their rosters (Walser Blue, Ice Cats and Jr. WhiteCaps not in league but many of their players are on other teams)....so the question might be would you get more players playing and better over all competition if Canadian approach was adopted?

[OntheEdge]

They have achieved this by balancing their rosters from last year when they had a really strong team, 2 good teams and one weak team - not exactly a draft but the coaches met and divided the pool of players.....similar to the planned Elite 1 HS league this fall (NHL or the NFL) they wanted their teams to all be at parity/competitive.

I was told that the Canadians think that the American side should do the same thing if the teams in this weekend's games turn out to be uneven. Is this true?

Not this season for sure!

I guess the US teams can look at what Canadians have done but I don't know if teams would adopt or not....time will tell and the Canadians and Elite I would be a couple of great data points.

I think some teams can't get enough players to commit to this spring league - so a few teams have multiple teams represented on their rosters (Walser Blue, Ice Cats and Jr. WhiteCaps not in league but many of their players are on other teams)....so the question might be would you get more players playing and better over all competition if Canadian approach was adopted?

I think the goal should not be about winning but making the league as competitive as possible. The Canadien approach appears to me to be a good model.

[joehockey]

OnEdge I agree - this is development, at cost based competition to help expose the girls to faster more physical hockey.

My "not this season" means it has been a lot of work to get to this stage so won't change this year as there are only 4 weekends total starting in 2 days - all the coaches just had first group meeting last night.

Canadians had a league based planning approach where US had team based planning approach - the Canadian teams were formed to play in this league. The US teams have this as a part of their overall schedule....as an example St. Croix Saints will play about 40-50 games of which 15-16 are in this league.

Lots of progress over a year ago with 13-14 teams versus 7 last year and I would expect bigger step up for next year - no one can predict the format next year but sure it will continue to move towards getting more top MN players into the league looks like there are about 140-150 skating this year.

[OntheEdge]

OnEdge I agree - this is development, at cost based competition to help expose the girls to faster more physical hockey.

My "not this season" means it has been a lot of work to get to this stage so won't change this year as there are only 4 weekends total starting in 2 days - all the coaches just had first group meeting last night.

Canadians had a league based planning approach where US had team based planning approach - the Canadian teams were formed to play in this league. The US teams have this as a part of their overall schedule....as an example St. Croix Saints will play about 40-50 games of which 15-16 are in this league.

Lots of progress over a year ago with 13-14 teams versus 7 last year and I would expect bigger step up for next year - no one can predict the format next year but sure it will continue to move towards getting more top MN players into the league looks like there are about 140-150 skating this year.

Its something that should strongly be considered next year however in looking at the rosters it doesn't appear to me that it would be too hard to do it this year. I see lots of players from many different teams spread among the rosters. For example, I see quite a few Ice Cats playing on the Saints, Walser and Shooting Stars players playing on the Extreme and the OS Elite being made up of many of the Schwans Blues players with a few Os/Xtreme players and others mixed in. It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to shift some players around without upsetting the base of each team. Hopefully the games will be as close as the Canadain games.

[joehockey]

OnEdge I agree - this is development, at cost based competition to help expose the girls to faster more physical hockey.

My "not this season" means it has been a lot of work to get to this stage so won't change this year as there are only 4 weekends total starting in 2 days - all the coaches just had first group meeting last night.

Canadians had a league based planning approach where US had team based planning approach - the Canadian teams were formed to play in this league. The US teams have this as a part of their overall schedule....as an example St. Croix Saints will play about 40-50 games of which 15-16 are in this league.

Lots of progress over a year ago with 13-14 teams versus 7 last year and I would expect bigger step up for next year - no one can predict the format next year but sure it will continue to move towards getting more top MN players into the league looks like there are about 140-150 skating this year.

Its something that should strongly be considered next year however in looking at the rosters it doesn't appear to me that it would be too hard to do it this year. I see lots of players from many different teams spread among the rosters. For example, I see quite a few Ice Cats playing on the Saints, Walser and Shooting Stars players playing on the Extreme and the OS Elite being made up of many of the Schwans Blues players with a few Os/Xtreme players and others mixed in. It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to shift some players around without upsetting the base of each team. Hopefully the games will be as close as the Canadain games.

Do you have a daughter in the league this year? If so talk to your coaches that that is what you want to do. You have great ideas I hope you are an active volunteer lots of work to put something like this together - if you have been you already know....

[OntheEdge]

OnEdge I agree - this is development, at cost based competition to help expose the girls to faster more physical hockey.

My "not this season" means it has been a lot of work to get to this stage so won't change this year as there are only 4 weekends total starting in 2 days - all the coaches just had first group meeting last night.

Canadians had a league based planning approach where US had team based planning approach - the Canadian teams were formed to play in this league. The US teams have this as a part of their overall schedule....as an example St. Croix Saints will play about 40-50 games of which 15-16 are in this league.

Lots of progress over a year ago with 13-14 teams versus 7 last year and I would expect bigger step up for next year - no one can predict the format next year but sure it will continue to move towards getting more top MN players into the league looks like there are about 140-150 skating this year.

Its something that should strongly be considered next year however in looking at the rosters it doesn't appear to me that it would be too hard to do it this year. I see lots of players from many different teams spread among the rosters. For example, I see quite a few Ice Cats playing on the Saints, Walser and Shooting Stars players playing on the Extreme and the OS Elite being made up of many of the Schwans Blues players with a few Os/Xtreme players and others mixed in. It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to shift some players around without upsetting the base of each team. Hopefully the games will be as close as the Canadain games.

Do you have a daughter in the league this year? If so talk to your coaches that that is what you want to do. You have great ideas I hope you are an active volunteer lots of work to put something like this together - if you have been you already know....

If the games are too lopsided this weekend I will mention it to our coach.

[winnings not 4 everyone]

If the games are lopsided, do what they are talking about on the 15's or 93 thread. BLAME IT ON THE COACH!

[talkhockey]

On the Edge wrote: "I was told that the Canadians think that the American side should do the same thing if the teams in this weekend's games turn out to be uneven. Is this true?"

Looks like it shouldn't be an issue, at least with the Elite 2 teams. If my memory serves me right weren’t the Starzz one of the top U16 AAA teams last summer. It looks like they won only one game out of four. Even with equal teams the Canadians still look tough.

[justforsaying]

On the Edge wrote: "I was told that the Canadians think that the American side should do the same thing if the teams in this weekend's games turn out to be uneven. Is this true?"

Looks like it shouldn't be an issue, at least with the Elite 2 teams. If my memory serves me right weren’t the Starzz one of the top U16 AAA teams last summer. It looks like they won only one game out of four. Even with equal teams the Canadians still look tough.

The Starzz were missing lots of players off roster.

[hockeyrube7]

If the games are too lopsided this weekend I will mention it to our coach.

And I'm only assuming here, but if your team is the one on winning side of a lopsided game, I'm sure you will be sure to want your kid on another team also? To make it even for the other teams I mean.

[OntheEdge]

If the games are too lopsided this weekend I will mention it to our coach.

And I'm only assuming here, but if your team is the one on winning side of a lopsided game, I'm sure you will be sure to want your kid on another team also? To make it even for the other teams I mean.

That's an easy one. Of course I would. I don't think lopsided teams do any good for anyone. The talent-rich team needs competition to get better too. I think competition is good for the development of all of the girls regardless. I just remember my daughter's games from youth hockey. I really hated it when her team dominated another team. It seemed like it was a waste of time. I think its better to lose by a goal or two than to win by 10. From what I have been told this league is about development not winning. If this was the State Tournament that's a different story but IMO to develop you have to have competition. The hard part would be to find someone that is good at judging talent to decide who moves where. Based on the scores, it appears that the Canadians did a nice job in this regard.

[goal4it]

That is so true. Even the most competitive would agree that it is better to lose a game by one goal than to win a game by 10 goals. That does NO ONE any good. It's all about improving, having fun, and playing your best game. So, why wouldn't everyone want teams to be fairly equal??

[Melvin44]

Of course no one wants to lose by 7 goals.

Most of these teams have been together for 2-3 years. My daughter used to play for the Saints and when we first started we won most of our games but also lost games by 6-7 goals and it didn't matter. I felt my daughter learned more by the losses, as she's a defender and had to skate her but off every shift. I think the same would also apply to a goalie.

Coaches work very hard to get the players which they feel will compete and I would suggest is that if a team struggles they could either drop down to the lower level or have the choice to find better players. Why should a team of girls who love to play with each other have to change teams as they chose their summer teams based on the players.

Trust me even if a team loses by a large margin they're still getting better and when they beat a team that is better they will gain even more appreciation/confidence.

Last weekend our team out shot 2 teams, one by a wide margin and lost and I garuntee you those teams wouldn't want to switch even though they were out played. Because they WON.

Do you believe in MIRACLES!!!!

[MNHockeyFan]

This morning at Plymouth it was St. Croix Saints 2, Walser 1.

I believe in the other game the Extreme won 4-2 but am not certain who they played?

[hockeya1a]

This morning at Plymouth it was St. Croix Saints 2, Walser 1.

I believe in the other game the Extreme won 4-2 but am not certain who they played?

Acording to the schedule sbove it was

11AM EXTREME@OS Elite Rink 1

[MNHockeyFan]

This evening it was OS Elite 3, St. Croix Saints 2. The Saints outshot OS Elite 49-20 but had a hard time converting their opportunities.

In the other Elite I Division game I believe it was Minnesota Extreme 3, Walser 0.

[joehockey]

Sunday Elite I Scores

Game 1 - St. Croix Saints 1 EXTREME 1
Game 2 - St. Croix Saints 3 EXTREME 2

Does anyone know other scores for the weekend at the Elite I or Elite II outside of what have been posted? All of the Saint Croix Saint games were very close and evenly matched in score.

[hockeyrube7]

Is this all the scores from the weekend, or were there more games not listed? Sounds like fantastic games being played.

"OntheEdge", from what you saw do you still feel the league needs to redraft teams?

[hocktang]

Does anyone know the schedule for the US vs. Canada Elite 1 and 2?

[MNHockeyFan]

Does anyone know the schedule for the US vs. Canada Elite 1 and 2?

Here is a link to the website:

http://www.2nationsfemalehockeyleague.com/

From there click on "Schedule" -

[hockeyrube7]

This doesn't look right. When I click on the upcoming weekend it has last weekends dates at the top, yet next weekends dates in the list. Do they really have games scheduled during the middle of a Friday/school day? Or am I on the wrong schedule? http://www.2nationsfemalehockeyleague.c ... 112008.htm