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Centennial takes care of Hill Murray.

Pitlick has 3 pts. and the young goalie redeems himself after two subpar performances.

Appears that all the Cougars really needed was a loss to make them start to play on the top of their game.

For Centennial, it's obviously an impressive win. With the depth of the Gold Division field, 2 wins in the Schwan Cup is pretty good, no matter what the final place is. Now they've got to focus on taking care of business in 5AA.

For Hill, this game prompts a lot of questions. After cruising along as the #1 team in the state for a month, a 2-loss Schwan Cup should lead to some significant doubts about this team. It looked as if they'd rebounded from the first loss well, but this result seems to refute that. They obviously have the talent to beat anybody, but they have a lot of ground to make up now to convince me that they should be #1. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt after one loss, but definitely not two.

karl(east) wrote:For Centennial, it's obviously an impressive win. With the depth of the Gold Division field, 2 wins in the Schwan Cup is pretty good, no matter what the final place is. Now they've got to focus on taking care of business in 5AA.

For Hill, this game prompts a lot of questions. After cruising along as the #1 team in the state for a month, a 2-loss Schwan Cup should lead to some significant doubts about this team. It looked as if they'd rebounded from the first loss well, but this result seems to refute that. They obviously have the talent to beat anybody, but they have a lot of ground to make up now to convince me that they should be #1. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt after one loss, but definitely not two.

Wow, Hill loses 2 games, breaks my heart!

I really don't think too many people involved with HM pay a great deal of attention to the rankings at this point of a season. Truth is, everyone attempts to play their best against Hill because of the type of program they have & this year the target is a little larger carrying the Defending State Champion banner all year. This year's team is learning they are not last year's team. They will learn to develop their own chemistry/identity/leaders and will do so throughout the season. You don't win state titles in December. I'm hopefull the boys will continue to work hard & get better each week & peak at the end of the year as they always seem to do. Go Pioneers!

I'm convinced that HM losing in December is good for them. They have to learn that rankings mean nothing, that you have to show up, play well and play hard to beat top teams like Centennial and Minnetonka. If you don't, you lose. HM lost a lot of talent from last year's team. The #1 ranking was based on last year's championship, not this year's team. This team is very good and can contend for a state title. They beat Edina and smacked around White Bear and Moorhead. But the losses this week show that they have a young goalie and don't have the same offensive firepower as a team like Centennial. Bill Lechner almost always has his teams playing their best hockey at the end of the year. That will be true again this year. I am looking forward to the rest of the schedule. It's a good one with 2 games each against STA & Tartan left, SSP & Mahtomedi each once again, and non-conference games with Holy Angels, BSM & Moorhead - then the sections with another likely matchup against WBL.

Pioneerprideguy wrote:I really don't think too many people involved with HM pay a great deal of attention to the rankings at this point of a season. Truth is, everyone attempts to play their best against Hill because of the type of program they have & this year the target is a little larger carrying the Defending State Champion banner all year. This year's team is learning they are not last year's team. They will learn to develop their own chemistry/identity/leaders and will do so throughout the season. You don't win state titles in December. I'm hopefull the boys will continue to work hard & get better each week & peak at the end of the year as they always seem to do. Go Pioneers!

Not a bad thing to lose now. Lots of lessons to be learned from losing. It will make them a better team in the end.

I think Hill will be in the section finals with WBL... and If I was Hill I would not take the bears for granted. I was really impressed with the last two games they played. Should be a fun finish!

The only thing needed to be said about this game was Centennial looked good. REAL good. It was over before it even started.